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My family had a lot of dogs when I was growing up. When I was about six years old, my mom convinced my dad to sell their house in the suburbs and buy a house in the country, so their four children could enjoy rural delights. A San Francisco native, my dad had never lived in a place without sidewalks and streetlights, but he gave it a go.
Then 11 years old, my brother most appreciated the opportunity to build tree forts, and later, to ride motorcycles in all sorts of dirt and mud with his friends. My sister Sue, then 12, got a horse and made friends in 4-H. My sister Pam, then 13, also joined 4-H, but I think that was mostly about flirting.
My favorite part of living in the country was the dogs. We started off with just one or two, but since my parents weren’t very knowledgeable about canine reproduction (most significantly, how to prevent it) our family’s dog population ballooned at times into the teens, and one memorable summer, into the twenties, when we had three female dogs with litters at the same time.
I know, I know. Today, this is shameful. Heck, it was probably shameful even at that time, the early 70s, contributing to the pet overpopulation problem so blatantly. But I was too young to be anything but thrilled by the puppy booms. Any time I walked out the door, I had an abundant supply of canine friends to accompany me on adventures. Although there were no other girls my age living within miles of our home, I don’t recall ever feeling lonely. Talk about unconditional love and companionship; I had it in spades, from all my canine pals.
I was prompted to recall my youth with dogs as a result of a request I received from Dr. Larry Lachman, an animal behavior consultant based in Carmel, California. Dr. Lachman, who is also a psychologist, is conducting a national survey of dog owners for his next book. If you would like to contribute, please answer the following four questions:
1. What dogs did you grow up with or have currently? (Names, breeds, age, etc.)
2. How did these dogs affect, influence, or impact either your family of origin, you, or your current relations?
3. Specifically, what life lessons about love, relationships, communication, affection, and values have you learned from your dog(s)?
4. Could you provide me with one or two true stories that illustrate your dog(s) positive impact on you and how you relate to other people or your family?
Please e-mail your answers to DrLarry@FamilyAnimal.comor mail them to Dr. Larry Lachman, Family Animal, PO Box 22151, Carmel, CA 93922.
Mr. Hobbes, like many older Americans, has benefited from the ever-increasing amount of information available about healthy living practices, and the technology of modern medicine, to successfully reach his senior years. Now, he faces several health conditions common to the elderly and, like most aging Americans, may have to face treatment compromises based upon limited means and a lack of adequate medical expense insurance.
Mr. Hobbes isn’t a retired business professional or a former public employee with a pension. He’s the family dog.
American dogs and other pets now find themselves included in the complexities surrounding medical expense insurance coverage. Costs of veterinary care are rising, and increasingly sophisticated and expensive treatments, such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and chemotherapy, are more widely available. Many dogs are living longer and thus contracting the more serious diseases of old age. Also, more single people and families own dogs for companionship, and regard their dogs as members of their family, worthy of the same health protections that the rest of the family enjoys.
All this has prompted the rise of pet health insurance providers and insurance alternatives over the last decade – although with more than 68 million pet dogs in America, and less than one percent covered by any type of health insurance plan, the market is ripe for expansion.
Benefits of coverage
Growth of this particular market is a good thing for everyone concerned about companion animals. Veterinarians like the concept, since anything that enables people to more readily afford and authorize treatment adds to their business, and enables them to deliver medical treatment to the limits of their education and clinic resources, regardless of the economic status of the owner. Dr. Steve Stelma, a veterinarian in rural eastern North Carolina, hopes that veterinary health insurance will greatly reduce the number of times he must “negotiate from the optimum medical care required by a patient to the level of care the owner can afford.”
Companion animals and their guardians also benefit. Some breeders in the United States now enroll their puppies immediately in a health insurance plan and encourage their puppy buyers to continue the coverage. It’s helpful to many people to have their pets’ healthcare budgeted into their regular, monthly expenses. These plans can assist with the exponentially higher expenses of multiple-pet households, and greatly reduce the incidence of “economic euthanasia” – animals that are euthanized due to lack of funds for medical treatment.
Also, many businesses enjoy the opportunity for providing an innovative and affordable employee benefit. Several corporations, like the Los Angeles City Employees Association, now offer pet insurance as a payroll-deductible benefit for their current and retired employees.
There are still hurdles for the young industry to overcome, including a generally low level of awareness on the part of many pet owners in America; many don’t know that health insurance plans exist for their dogs. And until recently, advertising campaigns for the industry were minimal.
This is likely to change, however, as several insurance companies have developed strategic business relationships with large corporations that have the advertising dollars to promote their insurance products. Pethealth, Inc., Canada’s fastest-growing pet insurance carrier, sells its policies on the Petopia Web site and through The Reader’s Digest Association, Inc. A few years ago, Veterinary Pet Insurance announced the formation of a partnership with Ralston Purina to educate dog owners about good nutrition, preventative veterinary care, and the availability of pet health insurance.
Early and current plans
Pet insurance companies have been around for many years, but early iterations of the industry addressed only basic healthcare coverage, excluding far more conditions, procedures, and breeds than it covered.
Twenty years ago, one innovator, veterinarian Jack Stephens, launched an insurance company that covered a wider array of veterinary treatments. Frustrated by incidents in which he was asked to euthanize an animal because its family was unable to afford treatment, Dr. Stephens founded Veterinary Pet Insurance (VPI), now thought to be the largest pet health insurance company in the U.S., with the specific goal of putting an end to “economic euthanasia.” VPI now holds more than 220,000 active policies.
Following that lead, the field has widened to include several national pet health insurance companies, discount organizations, and even healthcare specialty packages offered by large animal hospitals and clinics. Like choosing a human health insurance plan, purchasers must deal with the idiosyncrasies of each provider’s coverage limitations, treatment and condition exclusions, deductibles, and paperwork.
Today, there are three different types of businesses that address the cost of pet healthcare: insurance companies, membership discount organizations, and practice-based discount plans.
Insurance companies
Pet health insurance resembles what human healthcare used to be before managed care took over the industry. Unlike today’s human health insurance companies, pet insurance companies neither control the pricing at veterinary practices nor dictate what healthcare treatments are allowed. Instead, they offer a simple fee-based plan that essentially shares the risk associated with the medical care of pets among many pet owners. So, technically, they more closely approximate property or car insurance in that they reimburse policy holders, within the limits of the policy, for healthcare costs. The carriers are regulated by the state’s insurance commission where they are licensed to provide coverage.
Premiums for pet insurance are generally based on the animal’s species (some providers cover exotic pets in addition to dogs and cats), breed, age, and sometimes its weight or size.
Under this type of health insurance plan, a dog owner chooses her own veterinarian, selects treatments within certain guidelines, pays the veterinarian out of her own pocket, and submits a claim to the insurance company for reimbursement under the schedule established by its plan, less a deductible. Each of the companies we examined (see “A Quick Look at the Plans,” next page) offers broader levels of coverage for increasingly higher premiums.
For instance, most companies offer accident and serious illness coverage under their basic plans. Additional tiers of “wellness” coverage appear in more expensive plans. These levels add coverage for treatments such as spay/neuter, vaccines, annual checkups, preventative care (such as heartworm medication), and even, in some cases, holistic treatments including acupuncture and chiropractic. Some also cover the cost of prescription drugs.
Finding out what a particular company does not pay for is just as important as knowing what they do cover. Most pet insurance companies offer – at an additional cost, of course – “endorsements,” or policy riders for expensive, chronic conditions, such as cancer. Some plans limit coverage for certain conditions common to particular breeds. For example, one plan excludes coverage for skin allergies in Shar-Peis, a breed notoriously plagued by that condition.
