Readers may be surprised to learn from this month’s article Heartworm: Dont Take It Lightly that we recommend the use of conventional heartworm preventative drugs. Our usual suggestion is to minimize the use of pesticides, vaccines, artificial food additives, and toxic chemicals on or around dogs, so one might guess that wed also be opposed to heartworm preventatives.
One can readily find numerous anecdotal reports about raw-fed, holistically supported dogs who successfully resist heartworm infection without the benefit of preventatives, or even dogs who live well into their senior years while hosting a small population of heartworms. Some holistic practitioners believe this is the natural state of a healthy dog. A properly fed dog with a vibrant immune system, they say, should be able to live in a state of relative health and balance with parasites.
Challenge studies have demonstrated that if dogs who were never previously exposed to heartworm were deliberately infected with 100 heartworm larvae, between 60 and 75 adult worms will develop in about 90 percent of the dogs. This suggests that dogs do have some small amount of natural resistance to the parasites. But we think its folly to bet your dogs life on the notion that you can build his resistance to heartworm solely with a natural diet and holistic healthcare particularly in areas where heartworm disease is prevalent.
Thats because weve also heard stories from people like Christie Keith, a Scottish Deerhound breeder and longtime advocate of raw diets and holistic healthcare for dogs. Keith opted not to administer conventional heartworm preventatives to her dogs for 16 years but was converted to their use after two of her raw-fed dogs developed heartworm infections. Weve heard other heartworm tragedies, but Keiths story is particularly resonant. If such an experienced and dedicated proponent of holistic healthcare wasnt successful in a low-risk environment at preventing infection in her dogs, perhaps it just cant be done. It may well be that dogs were never meant to have to resist year after year of repeated exposure to the parasites.
However, we have determined that there are a number of ways that you can minimize your use of the conventional preventatives and still fully protect your dog. Researcher Mary Straus brings these findings to light in the heartworm article.
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Training Tips
We also have two really great training articles in this issue: Mardi Richmonds Way to Stay and Pat Millers The Shape of Things to Come. Both articles offer detailed instruction on fun, positive methods for producing a happy, well-behaved dog who is highly motivated to figure out what you want and do it.
There is, however, a catch one that should be apparent from the length of the articles: you have to actually practice with your dog to achieve your training goals! Try it! Youll be amazed at what you and your dog can accomplish in just a few minutes of positive training a day every day.
Our goal for WDJ is to give our readers information they can put to use immediately to help improve the health and behavior of their dogs. Of course, I consider the magazine a success when I receive letters from readers thanking us for helping save their dogs’ lives, but I also feel a deep satisfaction when I realize me and my dog benefit from things I’ve read in WDJ.
For example, I read a long article in the Washington Post today about a scary infection that is killing people and worrying public health officials. A very common bacteria, Clostridium difficile, has mutated into a virulent form that causes fatigue, stomach cramps, nausea, and severe diarrhea – and alarmingly, it is resistant to many antibiotics. In fact, people who are taking antibiotics are the most common victim. Modern heartburn drugs, which reduce the production of stomach acid, are also emerging as an agent that can make a person vulnerable to the infection.
What does this have to do with dogs? As I read the article, I felt that I fully understood the gravity of the situation only because longtime WDJ contributor Randy Kidd, DVM, PhD, precisely described the potential for this scenario in his March 2004 article, “Dangers of Antibiotic Misuse.” Dr. Kidd warned against giving your dog antibiotics for any but the most compelling bacterial infections. This reduces the risk of promoting antibiotic-resistant bacteria in your home, and preserves the protective bacteria in your dog’s digestive tract.
Dr. Kidd’s article noted that you don’t even have to be the one taking an antibiotic to become resistant to it; he cited studies that show resistant bacteria can infect every species of animal within reach of the animal that was given the antibiotic. He also noted that antibacterial soaps and cleaners speed the development of resistant bacteria and should be avoided. Kidd’s article is definitely worth rereading.
For a photo to illustrate Pat Miller’s article on teaching your dog to “target” (“Right On Target” in this issue), I followed her instructions and taught my Chihuahua, Mokie, to ring a bell that I hung on the back door. It took about 10 minutes. Mokie already knew how to touch his nose to my hand – the result of target training I did with him in March 2001, when we published our last article on target training. Shaping the behavior to get him to touch his nose to the bell instead of my hand, and then using his paws to really make it ring took just a few minutes.
It’s taking a bit longer to get him to ring the bell when he wants to go outside. I’ve been asking him to ring the bell every time we go outside, so he gets the idea that he rings the bell, and then we go out. My hope is that he’ll realize that ringing the bell makes it possible to go outside, and he’ll start offering the behavior when he needs or wants to go out.
So far, he offers the behavior only when someone is eating, in hopes of getting a treat for his new trick. I think he’ll figure it out – as soon as I can train the kids not to give him food for ringing the bell because they think it’s so cute. I guess I need to ask Pat to write an article for WDJ on that.
Last month, in “A Super (But Secret) Industry,” I discussed the difficulty of getting into a factory where wet pet food is made – a task I have not yet managed to accomplish. Happily, I have been able to tour a few facilities that manufacture dog treats and dry food. This hasn’t resulted in any huge surprises to me, but sure helped me understand the many challenges facing manufacturers who want to produce the very best dog food possible.
As we have described in our annual food reviews since 1998, this task starts with top-quality ingredients. To mix a metaphor, you really can’t make a silk purse out of sows’ ears, chicken heads, bovine tumors, restaurant grease, rendered fat from animals that died on farms, and cheap grain by-products left over from the human food manufacturing industry. Many people say, “Oh, for goodness’ sakes, they are just dogs! Why can’t they eat guts and stuff?” Well, they can, of course, and most dogs do! The vast majority of pet food produced in this country is made with what we would consider to be poor-quality ingredients.
For optimal health, every credible human nutrition expert in the world advocates eating a balanced varied diet of a varying menu of fresh, top-quality foods. There is no biological reason to expect dogs (or any other animal) to be any different. Pet bird experts now realize that an all-seed diet is unbalanced and inadequate for avian health; birds also need access to fresh plant material (fruits, vegetables, green foods such as sprouts, etc.) to thrive. People who keep rabbits as pets now know that alfalfa pellets alone don’t sustain rabbits as well as a diet that includes a variety of fresh hay, root vegetables, and green, leafy vegetables.
Dogs are just the same. A balanced, home-prepared diet of a variety of fresh, healthy ingredients is optimum; a commercial diet made with the same ingredients is leagues better than a commercial diet made with cheap fats discarded from restaurants, inexpensive carbohydrates produced as waste from the brewing industry, and plant proteins such as corn gluten meal (animal proteins have a much more complete amino acid profile than plant proteins).
Of course, the best ingredients cost a lot, and a reliable supply may be difficult to find. Pet food makers who are committed to producing foods for the top end of the market have to continually hunt for ingredients that meet their standards – and be prepared to reject shipments that fail to pass their inspection.
We strongly believe that ingredient quality is the key to a dog food’s quality, as well as the criterion that is easiest for the average consumer to judge, based on a simple review of the ingredients listed on the label. See “WDJ’s Dry Dog Food Selection Criteria,” page 4, for a detailed description of what is desirable and what is best avoided when scrutinizing the ingredients’ panel on your favorite dog foods.
Good manufacturing practices
Ingredients aren’t the whole story, of course. A company that spends the lion’s share of its budget on the ingredients for its foods, but, as one example, expends few resources on laboratory testing to confirm the product meets its label guarantees, may cause the food to flunk inspection by state feed control officials and stop its sale.
Tough standards (and top compensation) for employees, good employee management, superior packaging, proper storage, reliable transportation, smart marketing, education of sales staff at retail locations, knowledgeable and responsive customer service and support . . . these are all areas where a company needs to shine to garner the long-term support of consumers who will pay top dollar for top-shelf products.
Manufacturers who neglect even one of these areas are just asking for trouble. If your plant employees don’t read well or communicate well with their supervisors and coworkers, they may fail to properly inspect a load of corn that arrives at the plant, allowing toxin-laden grain into production (see “Yes, Dog Food Can Kill” sidebar); or accidentally contaminate production equipment with an improperly diluted cleaning agent; or add a dangerously high amount of the mineral supplement to a batch of food, which can cause a life-threatening overdose in exposed dogs.
Most hazards to the wholesomeness of a pet food can be controlled through rigorous planning and management. However, a company must have the resources and commitment to expend those resources to continuously maintain vigilance over the product management from ingredient purchasing to consumer support.
Consumers have few resources available to determine whether dog food makers have “the right stuff” in these areas. In our opinion, one of the best indictors of a company’s commitment to quality is reflected in its ability to respond quickly and intelligently to consumer questions and concerns. Noncompulsory manufacturing certifications (such as the ones described in the “Further Attributes of a Top-Quality Food” sidebar), are another way a company can unequivocally demonstrate its commitment to quality.
Compare for yourself!
In the “2006 Top Approved Dry Dog Foods” chart we’ve listed some dry dog foods that meet our selection criteria. It’s vitally important that you understand the following points regarding these foods:
• The foods on our list are not the only good foods on the market. Plus, we’ve named just one variety in each line by each maker. Usually, all the other varieties in a given line also meet our criteria.
• Any food that you find that meets our selection criteria (see “WDJ’s Dry Dog Food Selection Criteria” sidebar), is just as good as any of the foods on our list.
• We have presented the foods on our list alphabetically. We do not “rank order” foods. We don’t attempt to identify which ones are “best,” because what’s “best” for every dog is different.
• The proof is in the pudding. If your dog does not thrive on the food, with a glossy coat, itch-free skin, bright eyes, clear ears, and a happy, alert demeanor, it doesn’t matter whether we like it or not.
Using the selection criteria outlined above, and perhaps taking into account some of the “extra credit” criteria listed on the next page, go analyze the food you currently feed your dog. If it doesn’t measure up, choose a new food based on quality, and what works best for you and your dog in terms of types of ingredients, levels of protein and fat, local availability and price. Then, try it and see how it suits your dog.
Our list of approved “Top Dry Dog Foods” is offered as a starting place, and for its value as a comparison to other products you may find.
1. Teach your dog to target as a way to help him focus his attention on you. This can be useful when trying to get him safely and calmly past something that scares or arouses his aggression.
2. Start by teaching your dog to target to your hand; use a target stick (homemade or commercially made) later to extend the range of the target.
3. Even old or nonambulatory dogs can be taught to target with their noses; use this sort of behavior to keep your dog engaged and his mind sharp.
During the two-plus decades that I trained my dogs in old-fashioned obedience classes, I never learned the pervasively useful and versatile behavior of targeting. The closest I came was the narrow application to “go-outs” in advanced level competition classes – not really the same thing at all. Even today, despite its usefulness, targeting is not a widely known behavior outside positive professional training and competition circles. When I introduce the concept in my basic good manners classes I get a sea of blank stares in response, as if each human client is thinking, “Why on earth would I want to teach my dog to do that?”
