The German Shepherd’s owner wailed, “But he does it at home!” in my training class last night as her dog sat in front of her, apparently ignoring her cue to lie down. Dog trainers across the country frequently hear this complaint from their human clients during the first few weeks of a new training class. “Of course he does,” we reassure them consolingly, and launch a discussion about how to achieve reliability – getting your dog to do what you ask of him anywhere, anytime, under any conditions.
Behavior professionals often define “reliable” as responding appropriately to the cue at least 80 percent of the time. That means your dog sits at least 8 out of 10 times when you ask him to. It’s unreasonable to expect 100 percent reliability from your dog. After all, we humans are the ones with the bigger brains, and we aren’t perfectly reliable 100 percent of the time – so why should our dogs be? It’s quite possible that your dog sits reliably at home, in the environment where you spend the most time training. Sitting on cue at the training center, at the farmer’s market, at your daughter’s soccer game, when the grass is wet, or in an infinite number of other possible environments, may be an entirely different matter.
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It takes commitment to your training program to achieve reliability under a wide variety of conditions. Let’s explore some of the elements that make for true reliability.
Generalization
This is the concept that trips up so many beginning dog owners/trainers. You work hard at home all week training your dog to perfection, but when you return to class you’re dismayed and disappointed when you try to show off your dog’s accomplishments and he won’t perform. It’s enough to make you give up on training. DON’T!
Maybe you missed the part where your trainer told you that as soon as your dog can do a behavior in the privacy of your own home you need to take the show on the road and practice in lots of other places. If you only practice “sit” in the kitchen in front of the refrigerator, then your dog thinks “Sit!” means “Sit in the kitchen in front of the refrigerator.” When you ask him to sit at the training center and he doesn’t respond you’re thinking, “Stupid dog, he knows what ‘sit’ means,” and he’s thinking, “But I can’t sit here, there’s no refrigerator!”
As soon as your dog will sit for you in one room of your house, practice in all the other rooms. Take him out in the backyard and practice there. Then in the front yard, on your walks around the block and at the dog park. Practice at the vet hospital, at the groomer’s, at your favorite pet supply store, and when you take him to visit friends and family. Practice everywhere!
You also need to practice when you are in different positions. If you usually train standing up, try asking him to sit while you’re sitting on the sofa (television commercials are a perfect training opportunity). Try it when you’re lying on the floor. Turn away from him and ask him to sit. You could even try it while you’re practicing various yoga positions!
It may seem like a lot of work at first, but the good news is that generalization, well, generalizes! The more new behaviors you make the effort to generalize, the easier it becomes for each new behavior along your training journey. Once you’ve generalized “sit” it will be a little easier for “down,” “wait,” “leave it,” “come,” and all the other good manners behaviors you’re trying to teach your dog.
“Proofing” for distractions
Proofing is really just solid training. It simply means teaching your dog to respond to your cues when there are other interesting, exciting, fun, sometimes scary, things happening around him – things we call “distractions.” The secret to proofing is convincing your dog that you are consistently more interesting, more fun, more exciting, and more reinforcing than the distractions. When I used to teach in Santa Cruz, California, I told my students they had to be more interesting than a dead seal. Here in Maryland it’s dead squirrels rather than dead seals, but the concept is the same: If you are wonderful and the training game is wonderful, your dog has no reason to ignore you in favor of dead smelly things – he’s already having as much fun as he could possibly imagine.
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Patty Ruzzo, longtime renowned positive trainer who, sadly, passed away last summer, encouraged people to be “variable and unpredictable” as a way to be irresistibly interesting to their dogs. If your dog never knows what fun stuff you’re going to offer at any moment, he stays glued to you in eager anticipation. The tug toy or plush squeaky you could pull out of your pocket without notice is just as compelling as the squirrel who might run across his path.
To accomplish proofing, you’ll need to start in any new environment with a high rate of reinforcement (lots of rewards), and a wide variety of high value reinforcers (lots of different kinds of “good stuff”). Start your training routine with behaviors that are easy for your dog so he can succeed. When a distraction presents itself, reinforce promptly before he has a chance to lose his focus on you. When no distractions loom, randomly surprise your dog with an exciting reinforcer, as he’s come to anticipate. After a short heeling pattern, turn and run the other way (chase = reinforcer), or whip out a hidden rope toy for a quick game of tug. When you release him from a stay, scatter a handful of treats on the ground for a “find it” orgy, or toss a ball in the air for him to catch – have fun with your dog!
At first, keep training sessions short so you can end with success. Having fun can be very tiring; you want to end the session before your energy wanes or your dog’s enthusiasm wavers. As you both build stamina you can increase the length of your sessions and the duration of your dog’s focus.
When your dog has learned to stay very focused on you, you can add even more intense distractions. Owners who show their dogs in obedience and rally competitions want their dogs to be as close to 100 percent reliable as canines can accomplish. They often proof their dogs with distractions such as metal chairs falling over, cats running past, loose dogs, balloons popping, car keys jingling, hot dogs dropping, children running and yelling – anything that might happen at a show to disrupt their dogs’ performances.
Desensitization
Sights and sounds that your dog finds worrisome, disturbing, or downright scary are guaranteed to diminish his reliability. Lucy, our three-year-old Cardigan Corgi, is very sensitive to sounds. When she was a year old I took her through a clicker class at “A Click Above” in Leesburg, Virginia. The class was held in a large warehouse building. While her class was in session there was also an agility class happening at the other end of the training center, with loud crashes, bangs, and cheers and applause as dogs negotiated the equipment and their owners urged them on.
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Lucy’s reliability, quite high at home, deteriorated significantly the first two or three weeks of class until she became desensitized to the sounds. At first, I had to just let her take a break whenever sound erupted from the other end of the room – she would shut down from stress and stop performing completely. Then she began to accept sounds of a fairly low intensity – a muffled bang of the teeter at the opposite end of the building, a person encouraging her dog at low to moderate volume.
I helped the process along with counter-conditioning – not just waiting for Lucy to habituate to the commotion, but actively encouraging a positive association with the sounds by feeding her high-value treats whenever a loud noise occurred. By week five she consistently performed her behaviors with 80 percent or better reliability.
Fading lures and prompts
A cue is the initial signal you give your dog to ask for a behavior. A lure is a food treat that you use to show your dog how to perform the behavior (such as putting a treat at the tip of his nose and moving it toward the floor to get him to lie down). A prompt is a signal, such as a movement of your hand, that you use after your cue to help your dog perform the requested behavior. (A lure is one form of prompt; not all prompts are lures.) To be really reliable, your dog needs to respond to your cue at least 80 percent of the time without additional lures or prompts.
If you ask your dog to lie down using the verbal cue “down,” your training goal is to have him respond without you having to point to the floor, bend over, or move a treat toward the floor. If you are still doing those things to get him to “down” then he’s not yet reliable, and you have more training to do.
It’s best to fade lures and prompts early with each new behavior. The longer you use them, the more you and your dog become dependent on them. This means you’ll always have to have a treat in your hand. Most dog owners don’t want that. As soon as you can easily lure your dog into position, start fading the lure as follows:
• Give the cue “Down.”
• Pause 2 to 4 seconds to let him hear and think about the cue.
• Lure him down.
• Repeat.
• If your dog doesn’t catch on and start lying down for the verbal cue after 3 to 4 repetitions, vary the length of the pause after the cue. Sometimes lure quickly, sometimes wait several seconds.
• With subsequent repetitions, use the lure less and less, until you’re just barely suggesting a motion with your lure. You’re trying to jumpstart his brain – getting him to think for himself instead of waiting for you to help him out.
Some trainers fade the lure by replacing the treat with a “down” signal with an empty hand (a prompt), then treating from the other hand. You can do this – and then you still have to go through the same process to fade the prompt. Of course, if you shape behaviors instead of luring them, you can skip fading altogether – there’s nothing to fade! (See “Fun Training Techniques for You and Your Canine!,” March 2006.)
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Decreasing the rate of reinforcement
When you first teach your dog a new behavior, you use a continuous schedule of reinforcement. Every time your dog sits at your request, he gets a click and treat. When he sits reliably (8 out of 10 times) you are ready to start using a variable, intermittent reinforcement schedule. You will still treat every time you click, but occasionally you’ll just say “good dog!” and skip the click and treat.
Be sure that you truly vary your reinforcement; dogs quickly discern a pattern – “Oh, she clicks only every fourth time!” – and won’t perform as well for the three times in between clicks. Emulate a slot machine; he never knows when to expect the next payoff, so he’ll keep playing, hoping the next “sit” will win the jackpot.
Remember that if you click, you must give your dog a treat. Recent research conducted by Dr. Jesus Rosales-Ruiz at the University of North Texas conclusively demonstrates that the quality of performance deteriorates rapidly if you click without treating. You can, however, gradually stretch your rate of reinforcement thinner and thinner. At first you skip a click only occasionally, but over time you can skip more.
An intermittent schedule of reinforcement makes a behavior very durable – meaning it’s hard to extinguish (make it go away). It teaches your dog that if he keeps working, eventually a payoff will come. This enables you to have your dog perform several behaviors in a row without having to stop and treat each time – an important skill if you really want to impress friends and family with your trick routine – or enter canine competitions.
Stimulus control
Discussed at length in the October issue, stimulus control is the icing on the reliability cake. Incorporating the concepts above will help you attain this worthy goal. When your dog is truly under stimulus control he will:
• Always perform the behavior when you ask him to (sit when you say sit).
• Never perform the behavior in a training session if you haven’t asked him (never sit if you haven’t asked him to sit).
• Never perform the behavior when you ask him to perform a different behavior (never sit when you ask him to down).
• Never perform a different behavior when you ask him for the behavior (never down when you ask him to sit).
If you’re not quite there yet, start working on generalization, proofing, desensitization, fading lures and prompts, and decreasing your rate of reinforcement. You and your dog have work to do!
Pat Miller, CPDT, is Whole Dog Journal’s Training Editor. Miller lives in Hagerstown, Maryland, site of her Peaceable Paws training center, with her husband Paul. Pat is also the author of The Power of Positive Dog Training and Positive Perspectives: Love Your Dog, Train Your Dog. Thanks to trainer Sarah Richardson, of Chico, California, for demonstrating the techniques in this article.
Energy medicine, once so exotic that it was dismissed out of hand by America’s physicians and veterinarians, is now going mainstream. In addition to the therapies described last month (see “Alternative Views on Holistic Dog Care,” Whole Dog Journal October 2007), energy healing techniques such as flower essences, animal communication, and kinesiology are used by holistic veterinarians in the U.S. and around the world. Understanding what these therapies are and how they work will help you decide which energy therapies might be appropriate for your canine companion.
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Flower essences There’s nothing unusual about a dog responding to an herbal tea or capsule. Plants have been used for thousands of years to treat all kinds of conditions.
But flower essences, which are also called flower remedies, are very different from herbal products. Like homeopathic remedies, they contain little or none of the material used to produce them. Instead, they store a plant’s “vibration” or “imprint,” which in turn affects the animal’s energy. These vibrations or imprints are said to act directly on the animal’s emotions.
Conventional veterinary medicine finds no credible explanation for either homeopathy or flower essences, but physicists and other energy researchers say that on the atomic level, tiny amounts of matter contain subtle but powerful forces. For those interested in energy research, medical journalist Lynne McTaggart’s book, The Field: The Quest for the Secret Force of the Universe, reviews hundreds of scientific and medical reports that explore this subject.
Flower essences were developed by Edward Bach, an English physician and homeopath, in the early years of the 20th century. Dr. Bach filled small glass bowls with pure spring water, placed freshly picked blossoms on the water’s surface, and left the bowls in direct sunlight for three hours. During this time, he theorized, the water became impregnated with the plants’ healing powers.
He then discarded the blossoms and preserved the activated water in brandy. As in homeopathy, this basic formula was called the “mother tincture.” When diluted with additional brandy, the result was called the “stock” remedy.
By far the most famous flower remedy blend is Dr. Bach’s formula for emergency and stress, which is sold under the brand names (depending on the manufacturer) Rescue Remedy, Calming Essence, Five Flower Formula, and Trauma Remedy in health food stores, pharmacies, pet supply stores, and online. It contains star of Bethlehem for shock, rock rose for fear and panic, impatiens for tension and mental agitation, cherry plum for lack of emotional control, and clematis for the sensation one experiences just before fainting.
According to Helen Graham and Gregory Vlamis in their book Bach Flower Remedies for Animals, Rescue Remedy and similar emergency remedies can be used:
• As an adjunct to any treatment for illness, surgery, injury, trauma, or shock
• As a safe alternative to tranquilizers and sedatives
• To help revive weak newborn puppies
• To combat the aftereffects of anesthesia and to revive puppies delivered by caesarean section
• To help resuscitate dogs whose breathing has stopped or help dogs who are having trouble breathing
• After any seizure or convulsion
• To speed recovery from heatstroke or exhaustion
• To speed the healing of wounds
• To help dogs relax at the groomer’s salon, veterinary clinic, obedience school, dog park, or any stressful surroundings
• To support dogs living in shelters
• To improve mental focus and learning
Like all flower essences, Rescue Remedy can be applied directly from the stock bottle, a drop or two at a time. The remedy can be dropped into the dog’s mouth, massaged into the gums, applied to the nose or paw pads, or applied to bare skin on the abdomen or ears.
Canine massage therapists often incorporate flower essences in their hands-on work, as do practitioners of canine acupressure. Applying flower essences to a chakra or an acupressure point and then pressing, holding, massaging, or tapping the point can increase the treatment’s effectiveness – especially if the flower essence addresses an emotional issue affecting the dog.
Flower essences at work Every blossom used in flower essences has a unique significance. The bewildering assortment of remedies and their unusual application methods make the study of flower essences confusing at first. But there are many resources and guides to help the novice.
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“The most reassuring thing about these products,” says flower essence practitioner and manufacturer Christina Blume of Denver, Colorado, “is that they are totally safe. You cannot overdose on flower essences. If you use an inappropriate remedy, nothing happens. There are no adverse side effects.”
And if you use the right remedies, the results can be amazing.
One of Blume’s neighbors, who is not a dog person, got a guard dog for protection. She called Blume in a panic when the dog tangled with a porcupine and his face was covered with quills. “As soon as I saw him,” says Blume, “I ran home and mixed trauma and fear remedies with water in a spray bottle.”
Blume stood on one side of the gate while the dog, who didn’t know her, slavered, growled, and barked. “I sprayed and sprayed and sprayed him,” she says. “Within about two minutes, he let me come through the gate, load him into the car, and take him to the vet. He even stayed calm at the vet clinic.”
Many dog lovers discover flower essences during the summer. “Fourth of July fireworks and summer thunderstorms send people scrambling for anything that might help their frightened dogs,” she says. “Fear is also the underlying cause of separation anxiety. I have received more e-mail messages, letters, and phone calls about dogs who have overcome their fears with the help of flower essences than any other topic.”