Other common exclusions are elective procedures, grooming, foods, behavior-related treatments, congenital and hereditary defects, and pre-existing medical conditions. Most carriers have an age limit for new clients, although they will continue to carry enrollees – at an increasing cost – who mature while covered by the plan.
Reviewing the list of policy exclusions causes many owners to wonder if the whole idea of pet health insurance is right for them. The insurance providers suggest, however, that owners who maintain health insurance for their dogs don’t postpone needed treatments for sick and injured dogs and, when treatment choices are presented, opt for the immediate application of the most highly recommended care, regardless of cost. So, despite the exclusions, these carriers maintain that dogs receive greatly improved levels of care for accidents, serious and chronic illnesses, and surgical procedures.
Membership plans
This is the second major type of plan that aspires to make veterinary care more affordable. For a monthly “membership” fee, members receive a discount on covered products and services from participating veterinarians and animal hospitals. More a discount program than health insurance, these plans accept any kind of dog, of any age, in any health condition. There are no forms to fill out, no deductibles, no waiting periods for reimbursements, no health-related exclusions. These plans contain no benefit caps, no limits to the number of visits to in-network veterinarians, and no need to pre-authorize procedures. The dog owner simply pays the discounted fee to the participating veterinarian at the time service is rendered. However, this discount is available only from a participating, or in-plan veterinarian.
In return, veterinarians receive a portion of the monthly membership fees paid to the program provider and obtain access to a new, broader client base, referred to them from the program provider. These providers limit the number of veterinary practices enrolled in each zip code, thereby insuring increased traffic volume at participating veterinary offices.
These programs also extend discounts to members for pet supplies, boarding, grooming, training, day care, and even a pet ID and location service. If your veterinarian of choice participates in one of these plans, weigh the monthly membership fees against any proposed savings in health care costs.
Local plans
If you patronize a large veterinary practice, it may offer its own discounted wellness packages with savings on routine healthcare, spay and neuter procedures, and geriatric checkups. It’s worth checking into any local preventative care packages provided by your own veterinarian of choice.
The checklist
A dog owner who has decided to investigate and procure veterinary health care insurance or a membership discount plan should closely review the fee and coverage schedules from each provider and consider the carrier’s answers to the following questions:
What would happen if the company went out of business? Although it’s easy to find out how long the company has been in business, you can’t reasonably expect an honest answer if you ask whether the company is financially sound and likely to remain in business for the lifespan of your dog! Ask about the company’s underwriters and consumer protection policies.
How are the benefits paid? On a predetermined “reasonable fee” schedule, or does the company completely reimburse you for the entire invoice from your veterinarian?
What are the age limits of coverage for your dog? If your dog reaches that age limit while covered by a plan, will the coverage continue, and, if so, how much do the fees increase?
Are complementary or alternative health-care treatments covered by the plan?
Are prescription drugs covered? Is there an annual limit to this coverage in the case of dogs who take daily medication?
What added endorsements (policy supplements) are required for specific diseases such as cancer? What are the added costs?
Are deductibles applied for each incident or for each office visit? If the primary care veterinarian refers you to a specialist, “per-incident” coverage will not incur an additional deductible payment for the visit to the specialist, as long as the visit covers the same condition as covered in the original veterinary visit.
Does your veterinarian’s practice offer its own discounted wellness package?
Get it while you can
Today, veterinary medicine is one of the few healthcare professions whose economic structure is not based on its related health insurance industry. Dog owners, not insurance plan managers, decide which veterinarians to consult and which treatments to authorize, and current insurance policies support this structure by simply reimbursing or discounting these expenses.
However, the veterinary medicine industry may soon enter a critical period in its growth. With rising costs and increasingly sophisticated treatments, and the dog owner’s desire to manage their expenses by insuring their dogs, the shape of the industry may change to more closely resemble the human healthcare model.
In the meantime, veterinary medical insurance can represent one of the best insurance buys for consumers. In fact, the American Veterinary Medical Association, the American Animal Hospital Association, and the American Humane Association endorse the concept of pet health insurance.
The industry also offers a great financial growth tool for veterinarians, who will be able to perform more and better medicine for their clients. Under the current structure of the industry, veterinarians have little if any contact with the insurance provider, so insured clients do not present an administrative burden to the veterinarian’s office staff. And veterinarians face a difficult challenge in today’s economy. How can they open and operate a profitable practice while keeping their prices within reach of their clients? Veterinary health insurance may be the answer.
Despite the inevitable anecdotal reports of slow reimbursements and disagreements between consumers and companies about policy interpretations, the industry expects the popularity of these plans to grow significantly. This growth will encourage more competition, delivering lower prices and more comprehensive coverage packages to dog owners in the future.
The time may be right to find a health care plan for you and your dog.
Lorie Long lives in North Carolina with two Border Terriers, Dash (a three-year-old female and agility queen) and Chase (a five-month-old male with an agility future).
As I write this, our four dogs are scattered across my office floor dozing in happy harmony. Dusty, our 8-pound Pomeranian, is curled up under my computer station on one side of my feet, Dubhy, the Scottie, on the other. Eighty-five-pound Tucker is sprawled across two dog beds next to the file cabinet, and Katie-the-Crazy-Kelpie is stretched out on the purple fleece on the far side of the room. All is well in the Peaceable Paws kingdom.
It is not always so, however. Katie and Dubhy have squabbles from time to time – usually a result of ownership disputes over some mutually coveted possession, or claim-staking for the highly prized location at our feet in front of the sofa. An occasional defensive falsetto Pomeranian snarl will ring out when Dusty perceives a pending threat to his small self by one of the larger dogs. And when Tucker and Dubhy engage in rowdy bouts of Chew-Face and Chase-and-Maul-the-Scottie, Katie, driven by her herding dog genes to maintain order, will often spoil the fun with fear-inducing glares, backed up by painful and effective nips to the offenders’ hocks.
Because dogs are pack animals, we have high expectations about their abilities to live peacefully in groups. If you are a human member of a multiple dog household, it is important to be realistic about what you can and cannot accomplish with your canine family members. Your own personality, behavior, commitment to managing and training your pack, as well as your choice of packmates, will all play important roles in your ability to create your own peaceable kingdom.
It’s in the Genes
Once upon a time, our dogs’ ancestors were all wild and lived in packs. It was critically important to pack survival that they get along well with each other. Even a minor injury from an aggressive packmate’s tooth could become infected and cause the disability and death of a pack member. Wild dogs depended on the abilities of the whole canine family to help with hunting and pack defense – a disabled member was a liability to all. For these survival reasons, dogs developed a highly ritualized language that enabled them to maintain pack order without bloodshed. Meaningful eye and facial expression, body posture, snapping, snarling, and even tooth contact without enough pressure to break skin all contributed to harmonious pack life.
Enter the human. Over the centuries, as we molded the canine species’ exceptionally plastic phenotype, we created breeds such as Beagles, Bassets, Foxhounds, Coonhounds, Labradors, Golden Retrievers, and others – the hounds and sporting breeds that still have very strong genes for pack harmony. At the opposite extreme, we also created breeds such as the American Pit Bull Terrier, that genetically have very little tolerance for the proximity of others of their kind.