Targeting means teaching your dog to touch a designated body part to a designated location. Nose targeting is most commonly taught, but it can also be trained with a front or hind paw, a hip or shoulder, even an ear or tail! The designated target can also be anything imaginable, including the palm of your hand or your closed fist, a finger, target stick, spot on the wall or door, or just about any object you choose to ask your dog to target to.
The question is, why would you want to teach your dog to touch his nose (or other body part) to a designated spot on cue? The reasons are legion. For example:
• Targeting can be used to boost the confidence level of a timid dog.
• It can prompt a dog to offer a new behavior without a food lure.
• You can use it to keep a dog’s attention focused on you instead of on distractions.
• Your dog can turn appliances on and off, close doors, ring bells.
• Target as an “emergency recall” cue.
• Targeting is used to teach dogs to locate the contact zones in agility.
• Your dog can learn to play the piano!
• It’s useful for teaching lateral movement for Canine Freestyle (dancing with your dog) and APDT Rally.
• It’s easy to train, it’s just plain fun, and dogs love it!
Target Practice is Easy for Dogs!
It’s ridiculously easy to teach. We start in our classes by having the dog target to his owner’s hand, since that doesn’t require yet another piece of equipment to juggle along with clicker, treats, and leash. Hold out your open hand at your dog’s nose level, palm facing him, fingers pointed toward the ground. When he sniffs or licks your hand, click! your clicker and give him a treat from your other hand. Make sure his nose actually touches your skin – “close” only counts in horseshoes. Be sure to click! the instant his nose makes contact with your skin. If you consistently click! too soon, you might teach him to stop before he touches you. If you consistently click! too late, you’ll teach him that moving his nose away from you is the way to earn a reward.
When you’ve clicked and rewarded your dog’s first touch, remove your target hand, then offer it again, in the same position. When he sniffs, click! and treat. Do it again. And again. Notice you have not used a verbal cue yet!
Most dogs will do the initial sniff easily, due to a behavior phenomenon known as novelty of stimulus. “What’s this?!” your dog says, and sniffs to check it out. Be sure you’re ready to catch that first curious sniff with your click! and treat, and you’re well on your way.
If your dog doesn’t sniff your offered palm, rub some hot dog or other moist treat on your skin to make your hand more enticing. When he sniffs or licks, click! and treat.
Your dog may sniff your newly offered hand a few times and then ignore it, looking directly at your treat hand. Novelty of stimulus has worn off, and he’s going directly to the source of the treat. You can almost hear him say, “Why am I looking at this hand? The GOOD STUFF comes from over there!” When this happens, hide your treat hand behind your back, offer him the target hand, and wait. He should soon sniff the offered hand. If he doesn’t, rub a treat on it and offer it again. If that doesn’t do it for him, take a step or two backward and offer him the target as he moves toward you. When he touches, click! and treat.
Repeat this step over and over, until he deliberately bumps your hand with his nose. This is the heart-stopping “Aha!” moment that positive trainers love – when you can see that your dog knows that the way to make the click! happen is to touch your hand.
Some dogs “get it” very quickly. Louis, a Border Collie client of mine in Santa Cruz, California, got it in three repetitions. Others take longer for the light bulb to go on, depending on variables such as the owner’s skill and timing, the dog’s interest in the training game, the desirability of the treat reward, and the level of distractions in the surrounding environment.
You can enhance your dog’s learning speed by working in a quiet location, using very delicious treats, and paying close attention to your click! timing.
Teach Your Dog to Touch Moving Targets
As soon as your dog is deliberately and consistently bumping your hand with his nose you can add the verbal cue. Say “Touch!” just before his nose touches your skin. Click! and reward. Gradually offer the verbal cue earlier and earlier, until he associates the verbal cue with the targeting behavior, and is responding to the cue.
Now you can raise the bar. So far, your dog understands that he’s supposed to touch his nose to your hand when he’s sitting in front of you and the target is presented to him at nose level. It’s time to change the criteria.
Now you want him to touch the target wherever it is, even if it’s moving. Back away from him, offer the target and say “Touch.” As he gets up to follow you, keep moving slowly backward. When he catches up to you and touches the moving target, click! and treat. Move your hand off to one side and ask him to touch it. Click! and treat. Move it to the other side. Move it lower, toward the floor. Move it higher, so he has to jump up to touch it. Put it above a chair seat, so he has to place his front feet on the chair to reach up and touch it.
When he’s really confident about touching the target, put the behavior on a schedule of “random reinforcement” – ask him to touch two times before you click! and treat. Then three times. Then once.
Then once. Then four times. Then two times. Vary the number of times you ask him to touch before he gets clicked; don’t always make it harder and harder, or he may get frustrated and give up.
Introducing New Targets
Now you can teach him to touch other targets. A target stick can be a small branch off a tree, a dowel from the hardware store, a pencil or Tinker toy (for small dogs), or an “official” target stick purchased from a pet supply source. If your target is homemade, put an eraser topper on one end to designate the actual target. You will accept touches near the topper at first, but you’ll ultimately shape the touches to the actual target by clicking only those touches that get closer and closer to the topper.
Hold your target stick perpendicular to the ground with the target end near your dog’s nose. Some dogs will sniff the end of the target stick the first time you offer it. Click! and treat. Others may need a bit of hotdog rubbed on the topper to motivate them to touch this new object. Still others may be afraid of the stick. If your dog is afraid, hold the stick so most of it is hidden under your arm with only an inch of the tip protruding from your hand.
When your dog will touch the tip, extend the stick a little at a time, until he’s touching it at full-length. “A little at a time” varies from one dog to the next. Some dogs will accept a six-inch increase, others will tolerate only half-inch increments. Start small to avoid frightening your dog, and work up to larger increases if he seems to be tolerating them well. As soon as he’s readily touching the tip of the stick start using the verbal “Touch” cue.
When he’s proficient at touching the target stick, use it to extend your reach. With three feet of arm length and three feet of target stick you can get him to touch things a full six feet away from you. Place the tip of the target stick against a door, wall, or other object to teach him to touch other things, including people. This is a useful tool for encouraging a timid dog to be brave. When he’s very confident about touching his target stick you can place the target closer and closer to a scary object; your dog will become braver about approaching the scary object because of his very positive association with targeting.
You can also teach your dog to touch things by holding the target object in your hand. Hold a bell tied to a string in the palm of your hand and say “Touch!” He tries to touch your hand, but the bell is in the way so he touches it instead. Perfect! Click! and treat. Repeat several times, then add the word “bell” to your verbal cue. Say “Bell, touch!” He’ll respond to the familiar “Touch!” part of the cue. Click! and reward. When he’s associated the word “bell” with touching that particular object, you can drop the “touch” part of the cue. Gradually pay out string so the bell hangs below your hand.
Using just the “Bell!” cue, do several repetitions of click! and treat at each new length of string, until the bell is hanging full length below your hand.
You may need to shape for touches that are strong enough to actually make the bell ring. If he touches it too softly, start shaping by clicking only the harder touches, until he is consistently bumping the ball hard enough to make it ring.
Now his “Bell” behavior can alert you to whatever you desire. Many people hang the bell on a door and teach the dog to ring the bell when he has to go out.
How to Teach Your Dog to Target with New Body Parts
Front paws are the second most frequently used body part for targeting. If your dog is “naturally pawsy” you can capture the behavior with a click! and treat when he’s pawing at something – something it’s okay for him to paw at. Or elicit the behavior by punching holes in the top of a baby food jar and putting something scrumptiously delicious inside. When he paws to get at it, click! and treat. Repeat this until you can predict the paw behavior, then add the cue. Be sure to use a different cue. If you want “Touch” to mean “touch with your nose,” then you might use “Foot” to mean “touch with a paw.
If your dog won’t paw at a desirable object, use a treat lure over his head to get him to lift a paw off the ground slightly. Move the treat slightly to the right (his left) to put him a bit off balance and get him to lift his right front paw. Click! and treat. Repeat until he’s offering to lift his paw, then hold that baby jar or other target object where his foot will touch it as he lowers it. Then add the cue.
When he’ll touch the jar on cue, you can use your “Foot” cue to teach him to touch different objects. This behavior is often used as a signal in scent work, so the dog can tell his person that he’s found the designated scent, object, person, or animal.
Dogs naturally use front paws and noses to do things, so it’s easy to teach them to use those body parts to target. Other body parts – hind paws, hips, shoulder, ears, tend to just go along for the ride. It can be more of a challenge to teach the dogs to be aware of these parts, and to use them deliberately.
A hip touch can be useful for getting lateral movements often utilized in Canine Freestyle and for the side-step in APDT Rally obedience. Desensitize your dog to a hip target such as a Ping Pong paddle by touching him on his hips and hindquarters with the object until he doesn’t react. If he’s quite worried about it, feed treats as you touch him until he’s no longer worried.
Now put the target aside, and just work on getting a side-step by holding a treat in front of your dog’s nose as you stand by his right side. Move the treat slowly in an arc toward his left hip. As he steps to follow the treat, his right hip will move toward you. Click! and treat. Repeat until he does this easily, then practice on the other side as well so his left hip moves toward you.
Build up to several steps on each side, and then you’re ready to pick up your target again. Hold your target next to your dog’s hip and use a treat to get him to side-step. When his hip bumps the target, click! and treat. Gradually increase distance until he will move his hip six inches to the target. Be sure to click! and treat each time.
When he’s doing this easily, add your verbal cue. Remember to use a new cue for the new body part – you might select “Bump” as your Hip Touch cue. Gradually fade the use of your treat lure following your “Bump” cue, until he will touch his hip to the target on cue without the lure.
Endless Applications for Targeting in Dog Training
Need more ideas? You can utilize the nose-touch behavior to move your dog into heel position and keep him there by using your hand as a target next to your leg, or a target stick, for a small dog. You can teach him to close cupboard doors by having him target to a spot on the door. (Nose-touch is a better choice than a paw for this, unless you want him to scratch at doors!) You can teach him to turn lights on and off by pushing up on a stick attached to a light switch or by touching a “Touch Lamp” with his nose or paw. He can do object discrimination by learning to identify and use nose or paw to touch various objects (or people) by name. A hind foot touch can be useful for “stacking” a dog in the confirmation ring.
As you can see, the opportunities for application of the touch behavior are virtually endless – limited only by your creativity.
Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA, is Whole Dog Journal’s Training Editor. Miller lives in Fairplay, Maryland, site of her Peaceable Paws training center.
The high-tech world of modern medicine has so many weapons that its “war on cancer” arsenal promises something for everyone. But all along, there have been patients, physicians, veterinarians, and animal caregivers who refuse chemotherapy, radiation treatments, surgery, prescription drugs, and other oncology protocols.
What do they use instead? Everything from an improved diet to homeopathy, medicinal herbs, vitamins, nutritional supplements, and energy therapies. The aim of all of these treatments, which are used singly or in combination, is to engage the healing properties of Mother Nature while avoiding debilitating side effects.