Consider Kaniq, an American Eskimo Dog living with Carol Allen in Denver. “I am blessed to be able to take him to work every day. My co-workers all adore him, and as a result he is very spoiled,” says Allen. “But all this attention during the week leaves him with a major case of separation anxiety when my husband and I leave him home alone when we run errands or go out for dinner on the weekend.”
For the first 18 months of Kaniq’s life, the Allens came home to chewed clothes, papers, books, and shreds of whatever else their dog could reach. “He would even pull things down off the wall and destroy them,” she says. “It didn’t matter if we were gone for 15 minutes or two hours, he got into everything and drove our family crazy. And, of course, he was just as miserable as we were.”
After several unsuccessful attempts to solve the problem, the Allens met Christina Blume, and tried one of her flower essence products that she calls “Loneliness Blend.”
“To be perfectly honest,” says Allen, “my husband and I were quite skeptical that anything like a flower remedy would work any better than the hundreds of hours we had put into training. But it came free with a class we attended, so we tried it.”
At the end of day one on the Loneliness blend, Kaniq had not destroyed anything. “Holy cow,” says Allen. “That was exciting! Then we thought it had to be a coincidence. We just didn’t leave anything where Kaniq could reach it. Right?”
On day two, they tested him. “We gave him his dose and left him for half an hour with a cardboard box. We expected to find the box torn up. Nope. Totally wrong. We returned to find a happy dog greeting us at the door, pleased to have us home.”
Now when they leave to go out to dinner or attend other events in the evenings or on weekends, they get Kaniq’s blend out. “He sees it and comes running,” says Allen. “As long as we give it to him, we return to a happy dog and a happy house. I would definitely recommend flower remedies to anyone whose dog suffers from fear, anxiety, or any other harmful emotions.”
Loneliness remedy has worked well for many re-homed dogs, including Beagles placed by a local Beagle rescue group. “Like Kaniq,” says Blume, “these dogs would panic and wreck the house. Some tore sofas apart. But they responded really well to the Loneliness remedy. Its key ingredient is prickly pear cactus, which blooms here in Colorado. Its vibration seems to work especially well for all of the issues that can result from being alone.”
In addition to making and distributing individual essences and her Loneliness and Trauma remedies, Blume creates blends such as Confidence, for overly sensitive dogs or to help dogs feel courageous; Focus and Concentration, for distracted dogs; Competition, for increased courage and strength; Transportation Ease, for traveling dogs; and Antzy Pantz, for hyperactive dogs or dogs with a lot of nervous energy. Instead of alcohol, she uses a vegetable glycerine base, which has a sweet taste that dogs enjoy.
“For all flower essence applications,” says Blume, “I recommend putting 12 drops in a 4-ounce atomizer bottle filled with distilled water. You can spray the essence in the air and on the dog’s bedding, and brush or rub it into the dog’s coat. I also apply the essence to the dog’s chakra points and massage it between her eyes and on her gums, put it on her paw pads, on the inside of her ears, and on her nose. While the dog is licking the essence off her nose and toes, I apply it to her abdomen and give her a tummy rub. I also put the essences on treats and dog biscuits and add it to her broth or food.”
The key to success with flower essences, she says, is frequency of application.
“When I’m serious about getting good results,” she says, “I’ll apply diluted or full-strength remedies as often as possible. I suggest to clients that they apply the essences first thing in the morning, just before they leave for work, as soon as they get home, and again just before bed. But if you can apply them more often, such as every hour, that works even better.”
Blume adds four drops of a flower essence to dogs’ water bowls, including communal bowls. “The wonderful thing about flower essences,” she says, “is that if a dog drinks a remedy that he doesn’t need, it doesn’t hurt him. I don’t worry, in multiple-pet households, about separating animals and remedies. The animal who needs the remedy will respond and the others are never harmed.”
To help newcomers use flower essences, organizations like the Flower Essence Society in the U.S. and the Bach Centre in England provide books, training guides, online resources, workshops, and other assistance. A growing number of flower essence practitioners specialize in animal care, and the American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association directory lists 300 veterinarians who treat animals with flower essences.
In recent years, remedies made from materials other than plants have become popular. For example, “gem elixirs” are infused with the energy of semiprecious and precious stones. Essences are also made from water, ice, or sunlight collected at sacred sites. These experimental remedies have not yet been systematically tested by thousands of practitioners the way most flower remedies have, but in time they may be shown to affect the emotions in much the way flower essences do.
Animal communication Can you talk to animals? Of course you can – but do they understand you? And if they answer, do you understand them?
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Many have observed that humans are reasonably good senders of information, and dogs are good receivers. But while dogs are also good senders, we humans are all too often poor receivers, obtaining static, blurred images, tangled hunches, or nothing at all. That’s why so many of us look askance at people who claim to know what animals are thinking – and why we’re amazed when their reports from animals are specific, detailed, and on target.
Jessica Westleigh works with animals in person and from a distance using a variety of energy healing modalities. Her background involves dogs, horses, and other animals. She worked as an Animal Veterinary Technician at Tufts University in Massachusetts, as a registered instructor for the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association, and as a professional dressage instructor and trainer. A breeder of champion Australian Shepherds, she now lives near a rain forest in Puerto Rico.
In her energy treatments, Westleigh works with an animal’s aura (the subtle multicolored luminous radiation or electromagentic field that surrounds all living creatures) and chakras (the seven energy centers discovered in ancient India and used in many healing techniques) using methods such as channeling, streaming, Reiki, and consulting a pendulum to receive information, unlock chakras, and re-energize the animal’s system.
“What’s given me a great insight into the different healing modalities,” she says, “is that by communicating with the animal while I’m doing everything else, I can use or recommend the herbs, flower essences, and long-distance energy or Reiki healing that will work best for the patient. I work with animals to get their exact symptoms so that I know how to treat them.”
Westleigh speaks with her animal clients and interprets their images, thoughts, and emotions for general information. She then performs what’s called a body scan. “That’s where I pick up on physical issues,” she says. “When I receive this information, I might feel a temperature change or a sensation of numbness or tingling or even physical pain. In many cases I get words from the animal, and some dogs give me specific and detailed descriptions of what’s going on in their lives. All of this helps me determine what form of energy healing will be most beneficial.”
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Westleigh relies on the phone and e-mail to schedule appointments, but she does all of her animal work in a meditative state in the rain forest or on the beach. “I receive everything directly at that time,” she says. “The patient can be hundreds or thousands of miles away and engaged in normal everyday activities. The animal doesn’t have to be in any particular place or doing anything special.”
She usually works with new canine clients in daily 90-minute sessions for one week, at the end of which she and the owner or caregiver assess the dog’s progress.
Puka is a five-year-old Corgi mix from the island of Kauai in Hawaii who now lives in Boring, Oregon, with Kathleen Kane. Raised in a feral pack that was used for boar hunting, Puka was five months old when she was taken to a shelter. That’s where she met Kane, who was in Hawaii on vacation.
“Puka has had both physical and emotional problems,” says Westleigh, “everything from urinary incontinence issues to severe separation anxiety, and she has a hitch in one of her hind legs, where she skips a beat every few strides.
“I started by doing long-distance Reiki and EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique, another form of energy medicine), and by the end of that first week, Kathleen reported significant changes in Puka’s character and personality. She suddenly became much more outgoing and confident. Kathleen could leave her and she didn’t experience her usual panic and separation anxiety. But what surprised her most was Puka’s physical improvement. A lot of the heat that had been in her back was gone, she stopped urinating in her sleep, and she just became a happier dog.”
Another long-distance client is Nitro, a 14-year-old German Shepherd Dog belonging to Roseanne Carbone in St. Paul, Minnesota. Nitro has degenerative myelopathy, or DM, a neurologic disease that affects the spinal cord and eventually results in paralysis.
“I’ve been working with Nitro for a year and a half,” says Westleigh, “and Roseanne credits the combination of energy work he’s been receiving and the care of Dr. Deb Brown, his holistic veterinarian in Pequot Lakes, Minnesota, for keeping him alive. I work with him every other Friday. Roseanne says that when she leaves for work, he’ll be uninterested in breakfast and dragging his hind end, but when she comes home after our session, he’s standing at the front door, tail wagging, with a toy in his mouth, and his appetite is back.”
Dr. Brown treats Nitro with acupuncture and herbs. “I get information, sensations, and symptoms directly from Nitro,” says Westleigh, “and at Nitro’s next veterinary appointment, which is usually a day or two later, Roseanne passes this information on to Dr. Brown, who incorporates it into her treatments. I open up his chakras and his meridians to help get his body ready for the work that she’s going to do.”
Westleigh often works with or is referred by holistic veterinarians and other healthcare providers who make up a team that exchanges information. “Usually it’s the owner who coordinates this,” she says. “There might be a kinesiologist in the picture who is able to verify my observations with muscle testing. Then a veterinary homeopath or other practitioner prescribes specific treatments. Energy work, flower essences, homeopathy, chiropractic adjustments, acupuncture, acupressure, massage therapy, nutrition, and other holistic therapies all work very well together.”
Can anyone learn how to communicate with animals, or do you have to be born with the skill?
Many animal communicators, such as Penelope Smith in Prescott, Arizona, say we can all learn how to exchange ideas with our animal companions. Smith, who has written several best-selling books about animal communication, edits a quarterly journal, Species Link, and provides training programs and DVDs.
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In fact, many adult schools and training centers offer classes and workshops. If you’d rather work with an expert, your holistic veterinarian, groomer, trainer, or dog club may be able to refer you to an animal communicator. Check local metaphysical magazines and newsletters as well.
Do you know what your dog really thinks? “You probably don’t,” says Jessica Westleigh, “but I can promise you this. Your dog has important things to tell you, and she probably wishes you could read her mind!”
Kinesiology Now that you know your dog can talk to you, did you know that your body can talk to you, too? Not only that, but your body knows things that your conscious mind knows nothing about.
That’s what George Goodheart, DC, discovered in the early 1960s, when he found that muscles could be tested in ways that revealed information about the rest of the body. Dr. Goodheart called his discovery Applied Kinesiology.
When the person performing the test asks questions and checks the strength or weakness of indicator muscles, the individual being tested unconsciously communicates internal information.
Healthcare practitioners use muscle testing to determine what specific imbalances or chemical sensitivities exist in the body; the health status of different organs, acupuncture points, and meridians; and the best specific treatments for enhancing health.
To test whether an indicator muscle is strong or weak, the tester usually presses down on the hand or arm of the person being tested, while that person resists by holding the arm straight. The body’s muscles are strengthened by statements with which it agrees and weakened by statements with which it does not agree. You can be convinced that dark chocolate is your personal health food, but if holding, looking at, or thinking about a chocolate bar leaves you weak all over, a tester’s light pressure will send your arm to the floor.
Factors that can impede accurate muscle testing include dehydration, unwanted distractions, loud noises, and electromagnetic interference. In ideal conditions, all parties have had plenty of water, the room is quiet, and there are no environmental problems.
For those too young, incapacitated, or infirm to test, or for testing animals, surrogate testing works just as well. In surrogate testing, an intermediary person touches the person or animal being tested with one hand and resists the tester’s gentle pressure with the other. Today in many veterinary clinics, staff members are experienced surrogate testers.
Wendy Volhard, co-author of the best-selling Holistic Guide for a Healthy Dog, has introduced kinesiology to thousands. In the early 1980s, when she planned to add muscle testing to the nutrition and health curriculum at her training camps, Volhard’s staff warned her not to even mention the subject. “It’s quackery!” they exclaimed.
“But I had so much success with it that I felt driven to teach it,” she says. “If you can accept Einstein’s theory that all matter has energy, sooner or later you will believe in kinesiology, too.”
Volhard devotes a chapter of her book to kinesiology and gives detailed instructions. To test your dog, she explains, have her lying on your left while you sit on the floor next to her. Remove the dog’s collar if it contains metal. If it isn’t already in a closed container, place whatever you plan to test (a small amount of dog food, a treat, a flower essence, medication, etc.) in a plastic bag or glass jar. Hold it in contact with the dog’s body anywhere except the head area.
Extend your right arm parallel to the ground. Have your tester push down on your wrist. “You will immediately know the result,” she says. “A strong response means the item being tested is okay for your dog. A weak response means it is not the best choice. If you get a weak response, test several items, such as several different foods or treats, until you find one that tests strong. All individuals have their own body chemistry, so results are bound to vary.”
Another way to do surrogate testing is to test yourself without needing another person’s help. Kinesiologists have discovered many methods for obtaining clear “yes” or “no” answers (see a list of online descriptions in the resources, below). Christina Blume uses a pendulum to determine which remedies a particular dog’s needs by going down her printed list of flower essences, pointing to each one, and noting the answers.
“Whatever method you use,” she says, “whether it’s holding a pendulum and waiting for it to move clockwise or counterclockwise, or forward and back or sideways, or whether you use one of the many finger, hand, or body muscle self-tests, the keys are practice and experience. It took only a few days to discover my personal ‘yes’ and ‘no’ indicators, but it took three months for me to trust the results. The energetics of intention are powerful. Trust that your desire to aid your beloved dog is coming through in your search for answers.”
Thanks to trainer Sarah Richardson, of Chico, California, for demonstrating the techniques in this article.
Consider the plight of canine Brandy, a seven-year-old mixed breed, adopted by a suburban family with three kids. In the five years they have shared their home with Brandy, his status in the family has gone from that of a rock star to a pet rock to a neglected pet. Today, he’s got some problems – health-related issues and dog behavioral trouble – and the head of the family is seriously considering “getting rid” of him.
Although this concept induces wails of protest from the kids, honestly, who would will miss the silent onslaught of Brandy’s deadly farts, or cleaning up the sloppy, gloppy piles of poop he leaves in the backyard three or four times a day? Who wouldn’t appreciate being able to leave shoes and socks and cell phones on the floor, without a dog who would chew and swallow them the moment your back was turned? And wouldn’t it be nice to be able to bring friends over to the house without having to lock Brandy in the garage, to keep him from barking and nipping at the visitors? He pulls hard on leash and is sometimes aggressive to other dogs, so he rarely gets taken for the walks that might calm him down.
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But wait; Mom loves the dog, farts and all, and doesn’t think it’s fair to send him back to the shelter just because no one is enjoying him much anymore. She thinks Brandy needs some time and attention, and can be made to resemble the better-behaved, better-loved young dog they adopted years ago. She’s ready to call the vet for an appointment for a consultation – or should she hire a professional dog trainer?
Multi-pronged approach
The answer is yes! She should probably make an appointment with both experts, and here is why:
Training approaches that fail to address Brandy’s health problems – his poor digestion, hyperactivity, and pica eating (consumption of nonfood items) – may improve some of his behavior for a short time. But his poor health will make it difficult for him to absorb and retain the lessons.