If you are just starting out on your path to pack life, your shortest route to a peaceful pack is to select canine family members from the harmonious end of the scale, and avoid the pugnacious fighting breeds, feisty terriers, and obsessive herding dog types. That’s not to say that some Pit Bulls, Scottish Terriers, and Australian Kelpies can’t live in group homes – they certainly can – it just takes more effort on the part of the human to make it work.
Order in the Pack
Pack management is as much an art as a skill. If you have always had a multi-dog household, never had problems, and never thought twice about it, congratulations! You are one of the lucky ones – a natural. You probably instinctively have done all the right things to help your pack be well-adjusted. Many dog owners aren’t so fortunate.
Pack problems run the continuum from simple delinquent behaviors to serious intra-pack aggression. While many dog owners tolerate the former, group bad manners is often the precursor to aggression, and is far more easily addressed before canine emotions escalate to the blood-letting level.
The basic tenet for a successful multi-dog household is simple: The more dogs in the home, the more “in charge” the human pack member must be. The “in charge” tenet for pack management is closely followed by this corollary: The more dogs in the household, the more well-trained and well-behaved the canine members of the pack must be. So how does a floundering human leader restore order to the pack?
The first step is management. If you are facing pack behavior challenges, start by identifying the key areas of conflict, so you can figure out how to put a management plan in place while you work on long-term training solutions.
Conflicts Between Family Dogs
A sample list of common conflict situations might look something like the following. We’ll call our sample dog guardian Jane, and describe representative personalities of various players in her pack.
• Feeding time: Angel devours her food and then runs over to eat Sweetie’s, which sometimes starts a fight. Meanwhile, Sugar tries to pick up her bowl and carry it under the sideboard, often spilling it in the process. Honey wolfs down her food, growling and making evil faces all the while.
• Going outside: All four dogs jostle for position at the door, accompanied by snapping and growling, and an occasional full-on battle. Jane has been bitten trying to maintain order at the door while restraining Angel by the collar.
• Watching TV: Jane’s house routine is to eat dinner on the coffee table while watching TV. Dogs all vie for the closest spot to catch dropped crumbs and hand-fed tidbits. Fights most often occur between Angel and Honey.
• Playing: Sugar and Sweetie love to roughhouse together, biting and chewing on each other. All goes well for some time, but Jane can see their energy level rise as they play; three out of five times it ends in a fight.
• Getting home from work: All the dogs are very excited when Jane walks in the door after a long day at work. She is happy to see them too, so she greets them effusively, in a high-pitched voice, with lots of hugs and kisses. Occasionally in the excitement Honey turns on Angel and pins her to the ground.
• Bedtime: Sugar has claimed the human bed as her own, and that’s okay with Jane, she’s willing to share. The others usually work out who gets which dog bed on the floor with only minor grumbling, but Honey will sometimes test Sugar’s claim and jump up to join Jane and Sugar, to the tune of much snapping and snarling.
Why Do Dogs Fight? Stress!
Aggression is caused by stress, and there is clearly plenty of it in Jane’s pack. Jane is obviously not “a natural.” She knows she has a problem – if she had any doubts, the $800 vet bill for the last incident between Angel and Honey erased them.
She has tried to control her rowdy family members, but failed miserably. On the advice of a well-meaning friend she was letting the dogs work it out themselves, but things have only gotten seriously worse. She read a book that suggested supporting the “alpha” dog. As best she can tell, Honey is top dog in the pack, so she feeds Honey first, tries to let him out the door first (hence the bite by Angel), and lets him sit by her feet while she eats her dinner and feeds him treats. If a fight happens, she yells to break it up, then puts the other dogs out in the yard but lets Honey stay in, to support his position in the pack.
Jane needs a whole new approach to pack management. As the benevolent leader, she needs to decide what dog behavior is appropriate, not Honey. Order is best restored through calm management and positive training, not yelling and punishment.
Solutions to Multi-Dog Conflicts
Here are management plans and training suggestions for each of Jane’s six trouble spots:
• Feeding time: Feed the dogs separately, either in different rooms, in opposite corners of the same room, in crates, or by letting them come in one at a time to eat. Doors and baby gates can keep dogs confined to their separate rooms, while crates or tethers can allow them to eat safely in opposite corners of the same room. (See “A Gated Community,” this issue.) Eventually, after the dogs are trained to “Leave It,” Jane may be able to referee feeding time without having to physically restrain the dogs. (See “Off Limits,” January 2002.)
• Going out: The “Wait” exercise is exceptionally useful for maintaining peace at doorways with groups of dogs (see “Wait a Bit, Stay a While,” May 2001). Until she has taught her pack members to “wait,” Jane can use baby gates or tethers to restrain two or three of the dogs while letting them out one or two at a time to reduce the excitement and arousal that leads to aggression.
Once Jane has taught each of the dogs to “wait” at the door she can start practicing with them two at a time, then three, then all four. The pack should learn to be released from the “wait” one at a time so there’s no door jam, and Jane should vary the order in which she releases them so they don’t learn to anticipate the release.
• Watching TV: Jane is setting her dogs up for conflict by feeding them from her plate. She needs to stop this practice immediately. She can use tethers to keep the dogs safely separated, comfortable on their own beds, while she eats dinner at the coffee table (see “Tethered to Success,” April 2001). She can eventually teach them to go to their designated beds on cue by rewarding them generously when they are there. Chances are good that with time and practice, they will go to and stay on their beds when asked, without being tethered.
• Playing: It’s good that Jane can see the energy level rising between Sugar and Sweetie, because that enables her to step in calmly and break up the play session before it turns ugly. She can tether or crate the playmates for several minutes to give the arousal level time to subside, and then release them to play together again – no harm, no foul.
In time, Sugar and Sweetie may figure out that too much excitement makes the fun stop, and learn to better control their own energy. Jane’s intervention needs to be calm and cool; if she yells, punishes, or moves quickly, she is likely to escalate the energy between the dogs and actually trigger a fight.
• Getting home from work: Jane adds fuel to the fire with her excited homecomings; after a day spent inside, and a few hours of anticipating her return, the dogs are already keyed-up. The joyous greeting is too stimulating, and the dogs’ responses boil over.
Jane can manage her dogs’ greeting behavior while she does long term training by crating the dogs in her absence, assuming she won’t be gone longer than the dogs can tolerate. For pups, a good rule of thumb is one hour longer than the pup’s age in months – four hours for a three-month-old pup, etc. Adult dogs shouldn’t be routinely crated for longer than about eight hours a stretch.
When Jane comes home, she can let the dogs out one at a time and greet them calmly. If they get charged up she can just quietly turn her back and walk away from them, or even turn and walk out the door.
She can also simply start entering the house without greeting the dogs, ignoring them completely until they calm down. Once again, this teaches the dogs to control their own behavior, rather than submitting to her forcibly imposed will. Chances are good that if she does not “feed” their energy, they will settle quickly and fights won’t happen.
• Bedtime: One word – crates! I am not opposed to dogs sleeping on the bed, unless “dogs on the bed” is causing problems, which in Jane’s case it clearly is. She is at risk for injury herself, lying on her bed beneath two squabbling canines.
She could start by crating all the dogs at night, then, if her ultimate goal is to have them uncrated at night, experiment with letting one out, then two, and as long as good manners hold, eventually all four. (See “Crate Training Made Easy,” August 2000.) Any nighttime growling or snapping is grounds for a renewal of crating.
Of course, while Jane effectively manages her dogs’ behavior in the home, we also expect her to enroll in a good, positive training class. She may not be “a natural,” but she can learn. Her class instructor will be a valuable resource to her in identifying and resolving her dogs’ pack behavior challenges.