Rather than describe every alternative cancer treatment – an impossible task that would fill a book – we’ll describe several frequently used alternative therapies. These protocols tend to be simple and affordable, especially compared with conventional medical therapies. In some cases, they completely cured a dog’s cancer. In others, they significantly improved the patient’s quality of life, resulting in companionship and an active lifestyle for months or years beyond the original prognosis. Unfortunately, there are no guarantees, for no treatment always cures cancer or extends the patients’s life. Sometimes, nothing works.
If you decide to use one or more of these protocols, please do so with the help of a knowledgeable holistic veterinarian – or a sympathetic conventional vet – who can monitor your dog’s condition, document his or her progress, and provide support throughout the dog’s treatment.
This can be especially important when the patient goes through rapid detoxification or a so-called “healing crisis” – where the dog gets dramatically worse before getting better – something any natural therapy might trigger. “Information, encouragement, and assistance from someone who understands what’s going on can be a blessing, especially if the symptoms are unexpected or dramatic,” says trainer Nancy Strouss, of Nyack, New York, who has lost six Golden Retrievers and one black Lab to cancer.
For information on product sources, dosages, and specific recommendations, see the “Resources” sidebar.
Nutrition
Diet is so important in the treatment of cancer that all holistic veterinarians encourage their clients to improve the quality of their dogs’ food. Organizations like the Weston A. Price Foundation and your local farmer’s market or co-op can help you locate organic, pasture-fed ingredients, including raw or cultured dairy products.
Unlike products from factory farms, the meat and milk of pasture-fed animals contain conjugated linoleic acid, or CLA, which inhibits the development of tumors. Upgrading to pasture-fed ingredients can actually help your dog fight cancer.
As mentioned in “Don’t Despair, Just Care” (January 2006), carbohydrates feed cancer cells, while fats do not. This may explain why some dogs with cancer have responded well to a diet recommended for human patients by the late Johanna Budwig, PhD. A German pharmacologist, chemist, and physicist, Dr. Budwig is best known for her research on fats and oils and for her use of flaxseed oil and sulphur-rich quark cheese (a cultured dairy product similar to cottage cheese) to treat cancer. She advocated the use of nutrition, sunlight (a natural source of vitamin D), and stress management as a stand-alone alternative cancer treatment.
Five years ago, Misty, a German Shepherd Dog belonging to Craig Stauffer in Sunnyvale, California, developed mammary cancer. Following the biopsy of two tumors, Misty was given six months to live. “The recommended treatment was the removal of all mammary tissue followed by chemotherapy,” says Stauffer.
Instead, Stauffer researched alternatives and learned of Dr. Budwig’s treatment. He began supplementing Misty’s dog food with flax seed oil, cottage cheese, ground flax seed, garlic, and broccoli. Misty’s cancer disappeared, and she enjoyed an active, athletic lifestyle with no recurrence of the disease. “We lost her in May 2005 to old age,” Stauffer reports, “shortly before her 14th birthday.”
Because flax seed oil is highly perishable and quickly goes rancid at room temperature, this ingredient requires constant refrigeration. Coconut researcher Bruce Fife, ND (see “Crazy About Coconut Oil,” October 2005), suggests replacing the flax seed oil in this protocol with coconut oil. “Coconut oil is far more stable than flax seed oil,” he explains, “and it has significant anti-tumor properties.”
Carbohydrates feed cancer cells, so feed canine cancer patients a grain-free, low-carb or no-carb diet. (See “Feed the Dog, Starve the Cancer,” November 2003.)
Antioxidant supplements
Antioxidants are naturally occurring substances that protect cells from damage caused by oxygen molecules known as free radicals, which are believed to encourage the development of tumors. Antioxidants include beta-carotene (found in carrots, cantaloupe, and other orange-colored foods), vitamin E (found in nuts, wheat germ, and some vegetables), vitamin A (found in liver, egg yolks, and cod liver oil), vitamin C (found in citrus fruit, hot peppers, and leafy vegetables), and the mineral selenium (found in grains).
Human clinical trials suggest that synthetic vitamin E may contribute to, rather than prevent, certain illnesses, something that advocates of whole-food nutrition have long maintained.
Some herbs and nutritional supplements used in the treatment of cancer are (or are claimed to be) powerful antioxidants. Antioxidant supplements may be helpful in combination with most natural cancer treatments, but they can interfere with others. Be sure to study a protocol carefully before adding antioxidants, and for best results use food-source rather than synthetic products.
Other supplements
Melatonin, a hormone produced in the brain’s pineal gland in response to darkness, helps us sleep and has potent antioxidant properties. It is a popular treatment for canine thunder phobia and separation anxiety, and because it has been shown to help humans recover from breast and prostate cancer, it’s being given to some dogs with these conditions.
Several years ago, shark cartilage seemed to be the most promising alternative treatment for cancer, but uneven results, quality problems, insufficient research, and concern about the ecological effects of shark hunting reduced its popularity. Bovine cartilage shares similar properties, and some holistic veterinarians prescribe cartilage supplements for cancer.
When New Jersey resident Gayle Roberson’s 11-year-old Toy Poodle developed an almost non-stop gagging cough and a heart murmur, an X-ray revealed a major mass in his chest. None of the medications his veterinarian prescribed produced results, so Roberson experimented with bovine cartilage. “By the end of the first bottle, he was coughing less,” she says. “After the second, he was so much better that I had his chest X-rayed again. The mass had almost completely disappeared and his heart murmur was downgraded from a 5 to a 1. This was sensational, and he lived to be 17!”
Beta glucan (more correctly called Beta-1,3/1,6-Glucan) is a simple sugar derived from the cell wall of Saccharomyces ceresvsiae, common baker’s yeast. Researchers have been testing its immune-boosting properties since the 1940s.
Ted Keller, a registered pharmacist in Colorado, says he has seen dramatic results with beta glucan in human and animal cancer patients. “The best example I can give is a dog diagnosed with T-cell lymphoma and given six months to live. Thanks to beta glucan, the dog was still alive two years later, to the amazement of her veterinarians. . . . The earlier the diagnosis, the better the beta glucan works. For melanoma, beta glucan works wonders as long as it hasn’t metastasized to the brain.”
Herbal treatments
Search online for herbal cancer treatments and you’ll find thousands. A few are backed by serious research, some are hyped by multilevel-marketing companies, most are described with exaggerated claims, many have been used for centuries in traditional medicine, and some have saved dogs’ lives. Distinguishing one from the other requires careful study or the help of an herbalist.
Several reputable companies make herbal tonics, teas, extracts, and other products that help dogs fight cancer. Some contain medicinal mushrooms (such as maitake or reishi), aloe vera, cat’s claw, or Chinese herbs, all of which are highly regarded as natural cancer treatments. All You Ever Wanted to Know about Herbs for Pets, a terrific book by Mary Wulff-Tilford and Gregory Tilford, is helpful for anyone interested in treating pets botanically.
The Tilfords’ favorite anticancer herb is red clover, which, they say, inhibits the activities of carcinogenic compounds, helps improve blood structure, and strengthens lymphatic functions that are crucial in cleansing cell tissues throughout the body.
Red clover also contains plant sterol constituents that may inhibit the production of blood vessels that feed newly formed tumors. Herbs for Pets includes instructions for making a tonic/support formula for cancer patients by combining red clover, the Chinese immune-boosting herb astragalus, dandelion root (which gently stimulates the liver, improves digestion, and assists with the removal of waste), and garlic (which has its own anticancer, antitumor properties).
The herbal formula Essiac (described in “Don’t Despair, Just Care,” January 2006), is another tonic tea that enhances immune function and helps the body heal itself.
The yellow spice turmeric is becoming known as a cancer fighter, even by conventional medical practitioners. Turmeric’s key ingredient is curcumin, a phytopolyphenol pigment with anti-inflammatory, antioxidant properties. Curcumin helps starve tumors by disrupting their blood supply, and it stimulates the immune system, enhances cardiovascular function, and improves digestion. Some cases have been reported in which turmeric or curcumin caused tumors on a dog’s head or body to turn black and disappear.
We introduced WDJ readers to Australian herbalist Robert McDowell in “Buying Time to Spend Together” (October 1998), which described how McDowell helped Jet, a 10-year-old Belgian Shepherd, recover from bone cancer. The herbalist continues to work with canine cancer patients around the world. His standard approach to all cancers involves maritime pine bark extract, an immune system tonic, in combination with a specific support formula directed at the patient’s particular cancer. “Maritime pine is a special antioxidant nearly 25 times more powerful than vitamin C,” says McDowell.
Chinese herbs
Chinese herbal medicine is a primary component of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). In conventional Western medicine, drugs are chosen for their ability to exert specific physiological actions; in TCM, the practitioner chooses treatments, including herbs, based on the manifestations of disease and energetic imbalances he detects in each individual’s body. In other words, a TCM practitioner may prescribe different herbs (and other treatments, including acupuncture) to different individuals with the same disease. Most of the herbs (and mineral or animal-based ingredients of predominantly herbal medicines) used by TCM practitioners have been used to treat people for thousands of years.
When Audrey Blake’s nine-year-old Golden Retriever, Dylan, was diagnosed with hemangiosarcoma in November 2002, Blake knew she didn’t want Dylan to undergo conventional therapy.
“Surgery wasn’t an option because his liver was involved, and I didn’t want to put him through chemotherapy,” says the Riverhead, New York resident. “Another factor was that two of my friends had just lost their Goldens to hemangiosarcoma. Both dogs died a few weeks after surgery. The odds weren’t good, so I decided that even if all we had was three months together, I wanted those months to be as comfortable as possible for him.”
Fortunately for Dylan, his veterinarian was Dr. Jiu Jia Wen, who majored in acupuncture and traditional Chinese herbal medicine at Beijing Agricultural University in China. Dr. Wen prepared a blend of 20 Chinese herbs that Blake added to Dylan’s food. The herbs were easy to administer and affordable, she says. By their next checkup, the tumor had stopped growing, and by the following month, it was shrinking.
“I was ecstatic,” says Blake. “Dylan was active, playful, and happy.” After about a year, the tumor began to grow again and a second herbal blend was added to his food. Eventually, the cancer won out, and Dylan died shortly before his 12th birthday.
“I still miss him,” says Blake, “but I have no regrets. I would use this same protocol again, and I recommend it to others. Older dogs and hemangiosarcoma are never a good combination, but the Chinese herbs worked incredibly well.”
Artemisinin
Three years ago, WDJ introduced readers to artemisinin, an extract derived from the Chinese herb Artemesia annua, also known as sweet Annie or annual wormwood (see “New Hope for Treating Cancer,” May 2003). A traditional cure for malaria, the plant is now a treatment for cancer. Like the parasite that causes malaria, cancer cells hoard iron in order to replicate their DNA. When artemisinin comes in contact with iron, it becomes a toxic chemical, releasing free radicals that destroy affected parasites or cancer cells.