Improvements in Brandy’s health will make him more pleasant to live with; with an improved diet and some targeted supplements, he will surely stop producing so much gas, and his feces will become smaller, harder, and less frequent. His pica eating should also decrease. If he feels better, he may become less aggressive to other dogs while being walked. However, remedial training will probably be necessary to improve his behavior enough to enable the kids to walk him again, or to have their friends safely interact with him.
Every aspect of a dog’s life affects every other aspect, which can make it difficult to decide where you should start with a dog like Brandy. No single effort you make, no matter how huge, will miraculously turn everything around. A homemade diet might vastly improve his health, but he may still be a pain to live with. Twice-weekly private lessons with a positive trainer might solve almost all of the complaints about Brandy’s behavior, but won’t make him (or the backyard) smell any better!
The good news, though, is that a multi-pronged, holistic approach, comprised of incremental, intelligent improvements in his life, just may save the dog.
Where do you start?
Most holistic veterinarians say the most important part of a health-promotion plan is improved diet; most trainers will say it’s increased exercise. We propose that these two keystones of health are equally important; both need to be implemented ASAP.
Unless your dog is in peak health, and eating a home-prepared diet of fresh foods, you can improve his diet. If you already feed a high-quality product, but your dog still has persistent digestive problems or any signs of food allergy, you should try a change of food.
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Look for a different variety of food from the same maker, or a product from a different line, or, best yet, an entirely different product from a different maker. If you feed kibble, consider a dehydrated food, like the products from The Honest Kitchen, or a frozen raw diet. Make notes on your calendar or in a notebook indicating when you switch foods, and what type and variety of food you use.
If you are feeding a low-quality food, you should buy a higher-quality product. Foods that contain greater amounts of high-quality proteins and fats provide more of the nutrients beneficial to dogs, including a more complete panel of amino acids and omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids.
An improved diet can make a world of difference to the attitude and responsiveness of a dog who suffers from a chronically upset stomach.
Very few dogs receive adequate opportunities to exercise as much as their wild ancestors did – or even as much as their more recent ancestors did just a few decades ago. Exercise releases endorphins, making the dog feel better. It strengthens bones and soft tissues, and burns calories. It improves the circulation of the lymph system, helping the body move waste products out of the tissues. Exercise also helps dogs feel tired! This is a tremendous boon to dogs who are chronically anxious, hyperactive, or aggressive.
It can be a real challenge to provide adequate exercise opportunities to a dog with aggression issues, or to one who is so overstimulated by the outside world that he’s difficult to walk. But exercise is absolutely critical for improving these dogs’ mental health and behavior!
Wrack your brain and use your imagination to think of activities and safe locations to use to thoroughly work these dogs. Search for remote ponds or lakes where you can swim your dog. Ask your friends and relatives if they know of any safely fenced, open areas where you can take your dog for intense off-leash exercise. (I used to take a friend’s dog-aggressive Lab to a lighted tennis court at night, when it was rarely in use, to run after tennis balls and play “chase me!” Look for experienced dog walkers or doggie daycare facilities that will take on difficult dogs.
Of course, exercise must be tailored to your dog’s age, level of fitness, interests, and physical limitations. But even senior dogs with arthritis and dogs with severe physical limitations can benefit from activities adapted to their abilities. For example, many dogs with paralyzed rear ends have shown tremendous improvement after just a few sessions of therapeutic swimming and guided stretching in a warm water therapy pool.
Reduce toxic burden
If you made a list of every toxic chemical your dog was directly exposed to on a weekly or monthly basis, you’d probably be shocked. The list would probably include hundreds of pesticides, herbicides, cleaning agents, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from building materials and furnishings . . . and that’s not counting the pesticides we apply directly to their skin!
“All of these substances are strangers to the body and need to be processed by the liver and other organs,” says Jenny Taylor, DVM, a holistic veterinarian in Oakland, California. “Even products that are supposed to stay on the surface of the body can be absorbed through the skin and enter the bloodstream. Avoid these medications when possible, or ask your vet or holistic practitioner for alternatives.”
Yes, we’re exposed to many toxins, too, but we don’t generally lick our skin and feet – and we surely don’t spend as much time as our dogs breathing the highly polluted air near the floors of our homes. (Many common solvents have a higher molecular weight than air, so they settle toward the floor.) And due to their body mass and their rate of respiration, dogs, like infants, are also more susceptible than we are to toxic chemicals in the air.
Try to reduce the number of toxins your dog is exposed to. Use natural agents to clean your home, furnishings, and bedding. Keep windows open as much as possible to reduce indoor air pollution. Keep your yards organic, and rinse your dog’s paws after strolls on public lawns, which are often liberally coated with garden chemicals.
Stress reduction Many of us make jokes about how hard we have to work to support our dogs, while they laze around on our couches. But most of us fail to consider how stressful our dogs’ lives are from their perspectives.
For example, having an opportunity to sleep for many hours a day, enjoying peace and quiet alone in the house sounds like heaven to most people, but it can be near-torturous for many dogs. Canines are pack animals, hard-wired to live in complex social groups. They are also wired for mentally stimulating environments, where they would have to solve problems, exercise, and use their wits to locate, hunt, and gather food on a daily basis. While some dogs are perfectly happy sleeping for 18 hours a day in a house five or six days a week, it’s like solitary confinement in a hostile prison to highly active and/or social dogs. It’s no wonder so many dogs soil their homes, destroy the furnishings, or bark all day.
Far fewer dogs suffer from over-stimulation and overactivity than boredom, but it can happen. A dog who has to be compelled to get into the car may be burned out from your social schedule.
Do some thinking about what sort of dog your companion is, and whether the lifestyle you have imposed on him really suits his temperament. You’ll have to look for clues (and be open to their obvious interpretation, even if it’s an inconvenience). For example, if he’s moderately pleased to see you when you get home, and your house is intact, he’s probably doing fine. But if goes berserk while you’re not home, or goes into a hyperactive overdrive when you get home, and this doesn’t resolve within 10 or 15 minutes, he would benefit from more opportunities to get out and de-stress.
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Appropriate medical attention
Medical surveillance, treatment, prevention, and oversight are important parts of a holistic healthcare program – but only if the medical professional heading the dog’s healthcare “team” orders only those procedures and medications that do the most good with the least side effects.
In our opinion, it does more harm than good to employ the services of a veterinarian who enthusiastically promotes every available vaccine, strongly recommends year-round flea and heartworm preventatives (no matter what the climate), and practically requires that their patients be fed commercial “prescription” diets.
Instead, we look for veterinarians who promote wellness exams and preventive healthcare practices (like fresh, species-appropriate diets and regular exercise). We seek out vets who are knowledgeable about and use gentle, natural remedies that stimulate the dog’s body to heal itself as first-line treatments, before reaching for strong-arm antibiotics and steroids. And we appreciate practitioners who approach the task of healing with spiritual awareness, reverence for all life, and a deep compassion for animals.
Generally, practitioners who fall under this latter category describe themselves as “holistic” or “integrative” veterinarians. Frequently, they have acquired extensive training in alternative or complementary medical modalities such as acupuncture, chiropractic, homeopathy, or herbal medicine, and offer these treatments in addition to (or as a replacement for) Western medicines and procedures. Less commonly, they embrace holistic healthcare, but refer their clients to nonveterinary colleagues who specialize in alternative or complementary therapies.
We’re huge fans of holistic practitioners, particularly because they tend to be the only vets who are knowledgeable about, promote, and support natural diets. But we’re equally wild about veterinarians with strong Western medical skills and access to the latest diagnostic tools and tests. In a dire emergency, we’re taking our dogs to the closest clinic equipped with x-ray and EKG machines, a CAT scanner, and in-house laboratory – not our holistic vet’s office. Ideally, every dog owner would establish a relationship with both types of practitioners – and these professionals would respect and work well with each other to best serve their canine patients.
The big picture
If you don’t regard your dog as perfectly healthy, mentally and physically, consider addressing each of these areas to an extent within your abilities. If your dog is regularly examined by a competent holistic vet, receives a reasonably high-quality diet and daily exercise, has frequent opportunities to socialize and enjoy the outdoors, and has the benefit of interaction with and attention from you, he’ll be sure to remain a “rock star” in your life, rather than a neglected pet. You may not be able to provide the ideal solution in each aspect of your dog’s life. But if you at least make small improvements in every area, we guarantee his health and behavior will improve, too.
We asked several veterinarians who use complementary and/or alternative medicine: “What are the most basic precepts of ‘holistic care’ that dog owners should understand and employ? The points that you want them to absorb if they are to become your regular clients? What dog care practices do you consider to be the bedrock of a vibrant wellness program, and why?”
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As one might expect from individuals who have explored highly divergent paths in holistic medicine, their answers were idiosyncratic.
Diet and exercise Ihor Basko, DVM, has been practicing veterinary medicine since 1971. He was an “early adopter” of holistic treatments, using nutritional therapy, Western and traditional Chinese herbs and medicine, acupuncture, massage therapy, laser therapy, and hydrotherapy in his practice. Dr. Basko is also one of the founders and current President of the Veterinary Botanical Medical Association. His practice is located in Hawaii.
There are two dog care practices that Dr. Basko considers the bedrock of a wellness program – a wholesome diet and regular exercise. “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has stated that 80 percent of all human life-threatening diseases are due to poor diet and inappropriate exercise,” says Dr. Basko. Dogs, he suggests, are similar.
Dr. Basko’s comments reflect a phenomenon we have observed in many dog owners (not necessarily those who are our readers!): Guardians who are really knowledgeable about their dogs’ diet are the exception, not the rule. When asked whether there is one message he’d like all of his clients to absorb, he says owners should not succumb to laziness or apathy about their dogs’ diets. Owners need to do their homework, he says. “Don’t believe what commercial dog food companies tell you about their products. They have no idea about where the food has originated, nor are they employing any quality control methods to screen for pesticides, heavy metals, and other contaminants in their foods. Begin studying nutrition and how it relates to your particular dog’s breed and condition.” Finally, Dr. Basko echoes another of our strong recommendations: That owners find a good veterinarian. “Find a veterinarian who speaks your ‘language,’” he says. It’s critical that you and your dog’s primary doctor share good, clear communication and shared beliefs to ensure your dog will receive the best care.
Don’t suppress symptoms Bert H. Brooks, DVM, opened a mixed animal practice in 1980, in Woodland, California. About 10 years ago, Dr. Brooks added the word “holistic” to the name of his practice, currently called Cache Creek Holistic Veterinary Service. Dr. Brooks is also author of the new book More Than A Theory: A New Medical Paradigm. He uses energy from nutritional supplements, herbs, homeopathic medicines, flowers, and frequency generators, and delivers the healing energy remotely by way of the Harmonic Translation System. He also uses muscle response testing.
Dr. Brooks would like dog owners to understand that “holistic care should always address causes of bothersome symptoms and not just suppress symptoms the way conventional allopathic medical practitioners are trained to do.” Even many practitioners who consider themselves to be “holistic” in philosophy still offer only alternative methods of handling symptoms, he says. “I believe the biggest mistake made in medicine today is the use of substances – including natural substances – to eliminate symptoms but which do nothing to address causes. The second biggest mistake is to think the problem is cured because the symptom was suppressed.”
Like many holistic practitioners, Dr. Brooks also considers diet to be an important part of a canine wellness program. However, he’s aware of the difficulties of finding just the right diet for each dog.
“While proper nutrition is undoubtedly the foundation for a healthy life, there exists much debate on the precise definition of ‘proper nutrition.’ Different holistic practitioners have different philosophies concerning this subject, and each opinion is probably valid for a certain portion of the canine population. The reason for this apparent contradiction is that not all dogs need the same nutrition. It is the same problem that commercial dog food companies run into when they try to design ‘the perfect dog food,’ one that contains everything that all dogs need in order to be healthy and lead long lives.
“Each individual dog is unique, and the nutrition for that animal can not be contained in any bag or can which is fit for the consumption of all dogs. Over time, nutritional deficiencies tend to compound before they begin to show up as symptoms. Raw whole foods are philosophically the closest to nature, but some dogs are not tempted by them, and some do not do well on them. The hard part of nutrition is determining what each individual needs.”
Health is dynamic W. Jean Dodds, DVM, is the founder of Hemopet, the nation’s first nonprofit dog blood bank that also rescues Greyhounds from the racing industry and finds them new homes. Dr. Dodds is renowned for her research on canine vaccines, and on behalf of Hemopet, she consults in clinical pathology nationally and internationally, and regularly travels to teach animal health care professionals, companion animal fanciers, and pet owners on hematology and blood banking, immunology, endocrinology, nutrition, and holistic medicine.
Dr. Dodds considers the concept of “holistic dog care” as wholism, “the original, traditional form of health care that encompasses the whole body and the ambient environment.” In wholism, the sum of the body is more than the sum of its constituent parts, so any treatment that addresses a sole aspect of the dog’s body would be considered incomplete and inadequate. Dr. Dodds cites a number of practices as the foundations of a holistic canine wellness examination. In order for a “holistic veterinarian” to effectively treat a dog, the vet should take a complete family and patient history (medical and environmental), conduct a physical examination, and ask about the dog’s current diet; vaccination and medication history; use of heartworm, flea, and tick preventives; and recent illnesses. The vet should also gain access to any recent laboratory or other diagnostic reports, ordering any needed tests (or repeating tests that weren’t done properly.) Only when all this is taken into account can appropriate treatments be prescribed. Finally, Dr. Dodds says that owners should keep in mind that, “Medicine is an art and a science, and pet health is a dynamic process that changes.” Diet and vaccines Mark Newkirk, VMD, has been in veterinary practice in New Jersey since 1981, offering “complementary medicine,” which he describes as “whatever works best!”
Dr. Newkirk uses herbal therapy, homeopathy, chiropractic, Metabolic Nutritional Balancing, and NAET (an alternative allergy elimination therapy). Dr. Newkirk recently opened a new practice, the Animal Rehabilitation and Sports Medicine Center in Egg Harbor Township, NJ, offering animal chiropractic, physical therapy, an underwater treadmill, therapeutic ultrasound, and neuromuscular electrical stimulation.