It will take her some time to complete basic classes with each of the four dogs, but the improvement in her communication with and understanding of her pack members’ behaviors and thought processes will be well worth the effort. In fact, it will be the ultimate key to her long-term success in turning her home into a peaceable kingdom, and ensuring that she enjoys mutually rewarding lifelong relationships with each of the members of her pack.
10 Steps to a Peaceful Pack
1. Manage the behavior
Use management tools such as tethers, crates, and baby gates to maintain order while you modify your dogs’ behavior through positive training.
2. Train
The more dogs in a household, the more important it is that all dogs be well-trained and well-behaved. Intervention in an escalating conflict is easier and more effective when the dogs respond to calm cues. The Web site of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers (apdt.com) offers a “Trainer Locater” list of APDT members, as well as suggestions for finding a good training professional. APDT members may use positive methods to varying degrees; however, there is an increased likelihood of finding a positive trainer on this list who meets your expectations.
3. Be calm
Aggression is caused by stress. If you can maintain a calm demeanor around your dogs, especially when they are becoming aroused, you will help defuse potential conflict. Resist the impulse to scream or yell when dogs are squabbling; this will only increase stress. If you must intervene in a scuffle that doesn’t quickly resolve itself, keep a plywood board handy that you can slip between the combatants to separate them. Then make a mental note to analyze the incident and develop a management plan to avoid a recurrence.
4. See your veterinarian
Medical conditions can exacerbate tense pack relations. A physical condition or illness that causes pain or discomfort to your dog is stressful. Stress causes aggression, so anything you do to alleviate pain or discomfort in any individuals can help reduce the overall stress level in the pack. Ask your veterinarian for a full thyroid panel for any of your dogs who seem particularly anxious and aggressive. Thyroid levels that are on the low end of the scale but still within the clinically normal range can contribute to aggression. Your veterinarian can consult with Jean Dodds, DVM, a pioneer in studying the connection between thyroid and aggression.
5. Let dogs be dogs
While it is not appropriate to let dogs “work it out” if conflicts are escalating, it is effective to let pack members settle small scuffles themselves. These are part of the inherited behavior developed for group survival, and can help to resolve hierarchy unrest and restore pack equilibrium.
6. Exercise
A tired dog is a well-behaved dog. Excess energy is a stressor, and a pack of tired dogs is less stressed, less excitable, and far more likely to live in harmony than one whose members are spilling over with surplus energy.
7. Cultivate individual relationships
Spend quality time with each dog outside the presence of the others. This is necessary for training purposes anyway, and will help you develop a relationship with each dog as an individual. This will make it easier for you to establish your position as benevolent leader and manage the pack as a whole.
8. Protect vulnerable pack members
Very old, young, small, sick, or disabled members of your canine family may be unable to defend themselves, especially if one or more pack members are determined to commit mayhem. You must keep such fragile members physically safe by separating them from the rest of the pack. This may be a temporary solution until the invalid has recovered enough to rejoin the group, or it may be a permanent fix if the size/strength disparity between participants is long term or the conflict too serious.
9. Better living through drugs
Some dog owners find flower essence and herbal remedies to be quite useful for reducing the stress that leads to pack conflict. Rescue Remedy is the most commonly suggested flower essence product, and herbs such as Valerian, Kava Kava, and St. John’s Wort are all used as calming agents. For more extreme cases, pharmaceuticals prescribed by your veterinarian may be indicated. Natural remedies, while usually less risky than prescription drugs, can have unwanted side effects; we recommend that you and your training professional work together with a veterinarian well-versed in complementary medicine to determine if and when drugs or natural remedies are appropriate. (See the American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association for a listing of holistic veterinarians around the country.)
10. Be realistic
Quality of life is an important consideration for all the family members. If dynamics in your pack are stressing you or your dogs so much that your quality of life is poor, and if your efforts to improve relationships aren’t helping, then it’s time to consider other options. The worst case scenario – euthanasia – might be the best option for a dog who is so troubled that finding an enjoyable environment is unrealistic. Finding one or more of the troublemakers new homes may alleviate the stress for the rest of the family, although finding homes for difficult dogs can be a challenge. Alternatively, you may choose to keep the more difficult ones and place one or more of the easy-going or vulnerable dogs with friends or family members. This could be a win-win for all, creating an extended family for your canine friends while making everyone’s life more peaceful.
Pat Miller, WDJ’s Training Editor, is also a freelance author and Certified Pet Dog Trainer in Maryland. She is the author of, The Power of Positive Dog Training.
When we found the six-month-old Scottish Terrier running loose and brought him home to stay in February of 2001, the scrappy little guy gave us a graphic reminder of the trials and tribulations that go along with the joys of puppy-raising. It didn’t take many chewed-up possessions and puddles on the carpet to send us scrambling to unearth the baby gates that had long since been retired from past use with our now-mature canine pack members. We found the old gates behind some boxes in the loft of our barn, dusted them off, and pressed them into immediate service.
What a relief! Of course we crated the puppy at night, but during the day, one gate stood sentry across my office door so I didn’t have to jump up from my computer every 30 seconds to see what he was getting into. The other blocked the doorless opening between our den and our dining area, so we could enjoy peaceful evenings without worrying about what the little terror – oops, terrier – was doing in the rest of the house. Sanity restored, life settled back into peaceful harmony.
It took only a few months until the Scottie’s behavior was reliable enough for me to remove the gate to my office, so that i could work on the computer without supervising him full-time. But only in the last month have we opened the den/dining room gate in the evenings and given him almost full house freedom. The bedroom door stays closed, thanks to his penchant for picking up shoes and socks, and my inability to consistently put them where he can’t get them.
Unlimited uses
There are lots of other wonderful applications for baby gates in addition to basic puppy management. We have long used one to bar the dogs from our cats’ room (the cats jump over the gate); this keeps the canines from dining on kitty kibble, and prevents them from devouring that grossly delectable dog treat, litter box “kitty rocca.”
Gates can also be used to keep a dog out of a baby’s nursery, or out of the bedroom of any family member who is allergic to dog hair. And if your clever Collie has learned that the sofa is off limits when you are there but fair game when you’re away, you can use a gate to block her access to the room with the forbidden furniture. (See “Upper Level Management,” October 2001.)
The dog-management possibilities are endless. Having a dispute with your spouse about whether the dog can be in the house? Wrangle a compromise, and use gates to keep him (the dog, of course!) in the approved areas of the house; maybe you can gain more territory for him later. Just refinished the hardwood floors? Baby gate! Have an incurable counter-surfer? Baby gate! Having intra-pack relationship problems? Baby gate!
You get the idea. Rather than yell, spank, shock, or otherwise try to punish your dog into submission, use baby gates to manage their behavior while time, training, and behavior modification work together positively to extinguish unwanted behaviors without the use of force or pain.
The right gate for you
Your ideal baby gate will install easily, be sturdy enough to withstand canine assaults, and tall enough to prevent Bounder from leaping over. It should open and close easily, and be safe, aesthetically pleasing, and affordable. (Fortunately, many dog owners have a somewhat lower-than-Martha-Stewart standard for aesthetics!)
Baby gate prices cover a wide range, offering something for every budget – from $18 for a cut-rate model to more than $150 for the classy, décor-matching gates. They are available in different widths to cover a variety of doorway sizes, and may be made of wood, plastic, metal, tubular steel, PVC pipe, wire mesh, nylon, nylon mesh, or a combination thereof. Some screw into the wall and require installation with tools; others are pressure-mounted. Some open easily with one hand. Others require you to remove the whole gate in order to pass – definitely a two-handed task.