For a while, it seemed artemisinin might be the magic bullet that would quickly cure cancer in humans and pets. In 2003, a research study was under way at the Washington Cancer Institute Department of Orthopedic Oncology at Georgetown University Medical Center, vets who used the herb were reporting promising results, and an “artemisinin and cancer” online forum attracted hundreds of members.
Now the dust is settling. The research study was cancelled for lack of funding, and not every dog who took artemisinin improved. In addition, some veterinarians worried about adverse side effects.
Despite these disappointments and concerns, artemisinin remains a popular alternative. Henry Lai, PhD, Narendra P. Singh, MD, and other researchers at the University of Washington, Seattle, have published artemisinin studies in peer-reviewed medical journals. Because of their solid theoretical and experimental results, even conventionally trained veterinarians take artemisinin seriously.
“I can think of at least three reasons why some dogs have not been completely cured of cancer by artemisinin,” Dr. Lai told us. “First, artemisinin treatment is usually started too late, when dogs are at an advanced stage of cancer. Second, I don’t think artemisinin is completely effective unless we can prolong its half-life of action and increase its selectivity. We are working on solutions for that problem, but they will be expensive. The third reason is that a lot of owners feed high doses of antioxidants such as vitamins C and E to their dogs, and antioxidants counteract the action of artemisinin.”
Artemisinin works as an oxidant, explains Dr. Lai; therefore its action is opposite that of antioxidants. “It is known that antioxidants decrease the effect of artemisinin on malarial parasites, and we have experimental data showing that this is also true for cancer cells. It seems that people in developing countries respond better to artemisinin than people in the U.S., possibly because they don’t take a lot of antioxidant supplements.”
Giving antioxidants to dogs several hours after artemisinin is one possible solution. “But some antioxidants, such as vitamin E, stay in the body for a long time,” says Dr. Lai, “so they would continue to counteract artemisinin. Stopping antioxidants during the initial phase of artemisinin treatment might produce better results.”
Even if cancer returns and causes the patient’s death, dogs on artemisinin often outlive their original prognosis. Kathy Rowley’s Greyhound, Tera, was diagnosed with a bone tumor in her lower left hind leg. “That was on a Tuesday,” Rowley recalls. “The following Saturday we started her on artemisinin. The next day she seemed to feel better, and on Monday she was bouncing off the wall and acting totally normal. We couldn’t believe it.
“Two weeks later our vet examined her leg and was shocked that she had no pain. He suggested we do X-rays in three months, even though we knew the odds of her still being alive in three months were slim. But she kept getting better, and after three months, the tumor had shrunk dramatically. The vet said he would not have believed it if he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes.”
Tera’s tumor didn’t disappear but it didn’t begin to grow again until the following spring. “We increased her dose of artemisinin,” says Rowley, “but for some reason it just stopped working. When pain began to incapacitate her, we knew it was time. Tera died in July 2004, shortly before her 10th birthday. The artemisinin might not have cured her, but the extra 14 months that we shared with our lively, happy dog were nothing short of a miracle.”
Cancer salves
Escharotic salves, often called black salves, were so popular in the early 20th century that entire hospitals were devoted to their use. The name comes from the eschar (thick dried scab) that develops after the salve destroys tissue to which it is applied. Most such salves contain bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) and zinc chloride, a preservative said to enhance the effectiveness of the salve.
Holistic health guru Andrew Weil, MD, revived interest in cancer salves when he wrote about using one on his six-year-old Rhodesian Ridgeback, Coca, who developed a growth on her right side near the shoulder. Dr. Weil describes the experience in his book, Spontaneous Healing, concluding, “The end result was a perfectly circular, slightly depressed area of skin, with no trace of tumor. The bloodroot had removed it more neatly than one could have done with a scalpel. Later, hair grew over the spot, concealing it completely. I could not have asked for a better outcome, especially as the dog had shown no signs of discomfort.”
In humans, treatment with escharotics can be painful and scarring. While dogs tend to have higher pain thresholds than humans, this is still not a treatment to approach casually. Keeping the affected area bandaged and attending to its healing can be a challenge.
In 1998, Gail Tenney of Mahwah, New Jersey, learned that Jo, her 11-year-old mixed-breed dog, had mesenchymal neoplasm, a non-specific slow-growing cancer of the soft tissue. Jo had two tumors, one on a toe on her front foot, the other on a back leg.
“The oncologist I consulted said he would remove Jo’s leg and toe,” recalls Tenney. “I rejected that idea right away. Even surgery to remove the tumors without amputation could be dangerous because of her advancing heart disease and elevated liver enzymes. I had already used a black salve to remove a wart from the top of her head, so in March of 1999, I decided to try this method.”
The tumor on Jo’s foot, now the size of a walnut, responded just like Coca’s skin growth. The second, near her tail, was larger than a baseball. Following the advice of the salve’s distributor, Tenney asked Jo’s veterinarian to inject the tumor with salve diluted in saline solution.
“Exactly like the first tumor,” she recalls, “on the third day it started to turn hard and black, then began to peel away from her body. It bled all over her bed, and she really hurt. Even on pain pills, she whimpered. On the fifth day, the tumor fell off. What a mess! There was a huge opening on her leg with all kinds of green-yellow pus oozing from it. The open wound was the size of my fist.
“For two weeks I did nothing but clean up blood and attend to Jo 24 hours a day. Another vet I consulted told me to wash the wound twice a day and apply betadine. I used a garden hose to really clean the sore, but it still oozed fluid. What was interesting is that as soon as the tumor fell off, Jo seemed really happy with no discomfort at all, even when I touched the wound. Like the wound on her foot, it gradually healed.”
Jo died in January 2000, of congestive heart failure. “If I had it to do over,” says Tenney, “I would have used the salve right away, when the tumors were tiny. In general, I would say this is not a treatment for the faint-hearted, and the best way to do it is with the support of a sympathetic veterinarian.”
Patricia Weissleader, who lives near Palm Springs, California, has treated several of her rescued dogs with black salve. “In every case,” she says, “the salve removed the tumors and the dogs were healthy.”
Weissleader now runs an online group devoted to black salves. “The salve will always remove visible tumors,” she says, “and we’re always learning about ways to speed the healing of the area after that.”
Homeopathy
Few approaches to healing are as controversial as homeopathy, in which extremely dilute substances are matched with symptoms on an individual basis and given, usually one at a time and often only once, to stimulate a healing response. Because it is so different from what they are used to, most mainstream physicians, veterinarians, and researchers consider homeopathy irrational, ineffective, or dangerous.
As cancer researcher Ralph Moss, PhD, says, “The argument that any positive results reported for homeopathy have to be due to the placebo effect seems arrogant. Homeopathy is no weirder than the basic postulates of quantum mechanics, which were vehemently resisted by the older generation of scientists, only to become the foundation of today’s particle physics.” He notes that 3,000 peer-reviewed articles deal with homeopathy, including 140 clinical trials and 100 articles on randomized controlled trials.
New York veterinarian Stacey Hershman, DVM, a classically trained homeopath, uses homeopathy as a support therapy rather than a stand-alone cancer treatment. “I just haven’t seen spectacular results, especially in advanced or complicated cases,” she says. “I love homeopathy and I use it every day, but for cancer patients I use it in combination with other holistic treatments, addressing symptoms as they develop. I think it’s excellent for that.”
While there are many home-study guides for treating animals with homeopathy, cancer is a complicated subject. For best results, consult an experienced veterinary homeopath.
Cryosurgery
When surgery is the best option, an alternative procedure called cryosurgery can sometimes be used to destroy cancer tissue by freezing.
In October 2004, Labrador Retriever breeder Ed Katz of Elka Park, New York, discovered that his three-month-old puppy, Doc, had an aggressive mast cell tumor on his paw pad. The cancer had already spread to his lymph nodes and his spleen was enlarged. Doc’s veterinary oncologists recommended amputation, 25 radiation treatments, and intensive chemotherapy.
Instead, Katz took Doc to Marty Goldstein, DVM, in South Salem, New York, who performed a 23-minute cryosurgery procedure and sent the puppy home with artemisinin and nutritional supplements. Doc healed quickly and today, says Dr. Goldstein, you can’t tell which paw was affected.
According to Katz, Doc is the most athletic, happy, intelligent, bouncy, resilient Lab imaginable. He celebrated his first birthday last summer, continues to take his artemisinin and supplements, and has been cancer-free, with “perfect” blood tests, for more than a year.
Cryosurgery is not always successful, warns trainer Nancy Strouss, whose nine-year-old Golden Retriever, Valley, underwent the procedure to treat a mast cell tumor on her toe. “The cryosurgery was painful,” says Strouss, “and the cancer came right back. When her toe was amputated, it came back again, and soon it metastasized through her body.”
Enzyme therapy
No discussion of holistic cancer treatments would be complete without mentioning enzyme therapy. Enzymes are most familiar as digestive aids that break down fats, proteins, and other foods, but they are taken between meals on an empty stomach when they are used to treat cancer.
Bromelain, a protein-digesting enzyme found in pineapple, has cancer-fighting as well as anti-inflammatory properties. Familiar enzyme products for dogs include Prozyme, a plant-based powder that is sprinkled on food to improve digestion, and Wobenzym, described here in January 2001 (“Banking on Enzymes”) and October 2005 (“Digest These Benefits”). Both products contain bromelain; Wobenzym contains pancreatic enzymes as well.
In our 2001 article on systemic oral enzyme therapy (the term used to describe the administration of digestive enzymes between meals), New Hampshire resident Susan Appelin described her two Greyhounds, one with hemangiosarcoma, the other with a mast cell sarcoma. When a holistic physician told her about Wobenzym, she added between-meal enzymes to her dogs’ home-prepared diet. Both dogs recovered and enjoyed more than a year free from cancer.
Systemic oral enzyme therapy is usually well tolerated by dogs of all ages. However, Wobenzym and other products containing bromelain can thin the blood. Note the safety issues raised in our 2005 article to prevent adverse side effects.
Cancell/Protocel
One of the more controversial alternative treatments for cancer is a product called Cancell, also called Protocel, Cantrol, Entelev, and Cantron. It was created in the 1930s by a Dow Chemical biochemist who claimed that the product balanced the vibrational frequency of cancer cells, returning them to a healthy state.
Protocel’s ingredients are copper, sodium, potassium, and a proprietary blend of tetrahydroxyquinone, rhodizonic acid, inositol, croconic acid, catechol, triquinoyl, and leuconic acid. According to its manufacturers, Protocel is a powerful antioxidant that helps cleanse the cells, thus supporting immune function.
“Cancell has been the subject of a long-running guerilla war between its enthusiasts on the one hand and the FDA on the other,” says Dr. Moss. “Every time it is suppressed under one name, it pops up under another.”
Animal studies conducted by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) decades ago concluded that Cancell lacked substantial anticancer activity and that no further research was warranted. In 1989, the FDA was granted a permanent injunction against Cancell’s manufacturers, prohibiting them from distributing an unapproved drug. However, many have argued that the NCI falsified its reports of the tests it conducted, and some of the evidence against Cancell does appear to be biased.