When introducing a new client to holistic healthcare, Dr. Newkirk says, he starts by discussing the concept that a dog is a dog. “It’s a carnivore, not a little human! So right away, I talk to them about what the dog’s diet should be – high-protein, with no grains, and no artificial preservatives. I talk about the options available to them: higher-quality dry products, as well as prepared, raw diets. If they are willing to prepare their dogs’ food, we’ll discuss that, but I also let them know about the difficulties involved with balancing the diet, and the importance of feeding the meats raw. I prefer to steer them toward either a holistic dry food or one of the fresh, frozen foods. “The second thing I discuss with them is appropriate vaccination. The vaccination needs of a hunting dog are going to be quite different from those of a toy Poodle living in a highrise. I want to tailor the vaccine program to the individual based on his or her needs. If the dog is older, I talk about vaccine titers, and how it would be best if we could test the dog’s titers so we don’t vaccinate him – overvaccinate him – if he already has sufficient protection. “I’ll go into more detail about nutrition or behavior if this is indicated. I use Metabolic Nutrition Analysis to prescribe specific supplements to correct the imbalances or deficiencies we find in that dog. If the dog is having behavior issues, I’ll talk about behavior concepts – especially if the dog is living in circumstances that don’t suit who he is, like putting that hunting dog into that highrise apartment – and discuss holistic remedies that can help.”
Reconnecting to life Richard Palmquist, DVM, is head of integrative medicine at Centinela Animal Hospital in Inglewood, California. He is the Research Chair of the American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association and uses nutrition, acupuncture, homotoxicology, conventional medicine, and surgery in his practice.
A holistic viewpoint, says Dr. Palmquist, is larger than merely a symptom set seen in a patient. “Holistic care involves the treatment of patients while respecting the connections they have to all components of Life. Holistic approaches seek to connect the patients back with Life and to improve their abilities to use their biological nature in the pursuit of the actions of living.” Different healing tools and modalities are used in holistic veterinary practices as specialized tools. “Acupuncture reconnects and balances Life energy,” explains Dr. Palmquist. “Herbal medicine helps to reduce disease signs, decrease oxidative damage, relieve pain, and promote organ healing. Chiropractic realigns damaged physical parts. Energy medicines such as homeopathy, homotoxicology, Reiki, craniosacral therapy, and others align the physical, mental, and spiritual portions of the organism. Yes, I did say spiritual and that is a big part of holistic medicine – recognizing the spiritual nature of Life.” Western medicine, too, has its place in a holistic practice, says Dr. Palmquist. “It is interesting to note that all medicines capable of assisting a patient in recovery are holistic and that includes drugs, but typically there is a barrier between drug use and holistic medicine out of a belief that these fields are different.”
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Seventeen years ago, when I was editing a California horse magazine, I received a proposal for a column from a writer with an interest in holistic care for horses. Judging from the samples of her past published work that she included with her proposal, Diana Thompson was a very good writer with in-depth knowledge of horses and a wide variety of holistic treatments. As excited as I was about the prospect of working with this writer, I had to laugh at some of her proposed topics. I mean, come on! Massage and acupuncture is one thing, but Reiki? Homeopathy? Flower essences? Animal communicators? Sheesh!
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It didn’t happen overnight, but in the five years that she wrote the column for me, Diana sold me on those topics and many more, including some that seemed even more far out. In the beginning, it was Diana’s competence at using some of these techniques on horses in our photo shoots that opened my eyes. Frequently we would find ourselves in a stable somewhere with a horse, with Diana demonstrating the techniques she had written about, and me trying to take pictures of an impatient or unruly equine model. Diana would calmly assess the situation, apply acupressure to a few points on the horse, mist him with flower essences, and before I knew it, the formerly fidgety or feisty horse would be calmly standing before us with big, soft eyes and a pliant, sleepy new attitude.
Later, I was influenced by letters we received from readers, thanking us for helping them foster stronger and better working relationships with their horses – and even, occasionally, thanking us for saving their horses lives with a supplement, an herbal remedy, a homeopathic treatment, or some other alternative or complementary treatment they had read about in Diana’s column.
Eventually, that column developed into its own magazine, Whole Horse Journal, which Diana founded and sold to Belvoir Media Group. I left my original job and went to work for Diana, then for Belvoir, and later took the helm of Belvoir’s brainchild, Whole Dog Journal. The horse magazine was discontinued after five years of publication, but after 11 years Whole Dog Journal is still going strong. (So is Diana, incidentally. She’s been working for years on a magnificent book about acupressure for horses, which will be published this year. See handsonhorsecare.com for more information.)
I’ve learned about some pretty far out holistic healthcare practices while editing Whole Dog Journal, and I must say that the modalities that employ some form of “energy medicine” are the most difficult to describe or to believe in. Starting in this issue, longtime contributor CJ Puotinen will be trying her hand at describing a number of these healing tools; she already firmly believes in them, having used a good many of them on her dogs, herself, and her husband over the years. I’ve used a few of them, too, and all I can say is that sometimes, when used as part of a holistic healthcare program, they really work. But you might have to see it to believe it.
Ever had a dog who won’t give you his bone or chew toy if you try to take it from him? Or one who gets uncomfortable or growls if you get close to him when he’s eating his dog food? Or snaps at you if he’s on the sofa and you want him off? Or lifts his lip in a snarl if your friend tries to get close to you?
Answer yes to any of the above, and you’ve successfully diagnosed your dog as having a guarding issue. The catch-all, technical term is “resource-guarding,” and can include guarding of dog food bowls (or food), places (dog crate, dog bed, sofa, etc.), items (rawhide, bones, balls, tissues, etc.) and less commonly, people.
Resource-guarding simply means that a dog gets uncomfortable when we (or other humans) are around him when he has “his stuff.” He’s nervous that we’re going to take it away, so he tries to warn us off in a variety of ways, ranging from simply consuming his food faster, to an all-out bite.
Although canine resource-guarding appears to be more prevalent in certain breeds or classes of dogs, it can appear in literally any dog, including that sweet Papillion that lives down the street, or the goofy Golden Retriever who greets you happily on your morning walks.
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It’s important to recognize, identify, modify, or at least manage this behavior because a dog who is repeatedly pushed or punished in these situations is highly likely to eventually bite. Sure, it might be you that he bites, but it could also be your child, your neighbor’s child, your boss, or your grandmother. Children are most apt to be at risk for a number of reasons. They tend to disregard warnings to “leave the dog alone” when he’s eating or has a toy; they frequently fail to notice the dog’s warning signs (stiffening, growling); and they are closer to the ground, so if the dog decides to bite, most likely the child’s face will bear the brunt of the attack.
Nature or nurture?
Resource-guarding “is a perfectly normal survival skill that allows smaller, weaker, and lower-status dogs to keep possession of a highly valued object even when that object is the target of a larger and stronger dog’s desire,” says Pat Miller, a trainer, Certified Dog Behavior Consultant, and Whole Dog Journal Training Editor. In her book, The Power of Positive Dog Training, Miller notes that, “Natural behavior or not, resource-guarding is a serious problem when it results in open aggression, especially toward humans.”
In the wild, “a group-hunting carnivore would have reproductive advantage over one who gladly relinquishes. It’s a good trait, like a well-developed immune system or legs that can run fast,” says canine behavior expert Jean Donaldson, in her highly educational book, Mine! (devoted solely to the topic of resource-guarding). Of course, she adds, “In a domestic environment, it is undesired.”
Sarah Kalnajs, trainer and Certified Dog Behavior Consultant, describes resource-guarding as having both nature (genetic) and nurture (upbringing) components. A dog might be genetically inclined to guard, but depending how much he is allowed to practice the behavior throughout his life also contributes to the severity of the problem.
Resource-guarding from other dogs is a much more “acceptable” or natural behavior in terms of a dog’s ability to cohabitate with humans. It can certainly lead to big problems, and should not be dismissed, but for the time being, our discussion will focus on guarding from humans. Note: A dog who guards from other dogs will not necessarily resource-guard from humans.
What’s your type?
“Food-guarding” seems to be the most common kind of canine guarding behavior, and is present if the dog “threatens” or bites when:
-Approached while eating from his bowl
-The owner tries to take back a food item the dog has grabbed
-Approached after he finds some kind of food item in the gutter or on the street
“Some dogs may be compulsive, guarding all food items and even an empty dish,” says Donaldson, but she also notes, “The majority will guard only when actually in possession of sufficiently motivating food.” The fact that a dog does not guard a particular food (say, a Milk Bone) does not rule him out as a guarder. It just might not be worthy enough to him as, say, a chicken wing. The only way to determine whether a dog will guard a particular highly motivating food item is to test whether you can readily take that item when the dog has it.
With “object-guarding,” the extent of guarding is dependent upon the value of the object to the dog. Items can include, but are certainly not limited to, bones, rawhides, pig ears, favorite toys/balls, laundry items, tissues, wrappers and other garbage, sticks, and/or any “forbidden” objects the dog happens to pick up – which are made more valuable by extreme owner reaction, such as chasing the dog around the room to get the item back, or screeching at the dog to give the item up. While some trainers classify bones, rawhides, pig ears, and edible garbage as “objects,” Pat Miller classifies them as food as the dog’s intent is to eat them; therefore, she classifies the dog’s behavior as food-guarding.
As with food-guarding, the dog may show signs of guarding simply when a person is in the vicinity, as the person approaches, and/or if the person tries to take the object from him. It is very common that a dog won’t want something unless you want it. “Location-guarding” is also common in modern, dog-loving households. This would describe the following:
-A dog who does not allow owner or spouse into the bedroom or on the bed once the dog is on the bed
-A dog who is grumpy if jostled while on furniture, or when someone tries to move him
-A dog who threatens passersby while he’s in his crate, car, or favorite rest spot
The severity of resource-guarding depends upon the value of the item, and who is approaching. In the case of location-guarding, the dog might allow “the wife” on the bed, but not her husband.
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“Owner-guarding” seems to occur fairly frequently when other dogs are present. Occasionally, however, the dog will guard his person if the dog is on leash with the person, or near her. Some people interpret this as “protectiveness.”
Pat Miller differentiates these behaviors. “A good ‘protection’ dog recognizes a legitimate threat to his person and acts to deter the threat, or waits for instructions from the human to act. A dog who is ‘guarding’ his person – in the sense of resource-guarding – covets his owner as a possession that he’s not willing to share with other dogs, or sometimes other humans. He sees the approaching dog/person as a threat to his enjoyment of his resource, rather than a physical threat to the person.”
Owner-guarding can also become somewhat muddied if the owner has in his possession some resource – food or a bone, for example – that is valuable to the dog. He may react if his human carries treats or a bait bag. In this case, what, really, is the dog guarding: item or owner?
Trainer Virginia Broitman notes that many dogs who guard their owners are actually very insecure, and might feel empowered to act out because their humans are there. Or, the dog is on leash and cannot escape, so he resorts to an impressive display to keep the stranger away. Were he without his handler, or not on leash, we might see a different reaction.
Stay positive
You’ve shouted “No!” You’ve stomped your foot. You’ve used a physical correction. But your dog still freezes and growls when you get near him when he’s eating or when he has his “stuff.” What can you do?
First, you need to understand that shouting, stomping, and using physical corrections on the dog will only make matters worse.
I recently saw video footage of a trainer working with a large, young dog who had a history of guarding his food bowl. Over time, the owners had tried a variety of approaches: yelling at the dog, leaning over him while he ate and yelling, hand feeding, and petting the dog while he ate. Unfortunately, the owner reported that the dog had become reactive to the owner when the owner was at a greater and greater distance from the guarded food. And when the owner tried “dominance” — in which he stood over the dog while the dog ate and “made” him do things for his food, then physically reprimanded the dog for being aggressive – the owner got bitten.
While the footage was stellar – the camera caught all of the dog’s warnings superbly – the method that the trainer recommended for dealing with the problem was not. Instead of using behavior modification, which has the potential to make the dog safe around anyone, the trainer elected to use force and physical corrections using a choke chain to “show the dog that the people were in charge.”
The trainer advised the couple to approach the bowl with the dog on leash and physically correct the dog for lunging toward the bowl or showing any signs of aggression (guarding), then “make” the dog sit about a foot away from the food. Once the dog was “calm,” he was allowed to eat, remaining on leash with the owner. If the dog showed any aggression, the handler was to physically correct the dog and yank him away from the food bowl, wait for the dog to “calm down,” then start again.
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There are several problems with this approach. First, the couple hoped to one day have children, and this “method” taught the dog nothing about interacting with someone who didn’t have a leash and the strength to make a physical correction. In addition, the trainer repeatedly triggered a reaction from the dog. Behavior experts agree that, in contrast to the approach used in the video, successful behavior modification works at a sub-threshold level, at a low-enough level of intensity to prevent the dog from reacting. Also, the trainer also did nothing to address the dog’s emotional state (nervous, insecure, and stressed) and instead intensified it; what was defined as “calm” was anything but.
It’s possible to suppress guarding behavior using force, says Pat Miller. “However, you haven’t changed the dog’s emotional response to a threat to his resource, just his physical response. It’s quite possible that the guarding behavior will return if and when he feels too threatened, or is approached by someone that he doesn’t perceive as capable of overpowering his desire for his resource.
“Any time you use force, you risk escalating the level of violence rather than modifying the behavior. You may not know until you’ve done significant behavioral damage that your dog is one who escalates, rather than shuts down, in the presence of violence.”
Here’s another dire scenario: If your dog growls at you over his food bowl and you punish or challenge him in some way, it might very well occur to him that his growl wasn’t sufficient to warn you off. He may resort to the next warning level – a snarl, snap, or worse – in an effort to more effectively protect his food.
Behavior modification:
Get to the problem’s root
Experts agree that the best route to take in dealing with resource-guarding is to use a combination of management and behavior modification.
Essentially, “management” entails intervening in (or anticipating and preventing) a situation so that the dog cannot repeat inappropriate behavior. For example, we keep food and toys picked up around a resource-guarder so that he cannot engage in guarding. Management does not necessarily or teach the dog anything; he simply has less opportunity to practice an undesirable behavior.
The most important tools in the behavior-modification toolbox, though, are systematic desensitization and counter-conditioning.
Desensitization involves exposing the dog to whatever it is that previously evoked his fear or anxiety, but at a distance and intensity that does not produce a response.
Counter-conditioning is a process in which we replace a dog’s involuntary, undesirable reaction (such as fear) with a more desirable response – one that is incompatible with the undesirable old response (such as the eager anticipation of a tasty treat). We create a positive emotional response by associating an event (your approach) with something good (a reward). This methodology has been proven to work, and is relatively easy and pleasant for both human and dog.
With counter-conditioning, you don’t exert your “control” over the dog in any way, but instead, transform your presence around the dog’s possessions into a signal that even better things are coming. One event becomes a reliable predictor of another event, and the subject develops an anticipatory response to the first event. By pairing good things (extra scrumptious treats) with the formerly bad thing (your approach or presence near whatever he is guarding), your proximity starts to become a better thing – a predictor of what is to come (treats!).
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The goal is to transform a food-guarder who becomes tense or upset when a person approaches him while he’s eating into a dog who is happy to be approached while eating, as this reliably predicts the delivery of even more food or treats.
Donaldson stresses the need to work at a low threshold; if at any point the dog shows the original reaction, you have gone super-threshold, and it is necessary to back up and start at a point where the dog does not react. “No good comes of rehearsing the dog’s old, growly behavior by replicating super-threshold versions of the trigger. In fact, it can make the dog worse.”