Because there are so many variables, we are going to stray from our normal format of rating several different products. Instead, we will describe the many options that are available, and some of their advantages and disadvantages, to help you understand how to analyze your own needs and select the gate that would work best for your dog and your home.
Consider your dog
The size of the dog or dogs you want to contain is the first thing you have to consider, in relation to the size of the gaps in the gate. A gate with bars that are four inches apart – the widest gap allowed in the industry – will perfectly prevent a human baby or broad-headed dog like a Rottweiler from sticking his head through, but pose a hazard for any dog whose head juuust fits through. Such a dog could slip her head through the gap, get stuck, and panic. And, of course, your Chihuahua could walk right through the bars!
The height of the gate is also important if your dog is a jumper, climber, or particularly tall. The most common height range for baby gates is about 24 to 32 inches. For smaller dogs who are not apt to attempt a leap over the gate, such as a Maltese or Peke, a shorter gate is convenient; it’s often easier to step over a short gate than to open and close it. Especially tall gates are needed for tall dogs or those who specialize at leaping. We found a 48-inch-tall, wire mesh, pressure-mounted gate in several stores and catalogs, including the Care-A-Lot Pet Supply Warehouse, where it was priced at $60 (800-343-7680, carealotpets.com). The Rover Company of Prescott, Arizona, offers “Rover Closers” made of PVC pipe. Their 48-inch-tall model sells for $85; order at roverpet.com or by calling (800) 658-5925.
In addition to his size and athleticism, you also must keep your dog’s personality in mind when buying a gate. Dogs who have been properly conditioned to enjoy spending time alone might require only the slightest barrier, such as the Evenflo Extra-Wide Soft Gate, for those extra-wide spaces. At $43, it is made of tubular steel and a nylon and mesh panel. It is pressure-mounted, and expands from 38 to 60 inches. The Infantino Kiddy Guard, made of polyester mesh, retracts into itself and covers openings from 6 to 51 inches wide. At $106 it’s pricey, but you have the lovely convenience of “disappearing” the gate when not in use. (We found the latter two gates online at child-safety-gates.com; you can also call 610-539-8736 to order.) Any dog who is secure in a mesh soft-sided crate would probably be just as respectful of this gate.
In contrast, dogs who are determined to defeat any restrictions of their free movement require a maximally secure gate. Many gates are pressure-mounted in doorways; some of these contain strong springs to keep the tension high. However, if your dog is likely to test the barrier’s strength, go for the sturdiest hardware-mounted model you can find. If your dog does manage to defeat a gate and win his freedom, even just once, he is very likely to try and try again. Every time he succeeds in a “jailbreak,” he has been rewarded and thus firmly conditioned to try it again.
An especially strong, hardware-mounted gate we admire is the KidCo Safeway Gate. We purchased this very popular model from a baby supply store, but have seen it offered in many stores and catalogs. The lowest price we saw was $54, from both Care-A-Lot (see contact numbers above) and Ryan’s Pet Supply, 800-525-PETS or www.ryanspet.com.
A final canine personality point to consider: If your dog or puppy is a chewer, irresistibly drawn to munching on wood furniture, avoid wood or plastic gates. A bored puppy with a natural need to chew may not be able to resist gnawing on the only thing between her and the rest of the house.
Ease of human use
Of course, humans are the other users you have to consider when choosing a gate. The gate has to be easy enough for all human members of the family to open and close again securely. Some gates don’t open, but have to be stepped over or taken down and then replaced when you want to pass through – beyond the ability of most children to manage. Other gates swing open and close with a latch, but if a latch is difficult to refasten, chances are it will be left not-quite-fastened sometimes, potentially putting the dog in danger. If you live alone, or with another competent, concerned grown-up, tricky latches may not be much of a problem. But it could be a big issue if you have a lot of foot-traffic in your home, kids, or anyone who suffers arthritis in her hands.
The importance of matching the latch with the human users became amply apparent when I purchased KidCo’s Center Gateway Pressure Gate in wood ($90) for my home, and in tubular steel model ($70), for use at my training center (both from J-B Wholesale, www.jbpet.com, 800-526-0388). I selected the wooden model for my home for aesthetic reasons, and the steel model for the training center because it was less expensive and more likely to survive potential assault by doggie daycare clients. I chose this particular brand of gate because it was pressure-mounted (which I knew would be adequate for my dogs), could be easily opened with one hand, and opens in both directions for easy passage. In addition, the frame lies flat on the floor (nothing to step over) and, although the bars were widely spaced, I thought it highly unlikely that our dogs would put their heads through.
The gate was a perfect choice for my home. It’s well made, easy to open and pass through, and looks nicer than any gate I’ve ever used in the past. My husband and I like it so well that we continue to leave it in place even though the Scottie doesn’t need it any more; we’ve realized that our 19-year-old cat, Jackson, appreciates the daytime respite from the nonstop attentions of Katie, our cat-crazy Kelpie.
The gate has not fared so well at my training center, however. The pressure-mounted feature that works so beautifully for my home hasn’t performed as well with the high traffic level and the large, rambunctious dogs that sometimes grace my center. Despite numerous tightenings, the rubber feet that hold the gate in place keep slipping. The gate mechanism that we find blissfully simple to manipulate at home seems to confound new users, and I am constantly explaining, “Push the button, lift up the handle, then lift slightly on the gate and swing it open.”
Other people considerations
If you rent, rather than own your home, or have really nice woodwork around your doors, you’ll want a pressure-mounted gate, rather than something that requires you to screw hardware into doorframes. Keep in mind that the strongest pressure-mounted gate is not as secure as hardware-mounted gates.
If the best spot for your gate lacks a good strong wood surface to fasten the gate to, you may want to buy KidCo’s neat installation kit. It contains materials and fasteners that enable installation on a hollow wall, wooden banister, or a wrought iron railing. (You’ll need one kit for each side of the gate that lacks a solid wood surface.) We paid just $10 for the kit from Care-A-Lot (800-343-7680 or www.carealotpets.com).
Many gate manufacturers offer additional panels that can be added to gates, so as to span extra-wide doorways.
Once upon a time, expandable “accordion” type gates were very common – you know, the kind with the diamond-shaped openings that expand and retract across doorways. These expansion gates did offer two advantages not seen elsewhere: they are extremely adjustable, and they latch easily with just a hook and eye that is screwed into the wall. However, we would recommend that you avoid these gates; it’s too easy for pets and human fingers to get pinched as you open and close them. Also, with some of the largest openings of any baby gates, they tempt smaller animals to try to crawl through, inviting entrapment and disaster.
No bad dogs
Using baby gates doesn’t mean you have bad dogs. It means you are a wise owner who knows how to manage your dogs’ behavior to make life more pleasant for all concerned.
And you don’t need all the fancy/expensive bells and whistles for all your baby gate applications. The one I use for my home’s “cat room” is an older, inexpensive model made of wood and wire mesh, the kind that does not swing open, but must be stepped over or taken down. It’s a low traffic area, so my husband and I suffer with climbing over the gate twice a day to feed and clean litter boxes (and tell ourselves that it keeps us limber). The wire mesh feature is perfect for this application – it allowed us to cut a small opening in one corner of the gate for the geriatric cat who can no longer leap tall gates in a single bound.