Daniel King, DVM, of Tolono, Illinois, is one of a handful of veterinarians who use Protocel. In the past eight years, he has treated 50 cancer patients with the product and consulted on more than 200 additional cases. He estimates that 65 to 70 percent have responded well. “In most cases,” he says, “the cancer doesn’t go away, but it does stop growing; it doesn’t metastasize, it stops causing pain, and the patient lives a normal life span, usually dying of something other than cancer, like congestive heart failure or kidney disease.”
Dr. King’s favorite Protocel patient is Duke, a Boxer who was 11 years old and vomiting red blood when he was diagnosed with adenocarcinoma of the stomach in January 2002. “Somehow his owner, Gus George, who lives in nearby Tuscola, heard about my work with Protocel and brought him in,” he says. “In less than a week on the Protocel, Duke stopped vomiting and started feeling better. After eight months, he returned to the veterinary clinic that had diagnosed him for follow-up tests, and they could find no sign of cancer.” Duke died in January 2005 at the age of 14.
In Dr. King’s experience, about 15 percent of patients treated with Protocel are fully cured of cancer; almost all of those, he says, had cancers that affect the mucous membranes, such as adeno-carcinoma or squamous cell carcinoma.
Bioresonance therapy
For Gigi Gaulin, DVM, of Santa Fe, New Mexico, the leading edge of alternative veterinary medicine is a technology developed in Germany 30 years ago and used in 65 countries around the world. “Bioresonance therapy” utilizes a patented device that measures the patient’s “electromagnetic oscillations” through electrodes placed on the body. The frequencies it measures are then returned to the patient as a form of healing energy, with “bad” frequencies inverted and “good” frequencies enhanced.
Dr. Gaulin is one of nine veterinarians in the U.S. who are using Bicom Resonance Therapy equipment. Where cancer is concerned, she says, the treatment proceeds in stages, clearing underlying conditions. “Cancer isn’t an entity all of itself. It’s part of a process; eliminating cancer is a process, too. You start by removing energetic blocks, opening up the lymphatic system, and supporting the organs that help the body correct imbalances.”
Treatment sessions last anywhere from 20 to 90 minutes, and are commonly used on a weekly basis. Dr. Gaulin reports that most patients experience improvements in energy, attitude, appetite, specific symptoms, and overall condition. As they become stronger, she says, their quality of life increases and cancer growth slows. “The changes and improvements that result can be truly astounding,” she says.
-A long-time contributor to WDJ and author of The Encyclopedia of Natural Pet Care, Natural Remedies for Dogs & Cats, and other books, CJ Puotinen lives in New York with her husband, a Lab, and a tabby cat.
The chasm between those who abhor the electronic/shock collars as an abusive dog training tool and those who support and promote it as an exceptionally effective and humane training tool is so huge it will probably never be bridged.
In more moderate positions in the middle of that chasm are those who believe that the collar can be an effective training tool for very limited circumstances in the hands of skilled professionals, and those who prefer not to use them but feel compelled to educate clients who insist on using them on how to use them properly.
How could the dog training/behavior community be so divided over a simple tool?
Perhaps because the tool is not so simple; perception in large part depends on what you read, who you believe, and your own personal training philosophy.
I’ll be clear: Like many other trainers and behavior professionals who adhere to a positive training philosophy, I find the idea of using the shock collar abhorrent under any circumstances. And WDJ’s mission statement asserts, “The methods we discuss will endeavor to do no harm to dogs; we do not advocate perpetrating even minor transgressions in the name of ‘greater good.’ ”
We receive numerous inquiries from dog owners who have heard about “remote training collars” that can be used in a positive or dog-friendly training program.
We’ll borrow the definition of “dog-friendly” from the Association of Pet Dog Trainers (APDT), an international organization with more than 5,000 members worldwide. One of the APDT’s stated missions is to advocate for dog-friendly training, which it has defined as “training that utilizes primarily positive reinforcement; secondarily negative punishment, and only occasionally, rarely, and/or as a last resort includes positive punishment and/or negative reinforcement.”
The following is a description of the electronic collar training products on the market, and why we regard them as inherently unsuitable for use in a truly positive or dog-friendly training program.
How they work
A “remote training system” is comprised of a controlling transmitter that is held by the dog handler, and a collar that holds a small unit that contains a radio receiver and batteries, which power the electrical shock delivered by the collar. Metal “contact points” protrude from this unit, and the collar is fitted on the dog tightly so that the points come in snug contact with the skin on the dog’s throat. The handler uses the controls on the transmitter to cause the unit on the dog’s collar to deliver an electrical shock to the dog.
Trainers who use and like the e-collars argue that the products sold today don’t even remotely resemble the shock collars of yesteryear.
Collars commonly used 15 years ago generally featured settings that delivered three to five levels of shock or “stimulus.” According to the companies that sell them and the trainers who use them, today’s collars are much more sophisticated, and can be adjusted to very low levels and very momentary action. Their intent is to create a non-aversive stimulus (sometimes referred to as a “nick” or “tap”). Indeed, Innotek’s ADV-1000 model has 15 levels, while the Dogtra 200NCP goes even further, with a dial that ranges from 1 to 100.
Other improvements over the years include increasingly sophisticated technology that:
• Reduces the likelihood or prevents your dog’s collar from being “set off” or interfered with by “stray” radio signals – or even someone else in your area using the same type of collar.
• Offers the operator the ability to quickly and easily change the level of the stimulus from the remote control.
• Enables the collar to respond instantaneously to the signal sent by the controller, so there is not a “lag” or delay in delivering the stimulus to the dog at the exact moment that is desired.
• Increases the distance at which the collar can be activated by the transmitter.
• Reduces the potential for the unit on the collar to malfunction (especially in wet conditions) in such as way that causes physical or emotional trauma to the dog.
Of course, these improvements tend to be reflected in the higher-quality, higher-cost products on the market. Unfortunately, low-cost, low-quality products are readily available to consumers.
How they are used
Shock collars were initially used primarily for the administration of harsh “positive punishment” and/or “negative reinforcement” (for definitions of these terms, see “the Four Principles of Operant Conditioning” sidebar). If your duck hunting or search and rescue dog took off after a rabbit when he was supposed to be doing something else, you’d hit a button on a hand-held remote control device to shock/stop him with a significant electrical jolt. In behavioral terms, this is called “positive punishment”: the dog’s behavior of “crittering” makes a bad thing (shock) happen and the behavior consequently decreases.
Or, if your dog didn’t come promptly when you called, you’d hit the button and keep the button pressed, delivering a constant and unpleasant stimulus until the dog came and sat in front of you; then you stopped pressing the button. This is “negative reinforcement”; the dog’s behavior of coming to you makes a bad thing (shock) go away, and the behavior of coming when called increases.
Again, “dog-friendly” trainers primarily use positive reinforcement and secondarily negative punishment, and only rarely and/or as a last resort use positive punishment or negative reinforcement. That would seem to rule out the use of shock collars.
Some trainers use a noise or vibration feature on some of the new e-collars as a behavior marker for basic training. Rather than using a reward marker such as the word “Yes!” or the click! of a clicker (followed by a reward), these trainers use the noise or vibration feature as a “keep going signal” to tell the dog he’s doing the right thing and to continue doing it. Some of these trainers also use the “stim” feature on a low setting as a mild “interrupter” – like a tap on the shoulder, to say, “Hey, look at me!”
Proponents of the collars frequently tout miraculous results, such as rehabilitating a fearful, unsocialized dog in 20 minutes, or installing total off-leash control in five days or less – all resulting in happy, unstressed, well-behaved dogs and greatly enhanced relationships between dogs and owners.
Fans of the technology argue that the label “shock collar” is no longer appropriate, and create new names for their tools and techniques, such as “e-collar,” “electronic collar,” “e-touch,” “stim,” and “tap.”
Of course, the collars do work – at least some of the time. When querying some on-line training discussion groups about their experiences with the collars, I had one particularly enthusiastic report from Jeff Dege of Edina, Minnesota:
“After a year of not being able to ‘proof’ my Jack Russell Terrier’s recall (and several incidents of a failed recall that could have killed him), I decided to give remote training collars a try. I did a fair amount of research, checked into a number of gun dog trainers, identified the one I thought best understood both what he was doing and how independent breeds respond to corrections. Then I bought a quality remote collar and paid the trainer for private lessons.
“It worked amazingly well, and very quickly. We were doing off-lead agility exercises in the back yard by the second week. When Bear headed down the driveway to explore whatever, I’d give him the recall command and if he didn’t respond, I’d give him a correction, at a setting lower than I could feel when I tried it on myself. He’d come back immediately, and as far as I could tell, eagerly. In the second week, in perhaps a dozen sessions, I corrected Bear twice. Since then, I always have him wear the collar when we practice off-lead in the back yard, but I’ve never needed to correct him.”
Dege concludes, “I do not, and will not, recommend electronic training collars without qualification. They’re easily misused. But I think they have their place, used in moderation, with some dogs.”
Of course, if the collars didn’t work sometimes, they wouldn’t be as widely sold and used as they are. Success stories about electronic underground fence collars, remote electronic training collars, and electronic bark collars abound.
But so do horror stories.
What can go wrong?
Even with the new and improved products, things can go wrong. In response to my inquiries, I received a number of compelling stories from owners and trainers who related a wide range of negative experiences (see “Shock Collar Stories From Trainers and Owners” sidebar) they had with both training collars and “electronic containment systems.” (We have included some of their comments regarding fence systems, though we aren’t really discussing those here. See “Simply Shocking,” February 2003, for an article on “e-fences.”)
Part of the conflict in perception of the collars’ effect may come from different trainers’ interpretations of, and responses to, the body language of dogs when the shock is applied.
Two trainers recounted their observations from a seminar put on by a prominent e-collar trainer who promotes his methods as positive and humane. One trainer wrote a glowing report of how several poorly socialized, fearful shelter dogs were “cured” in a miraculously short time, and turned into happy, outgoing companions. But another trainer who attended the same seminar reported that the dogs appeared completely shut down, offering stress and appeasement behaviors throughout the ordeal, and demonstrating classic “learned helplessness” behavior at the end of the session.
Some trainers argue quite convincingly that they use electronic collars only at a low setting as a gentle way of communicating with dogs. If pressed, however, most of them will readily admit that they do turn up the dial if/when the dog stops responding to a low level “tap.” Most will also insist that it’s appropriate to use higher settings when they feel it’s necessary to apply positive punishment to a dog.
My fear is that if you’re tempted by those trainers’ arguments to use a shock collar in your training, you won’t know until it’s too late if your dog will be one of the successes or one of the failures. By the time you find out, it may be too late to undo the damage to your dog, your relationship with him, and his relationship with the rest of the world.