Donaldson also makes it clear that when working with a guarder, we need to be sure that the first event (the “threat” to the resource) must come before the delivery of the counter-conditioning treat. For example, in a food bowl exercise, “the approach, bowl touch, or bowl removal must precede the addition of bonuses to the dish.” This means that we do not, for example, show a dog the bait in hopes of preventing a guarding reaction. Doing so will not condition the appropriate emotional response.
Doing the work
Ideally, you start with a young pup who doesn’t guard and teach him early on that your presence predicts good stuff, says Miller. “You do this by offering to trade something wonderful for whatever he already has – such as a toy of moderate value, to start with – working your way up to really high-value items. I teach a ‘Give’ cue by saying ‘Give,’ then offering a high value treat in exchange for his object. Repeat until he will happily give up any object when you ask him to ‘Give.’ ”
Trainers use different protocols; there is always more than one way to approach an exercise. The protocol you use should be tailored to your dog, depending on the seriousness of his guarding behavior. “Progress gradually to the next step, only when your dog is totally relaxed at the current step,” says trainer Virginia Broitman. “Some dogs will move quickly through the steps, while others may need weeks of work. Don’t rush! If at any point you are concerned for your safety or unclear on any step, discontinue the exercises and consult an experienced trainer/behavior counselor for personalized assistance.”
One example of a protocol for a dog who already guards objects begins with a good look at all the items in the dog’s environment and ranking them according to their value to the dog. For instance, a ball may be a low-value item, while a rawhide may be extremely high-value. A list might look like this:
Once the items have been ranked, training begins with the items that the dog doesn’t especially care about and does not want. Initially, higher value items must not be available to the dog, because we want to prevent him from “practicing” his guarding behavior.
A session begins with the trainer presenting a low-value item to the dog and telling him to “Take it!” Almost immediately, the trainer gives a cue for “Drop it!” and gives the dog an extremely delicious treat.” The idea is that the dog is more than happy to “drop” the low-value item in favor of the treat. This exercise would be repeated dozens of times over a number of sessions.
Note: If the trainer is concerned that the dog may act aggressively in order to take the higher-value treat, she should have the dog on a tether, position herself just out of reach, and toss the treats in such a way to most safely reach for the low-value item. Again, in the case of a dog whose guarding behavior rates higher than a four on the scale found on page 5, the services of a qualified, positive canine behavior professional are recommended.
Only when the dog is comfortable with the first step would the protocol change, first by giving the dog the item and walking away, giving him a minute to enjoy the low-value item, and then returning to trade. As long as the dog continues to respond well to these exercises, you would work up to the more valuable items higher on your dog’s list. Training would occur in a variety of locations, and from then on, throughout the dog’s life, “spot checks” would be instituted to be sure that the dog retained what he learned.
Note: This example is a summary provided only to give the reader an idea as to what is involved in rehabilitating a guarder. If you have a guarder, you will need to follow a more detailed, structured protocol, and may require the assistance of a qualified behavior professional. See “Finding the Right Trainer,” below.
If your household includes children, you will need to take special precautions. Initially, only the adults should work with a dog who guards; kids should be a part of the guarding-rehabilitation program only after the adults have worked extensively with the dog, and only under direct supervision of an adult. Never assume that once your dog stops guarding with you, that he’ll stop guarding his items from the kids.
Similarly, you should never assume that once your dog no longer guards his cherished items from you or your family, he will no longer guard them from other people. Plan, manage, and supervise your dog’s interactions carefully, to prevent any possible harm to other people.
For location-guarding, follow a similar protocol. Start by using a place the dog does not guard and reward him for coming away from/off the place willingly. Donaldson likes to use target training as part of this protocol.
Manage in the mean time
Guarding behavior can be a daunting challenge to overcome, especially if it has progressed significantly. In this case, you must find an experienced trainer/behaviorist with whom to work. Until you are able to get help, management is a valid alternative. This involves avoiding the problem or trigger through environmental control. For example, if your dog guards pig ears, remove them from your home and do not allow him access to them. Keep the bedroom door closed to a bed-guarder.
If there is a “management failure,” and the dog gets on the bed, you can either ignore the dog and wait for him to come off the bed on his own, or, more proactively, redirect him to an alternative activity, such as calling the dog to the kitchen for a cookie or inviting him out for a brief walk.
If your food-guarder ever manages to pick up something that’s dangerous (such as a bar of dark chocolate) or valuable to you (like your prescription glasses), Donaldson advises trying a quick, calm, “bait and switch.” Bribe or distract the dog with anything you can think of. “Although bribery is totally ineffective for fostering actual behavior change, when you’re in a jam, anything goes,” she says. But remember, repeated management failures teach the dog nothing.
Rehabilitation of a resource-guarder takes time and requires patience. But the payoff in the end – for you, your dog, and your friends and family – is well worth the effort.
Lisa Rodier became interested in guarding behaviors through her volunteer work in shelters and Bouvier rescue. She lives in Alpharetta, Georgia, with her husband and two Bouviers, and serves on the Board of Advisors for Service Dogs of Virginia, Inc.
We call it the spark of life for good reason. From birth to death, all living creatures generate and transmit energy.
Entire healing therapies, some of them thousands of years old, have been built around energy. Once dismissed by Western science as impossible or ridiculous – and still viewed with suspicion by conventional physicians and canine veterinarians – energy medicine is slowly gaining acceptance in the United States. Several energy therapies are taught in American universities or are used by a growing number of healthcare practitioners. Can canine energy therapies help your dog? The descriptions and resources provided here may help you decide.
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We’re electric
All living beings generate and transmit electricity. Medical doctors measure it with electroencephalograms (EEGs) and electrocardiograms (ECGs or EKGs). Scientists routinely describe the nervous system in electrical terms, referring to its transducers, transmitters, electrochemical potential circuitry, current, resistance, voltage, capacity, and charge. The brain contains billions of neurons, which are cells that communicate using electrical signals and chemical messengers called neurotransmitters. The connections between neurons (called synapses) measure electrical impulses and transmit the neuron-to-neuron messages that are the foundation of brain function. Everything about the physiology, chemistry, and electrical circuitry of the nervous system has become fodder for medical research!
But Western medicine only maps and measures the body’s electrochemical output. When it attempts to change, balance, or improve the system, it almost always does so with invasive procedures, prescription drugs, or devices like surgically implanted pacemakers. In contrast, energy healing techniques can detect and correct energy imbalances in a noninvasive manner. Practitioners perceive these energy imbalances as the root cause of disease and discomfort.
Some types of energy medicine require the use of special equipment, such as acupuncture needles or grounding technology; in other systems, energetically charged substances, such as canine homeopathic remedies and flower essences, are used to correct energy imbalances. In some systems, practitioners employ physical touch, such as acupressure, meridian tapping techniques, applied kinesiology, and the laying on of hands; in others, the practitioners work close to the patient but do not use physical touch; in still others, the techniques are performed at a distance from the patient.
Skeptics dismiss any benefits observed from energy healing as a result of the placebo effect – where any observable health improvements cannot result from treatment but are attributed to the patient’s beliefs, hopes, and suggestibility. Psychology is a powerful force, but when canine patients improve overnight, their belief in the benefits of a specific therapy is an unlikely explanation for their improvment!
Some critics warn that the use of energy techniques can delay diagnosis, interfere with proper medical treatment, or create complications. However, most energy practitioners consider themselves part of the patient’s therapeutic team, not the sole healthcare provider, and they recommend appropriate veterinary care. In fact, some energy practitioners accept new patients only if they have been referred by a veterinarian. And a growing number of veterinarians administer energy healing techniques themselves, or work with energy practitioners.
Energy techniques are often used as support therapies. Learning how to use one or more of these methods may help both you and your dog in emergencies, and they may improve the outcome of veterinary treatment. Best of all, if an energy technique doesn’t work – and nothing works for everyone – it’s extremely unlikely to cause harm.
Occasionally a study involving an aspect of energy healing, such as the power of prayer, will be published in a major medical journal, but for the most part, research into what science calls the paranormal receives little public attention. Yet in quantum physics and in the field of consciousness research, rigorous scientific experiments have led to fascinating discoveries about the nature of energy and its effect on everything and everyone.
Medical journalist Lynne McTaggart has spent years translating technical scientific literature for lay readers, and her books The Field: The Quest for the Secret Forces of the Universe and The Intention Experiment: Using Your Thoughts to Change Your Life and the World review and explain the findings of hundreds of scientists. “Hidden within the cautious, neutral language of experimental data and mathematical equations,” she writes, “is nothing less than the makings of a new world, which slowly takes shape for all the rest of us, one painstaking experiment at a time.”
Recent discoveries about the brain and nervous system, chemical changes in molecules, communication between neurons, remote healing experiments, the power of intention (thought focused for a specific purpose), and other scientific findings explain why so many physicists and medical researchers consider energy healing not only theoretically possible but a fact of life.
Acupuncture
The most famous of all energy healing techniques is acupuncture, developed more than 5,000 years ago and still a primary healing modality for millions, including dogs, cats, horses, and other animals.
The foundation of acupuncture is a system of invisible channels or meridians through which the body’s energy, or chi, flows. Each meridian is linked to a different organ or body part. Blocks or obstructions in meridian energy reflect imbalances or illness in corresponding organs. To repair both problem and patient, key points along affected meridians are stimulated, releasing energy blocks and restoring balance to the body’s energy flow.
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Acupuncture points, or acupoints, can be stimulated by the insertion of needles, the application of heat (called moxibustion, in which burning herbs are held just above specific points), acupressure (finger or thumb pressure, massage, or tapping on acupoints), or techniques that utilize electrical or ultrasound stimulation, the implantation of substances such as small gold beads, the application of laser light, or the application of small adhesive magnets.
The acupuncture needles used for dogs are so thin that their insertion is usually painless, although when first experiencing acupuncture, many dogs soon shake their needles out. In some cases insertion causes a brief, sharp pain or discomfort. People receiving acupuncture have the same reactions. Dogs who receive acupuncture weekly or monthly become accustomed to the procedure and often enjoy it, especially when it relieves their chronic pain.
Stacey Hershman, DVM, who makes house calls in Rockland County, New York, and is certified by the International Veterinary Acupuncture Society (IVAS), uses acupuncture to treat many disorders, especially immune system problems, arthritis, and pain from pre- and post-operative hip and knee surgery. “It also helps with torn ligaments, muscle sprains, panosteitis, hip dysplasia, and partial paralysis due to slipped discs,” says Dr. Hershman.
Acupuncture can also be used to help treat behavioral disorders; skin problems such as allergic dermatitis, hot spots, or lick granulomas; respiratory problems; digestive disorders; reproductive problems; hormonal imbalances; burns and other injuries; and any chronic or acute condition.
The technique does not address symptoms the way conventional medicine does. Instead, it stimulates healing from within, allowing the body to repair itself.
Treatment time varies from 10 seconds to half an hour or more. For a simple acute problem, such as a sprain or infection, a single treatment may be all that’s needed. For established conditions, such as arthritis, one to three treatments per week may be necessary at first.
According to IVAS, “A positive response is usually seen after the first to third treatment. Once a maximum positive response is achieved (usually after four to eight treatments), treatments are tapered off so that the greatest amount of symptom-free time elapses between them.” Most dogs with chronic conditions receive two to four maintenance treatments per year. Canine athletes may benefit from one or two treatments weekly or monthly, depending on their activity level and condition.
Acupuncture’s results are often subtle but they can be dramatic. In his book Love, Miracles and Animal Healing, Alan Schoen, DVM, describes how, shortly after he gave an acupuncture demonstration at a veterinary clinic, technicians rushed into the emergency room with a 12-year-old German Shepherd whose heart had stopped after surgery. The veterinarians on duty inserted a tube down the dog’s throat, administered manual cardiac massage, injected the dog with epinephrine and bicarbonate, then wired him to electrodes and gave him electric shocks.
The dog’s EKG traced a flat line and he was pronounced dead. A technician was about to disconnect the oxygen when Schoen asked if he could try. He inserted an acupuncture needle at the center of the dog’s upper lip, halfway between nose and mouth, and gave it several short jabs. Within seconds, the dog began breathing and his heartbeat resumed.
Dr. Schoen wants everyone to know about this acupuncture point, called GV 26, a point on the Governing Vessel meridian. This emergency point can be stimulated with an acupuncture needle or fingernail to revive an unconscious animal.
Like all energy therapies, acupuncture can be used to alleviate, improve, or cure acute or chronic conditions and to help keep problems from developing when used as a preventive therapy.
Acupressure
Acupressure utilizes the same meridians as acupuncture, but instead of needles, pressure from the ball of the thumb, the tip of the index or middle finger, or the bent index finger’s knuckle (if nails are long) stimulates the meridians’ key points.
Acupressure is a versatile healing tool, one that can address obvious problems like sports injuries as well as more complex conditions, like auto-immune disorders or behavioral issues.
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Frequent Whole Dog Journal contributors and acupressure experts Amy Snow and Nancy Zidonis, authors of The Well-Connected Dog: A Guide to Canine Acupressure and other books, offer introductory, intermediate, and advanced training in Traditional Chinese Medicine and acupressure for horses, dogs, and other animals at their Tallgrass Animal Acupressure Institute in Larkspur, Colorado. Graduate practitioners from Tallgrass span the globe.
In their Canine Acupressure workbook, Snow and Zidonis give step-by-step instructions for locating and stimulating about 150 major acupressure points, with treatment programs for commonly seen problems, such as lower back soreness, neck stiffness, and hip problems.
While acupuncture needles must be positioned precisely, acupressure is forgiving because fingertips cover a wider area. This noninvasive treatment can safely be learned and used by pet owners as well as by trainers and healthcare practitioners.
Acupressure performed mechanically can clear energy blocks and improve health, but Snow and Zidonis train their students as much in breathing and focusing their thoughts as in the location of meridians and pressure points. “Acupressure has the added benefit of contributing human intention and energy to the dog during the process of balancing physical and emotional issues,” says Snow. “In several ways, this makes the acupressure more powerful and effective.”
Acupressure sessions typically last 20 minutes to one hour, beginning with opening work (centering yourself, positioning the dog, and gliding the palms over the animal’s body), followed by point work (stimulating individual acupressure points), closing (all-over massage with a smooth, light touch), and 5 to 10 minutes of gentle stretching.
“The best part of acupressure,” says Snow, “is that it is always available. We have seen many who, even as novices, provided healing help for their animals after learning some basic energy balancing techniques. Not everyone wants to be a practitioner, but everyone can use acupressure to support their dog’s physical and emotional well-being.”