There is no universally perfect baby gate. Do your research, find the one – or ones – that work best for your needs, and live with your family in the peaceful comfort of a gated community.
Even at 12 years old, Sheba had the look of a regal Irish Setter. Her rich, red, silky coat flowed as she pranced. Still sleek and lean, her white face and telltale shorter gait were evidence that she was a healthy example of a senior-dog citizen. Sheba’s naps were getting longer and upon rising, her hind legs would need some coaxing to get going.
About this time Sheba and I had to move from Denver to Philadelphia. I planned to take my time driving cross-country so we could stop often and enjoy the trip. At the end of the first day of driving, Sheba jumped out of the back seat of my sedan with a little bounce. When we made stops on day two, she would look at me, stand up on the seat, and then step down with care. On the third day, she lay on the seat and needed to be cajoled and bribed to make the effort to get out of the car for every outing.
By the time we arrived in Philadelphia, Sheba was very stiff and in great discomfort. It took weeks of short walks and building toward longer walks to work out most of her arthritic kinks.
I wish I knew then what I know now about helping older dogs be more comfortable when traveling or being confined for a period of time. The ancient healing art of acupressure offers our senior friends a lot of relief from the aches and pains of aging. It is very common for a dog to suffer the same difficulties we do as their years advance. Canine acupressure can:
• Relieve muscle spasms
• Strengthen the dog’s immune system
• Lubricate the joints to improve mobility
• Reduce inflammation associated with arthritis
• Enhance blood circulation for better function
• Release endorphins and natural cortisone to relieve pain and increase the dog’s general comfort level.
Making a difference
Today, my 11-year-old Chesapeake, Shayna, has the benefit of receiving weekly acupressure treatments. She had serious hindquarter problems as a puppy and had to have the spinal processes near her tail removed when she was 13 months old. As she grew older, her spine fused naturally and during the last three years, she has suffered from severe arthritis. And she still wants to run, jump, and play with the gusto of a dog a quarter of her age! Our senior canines want to do all the great things they used to do; we just have to help them feel better before, during, and after these activities.
We have taken a holistic approach in keeping Shayna healthy and happy. Along with regular acupressure treatments, she receives a mix of raw food, natural supplements, and a high-quality, dry kibble, plus quite a bit of exercise on uneven terrain to keep her muscles strong and joints well lubricated, and regular check-ups with a holistic veterinarian.
Acupressure has proven to help relieve the pain and stiffness of arthritis for humans and canines. Sitting or lying in one position for a long time while traveling can cause achy, stiff limbs. As animal acupressurists, we recommend using specific acupressure points during a treatment session every other day while traveling or to simply help your senior canine be more comfortable.
Now you try it
To get started, review the instructional guide included with this article. Then, take a few minutes to look over the three diagrams. Each one features points intended to help one portion of the dog’s body. You can use acupressure points from all three diagrams, but per acupressure session we suggest not using more than six to eight acupressure points.
Additionally, if you have not visited your veterinarian in more than six months prior to launching your vacation, we suggest you do – just to determine whether your dog is showing signs of increasing discomfort. Acupressure is not a substitute for appropriate veterinary care. However, it is an excellent complement to conventional care and something you can do for your animal yourself.
Dogs are highly attuned to acupressure since they love to be touched. By adding your healing intention to help ease his soreness, hurts, or pain, he knows and will demonstrate his appreciation in so many ways. You will both enjoy your travels together much more.
Nancy Zidonis and Amy Snow are also the authors of “The Well-Connected Dog: A Guide to Canine Acupressure”; “Acu-Cat: A Guide to Feline Acupressure”; and “Equine Acupressure: A Working Manual”.
Everyone who cares about their dogs wants to feed them “good food.” By and large, our readers – and a growing number of non-subscribing dog owners – want to take that one step further. They have learned that improving a dog’s diet can result in improved health. So they want to feed their dogs the very best diet that money can buy.
So far, so good. We love people who love their dogs and want to take care of them in the best way they can.
Unfortunately, for some strange reason, when it comes to a discussion of the relative merits of top-quality store-bought food versus top-quality homemade diets, otherwise rational people have been known to lose their cool.
At conferences, rooms full of concerned dog owners and dedicated canine nutrition experts have exploded into shouted arguments while debating minute aspects of the topic. At dog parks, casual conversations have ended in pointed recriminations, and dogs get whisked into cars, fast.
It’s obvious to us that good-quality commercial and home-prepared diets offer certain advantages and disadvantages to dogs and their guardians. And before you decide “what’s best” for your dog, we suggest that you familiarize yourself with all of the arguments, pro and con, complete with rebuttals.
How commercial foods replaced homemade
The commercial pet food industry began manufacturing dog food to meet a nationally accepted standard of nutritional requirements only in 1953. The industry itself is only about 100 years old; before that, all pets were fed home-prepared diets, and with enough success, apparently, that the species is still hanging out with us today.
The fact that the industry has enjoyed such fantastic success is due to many factors. Many of us are too busy to shop and cook for ourselves, much less our dogs. Many people believe the slogans and promises printed in industry publications and on the food labels themselves; many have simply never questioned the fact that the food-making companies profits depend on convincing them that the commercial products are “best for dogs.”
Another critical contributor to the success of the pet food industry has been its sustained and successful efforts to intertwine and ingratiate itself with the veterinary profession. Veterinarians tend to tell people to use commercial food, but then, they have been strongly indoctrinated to truly believe that this is the only wise choice a dog owner can make; they learned it in vet school! But it’s no secret that the dog food companies sponsor veterinary nutrition textbooks, provide grant money for university research, and give vet students free dog food throughout school.
So, what with one thing and another, commercial food has come to represent the norm – what most people feed their dogs. This has been true long enough that a predictable backlash has begun to build momentum. Today, homemade diets are gaining in popularity, as evidenced by an ever-increasing number of books, lectures, and Web sites on the subject, and people who make their dogs’ food.
Keep this history in mind as we explore the benefits and drawbacks of feeding dogs commercial and homemade diets.
Conclusion
So, would it be better to stay with kibble, the quick, convenient option preferred by the majority, or to venture onto the lesser-trod path of home-prepared food?
As always, it depends on the dog and his guardian. There is no single type of food or type of preparation that will produce unblemished health in all dogs, just as there is no diet that suits all humans. The “best” food for a dog depends on its age, sex, breed, genetic inheritance, state of health, level of activity, geographic location, reproductive status, etc.
Individual human factors must also be taken into account, since the selection, storage, and administration of dogs’ diets depends on us. As evidenced by the wide variety of adult human shapes and health conditions, people have varying levels of ability to wisely plan, shop, prepare, and safely store their own diets. Not everyone has what it takes to “pull off” a good diet for themselves; not every well-meaning dog owner has what it takes to successfully formulate a home-prepared diet for their dogs, either.
We actually are firmly convinced that a proper home-prepared diet, carefully tailored to its individual recipients and guided by an informed, open-minded veterinarian is, truly, “best for dogs.”
However, we are averse to blanket prescriptions for all dogs and directives for all people. Some dogs are probably better off with a commercial diet. If a person doesn’t have the time, resources, and interest in preparing a “complete and balanced” homemade diet for their dogs, or if a dog doesn’t seem to thrive on the homemade diet his owner has provided for him, he undoubtedly has better prospects on a top-quality commercial food. Or even a well-considered mixture of the two.