The eternal divide
Steve Lindsay, a well-respected behavior consultant and author from Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, supports the limited use of electronic collars in educated hands, and argues for calling them “electronic” rather than “shock” collars.
In his recently released Handbook of Applied Dog Behavior and Training: Volume Three, Procedures and Protocols, Lindsay writes, “The combined advantage of immediate and reliable radio-controlled delivery of precisely regulated electrical stimulus make electronic training a viable and humane alternative to any traditional techniques for applying negative reinforcement and punishment.”
Lindsay bemoans the fact, however, that “large numbers of radio-controlled e-collars are sold in pet stores to relatively naive and inexperienced dog owners without much in the way of appropriate instruction regarding their use, misuse, and potential for abuse.” He acknowledges that potential for abuse is all too real.
Lindsay also chastises collar manufacturers for not being more forth-coming with critical information about the electrical output of their collars (voltage, current and power, pulse and waveform characteristics) along with an explanation of the significance of the information, so consumers can select the product best suited to their needs.
Holding an opposing opinion is Dr. Karen Overall, a highly respected veterinary behaviorist and author who ran the Behavior Clinic at the University of Pennsylvania Veterinary School for more than 12 years. “Let me make my opinion perfectly clear,” says Dr. Overall. “Shock is not training. In the vast majority of cases it meets the criteria for abuse. No pet owner needs to use this technique to achieve his or her goal.
“I know there’s a lot of discussion about what we call electronic collars. But they are all ‘shock’ collars by the definition of physics and their mechanism of action. They all seek to be aversive.” Dr. Overall also warns, “Dogs who cease to exhibit a problem behavior (through the influence of a shock collar) usually also cease to exhibit normal behaviors.”
Despite any amount of positive feedback from shock-collar proponents, and in consideration of the negative reports I continue to receive, I choose to use only those training tools and methods that are clearly dog-friendly – designed to encourage dogs to think and offer behaviors without fear of aversive consequences.
In the end, owners must make their own decisions about whether shock collars are appropriate tools for their dogs.
Cosmetic or Not?
I read with some interest and frank dismay your article on cropping and docking (To Crop and Dock? Or Not? December 2005). While I do agree that ear cropping is purely cosmetic, and should probably be banned, I strongly disagree about your position on dewclaw removal. It is ridiculous to assume that a vestigial toe could affect a dogs balance, except possibly detrimentally. I have had several litters of AKC registered dogs and always had their dewclaws removed. We never had any unusual aftereffects or odd gaits associated with these puppies. Many achieved their championships.
As far as the tail issue, I do not think it is responsible to give such a narrow opinion base, and use it as fact. Two people are quoted in this article, and that is simply not a good total picture especially when they seem to practice such out there type of medicine.
I must also comment on your cancer articles. I recently lost a dog to liver/spleen cancer. When I was told that the oncologist wanted to do surgery, which might prolong her life by a few months, I chose not to prolong her suffering. How can I justify a few months with my dog who gave me everything she had during her life, and put her through such pain? This is much more cruel than removing a puppies tail at three days!
Anyway, I am sure you dont care what I think, since it doesnt coincide with your own thinking, but I felt it necessary to respond to these articles.
Denise Bruhn
via e-mail
I dont usually feel defensive when I read critical letters, but I had to respond to the above writer when she suggested I wouldnt care what she thought. However, when I tried to reply to her e-mail, my note kept bouncing back to me with an explanation that her e-mail server had rejected my note as spam, and the directions it offered to get past the spam filters didnt work. The fact is, dialogue is educational; I do care.
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After reading your article on cropping and docking, I have noticed that Bodean, my little Lab-mix with a cropped tail, does not sit as comfortably as Josie, my German Shepherd-mix. He frequently will sit to the side so as to not put pressure on his tail. Although I did not dock his tail (he came into the shelter with a litter of pups that already had their tails docked), I wish now he had his full tail. He is visibly uncomfortable. I have taken the advice of the article and frequently stretch and massage his docked tail. Surprisingly, he does not fight this at all and seems to enjoy the massage. Thank you!
Kelli Baltzell
Omaha, NE
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Finally! An article on the tradition of mutilating our best friends.
Usually ear cropping is done in the puppys most formative time period. The advice from the vet: no play with other dogs to prevent infection or further injury. The result? The pup cannot develop proper doggy social skills if contact with other dogs is withheld for months.
Lets look at docking tails, particularly when it comes to meeting unfamiliar dogs. How can a docked Rottweiler show submission or fear without a tail? His anal gland scent is still exposed so what is the more dominant dog to think? That his higher rank is not recognized? This can result in fights because the dogs dont understand each other.
It starts with the puppy buyers. Refuse to buy a docked puppy and do not greet your new puppy in his new home by taking him to the vet to have his ears cropped. Me? Im the proud owner of four dogs with four tails and eight floppy ears.
Irma Kapsenberg
Good Dog! Gentle Dog Training
Corvallis, OR
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Thanks
Its been more than a year since I read What Promotes Bloat? (January 2005) but it helped save my dogs life. She is not in the high risk category, but after observing abnormal behavior one Sunday recently, my husband noticed her stomach big and hard as a rock. Thanks to your article, the first thing that came to my mind was, Yikes, bloat, lets get her in to emergency. She was in surgery within a half-hour. We were in disbelief and so thankful we recognized the problem right away.
Interestingly, all of my dog world (obedience competition) friends know about bloat but none of the pet people I talk to have heard of it. I dont know if I would have recognized what was going on without your article. Annie is doing great in her recovery. Thank you!
Pat Sorlien
Bellevue, WA
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Thanks for the rockin article on preventing the flu (Fending Off the Flu, December 2005). I was amazed at how densely packed it was with solid information. I have used Standard Process products for myself in the past, and went right to my source at www.RiteCare.com to order the items mentioned in the article.
I also really enjoyed Susan Weinsteins article, Defeating Disease Differently (November 2005), about Caleb and his brush with distemper. I appreciate the book references she gave and plan on building my home library in that direction.
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Would you want to read a magazine that contained only information that you already knew and agreed with? Would it be worth the price of the subscription? For me, the answer is no and, yes, I really do subscribe to and buy a number of magazines that publish articles or display an editorial slant with which I frequently strongly differ. (For that matter, the editorials in my own hometown newspaper frequently make me mad enough to spit!) But some people, it seems, have no tolerance for exposure to information or opinions with which they disagree.
Ive been thinking about this since the publication of our last issue, which contained an article about a controversial topic: cosmetic surgery for dogs.
Im being purposely provocative for using the phrase cosmetic surgery as a catchall phrase for the topics discussed in the article: tail docking, ear cropping, and dewclaw removal. (The author of the article, Shannon Wilkinson, was also deliberately provocative by referring to these practices as amputations. At the risk of starting a dictionary war, let me say that we understand that some define that word as the removal of a limb or portion of a limb, but others define it as the removal of part or all of a body part that is enclosed in skin. So its use was accurate, if startling.)
The word amputation is dramatic; people usually think of amputations as being un-planned and shocking, which, of course, crop-ping and docking surgeries are generally not. But the purpose of its use in our article was not to pass judgement on those who dock or crop; we did not once describe the practices as cruel or anything equally inflammatory. We did, however, want to get our readers atten-tion, to cause them to look at some common dog-care practices in a new light, and perhaps get them to reconsider the importance of those practices, or at a minimum, weigh them against their potential some would call them alleged adverse effects.
So, while I admit I knew the topic was controversial, and it was our stated goal to be thought-provoking, I was (as I always am in these situations) surprised when I received several calls and letters from people who wanted to cancel their subscriptions to WDJ to express their dissent with the article.
We have never purported to hold an exclusive contract on whats right. But our stated goal expressed in the mission statement that appears below is to offer useful, dog-friendly information that helps owners help their dogs. Our unstated mission (one that should be apparent due to our intentional lack of advertising) is to provide reliable information on topics you cant find in mainstream publications, where, in consideration of conventional, commercial interests (which contribute the vast majority of advertising dollars), hardly anything appears that runs counter to conventional practice.
Anyway, Im happy to report that at least a few people saw fit to extend, rather than cut off, a conversation with us about cosmetic surgeries. Some of their letters will appear in the next issue.
The making of laws and sausage, goes the old saying, is better unseen. Apparently, the pet food industry feels the same way about “wet” food for dogs and cats. We haven’t yet managed to get into a cannery to see how the product is made (but we’re not giving up!). There are a few reasons for this.
The first has to do with the fact that there are very few wet food canneries in the U.S., relative to facilities that manufacture dry food. (As a matter of fact, the entire canning industry – of pet food and human food – has seen enormous consolidation in the last decade.
Many facilities have been acquired by foreign firms and then shuttered, with their operations being offshored.) The pet food industry giants – Purina, Hills, and the like – maintain their own private manufacturing facilities. (Representatives of both companies have told us that tours of their facilities are out of the question, although we know any number of veterinarians who were able to tour the plants when they were in vet school.) The vast majority of the companies that make the types of food we like, however, use independent, “contract” manufacturers, and there are only about half a dozen of these in the U.S. left. The result is, there is a relatively small pool of wet pet food makers we can ask for a tour.
The largest of these, Menu Foods, is the leading North American contract manufacturer of wet pet food products sold by supermarket retailers, mass merchandisers, pet specialty retailers and other retail and wholesale outlets; they make a great many of the foods on our “Top Approved Wet Dog Foods” list. By all accounts, they do a good job; they are trusted by many of the pet food companies we trust. But in many cases, not even the executives of these companies can get a tour of a Menu Foods canned food plant. And if they do get a tour, it’s on a night when the equipment is not operating.
We were told by a Menu Foods representative that the reason for this secrecy has to do with maintaining the confidentiality of Menu’s clients. If they allowed a tour of the plant, a rep of one pet food company could conceivably sleuth information about the proprietary formula for a competitor’s product or ingredients. Simply seeing a competitor’s labels on a pallet can confirm the competitor’s contract with Menu – something that is supposedly confidential.
We find this incredibly annoying, since in our experience, all the pet food executives already know exactly where their competitors’ products are made.
We haven’t yet asked the smaller contract manufacturers who make top-quality foods – Merrick Pet Foods in Texas, for example, or Evanger’s Dog & Cat Food Company in Illinois – for a tour of their facilities. They’ve been very forthcoming in the past, however, and the next time we’re in Texas or Illinois, we suspect, we’ll be able to fulfill our wish and see wet pet food get made.
Types of wet food
There are several types of wet dog food, and, as you may have gathered by our frequent use of the phrase “wet dog food,” increasingly, wet food is not canned but contained in pouches or trays.
The latter containers, especially in tiny serving sizes, are most popular with cat owners, since cats tend to be fussier about the freshness of their food. Plus, until recently, the only dog foods that are available in pouches and trays tend to be what we consider to be very low-quality products. The pouched products made by Kansas City’s Three Dog Bakery are a welcome and astonishing exception; the ingredients are of extraordinary quality.