Tellington TTouch
When Israeli physicist and athlete Moishe Feldenkrais was hit by a bus and lost the use of his legs, he refused surgery and ignored his doctors’ pessimistic predictions. Instead, he re-educated his legs by bypassing the habitual ways in which he moved, utilizing every alternative motion he could discover, from gross muscle movement to the smallest and most subtle flexing. Within two years, he was walking again – and his discoveries improved the lives of those with obvious disabilities as well as dancers, athletes, and people who wanted to enhance their performance. He taught them how to walk, run, speak, think, and move in entirely new ways.
The practitioners he trained in Awareness through Movement or the Feldenkrais Method of Functional Integration spent hundreds of hours lying on the floor, studying and experiencing minute muscle movements.
One of Feldenkrais’ students was Linda Tellington-Jones, who realized that horses and other animals could, like people, learn new responses very quickly if their old habit patterns were disrupted in a non-threatening manner. Her method, Tellington TTouch (pronounced tee-touch), has transformed dogs, cats, horses, cows, goats, birds, reptiles, and zoo animals, as well as their owners, companions, and caregivers. Tellington-Jones describes TTouch as affecting living beings at the cellular level, thus activating the body’s potential.
TTouch borrows some of its procedures from auricular medicine, an acupuncture technique that stimulates acupoints on the ear to treat the entire body. Additional body touches, small circular movements, lifts, and slides are performed with the hands and fingertips, and dogs are wrapped in elastic bandages, stroked with wands, and walked through labyrinths, all in an effort to interrupt and permanently change their habitual thoughts, reactions, and motions.
TTouch practitioners and instructors use the technique to help dogs overcome fear, improve their coordination, prevent injuries, improve their focus and concentration, and reduce the stress in their lives. The technique has helped dogs overcome separation anxiety, improve obedience, reduce excessive barking and chewing, and diminish aggressive behavior.
Thanks to the many books, videos, DVDs, and training aids created by Linda Tellington-Jones, anyone with a love of animals can learn TTouch at home. More than 1,000 certified practitioners in the U.S. and 25 other countries provide in-person instruction and treatment sessions.
Now that TTouch has been helping dogs and other animals for almost 25 years, Linda Tellington-Jones has introduced something new – her latest TTouch method, called TTouch-for-You, is for people.
Therapeutic Touch
In the early 1970s, Dolores Krieger, PhD, a registered nurse and professor at the New York University Graduate School of Nursing, and her mentor, Dora Kunz, developed a secular, nonreligious form of healing that combined the laying on of hands – the world’s oldest healing method – with other traditional energetic techniques.
The result, which they called Therapeutic Touch, was first taught to nurses at NYU. Today Therapeutic Touch is taught in over 200 hospitals and more than 100 accredited colleges and universities in the United States, as well as in 75 countries around the world.
Best known for its ability to relieve stress and anxiety, Therapeutic Touch has been credited with reducing pain, improving immune function, speeding wound healing, and improving overall health. It has been tested in numerous research studies that document physiological changes within the body, including changes in brain wave patterns.
Despite its name, Therapeutic Touch is a hands-off healing method, for it doesn’t involve physical contact. The technique is performed in three main steps. First, the practitioner centers himself or herself by quieting the mind.
Next, with hands placed two to six inches from the patient, the practitioner scans the patient’s body using slow, rhythmic motions to locate energy blocks.
Last, the energy blocks are released as the practitioner visualizes and smoothes the patient’s energy field from head to toe. Sessions typically last from 20 to 30 minutes.
Carol Robin, DC, a chiropractor in West Shokan, New York, learned Therapeutic Touch as an adjunct to her professional practice. When she tried it on her dog and three cats, they responded as well as her human patients. She then began teaching Therapeutic Touch and Energy Balancing to pet owners.
“This method is a powerful tool for centering, relaxing, and grounding,” she says, “and it helps with behavior problems as well as physical ailments. If dogs are hyper or nervous, it calms them down. If they’re afraid of thunderstorms or strange noises, it can help them be less fearful. In cases of injury or illness, it helps them relax and gets their energy flowing more freely to speed up the healing process. I can’t think of any condition where Therapeutic Touch would not be helpful.”
Dr. Robin’s instructions are simple. After relaxing, grounding yourself, and focusing your attention on your dog, place one hand on the head and the other just above the tail at the base of the spine, over the sacrum. Touching lightly with the palms of the hands, or on a small or toy breed, with your fingertips, imagine energy flowing like water from the dog’s head, down the spine, and out the end of the tail. Hold the position for a minute or two, until you feel a sense of balance under your hands and the dog begins to relax.
Light strokes from head to tail and from spine to paws distribute the energy throughout the dog’s body, clear energy imbalances, and facilitate healing.
“The most important thing to do before you begin,” says Dr. Robin, “is to take a few deep breaths and center yourself. If you’re upset or distracted, you’ll only agitate the dog. If your intention is loving and healing, your efforts will assist your animal companion.”
To help those who are unfamiliar with the preliminary steps of Therapeutic Touch, Dr. Robin has recorded guided meditation and imagery CDs. “They’re for anyone who would like to relax and explore the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual levels of body, heart, mind, and spirit,” she says, “all of which enhance your application of Therapeutic Touch.”
Reiki
Reiki (pronounced RAY-kee) was developed in Japan in the late 19th century and is taught in an oral tradition of master-to-student instruction. The Reiki practitioner becomes the conduit for transmitting universal energy to the client’s energy field by means of an “attunement” from a Reiki Master. Practitioners usually describe their work as bringing the body into harmony and balance. Reiki is used for all types of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual healing. In addition to relieving physical symptoms, it enhances personal growth, speeds the healing of injuries, and reduces stress.
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In Reiki, intention is everything. Practitioners agree that having the right mental focus is more important than holding your hand in an exact position. So long as your intention is to channel universal energy for the highest good of the person or animal you’re working with, the same positive impact will result.
Level 1 Reiki students practice being a conduit of healing energy for themselves and others at close proximity. In Level 2, students learn three ancient symbols that can be used to focus healing, intensify the energy flow, and transmit Reiki across greater distances. Level 2 Reiki is especially useful when working with dogs and other creatures, including wild, aggressive, abused, traumatized, and seriously ill animals. Level 3 produces Reiki Masters, who are the most advanced practitioners.
Only a few formal studies have examined Reiki’s effectiveness, and of these, most dealt with pain. Reiki has been shown to be highly effective in managing pain from various causes, including cancer, arthritis, and sinus infections. However, Reiki practitioners report the healing of a wide variety of illnesses. It is one of the world’s most widely used energy therapies. In Orange Park, Florida, dog trainer and behavioral consultant Elizabeth Teal was completing her Level 3 Masters training when she used Reiki to break up a dog fight.
“The two dogs were part of a recently combined family, so they knew each other, but not well,” says Teal. “One was a highly spoiled, resource-guarding terrier belonging to the client’s mother-in-law. The other was a territorial, defensively aggressive, recently rescued spaniel belonging to the client’s child. These dogs did not speak the same language. The kitchen was already crowded when the doorbell rang because both owners were trying to feed their dogs at the same time. Tensions were high. A third person, a visitor, entered the kitchen, and I came in last. Suddenly, all hell broke loose. Everyone was screaming, including the dogs, and blood was flying.”
Reiki treatments begin with the practitioner asking permission to proceed, which animals indicate with their posture, breathing, and body language, but this was an emergency. Reiki instructors explain that in emergencies, the higher self of all concerned directs the energy.
“The first thing I did was clear the room,” says Teal. “It took a minute to accomplish this, but as soon as the people left, I drew a power symbol and a relationship symbol over the area. The terrier still had a serious hold on the spaniel. I knew that if I put my hands near the dogs, I would be attacked.
“I held my hands to either side of both dogs and focused my mind. What happened next wasn’t like a jolt of lightning or an explosion, but I felt a whoosh, and a wave of quiet filled the room. At that instant, both dogs stopped, stood still, and stared straight at me. That gave me just enough room to grab their collars, toss them in their crates, and kick the doors closed.”
Teal and her client took both dogs to the nearest veterinary clinic, where the spaniel was treated for multiple bite wounds, requiring stitches. The terrier has since been re-homed.
“I’d like to add a note of caution,” she says. “Dog fights are very, very serious, and I’m not by any stretch of the imagination suggesting that you learn Reiki because it will break up dog fights. Also, dogs should never be put in situations where they have to use their weapons. This fight could and should have been prevented, but that’s a separate story.”
After she completed her Masters training, Teal began working with animals and their human and animal families. “I’m more interested in emotional healing than physical healing,” she explains, “and I may specialize in re-homed animals, who often have complex issues. Reiki is the best tool I can imagine for helping these special pets.”
For an excellent introduction to Reiki for pets, see Animal Reiki: Using Energy to Heal the Animals in Your Life, by Elizabeth Fulton and Kathleen Prasad.
Coming next month: Animal communication, applied kinesiology, flower essences, homeopathy, and more.
CJ Puotinen, a frequent contributor to WDJ, is the author of The Encyclopedia of Natural Pet Care, which describes several energy healing techniques.
Students in my Level 2 class are learning the “stay” dog behavior. Some of the pupils are doing great with the concept of “stay in the position I left you in until I tell you to change positions,” but one Border Collie isn’t having much success.
Charlie willingly sits on cue, but when clicks and treats don’t come fast enough, he starts trying other canine behaviors in his repertoire – with rapid-fire offerings of shake, speak, down, and even a roll-over finding its way into the mix. He gets so excited about the training game that sometimes he doesn’t even bother to sit first when asked, but drops right into the down – his favorite position. Charlie, an eager worker who loves positive dog trainging reinforcement, has learned a lot of different behaviors and is anticipating his human’s cues for all his favorite tricks. He clearly doesn’t have his behaviors under stimulus control.
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Stimulus control means your dog offers a specific canine behavior when you ask for it and doesn’t offer it if you haven’t asked for it. In reality, the only dogs on earth under total stimulus control all the time are robotic dogs, not living, breathing beings. At best, very well-trained dogs (through positive dog training methods) achieve that level of behavior when they are actively working. Otherwise, your very well-trained dog could never sit or lie down of his own volition, even when he was “off-duty.”
Before I explain how to get your dog to do what you want him to do, when you want him to do it, allow me to define some terms, and discuss the difference between a positive training approach – like I teach and Whole Dog Journal advocates — and a training program that uses aversive techniques.
Positive approach
A stimulus is something that causes a behavioral response. Some stimuli result in a response without training. Things like lights, sounds, scents, and things that cause physical discomfort (heat, cold, pain) are called primary or unconditioned stimuli. You don’t have to teach your dog to contract the pupils of his eyes if you shine a bright light in them – it just happens. He’s likely to jump when he’s startled by the clang of a stainless steel dog bowl dropping on the kitchen floor, and drift closer to the kitchen when you bake Italian meatballs, even if he’s never experienced those stimuli before.
A “secondary stimulus” is a signal that is meaningless to the dog until it is associated with a behavior that is then reinforced. The signal word “sit” means nothing to your dog until you help him connect it to the act of putting his bottom firmly on the floor, and until the sequence of “sit = bottom on floor” is repeatedly reinforced. With training, the initially meaningless “sit” sound becomes the cue for the desired behavior of putting bottom on floor.
In positive training, we first get the dog to do the behavior, then add the cue (secondary stimulus). We have a variety of techniques at our disposal to get the dog to do the behavior. We can “capture” the behavior – observing the dog, waiting until he does a certain behavior, and then “marking” it (with the click of a clicker or word such as “Yes!”) and rewarding him for it. Or we can “lure” the behavior, by using a food or toy that your dog moves toward, to get him to move into a certain position or perform a certain movement (which can then be marked and rewarded). Or we can “shape” the behavior, by marking and rewarding your dog for successively more “correct” approximations of the movement or behavior you want.
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When we can reliably get your dog to do the behavior, we start adding the cue just before he does the behavior. This creates the sequence of “Sit!” = bottom on floor = treat happens (positive reinforcement).
The old-fashioned way of giving meaning to the word “Sit!” was to give the “command” first and then pull up and/or push down on the dog to get the desired behavior. The reinforcement in that case was negative; the sit behavior made the pushing and/or pulling go away. This also created the necessary sequence of “Sit!” = bottom on floor = bad stuff goes away (negative reinforcement). This old-fashioned way works, but positive trainers don’t use it; our preference is to help our dogs learn how to solve training problems and offer behaviors, rather than physically manipulating or forcing them into position.
Charlie the Border Collie understands that “Sit!” means to put his bottom on the floor – some of the time. He’s made the association, but doesn’t yet understand that it means “always and only.” Lack of stimulus control is a common occurrence in positive training. When we are good at reinforcing dogs for offering behaviors, dogs get really good at offering them. Plus, teaching new behaviors is often more fun and exciting – and more reinforcing for the dog, since we tend to use more treats and praise when a dog is learning a new behavior. In the beginning, we often reward successive approximations of a new behavior at a high rate of reinforcement . . . and the rewards may slow as we become more selective about what we choose to reinforce, in an attempt to “shape” the behavior and indicate to our dog which approximation of the behavior is the one we want.
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We also deliberately slow our treat frequency to a variable pattern of random reinforcement when we put a behavior on an intermittent schedule of reinforcement to help the dog learn to keep working even if he doesn’t get a click and treat every time. This is done when a dog has become reliable at performing a given behavior – that is, he’ll do it at least 8 out of 10 times when you ask him to. A lack of stimulus control may be a common “side effect” among dogs and owners who use positive methods, but it’s (in our opinion) preferable to the most common side effects of coercive training methods.
Dogs trained by old-fashioned coercion usually learn that the safest thing to do, unless expressly asked, is nothing. Force-based trainers attain stimulus control with a choke chain, immediately squelching any unasked-for behavior with a sharp collar “correction” – a jerk on the leash. Of course, dogs trained with this method often become very reluctant to offer unasked-for behaviors, so valuable training techniques such as shaping, and a certain degree of trust, go out the window. (See “Fun Training Techniques for You and Your Canine!,” March 2006.)
Steps to stimulus control
The first step, getting your dog to offer the behavior on cue, is really the easiest part. Using capturing, luring, and/or shaping, you can elicit and reinforce pretty much any canine behavior you can conceive of, and then add the cue.
Now comes the more difficult part: not reinforcing behaviors that our dogs offer spontaneously. But if you want stimulus control, you’ll have to be consistent in this.
Of course, you can choose your venues. You can (and should!) still reinforce spontaneously offered default sits outside of your formal training session, especially if you’ve encouraged your dog to offer them – such as in a “Say please” program, where you teach your dog that the very polite and spontaneously offered deference behavior of “sit” makes good things (treats, praise, and other rewards) happen. But when you are specifically focused on training – if you want stimulus control – you’ll need to be very clear with your signals, reward markers (clicks), and reinforcement. So here’s the plan:
-Figure out how to elicit the behavior so you can reinforce it.