In order to make intelligent decisions, a person has to be informed about all the advantages and disadvantages of each of her options, and then weigh her own individual circumstances against the general conditions. We hope that the abridged depictions of the pros and cons of the two types of feeding dogs will help inform your own dog feeding deliberations – and even offer rebuttals to anyone who criticizes your decision.
Milk thistle (Silybum marianum) is a flowering plant in the Aster family. A native of Europe, it has been used since the time of the Roman emperors as a liver tonic. Milk thistle is one of very few traditionally used herbs that has been widely accepted by conventional science to have significant medicinal value. Using milk thistle for dogs is also believed to have a number of beneficial effects.
Today we know the active ingredient of milk thistle seed extract as a flavonoid compound called “silymarin.” Most milk thistle extracts available today contain about 80 percent silymarin.
Milk Thistle for Dogs
Silymarin, which is itself a combination of several other active compounds, has been extensively studied around the world, and has been shown to be safe and effective in treating a variety of liver diseases and other conditions. It specifically protects the liver against toxins (including some drugs and heavy metals), activates protein synthesis, and stimulates growth of new liver cells to replace those that are dead or damaged. Milk thistle also has strong antioxidant (destroys oxygen free radicals) and anti-inflammatory actions.
Silymarin reaches high levels in the bile and liver (it also reaches significant levels in the lungs, pancreas, prostate, and skin). It can be used in the treatment of hepatic lipidosis, chronic hepatitis, cholangitis (inflammation of the bile ducts), and pericholangitis (inflammation of the tissue around the bile ducts). It may be useful in preventing or treating gallstones by thinning the bile. Many dogs with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) have concurrent inflammation of the liver/bile system and the pancreas. This suite of symptoms is called “triaditis.” Because milk thistle’s beneficial actions concentrate on the liver and bile systems, it may also be helpful in dogs with IBD.
Milk thistle should be considered as an aid to healing after drug therapy, vaccinations, and infections such as canine parvovirus, as well as an potential adjunct treatment for cancer. Researchers at Case Western University concluded from their work that “silymarin possesses exceptionally high protective effects against tumor promotion . . . ” One human study even suggests a role for milk thistle in diabetes mellitus through its normalizing effects on red blood cells. It may also help prevent diabetic neuropathy, a common complication of the disease that causes degeneration of the nerves controlling the hind limbs, which consequently produces weakness and an abnormal gait.
Milk thistle generally supports the immune system through its powerful antioxidant, free-radical scavenging action, its ability to preserve the supply of another important antioxidant, glutathione, as well as direct effects on immune cells. Glutathione, which is stored primarily in the liver, naturally declines over time, and depletion of this protein appears to accelerate the aging process.
While it’s not exactly the fountain of youth, milk thistle clearly has wide-ranging positive effects throughout the body. However, before you add this potent herb to your dog’s daily regimen “just in case” it might do some good, it’s important to consider that some herbalists believe milk thistle is best reserved as a treatment for existing disease, rather than being used by itself in a healthy dog.
While moderate use of milk thistle is very safe, there is some experimental evidence to suggest that long-term ingestion of very high dosages of milk thistle will eventually suppress liver function.
Milk Thistle Dosage for Dogs
The standard dosage of milk thistle extract is based on a silymarin content of around 80 percent; most supplements contain anywhere from 50-500 milligrams (175 mg is typical). As with many supplements, it’s probably better to buy a milk thistle derivative rather than a silymarin-only or other fractional supplement, since there may be other compounds found in the whole herb that significantly enhance the effects of what science has decided is the main player.
Because of its excellent safety record and lack of adverse drug interactions, when I’m treating a very sick dog with advanced liver disease, I do not hesitate to use up to 200 mg per 10 pounds of body weight of milk thistle extract daily. For most canine purposes, however, one-third to one-half of that dose is more than adequate. (Dogs with liver disease typically will not eat, but it’s a simple matter to open up a capsule, mix the appropriate amount of powdered herb with a little blenderized food or baby food, and feed it to the dog in a syringe.) Too high a dose can cause an upset tummy, gas, or mild diarrhea; these are easily resolved by giving less.
Human research studies have shown that it is more effective to administer this herb in three or four small portions over the day than in one large daily dose. When it is not possible to split the daily dose and administer the fractional portions three or four times a day, give it at least twice a day.
The capsule form is easy to find – any health food store, and even most pharmacies and grocers, will have them in stock. The herb also comes in a liquid extract, but most human products contain a fair bit of alcohol. If you prefer a liquid preparation, get one specifically intended for use in animals.
One safe, reliable source of a liquid extract is Animals’ Apawthecary (available through some pet specialty shops and many mail order suppliers).
Jean Hofve, DVM, is a regular contributor to WDJ. Her veterinary practice is in Englewood, Colorado.
Who hasn’t heard of CoQ10? A powerful antioxidant, coenzyme Q10 is one of America’s most popular supplements. Literally every cell of the body contains CoQ10. In fact, its other name is ubiquinone, reflecting its widespread distribution in the body.
CoQ10 is most concentrated in the mitochondria, the portion of cells that produce energy. The heart and liver contain more mitochondria per cell than other body parts and thus contain the most CoQ10. Human and animal deficiencies are not yet well understood, but low CoQ10 blood levels have been reported in patients with heart disease, gingivitis (inflammation of the gums), morbid obesity, muscular dystrophy, and AIDS.
As a nutritional supplement for humans, CoQ10 is used to treat angina, congestive heart failure, high blood pressure, mitral valve prolapse, diabetes, gum disease, Alzheimer’s disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), AIDS, and infertility, and to improve athletic performance. In dogs, it is most widely prescribed for congestive heart failure and gum disease.
CoQ10’s Effect on Dogs
Not everyone agrees that CoQ10 works. Bruce West, DC, dismisses CoQ10’s popularity as unsubstantiated hype. In the November 2000 edition of his popular Health Alert newsletter, Dr. West cites a double-blind study showing CoQ10 to be useless in the treatment of congestive heart failure in humans. He expects CoQ10 supplements to simply die a slow death. “It will be around for years, create plenty of millionaires, and then disappear,” he predicts.
Yet other studies have shown completely different results, and many holistic veterinarians and physicians credit CoQ10 for improving their patients’ health dramatically. One explanation may be the type of CoQ10 that is used, as oil-based preparations are usually considered more effective or more easily assimilated than powders. Oil-based CoQ10 is sold in soft gel caps, while crystalline CoQ10 is sold in capsules, tablets, or powders.
Like many veterinarians, Stephen Blake, DVM, of San Diego prescribes daily doses of one milligram (mg) oil-based CoQ10 per pound of body weight for dogs with congestive heart failure and twice that amount (two mg per pound of body weight) if powdered CoQ10 is used. Similar recommendations are common for dogs with gum disease and other health problems.
The October 2001 issue of the Townsend Letter for Doctors & Patients offers additional insight. In a short article, retired chemist Wayne Martin describes his conversations with two leading CoQ10 researchers, Karl Folkers and William Judy. Martin’s friend Karl Folkers, Ph.D., who died in 1999, discovered vitamin B12 in 1948 and later worked with CoQ10 at the University of Texas at Austin and at an institute he founded. According to Martin, Professor Folkers hoped for a better way to get CoQ10 into blood circulation, as the crystalline form of CoQ10 does not pass easily through intestinal mucosa. Because CoQ10 is fat-soluble, Professor Folkers recommended taking it with a teaspoon of coconut oil.