No matter what package is used, all wet pet foods are heat-sterilized after the container is sealed. This process “cooks” the food, kills any pathogens, coagulates the proteins, and gelatinizes the starches, increasing their digestibility.
Pet food manufacturers divide wet food products into categories based on the food’s final form.
The most expensive to produce are the products described as “meat in jelly” or “meat in gravy.” These are comprised of chunks of “real” animal material in a sauce that has been thickened with either a gelling product (such as locust bean gum and carrageenan) or xanthan or similar gums; products whose matrix more closely resembles a gravy are generally thickened with guar gum or modified starches.
The not-very-yummy-sounding “meat analog” products are very similar to the products described above, with the difference being that the “meat” has been finely ground and restructured into chunks of the desired shape and size.
These chunks can be made out of animal products alone, or made with a combination of meat and cereal. Generally some sort of binder is required to help the manufactured chunks hold together – soy isolates or glutens are frequently used in this capacity; however, in some products, blood plasma and/or wheat flour are included to help bind the chunks, helping them retain a discrete shape. We were recently surprised to see a company whose products we used to like using blood plasma as a binder. Yuck!
“Loaf” products, which generally contain significant amounts of grain (for a wet product) are the least expensive to produce, grain being less expensive than animal products. Sometimes the loaf contains chunks of meat.
Recent innovations
Two very uncommon types of wet food appear on WDJ’s “Top Approved Wet Dog Food” list. One is Spot’s Stew, made by Halo, Purely for Pets. As the name suggests, this product most closely resembles a “chunk in gravy” product but it’s much more liquid, and there are a lot of vegetable chunks in it, too; it really is a stew.
The other unusual food type contains large chunks of poultry or fish, including their bones. These products were introduced to the market by Active Life Pet Products and have been more successfully copied in some formulas by Merrick and Evanger’s. Dog owners who are unaccustomed to the practice of feeding fresh, raw, meaty bones to dogs often panic when they detect the chicken leg bones in some of these formulas. However, the canning process softens the bones to a readily digestible texture that you can easily smush between your fingers.
The inclusion of vegetables, herbs, and even fruit has gained popularity, no doubt because the more of these ingredients there are listed on the label, the more it may appeal to the person who buys it for their dog. Undoubtedly the incorporation of these ingredients has presented pet food makers with manufacturing challenges; not only do they want the batter to be uniformly mixed, they have to worry about delivering at least some recognizable vegetable matter, too!
WDJ’s selection criteria
Here’s how we determine whether a wet food is truly “premium.”
• We eliminate all foods containing artificial colors, flavors, or added preservatives. Canned food should be high in animal proteins, and as such, plenty palatable without any added flavors. It also needn’t contain any preservatives, given its sterilized and sealed containment.
• We reject foods containing fat or protein not identified by species. “Animal fat” and “meat proteins” are euphemisms for low-quality, low-priced mixed ingredients of uncertain origin.
• We reject any food containing meat by-products or poultry by-products. There is a wide variation in the quality of the by-products that are available to dog food producers. And there is no way for the average dog owner (or anyone else) to find out, beyond a shadow of a doubt, whether the by-products used are carefully handled, chilled, and used fresh within a day or two of slaughter (as some companies have told us), or the cheapest, lowest-quality material found on the market.
There is some, but much less variation in the quality of whole-meat products; they are too expensive to be handled carelessly.
• We eliminate any food containing sugar or other sweetener. Again, a food containing quality meats shouldn’t need additional palatants to entice dogs.
• We look for foods with whole meat, fish, or poultry as the first ingredient (and perhaps the second and third ingredients, too!) on the label. (Just as with food for humans, ingredients are listed on the label by the total weight they contribute to the product.)
• We like it when a nutritious meat, poultry, or fish broth is used in place of the water that may be necessary for processing. Broth is obtained by cooking meat, fish, or poultry bones, parts, and/or muscle tissue.
• If grains or vegetables are used, we look for the use of whole grains and vegetables, rather than a series of reconstituted parts, i.e., “rice,” rather than “rice flour, rice bran, brewer’s rice,” etc.
• Speaking of grain . . . We’ve discussed this many times, but there is nothing that says a canned food has to contain any grain or carbohydrate source.
Grains originally found their way into pet food because they were less expensive than animal proteins; of course, their amino acid profiles are much less complete than those offered by animal-sourced proteins, so we’re not crazy about the use of any grain or grain fragment as a protein source.
And, unlike humans, dogs do not need carbohydrates to live; they can do fine with a diet that contains no carbs whatsoever. We strongly prefer dog foods that contain small amounts of grain or no grain at all.
Go forth and compare
In the chart at the end of this article, we’ve listed a number of canned dog foods that meet our selection criteria. It’s vitally important that you understand the following points regarding these foods:
• The foods on our list are not the only good foods on the market.
• Any food that you find that meets our selection criteria, outlined above, is just as good as any of the foods on our list.
• We have presented the foods on our list alphabetically. We do not “rank order” foods. We don’t attempt to identify which ones are “best,” because what’s “best” for every dog is different.
• The proof is in the pudding. If your dog does not thrive on the food, with a glossy coat, itch-free skin, bright eyes, clear ears, and a happy, alert demeanor, it doesn’t matter whether we like it or not.
Using the selection criteria we have outlined above, and perhaps taking into account some of the “extra credit” criteria listed in the “Further Attributes of Top-Quality Dog Food” sidebar, go analyze the food you are currently feeding your dog. If it doesn’t measure up, we encourage you to choose a new food based on quality, as well as what works best for you and your dog in terms of types of ingredients, levels of protein and fat, and local availability and price.
Our list of Approved “Top Wet Dog Foods” is offered as a starting place, and for its value as a comparison to other products you may find.
Human-dog interactions can be more difficult than dog-dog ones, since our native languages are so different. Our series of three photos this month depicts a classic conflict between a canine and a human; the two are strangers and neither really understands what the other is communicating. Similar interactions are played out every day in communities across the country, in which well-intentioned humans do all the wrong things in their efforts to be friendly with dogs. Far too often, the failure of dog and human to understand each other and respond appropriately results in a bite – or several.
Last month, we ran photos of an interaction between a human and a dog. Did you spot signs of their mutual misunderstanding?
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PHOTO #1 ANALYSIS
288
• Man – The man is bent over from the waist, directly facing the strange dog, making direct eye contact. He has observed the dog growling and barking at him, and he’s probably saying something like, “Here, boy!”
• Dog – Tail is stiffly erect, ears appear pricked forward, commisure (corner of lips) looks forward, body posture is tall and forward, and the dog is also making direct eye contact.
CONCLUSION
The man would like to meet and greet the dog, and is using appropriate primate body language to do so.
Bending at the waist is a human invitation to come closer. In our culture, a face-front greeting that includes direct eye contact indicates honesty, friendliness, and sincerity. The man is doing his best to entice the dog to come see him.
However, in the canine world, a full-front, bent-forward posture with direct eye contact is a strongly assertive threat, and the dog is reacting accordingly with defensive aggression. He may not be sure what the man is up to, but he’s sure he wants no part of it!
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PHOTO #2 ANALYSIS
288
• Man – Our human has straightened to full height and is stepping forward, still maintaining direct eye contact with the dog.
• Dog – Has moved off to the side, still carrying his tail high and maintaining direct eye contact with the man. His ears are pricked and his mouth appears puckered forward. It’s hard to tell for certain because of the angle, but his body posture still appears tall and forward.
CONCLUSION
The man has recognized that the dog is rejecting his advances, and is choosing to walk on. He has properly interpreted the dog’s aggressive posturing and has wisely given up making friends. While the human’s upright posture is less of a threat to the dog than his bent-over position in Photo #1, he is still making direct eye contact. The stick in his right hand is raised slightly. I’m curious as to whether he’s aware he did this – if he made this defensive gesture consciously, or if it was an automatic self-protection response.
The dog is still clearly aroused – keeping his eye on the man and his defenses up to see if the dangerous human poses any further threat.
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PHOTO #3 ANALYSIS
288
• Man – Has ceased interaction with the dog; walks forward, stick still slightly raised.
• Dog – In contrast, the dog continues to engage. He has circled behind the man and continues to show tension in his markedly forward posture, intense stare, and sharply pricked ears.
CONCLUSION
While the man appears to have dismissed the unfriendly dog and moved on, the dog isn’t yet done with this once-threatening human. Actually, the man is probably at the greatest risk at this moment in the interaction; defensively aggressive dogs are most likely to bite from behind or if cornered, and this dog looks likely to run up behind the man for a stealth attack. Something about the man’s posture suggests he may be more aware of the potentially threatening dog than it seems at first glance. Perhaps he belatedly realized that his eye contact was exacerbating the dog’s aggression.
Fortunately, this interaction ended without a bite. The man’s decision to break eye contact and move on worked. If he’s ever in a similar situation again, it might be wiser to stand still, turning slowly if necessary to keep his eye on the dog without making strong direct eye contact, until the dog relaxes and leaves or relaxes enough that the man can leave more safely.
Cancer always sounds like a death sentence, no matter how the diagnosis is delivered. When patients are cured, they’re the exception rather than the rule – especially when they are very young or very old or when their cancers are well established.
“It’s true that some cancers have a high survival rate,” says Carol Falck, VMD, a holistic veterinarian in Pompano Beach, Florida, “but cancer is never good news, even if it’s easy to treat or detected early. Cancer is a chronic disease, an aberration of the immune system. Whenever and however it appears, it indicates that the body has been out of balance for a long time.”
Unlike conventional veterinary medicine (see “Conventional Cancer Care,” December 2005), which identifies dozens of specific cancers and treats each as a unique illness, holistic medicine takes a “whole body” approach.
“Holistic medicine does not specifically treat cancer,” says Dr. Falck. “Instead, it helps patients eliminate factors that allowed their cancers to develop in the first place. In holistic medicine, there are no specific protocols for different cancer diagnoses the way there are in conventional medicine. Rather, cancer is considered an imbalance that should be corrected so that the body can repair itself.”
Because cancer is such a frightening disease, it’s easy to panic and feel overwhelmed as you try to make sense of diagnoses and treatment options. “But you don’t have to decide everything that same day,” says Dr. Falck. “You have time to consult a holistic veterinarian or get a second opinion. And you don’t have to decide on a 100 percent conventional protocol or a 100 percent natural protocol. Integrative or complementary medicine combines the best of both worlds. In addition, there’s a lot you can do at home with holistic therapies to help your dog heal.”
Complementary medicine
Although the terms alternative, natural, complementary, integrative, and holistic are often used interchangeably, they have slightly different meanings.
“Alternative” is a catch-all phrase that describes any treatment that has not been endorsed by conventional medicine. “Natural” therapies are based on centuries-old botanical, nutritional, and physical treatments, most of which are gentle as well as effective, though they work more slowly than conventional treatments. “Complementary” and “integrative” describe the combination of natural and conventional therapies. “Holistic” applies to any treatment plan that considers all of the factors in a patient’s life, not just his lab test results.