-When you can elicit/predict a behavior consistently at least 8 out of 10 times, you can add the cue just prior to the behavior, and begin fading (diminishing) prompts and lures – treats and body language that help the dog understand what the cue means. During this phase you may need to cue, pause, then prompt or lure, to help your dog transfer his association with the behavior from the lure to the cue. These first steps are the acquisition stage of learning; the dog is just figuring out how to do the behavior you’re asking for.
-When the cue will elicit the behavior at least 8 out of 10 times without a prompt or lure, you’re ready to tighten up your stimulus control; you will no longer click and reward the behavior (sit) if you haven’t asked for it, nor will you click and reward your dog if he offers a different behavior (down) when you ask for sit, even if you’ve been working really hard to get him to offer downs. Work on downs in a different section of your training session to avoid confusion, or in an entirely different session. This is “fluency”; the dog performs the behavior easily, on cue.
-If your dog offers an unsolicited behavior that is different from the one you are working on, or anticipates your cue for the one you are working on, remove all reinforcement. You want to extinguish unsolicited behaviors (cause them to go away). You may choose to use a neutral-voiced “no reward marker” (NRM) such as “Oops!” or “Time out!” or “Sorry!” as you turn away to remove your attention, or just turn away without a marker. Wait several seconds, and then resume training. Give your cue for the sit again.
-If several short time-outs in succession don’t seem to have an impact – if your dog keeps offering the wrong behavior – try a few longer time-outs, like a minute or two, where you actually go away and sit down before you resume training. If you are consistent about removing reinforcement, you should eventually extinguish spontaneous offerings.
Performance anticipation
Some dogs seem to share the same joy we do in practicing a wide variety of behaviors, as if the cue to perform one is an invitation to show off the entire repertoire. This can be frustrating when you’re doing an “onstage” performance for your friends and family, your son’s class at school, or the residents of the local assisted living facility where you do pet-assisted therapy. You ask your dog to “sit” and, lacking some of the critical elements of stimulus control, he’s halfway through his entire trick routine before you’ve even given him the cue to roll over.
A quick fix for this problem – while you work on stimulus control – is to teach him a solid “wait” behavior (easier than stimulus control), and then use your wait cue following each trick (see “Training Your Dog to Stay Using Cues, May 2001). Your performance might go something like this:
“Skippy, sit!” Click/treat. “Wait!”
“Skippy, shake!” Click/treat. “Wait!”
“Skippy, roll over!” Click/treat. “Wait!”
And so on.
Critical skill?
So, how important is stimulus control, really? Perhaps not very important, if you enjoy your dog as a companion mostly at home and don’t care if he offers random behaviors in the privacy of your own living room. It is probably more important to you if you like to take your dog out in public and want to be sure he will do as you ask in polite company. And it is very important if you have any plans or dreams of competing in any of the doggie sports that require precision in performance, such as rally, obedience, and freestyle.
It may be challenging to establish stimulus control. It’s worth it, however, if you want to wow your friends (and judges) with your dog’s training, and reap the rewards of the increased level of communication this builds between you and your canine companion.
The good news is that dogs seem to be able to generalize the concept of stimulus control; once you’ve established it with three or four behaviors, it tends to get easier and easier as you put more behaviors under stimulus control. Your dog comes to realize that each signal means a different behavior, and that being reinforced depends on recognizing the signal and giving the correct response. It’s good to know that your training will get easier as you go along!
Next month, I’ll discuss other ways you can make your dog’s performance more consistent and reliable.
Pat Miller, CPDT, is Whole Dog Journal’s Training Editor. Miller lives in Hagerstown, Maryland, site of her Peaceable Paws training center, with her husband Paul. Pat is also the author of The Power of Positive Dog Training and Positive Perspectives: Love Your Dog, Train Your Dog.
Thanks to trainer Sarah Richardson, of Chico, California, for demonstrating techniques for the photos in this article.
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How many dogs and cats died as a result of contaminated pet foods early this year? Its become clear that we will probably never know. Last May, Michael Rogers, director of the Division of Field Investigations for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), said in a telephone conference that the agency received as many as 18,000 calls about the recalled foods, with as many as 50 percent alleging an animal death. Certainly as part of a longer-term process, the agency is going to be evaluating this data, and well certainly come out with a final characterization of in total the number of confirmed deaths associated with these recalled products, he said.
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However, our efforts to determine how many people are investigating the reports that FDA received or whether there are actually any people currently working on those reports at all led nowhere. Every FDA spokesperson we encountered told us, Well release the number as soon as we know it.
Information released by other sources suggests that the final number will be much higher than the 17 or 18 cases that FDA accepts as positively confirmed. The Oregon state veterinarian, Dr. Emilio DeBess, states that he has received reports 127 suspect cases of dogs and cats who experienced an adverse response to eating contaminated food; this number includes reports of 49 deaths 20 dogs and 29 cats.
Also, the 20,000 members of Veterinary Information Network (VIN, an online, subscription-based education and communication forum for veterinary professionals) reported almost 1,500 cases of dog and cat injuries and deaths related to contaminated pet food. VIN plans to investigate as many of these reports as they can, in an attempt to independently confirm links between contaminated foods and illness.There is a silver lining to this cloud. Pet food companies are doing more than theyve ever done to secure better ingredients, establish or enforce traceability of those ingredients, monitor their contract manufacturers (if they use one), and communicate with us, the people buying their products.
Of course, in some cases, more than theyve ever done isnt much. Makers of low-cost, low-quality foods will still buy bargain ingredients; theyll just be a tad more certain of the ingredients origin. But the companies who make products aimed at the top end of the market the so-called super-premium foods are pulling out all the stops to accomplish these tasks and earn consumer confidence. On page 14, seven executives from companies that meet the latter description discuss what they are doing (and what they had already been doing) to make top-quality, safe foods.
Many owners who have lost confidence in all commercial pet food makers have found comfort in our series on home-prepared diets, which concludes in this issue. Weve received many letters from owners who have made the switch to home-prepared diets for their dogs and couldnt be happier.
When we first planned a series of articles for Whole Dog Journal on homemade dog food diets, Whole Dog Journal Editor Nancy Kerns and I had no idea that massive pet food recalls would erupt almost simultaneously with the publication of the first article, and continue to expand over the following months.
Throughout the aftermath of the recall, I saw a variety of recipes for home-prepared pet food diets, to be fed as a safer replacement for potentially contaminated commercial foods. Presented in newspapers, magazines, and online, most of these diet recipes provided incomplete nutrition, lacked any source of calcium, offered no variety, and were heavily laden with carbohydrates rather than the protein that dogs require to thrive.
As more and more owners made the decision to switch to homemade diets rather than risk feeding contaminated food to their dogs, I grew increasingly aware of the importance and urgency to supply appropriate guidelines that could help people create homemade diets that would meet the nutritional needs of their dogs.
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Over the past five months, I’ve presented information on homemade diets, cooked and raw, with whole bones, ground bones, or boneless. During that time, I’ve learned about some new products, read a great new book, tried out some sample pre-mixes and freeze-dried foods, and responded to questions from people about issues raised in my articles and points that would benefit from clarification. I’ll discuss these topics in this final installment of our series.
New cooked diet book
There are an infinite number of cookbooks with recipes for human diets, and lately I’ve seen quite a few of them for dogs, too. But I just finished reading the first cookbook I’ve found with recipes for people to share with their dogs.
Carol Boyle, who discussed the diet she shares with her husband and her two Great Pyrenees in “Home Prepared Dog Food Recipes” (Whole Dog Journal July 2007), has published a book on the topic. Natural Food Recipes for Healthy Dogs: Everything You Need to Know to Make the Greatest Food for Your Friend is delightful, easy to read, and filled with recipes for dishes you can share with your dogs.
Boyle’s simple but thorough guidelines for how to feed a healthy diet to your dogs, as well as to the humans in your household, made me begin to think that maybe even I could learn to cook! While I haven’t yet gone that far, I have found myself making larger portions and sharing them with my dog when I feel the meals I’m eating are appropriate, rather than just offering a few tidbits as I’ve done in the past.
Be sure to get the newly revised version available from naturaldogfood.com (or 908-728-0010), not the older edition found elsewhere.
Supplements for limited diets
Two new supplements designed to balance out limited homemade diets were introduced to the market since I wrote about them, also in July’s article. Steve Brown, the creator of Steve’s Real Food for Dogs, has developed a new product called See Spot Live LongerTM Homemade Dinner Mixes. Designed to balance a meat-based diet, this product can be used by owners who are unable to feed their dogs the variety needed to create a complete diet, or those who simply feel more comfortable using a supplement to ensure that AAFCO (American Association of Feed Control Officials) and NRC (National Research Council) nutritional guidelines are met.
A second product, Vitamins & Minerals for Home-Cooked Dog Food made by Furoshnikov’s Formulas, is designed to balance out a diet that is higher in carbohydrates. This product is also guaranteed to make a diet meet the AAFCO guidelines for a canine diet when used according to directions.
Both of these new products, as well as the two mentioned in previous articles, Wysong’s Call of the Wild (designed for meat-based diets) and Balance IT (designed for high-carbohydrate diets), supply calcium as well as other needed vitamins and minerals, so there’s no need to add a separate calcium source when using any of them. Because of this, they are not appropriate to use with diets that include edible bone.
Green beans not toxic
Also in July’s article, I said, “Legumes (including green beans) should always be cooked due to a toxin they contain while raw (though small amounts would not be harmful).” Correction: This warning does not apply to green beans after all. It is only the mature beans, such as kidney, lima, and fava beans, that contain significant amounts of toxin prior to cooking. Green beans (also called string beans, snap beans, and French beans) are immature and are fine to be fed raw.
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Grinders
I’ve discovered three new sources for electric meat grinders since writing about them in Whole Dog Journal’s May article on raw diets, “A Raw Deal.” Several raw feeders have recommended stainless steel grinders made and sold by Cabela’s, especially the 1 and 1½ horsepower models.
“My 1 HP Cabela’s meat grinder will grind up veggies, whole chicken parts, and turkey wings and backs (I haven’t tried legs as their bones are quite thick),” says Cary Branthwaite of Durham, North Carolina. “We grind and butcher quite a bit of venison, so we needed the 1 HP capacity, but a ½ HP grinder would be adequate also.”
Mary Waugh Swindell of Boyd, Texas, had a mechanical problem with the larger 1¾ HP model that she bought at Cabela’s in Fort Worth, but raved about the store’s customer service and willingness to take it back with no questions asked. She exchanged it for the 1½ HP model, which both her best friend and her dad have been happy with, and says, “It works like a dream. I needed something big and fast, as I’m feeding six large dogs. I would wholeheartedly recommend their grinder.”
These Cabela commercial-grade stainless steel grinders run $400 to $600, plus shipping (which is expensive on these heavy items) if you can’t find them locally. Cabela’s also sells lower-priced models, but I’ve heard no feedback about them.
Heather Smith, of Fayetteville, Pennsylvania, recently purchased a ¾ HP LEM stainless steel grinder from Bass Pro Shops (they’re also available directly from the manufacturer), and says, “It was about $350 and has worked great on chicken quarters, chicken wings and necks, turkey wings and necks, and oxtails. If you can fit it down the chute, this grinder will grind it.” LEM also makes smaller grinders, but I’ve not heard feedback about them.
Another recommended grinder is the 1.35 HP grinder from Gander Mountain, which costs about $150. Check with local stores specializing in outdoor gear and hunting and fishing equipment to see if any offer electric meat grinders, often used by hunters to process wild game.
In the past, many people recommended the Tasin grinders sold by Northern Tool, but, according to reports I’ve heard from dog owners, the quality of those has declined in recent years, so if you’re thinking about a grinder, you may want to try one of those listed above instead.
Commercial alternatives
My dog, Piglet, volunteered to test samples of the four different varieties of dehydrated diets made by The Honest Kitchen, and gave them high marks. I’ve been integrating them into her diet as part of her breakfast every three days, for variety and because she likes them so much.
Laura Fulton, who told us about the diet she feeds her two Weimaraners in last month’s article, “Reality Cooks,” also offered some samples from The Honest Kitchen to her dogs and reports that they love it. Her dog Violet, who is prone to gassiness and digestive upset, has had no problems with these foods. Fulton has fed all but the Verve variety, which is beef-based, as Violet is allergic to beef.
Another friend, Sheryl Matzen, of Gold River, California, tried Embark, the variety approved for puppies, mixed half and half with fresh foods, to feed her new German Shepherd moose . . . uh, puppy, Apollo, and she, too, reports that he loves the food and is doing extremely well with it. She wanted to feed him a homemade diet, though she was worried about getting it right for a large-breed puppy; happily, she feels comfortable using the pre-mix. Matzen was cooking the added meat, but a recent heat wave convinced her to try feeding raw instead. In fact, she even gives him meat that is still frozen, as he enjoys chewing on it, and it helps to distract him from the rocks that he otherwise wants to eat.
Piglet also tried some samples of Stella & Chewy’s Freeze Dried Steaks. This is a complete diet, which comes in both frozen and freeze-dried form. It is available in beef, chicken, and lamb flavors, using free-range meats and human-grade ingredients.
The company recently opened its own processing plant in order to maintain control and ensure the safety of their products. I rehydrated the patties with warm water before feeding, and Piglet whimpered pathetically while waiting for them to be served. The result was a complete success: she ate with enthusiasm and tried to convince me I had not fed her enough. Complete packaged raw diets are too expensive for most people to serve all the time, unless you have very small dogs, but they can be handy to have on hand for quick and easy meals, and freeze-dried foods can be great for traveling, especially camping and backpacking.
Elemental calcium
A question was raised about the amount of calcium in eggshells due to the difference between calcium carbonate and elemental calcium. “Elemental calcium” is just a way of saying pure calcium, and this is what you will find listed in the nutritional analyses of most supplements.
Eggshells are 95 percent calcium carbonate; calcium carbonate is 40 percent elemental calcium. A large eggshell provides about 5,500 mg (about 1 teaspoon) of ground eggshell. So, 1 teaspoon of ground eggshell provides about 5,225 mg of calcium carbonate, or 2,100 mg of elemental calcium. Thus, the recommendation to add ½ teaspoon ground eggshell per pound of food (when you do not feed edible bones) supplies about 1,000 mg of elemental calcium.
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If a supplement says it contains 500 mg calcium, that means 500 mg elemental calcium, though the amount of the calcium compound used to make the supplement, such as calcium carbonate or calcium lactate, will be greater. That’s why it doesn’t matter what form of calcium you use, as long as you give the proper amount of elemental calcium as shown on the label.
Vitamin A
One of the sample diets described in July’s article mentioned limiting the amount of liver in the diet due to concerns about vitamin A, and this is a worry I’ve heard voiced by many other people as well. Vitamin A is fat soluble, so an oversupply of this nutrient can be toxic. The reality, though, is that you would have to feed huge amounts of vitamin A for many months in order to cause toxicity. A diet that was all or mostly liver could lead to vitamin A toxicity over time, but a diet that includes small amounts of liver on a daily basis will not.
Liver is one of the most nutrient-dense foods you can feed, providing not only vitamin A, but also all the B vitamins, choline and inositol, vitamins D, E, and K, and the minerals iron, zinc, copper, manganese, selenium, and potassium, as well as essential fatty acids and high-quality protein. Don’t skimp on this nutritious food due to an unreasonable fear of too much vitamin A. Around five percent of the total diet should be liver, if possible.
Whole food versus synthetic supplements
Whole food supplements use beneficial foods and herbs rather than synthetic vitamins. Examples include nutritional or brewer’s yeast (source of B vitamins, chromium, selenium, and trace minerals), cod liver oil (source of vitamins A and D), organic apple cider vinegar (provides some trace minerals), and garlic (offers numerous health benefits). Green blends are whole food supplements that include primarily green foods, such as kelp, alfalfa, and spirulina, which provide trace minerals and other nutrients.
It is hard to quantify the benefits of whole food supplements, as little in the way of measurable nutrients will show up on a nutritional analysis. Synthetic supplements generally offer much higher amounts of vitamins. If you want to give megadoses of vitamin C, for example, you will have to rely on synthetic supplements to do so. Whole foods may offer superior nutritional value due to the combinations of nutrients, which may act synergistically and which the body may be better able to utilize than isolated nutrients, and their structure, which may be more bioavailable than synthetics.
As with foods, it can be helpful to rotate among different whole food supplements rather than always using the same one. Different brands, even those with similar ingredients, each offer their own unique combinations of nutrients, so once again variety can help to ensure that all nutritional needs are met while nothing is given in excess.
Recipes versus diets
One criticism of my raw diet guidelines provided a spreadsheet analysis of a single recipe, and stated that it was incomplete. I don’t doubt that any single recipe derived from the guidelines I offered may be incomplete, due to the fact that the diets I recommend strive for balance over time, not in every single meal.
I cannot stress enough the need to feed variety, rather than feeding the same foods all the time. A diet that is half chicken wings will not meet all of your dog’s nutritional needs, and will be higher in fat than is desirable. A diet that includes meals of chicken wings rotating with meals of other types of raw meaty bones will have a reduced amount of fat and provide additional nutrients. In addition, of course, the other half of the diet should also include a variety of different foods such as muscle meat and organ meat of various kinds, along with eggs and dairy.
While fat is a good source of energy for dogs, too much can lead to weight gain, reduced nutrition (if the amount of food has to be limited to keep your dog at the optimal weight), and digestive upset in some dogs. Unless your dog is quite active and has trouble keeping weight on, the diet you feed should not contain an abundance of fatty meats and skin.
Menadione
There has been a lot of concern lately about the use of menadione, a synthetic form of vitamin K, in pet foods. Menadione has been banned for use in human over-the-counter supplements because it is toxic at excessive dosages. This problem was seen primarily in human infants when they were injected with vitamin K to prevent deficiency.
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Since synthetic vitamin K has double the potency of natural vitamin K on a per weight basis, this resulted in toxicity. One nursing encyclopedia says that “prolonged consumption of megadoses of vitamin K (menadione) results in anemia,” and that “a daily injection of 10 mg of menadione into an infant for three days can kill the child.” It was this tragic discovery that led to its use being banned.
In comparison, the amount of menadione in commercial dog foods is extremely tiny. The Balance IT supplement, which is meant to supply nutrients at AAFCO recommended levels, contains 0.0774 mg menadione per scoop. One usage recommendation I’ve seen is to use 3 scoops for 900 calories (for a 35 lb dog), which would be 0.2322 mg daily. This amount is just over 2 percent of the dosage that would be considered toxic to a much smaller infant.
Many substances, even water, are safe in recommended amounts but toxic when excessive amounts are ingested. While I agree that the natural forms of vitamin K, phylloquinone (vitamin K1), and menaquinone (vitamin K2), would be preferable to the synthetic form, my feeling is that the risk presented by feeding foods or supplements that use menadione (vitamin K3) is minimal, and I would not avoid a food just because it contains this ingredient.
Fish and fish oil concerns
Many people worry about the amount of salt in canned fish. It is true that canned fish is salty, but dogs require a certain amount of salt, and a homemade diet is naturally low in salt, so the amount in canned fish that is fed once or twice a week should not be a concern. If your dog suffers from heart disease or needs a low-sodium diet for some other reason, you can rinse the fish to remove most of the salt.
Concerns also arise over possible contaminants in fish and fish oils, such as mercury, PCBs, and dioxin. Mercury contamination is mostly a concern in larger fish, such as tuna, swordfish, and king mackerel. Salmon, jack mackerel (not the same as king mackerel), and sardines are all low in mercury. Farmed salmon is much more likely than wild-caught salmon to be contaminated with PCBs and dioxin. Canned salmon is almost always wild-caught Pacific (Alaskan) salmon. Check the label if you’re unsure.
Both Consumer Reports and ConsumerLab.com have conducted tests on a variety of fish oil supplements and found that none contained a significant amount of mercury, PCBs, or dioxins. They also found that almost all, including the less expensive brands, were fresh and contained the amount of omega-3 fatty acids promised on the label.
If you’re still concerned, look for pharmaceutical-grade oils, as they are guaranteed to be free of all impurities.
Chicken, arsenic, antibiotics
Arsenic and antibiotics are fed to some chickens to encourage rapid growth. While the residual amount of arsenic left in the meat was considered too low to be a concern for human consumption, recent studies have shown that levels are higher than previously acknowledged. Adding arsenic to chicken feed also contributes to environmental contamination, while the indiscriminate use of antibiotics can lead to the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
There are many brands, including supermarket brands, that do not contain arsenic or antibiotics. Organic chicken contains neither arsenic nor antibiotics as well. Check with the supplier to verify that the brands you use are both arsenic- and antibiotic-free.
Food weights There is often confusion between different ways of expressing amounts, such as cups vs pounds. While a cup is a measure of volume and a pound is a measure of weight, the general rule of thumb (and the way to remember it) is, “A pint’s a pound, the world ’round.” A pint is 16 ounces, which is two cups, so a cup of food will weigh around 8 ounces. This will vary depending on density, but it should give a good approximation for fresh food, which has a high moisture content.
Other measurements and conversions that may be helpful:
• A large egg weighs about 2 ounces, of which 2/3 is the white and 1/3 the yolk
• 1 fluid ounce is 6 teaspoons (2 tablespoons)
• There are about 28 grams per ounce, and 454 grams per pound. To convert ounces to grams, multiply by 28. To convert pounds to grams, multiply by 454. To convert grams to ounces, divide by 28. To convert grams to pounds, divide by 454.
Cutting up raw meaty bones
A few people objected to my advice to owners who are concerned about the risk of their dogs choking on raw meaty bones. I said that owners could cut up raw meaty bones into bite-sized pieces. Some argue that the way to prevent choking is to feed large pieces that are too big to be swallowed whole. They feel that cutting up raw meaty bones actually makes it more likely that dogs will choke.
In my experience with two dogs who have had problems chewing raw meaty bones, feeding large pieces doesn’t always help. If your dog’s teeth are too worn to be able to slice off pieces to swallow (as was the case with my dogs), it doesn’t matter how long they chew on the piece, eventually they still try to swallow it whole. Even if your dog is able to chew off pieces, that large piece then becomes smaller, and your dog may still try to swallow it when it is large enough to cause choking, particularly if you have a dog who tends to gulp his food.
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It is important to cut food up into chunks that are too small to cause choking, even if swallowed whole. For example, turkey necks (or chicken necks for small dogs) need to be cut lengthwise rather than or in addition to crosswise, so that you don’t end up with short pieces that are still too thick to go down comfortably. When I cut up raw meaty bones for my dog, Piglet, she still chews the pieces, but has no problem swallowing them despite the fact that her teeth are too worn to chew a large piece into smaller pieces.
Another objection is that pieces of bone that are swallowed whole without being crushed by chewing are more likely to cause obstruction. In my experience, obstruction from raw bones is quite rare, and dogs have no problem digesting them, even if the bones are not crushed. However, if your dog swallows pieces whole and you see pieces of bone in his stool, you may want to invest in and use a grinder.
For those who do want to cut up their dog’s food, I’ll say once again that my Joyce Chen Unlimited Scissors work far better than any of a number of poultry shears that I’ve purchased over the years. They’re also great for cutting up gristly meat that is otherwise almost impossible to saw through.
Q and A: The following are questions that I received from readers about earlier installments in this series.
-Eden Le Bouton of Cleveland, Ohio, writes, “In May’s article on raw diets, you say, ‘RMBs should make up 30 to 50 percent of the total diet.’ Later in the same paragraph you say, ‘While a reasonable amount of raw bone won’t harm an adult dog, more than 15 percent is not needed and reduces the amount of other valuable foods that can be fed.’ My confusion is: should RMBs make up 15, 30, or 50 percent of the diet and is that the daily diet?”
The confusion lies in the difference between “bone” and “raw meaty bones” (RMBs). Raw meaty bones are, by definition, at least half meat, and so therefore no more than half bone. If you feed a diet that is 30 to 50 percent RMBs, the amount of bone in the diet will be 15 to 30 percent or less, depending on the ratio of meat to bone in the parts that you feed.
Dogs need no more than 15 percent bone, so if you feed the higher percentage of RMBs, you should try to use parts that are more than half meat. There is no need to feed an exact percentage of bone on a daily basis, though this is one ingredient that often works best when similar amounts are fed daily, as too much bone at one time can cause hard stools and constipation, while feeding no bone at all one day may lead to looser stools the next.
-David Logue of Allen, Texas, writes, “My wife and I have three rescued Maltese who have no teeth. We feed the dogs a home-prepared diet, but with little variety. What suggestions could you offer us?”
Most foods can be fed to dogs who lack teeth. The only real exception is whole bones. You can purchase products that include ground bone, or buy an inexpensive grinder that will grind softer bones, such as from chicken and rabbit, and do it yourself. Or you can feed a diet that doesn’t include bone, and use a different calcium source instead.
Remember that no more than half the diet should be raw meaty bones, so even if you can’t provide much variety in that area, you can still feed lots of different kinds of meats, organs, and other foods, including eggs, cottage cheese, yogurt, canned fish with bone (jack mackerel, pink salmon, sardines), and healthy leftovers in the other half (or more) of the diet.
-Brenda Stoner of Henderson, Arkansas, asks, “What is your opinion on giving vitamin supplements made for humans to dogs? Is it okay to use yogurt or cottage cheese and eggs every day as long as I use a variety of meats?”
Human supplements are okay to use, as long as the amounts are appropriate. Adjust as needed for the size of your dog. For example, a large dog could take an adult human dose, while a medium-sized dog would take half that much, and a small dog one quarter or less.
It is fine to feed yogurt, cottage cheese, eggs, or any other food on a daily basis, as long as the rest of the diet provides adequate variety. No one food should ever be more than half the diet, but there’s no problem adding the same healthy foods daily, particularly in small amounts. A medium- or large-breed dog could eat an egg every day with no problem, but a whole egg every day would be too much for a toy breed, as it wouldn’t leave enough room for a variety of other foods.
-Gerda Alexander of Newville, Pennsylvania, asks, “Can I use eggshells from boiled and uncooked eggs?”
Yes, eggshells from either cooked or uncooked eggs can be used. Just rinse them out and let them dry overnight before grinding in a clean coffee grinder. Ground eggshell will keep a long time if you remove the inner membrane before grinding. There’s no need to refrigerate it, as ground eggshell is just minerals.
-Winnie Laning of Toronto, Ontario, writes, “If I feed a home-cooked diet and add canned salmon, will this take care of the calcium requirement so that I don’t need to add a supplement? Also, is it beneficial to add sunflower oil to the diet?”
No, you can’t use a single form of meat with bones to provide all the calcium your dog needs. You would end up feeding too much canned salmon (not enough variety), and too little calcium. Canned fish with bones has far more calcium than plain meat, but it actually has more phosphorus than calcium, so it can’t be used to balance the phosphorus in the rest of the diet.
It’s easy to add ground eggshells or any other calcium supplement when you don’t feed edible bone, at a level that provides around 1,000 mg calcium per pound of food. It’s fine to feed canned salmon some of the time, maybe once or twice a week, but don’t feed it daily, unless you feed very small amounts.
I don’t recommend adding vegetable oils to dog diets, especially in large amounts. Vegetable oils such as safflower, corn, and sunflower oil are high in linoleic acid (LA), a form of omega-6 fatty acids that is usually plentiful in the diet, and that can lead to inflammation when too much is given. Fish body oil is high in the omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA, which are anti-inflammatory and hard to find in food (other than fatty fish). Note that flaxseed oil and carmelina oil are not good choices to replace fish oil, as the form of omega-3 fatty acids found in plant oils (alpha linolenic acid, or ALA) must be converted in the body to the forms that dogs can utilize (EPA and DHA), and dogs are not able to make this conversion very well, if at all.
If you do add plant oils, the best kinds to use are borage oil and evening primrose oil, as the gamma-linoleic acid (GLA) they contain is preferred over the LA found in vegetable oils. Olive oil, which provides omega-9 fatty acids, is also okay in small amounts. Remember that you need to add some vitamin E when you supplement with either plant or fish oils (the tiny amount of vitamin E included in most supplements is not enough).
Note that some of the oil supplements sold for dogs are mostly vegetable oil. For example, Derm Caps are mostly safflower oil (up to 72 percent linoleic acid). Check the label before making a selection.
Final note
I hope that the guidelines in this article series help you start feeding healthy foods to your dog, whether you feed a raw diet with bones, a raw or cooked boneless diet, a diet based on pre-mixes, or just a commercial diet with fresh foods such as eggs, meat, and dairy added.
It’s important to realize that it is no more difficult to feed your dog a healthy diet than it is to do the same for your family, though there are differences in their nutritional needs. It’s not necessary or desirable to feed only “complete and balanced” commercial foods, nor that every meal be complete and balanced, as long as balance is achieved over time.
Just as with our own diets, fresh, wholesome, species-appropriate foods offer superior nutrition to processed, packaged foods. Remember the three basic rules – variety, balance over time, and calcium in appropriate amounts – and open the door to improving your dog’s health in the most natural way possible.
Mary Straus does research on canine health and nutrition as an avocation. She is the owner of the DogAware.com website, and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
I recently fostered a dog who first greeted me at the shelter that I sprung her from by jumping up on me. I spent the first two days with her almost exclusively working on preventing her from jumping. When I introduced her to a friend, my friend immediately held her arms out and greeted the dog’s enthusiastic jump up with a big hug, petting, and cooing