In contrast, conventional or orthodox medicine trains its practitioners to identify specific diseases and treat them by attacking their symptoms. This approach is also called “allopathic,” which literally means “symptom-suppressing.” The downside of conventional medicine is that it seldom addresses an illness’s underlying causes, so it does not correct or eliminate the illness at its source. Treated illnesses often continue to progress, even while their symptoms subside temporarily. This is why recurring cancers are so common and so serious. Another problem with conventional medicine is that its treatments can cause side effects more painful and incapacitating than the illness itself.
“In addition,” says Dr. Falck, “conventional medicine usually ignores the emotional aspects of disease. I think holistic medicine does an excellent job of incorporating physical and emotional aspects into a treatment plan.”
Specific treatments that fall under the holistic/alternative umbrella include diet, nutritional supplements, homeopathy, herbal medicine, aromatherapy, flower essences, chiropractic, acupuncture, acupressure, massage, and several others. In complementary or integrative cancer care, these treatments are used to improve the results of conventional therapy and counteract its adverse side effects.
For example, acupuncture and medicinal herbs help alleviate the nausea caused by chemotherapy, while nutritional supplements help restore lost hair. Aromatherapy and herbs speed the healing of surgical wounds and help prevent skin damage caused by radiation treatments. Herbs, aromatherapy, and flower remedies alleviate stress and help bring emotions into balance. And an improved diet supports all cancer therapies.
Diet
The cornerstone of every holistic cancer therapy is diet – but which diet remains a subject of controversy.
Most conventional veterinarians prescribe commercial pet foods for dogs with cancer, or they encourage owners to feed the patient whatever he or she will eat. In contrast, holistic veterinarians often recommend a home-prepared or raw diet that does not include grains. Cancer cells metabolize carbohydrates quickly, so grains and other carbohydrates are problem ingredients. However, cancer cells do not metabolize fats, so fats are “safe” ingredients, although hydrogenated, partially hydrogenated, highly refined, and rancid fats should be avoided.
The list of recommended fats includes all animal fats, including fish oil, as well as coconut oil, which has its own cancer-fighting ingredients (see “Crazy about Coconut Oil,” October 2005).
As described in “Feed the Dog, Starve the Cancer” (November 2003), cancer researcher Greg Ogilvie, DVM, Dip. ACVIM, and colleagues at Colorado State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences recommend a diet of less than 25 percent carbohydrates, 35 to 48 percent protein, and 27 to 35 percent fat, with more than 5 percent of the total food comprised of omega-3 fatty acids and more than 2 percent arginine (dry weight measurements).
Protein is a crucial ingredient in any canine diet, for dogs, like their wolf ancestors, are best adapted to protein foods. Meat, eggs, poultry, and fish that are organically raised, pasture-fed, or caught in the wild are best for cancer patients. Meat and eggs from factory farms and fish from fish farms are far more likely to contain harmful bacteria, prescription drug residues, or contaminants that interfere with immune function. (See “Upgrading to Pasture-Fed,” July 2003.)
Supplements that improve the assimilation of food, such as digestive enzymes, can be an important addition to any dog’s diet. Powders such as Prozyme can be sprinkled on food before serving, or digestive enzyme capsules or tablets can be given with meals.
Patients undergoing chemotherapy may lose their appetite, making any nutrition challenging. Freezing the dog’s food can reduce its odor, which seems to improve some dogs’ appetites. Toward the end of Bullet’s two-week fast (see sidebar, above), Kaplan bought a package of frozen smelt, and after she coaxed one of the fish into Bullet’s mouth, he began to chew. She later discovered that massaging inside his ears after placing his food bowl within reach triggered a reflexive eating response.
Seacure, the fermented deep sea whitefish powder described in “Securing Seacure” (April 2003), is an excellent supplement for cancer patients because it speeds tissue repair, helps alleviate the side effects of conventional treatment, and is immediately assimilated. Seacure powder can be added to food or simply mixed with water, and Seacure wafers can be fed at any time. Store this extremely fishy product in the freezer to reduce its odor.
Getting cancer patients to drink sufficient water can be as difficult as persuading them to eat. Filtered water added to food or squirted into the dog’s mouth, meat-flavored broth frozen in ice cube trays for easy dispensing, or meat-flavored gelatin can all increase a dog’s hydration.
Whether vegetables belong in a dog’s diet is another hotly debated topic, but when it comes to treating cancer, certain vegetables have been shown to fight the disease. In Germany, lactic acid fermented vegetables like sauerkraut are an integral part of some cancer therapies because these foods are “hostile” to cancer cells.
It’s easy to puree carrots with fresh ginger and other vegetables, add some powdered acidophilus and a sprinkling of unrefined sea salt, and press everything under a weight overnight or until the vegetables’ juices separate and they develop a piquant flavor. (See “It’s All in How You Make It,” March 2001, for directions.)
In addition to increasing their vitamin content and assimilation, lacto-fermented vegetables support beneficial bacteria in the digestive tract. Replacing the vegetables in any canine recipe with pureed lacto-fermented vegetables is easy and sensible.
Supplements
In The Healthy Pet Manual: A Guide to the Prevention and Treatment of Cancer (another recommended resource), Deborah Straw describes several supplements that are appropriate for canine cancer patients.
First on the list is vitamin C, which may be the most-researched cancer supplement. As Straw explains, “Vitamin C may protect against cancer because it acts as a cellular antioxidant. It enhances the immune system by detoxifying certain carcinogens and by blocking the formation of various carcinogenic compounds created when certain foods are digested.”
The suggested dose varies by expert, with many recommending dosing to “bowel tolerance,” as loose stools result when the body has ingested more vitamin C than it can utilize. However, proponents of whole-food supplements argue that megadoses aren’t needed if the vitamin comes directly from food, as does the vitamin C in Cataplex C from Standard Process and Food C from Wysong. Or you can simply provide foods that are rich in vitamin C, such as small amounts of lacto-fermented vegetables.
Other key vitamins are B-complex, E, A, D, and K, all of which are important for overall health. Vitamins from whole-food sources are well tolerated, easily assimilated, and provide an entire complex of nutrients.
Bones provide minerals such as calcium and magnesium. For those who don’t feel comfortable feeding raw bones, look for supplements from companies, such as Standard Process, that make supplements from pasture-fed organic bones. Or, ask a local butcher who carries organic meats to grind fresh bones after he removes the meat for your dog’s meals.
Selenium, another important mineral, has been shown in human population studies to significantly protect against cancer.
Discuss appropriate dosages of these and other mineral or vitamin supplements with your holistic veterinarian.
Don’t neglect your dog’s beneficial bacteria. Probiotic supplements such as acidophilus, freshly prepared yogurt, and other beneficial bacteria improve digestion and bolster the gastrointestinal tract.
L-glutamine is also a very important supplement for dogs in chemotherapy. It helps the intestines and minimizes treatment side effects.
Herbal support
One of the most famous herbal remedies associated with cancer is Essiac, a tea developed by Renee Caisse, a Canadian nurse. A blend of burdock root, sheep sorrel, slippery elm bark, and turkey rhubarb root, Essiac tea can be added to food or drinking water or squirted directly into the mouth.
Essiac is said to be most effective if given on an empty stomach. The recommended dose is about 1 teaspoon per 10 pounds of body weight or 1 tablespoon per 30 pounds.
Beverly Cappel, DVM, recommends Essiac tea as a support therapy for cancer. “I give it to every animal I treat because it’s not going to hurt and it flushes them out,” she says. “Some reports say that it kills cancer. It does not kill cancer; it just cleans the body out. We’ve had success with animals that have melanomas, suspicious-looking basal cell tumors, or even mast cell tumors of the skin. We put them on Essiac once or twice a day and the tumors shrivel up within a couple of weeks.”
Aloe vera is another popular support remedy for cancer patients. Aloe vera juice or gel can be given internally with food and applied externally to growths and tumors. In his book Cancer Therapy: The Independent Consumer’s Guide to Non-Toxic Treatment and Prevention, Ralph Moss, PhD, reports that both aloe and its cousin garlic are widely used as adjuvants, or helpers, with other therapies.
Taken internally and applied topically, aloe may help prevent infections, increase the effectiveness of chemotherapy, protect against radiation therapy skin injury, and support the liver during detoxification.
Emotions
Anyone who thinks that dogs don’t have feelings just isn’t paying attention. These creatures are emotional sponges.
“It’s so important to keep our own emotions under control,” says Dr. Falck. “If you panic, your dog is going to feel your stress and anxiety, and those emotions are not helpful. My suggestion to owners who are dealing with cancer is to focus on things that you can do, things that are helpful and positive, not on things that leave you depressed or worried.
“For example, if your dog has a good appetite, here’s a chance to upgrade her diet. You can do research and learn about her illness and things you can do at home to support her or make her more comfortable. You can also keep a journal in which you record everything your dog is experiencing, from symptoms to supplements to special events or activities. This is an excellent way to document her progress. Instead of just worrying, you can channel your energy into something constructive.”
Dr. Falck recommends turning your attention away from the dog’s present symptoms by focusing on memories of her healthy past. “Keep her favorite activities in your mind as a mental image,” she says, “and let those thoughts carry you to thoughts about the best possible outcome.”
Flower essences or flower remedies, including the famous Bach Rescue Remedy, can help canine patients and their human companions cope with emotional stress. “Rescue Remedy is the all-purpose formula,” she says, “but you can refer to books or symptom charts to select other essences that address specific emotions.”
Prepare a flower essence dosage bottle by mixing 2 to 4 drops of Rescue Remedy (or 2 drops each of up to 5 individual remedies) with 1 fluid ounce (2 tablespoons) filtered or spring water in a small glass bottle equipped with an eyedropper or spray top. The standard dose is 4 drops of the diluted remedy, which can be added to drinking water, dropped directly onto the nose or into the mouth, massaged into the ears, applied to paw pads, applied to bare skin on the abdomen, or sprayed in the air or directly on the patient. The secret to success with flower remedies is frequent application, so do this as often as possible, several times per day. And dose yourself, too. Anything you do to bring your own energy into balance will help your dog.
Calming essential oils and hydrosols (see “Smell This, You’ll Feel Better,” December 2004, and “Essential Information,” January 2005) are a boon to cancer patients and their families. For an excellent guide to this subject, see Holistic Aromatherapy for Animals by Kristen Leigh Bell.
Whatever protocol you choose for your dog, holistic support therapies can make a world of difference. These gentle, nontoxic, whole-body treatments invite the participation of everyone in the family and promise your dog a more comfortable, happy, active life.
-A long-time contributor to WDJ and author of The Encyclopedia of Natural Pet Care, Natural Remedies for Dogs & Cats, and other books, CJ Puotinen lives in New York with her husband, a Lab, and a tabby cat.
I’ve had a number of older owners book lessons with me lately—more than half a dozen individuals and couples in their 70s and even 80s, all wanting some training help with their new dogs or puppies.