William Judy, Ph.D., a colleague of Professor Folkers, investigated the treatment of hormone-refractory prostate cancer with CoQ10. He discovered that one way to improve the absorption of CoQ10 into the blood circulation is by melting it. Coenzyme Q10 melts at 104 degrees Fahrenheit, which is only slightly above normal body temperature. In Dr. Judy’s highly successful trial, patients taking CoQ10 consumed it in a cup of hot coffee or tea to which fat was added.
How to Give CoQ10 to Dogs
A dog’s normal body temperature (100.5 to 101.5 degrees F) is higher than the normal human temperature but still lower than the melting point of CoQ10. “If one can get a dog to drink warm water,” says Martin, “this should be a good way to give coenzyme Q10 to a dog.” Consider stirring the appropriate amount of CoQ10 into a small amount of hot water to which you have added a teaspoon of coconut oil or butter. Most dogs enjoy the taste of fats and oils, which simplifies its delivery. If necessary, the water/CoQ10/oil mixture can be poured over a favorite food.
In our follow-up interview, Martin explained that all of the world’s CoQ10 comes from a single Japanese supplier. Supplement makers may mix it with oil or put it in different types of capsules or tablets, but the main ingredient of all these products is identical.
Considering the price of CoQ10 supplements, it is reassuring to know that with the help of hot water and a small amount of saturated fat, inexpensive CoQ10 can be more easily absorbed and more thoroughly assimilated than the most expensive oil-based CoQ10 gel cap.
CJ Puotinen is the author of The Encyclopedia of Natural Pet Care, Natural Remedies for Dogs and Cats, and several books about human health including, Natural Relief from Aches and Pains, published last summer. She and her husband live in New York with Samantha, a nine-year-old black Labrador Retriever, and two cats.
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Poor Rupert. I guess having embarrassing stories told about your childhood is one of the hazards of being raised by a journalist. Believe it or not, I try not to talk about my poor dog in every issue. But Pat Millers article about dealing with submissive urination totally brought me back to my first, very challenging year with Rupie who used to leak like a sieve if you gave him so much as a hard look.
Rupert piddled when we called him, dribbled when we walked in the door, and peed on every friend I used to have! And despite the theories forwarded by everyone I knew, he had never been beaten or abused; he was just a super-sensitive little guy. Voices could make him pee his pants loud, high, deep, excited, or disappointed voices. Gestures such as waving or pointing could cause him to spring a leak, even if they werent directed toward him.
In fact, we had to take Rupes sensitivity into account whenever he was within earshot. Once, when my boyfriend and I were arguing about something not loudly, but with some tension Rupert went missing. I found him an hour later hiding silently in the bathtub. I might never have found him if hadnt noticed the shower curtain trembling as I used the toilet.
After reading Millers article for this issue, I now realize that my boyfriend and I probably initially triggered Ruperts inborn submissive urination by letting out a shout when he did something wrong in the house and before long, it was as classically conditioned as Pavlovs dogs. (Miller explains how this happens quite thoroughly.) But as it turns out, we did end up solving the problem in a manner that is not philosophically unlike Pats. By the time he was a year old, his leaks were mostly sealed.
First, we never corrected him with our voices or anything else when he did something wrong, we just ignored it. We let him outside to pee before we would even look at him. And I told friends to ignore him in the house, and to hunker down and look the other way, petting him in an absentminded way if he greeted them outside.
This was not the advice of a trainer, but the suggestions of a famed animal communicator, Penelope Smith. When Rupert was about six months old, I consulted with Smith and asked her to ask Rupert what about his piddling. She responded that Rupert was just as upset about all the peeing incidents as we were, and that what was most upsetting for him was that he knew he was letting us down, but he couldnt help it.
When asked what we should do to help him get control of himself, Smith quoted Rupert as saying, He said to ask everyone to leave him alone; he says it doesnt happen when hes by himself!
When parvo strikes, it moves fast. Infected dogs may appear to be in perfect health one day and violently ill the next. Emergency veterinary care is expensive, and unless dogs are diagnosed and treated early, many die from this serious disease.
However, reactions to parvovirus vary widely – both among dogs and their human caretakers. In a world in which parvovirus is ubiquitous – it is literally everywhere except environments that have been sterilized – parvo kills some dogs and leaves others unscathed. And in the debate about vaccination against this disease, some people vaccinate their dogs early and often, while others refuse to vaccinate against parvo at all.
In this article, we’ll discuss a number of parvovirus prevention and treatment approaches taken by veterinarians and dog guardians today. We’ll also share personal stories from two people whose dogs had parvovirus, and describe how these guardians’ experiences affected their healthcare strategies.
But we won’t tell you which approach you should take with your dog. That, like all health-related issues, is a personal decision that must be made after you learn as much as possible about the risks and benefits of the various approaches.
Understanding Parvo
The smallest and simplest of the microscopic infectious agents called viruses, which cause disease by replicating within living cells, parvovirus consists of a single strand of DNA enclosed in a microscopic capsid, or protein coat. This protein coat, which differs from the envelope of fat that encases other viruses, helps the parvovirus survive and adapt.
Parvoviruses infect birds and mammals (including humans), but until the 1960s, parvovirus did not infect domestic dogs or their wild cousins. The original canine parvovirus, later labeled CPV-1, was discovered in 1967. Eleven years later, CPV-2 emerged in the United States. It apparently mutated from feline distemper, which is the feline parvovirus. CPV-2 quickly infected dogs, wolves, coyotes, foxes, and other canines around the world. A second mutation, CPV-2a, was identified in 1979, and a third, CPV-2b, is in circulation today.
Infection takes place when a susceptible host inhales or ingests the virus, which attacks the first rapidly dividing group of cells it encounters. Typically, these cells are in the lymph nodes of the throat. Soon the virus spills into the bloodstream, through which it travels to bone marrow and intestinal cells. The incubation period between exposure and the manifestation of symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhea is usually three to seven days.
When it attacks bone marrow, parvo damages the immune system and destroys white blood cells. More commonly, it attacks the intestines, causing copious diarrhea and debilitating nausea, which further weakens the dog’s system. Dogs who die of parvo typically do so because fluid loss and dehydration lead to shock, and/or because intestinal bacteria invade the rest of the body and release septic toxins.
Any dog that survives a parvovirus infection is believed to have lifelong immunity; serum antibody titers tend to stay high for prolonged periods after recovery from the virus.
Young puppies and adolescent dogs whose maternal antibodies no longer protect them but whose immune systems have not yet matured are at greatest risk of contracting parvo. Most parvo victims are less than one year old, but the disease can and does occasionally strike adults, too.
Some breeds are particularly susceptible to contracting parvovirus, including Alaskan Sled Dogs, Doberman Pinschers, German Shepherd Dogs, Labrador Retrievers, Rottweilers, and American Staffordshire Terriers.
How Parvo Spreads
Veterinary experts agree that virtually all of the world’s dogs have been exposed to canine parvovirus. The virus begins to “shed,” or be excreted by a dog, three to four days following his exposure to the virus, often before clinical signs of the infection have appeared. The virus is also shed in huge amounts from infected dogs in their feces for 7-10 days; a single ounce of fecal matter from a parvo-infected dog contains 35,000,000 units of the virus, and only 1,000 are needed to cause infection.
In addition, the virus can be carried on shoes, tires, people, animals (including insects and rodents), and many mobile surfaces, including wind and water. Because it is difficult to remove from the environment and because infected dogs shed the virus in such profusion, parvo has spread not only to every dog show, veterinary clinic, grooming salon, and obedience school, but every street, park, house, school, shopping mall, airplane, bus, and office in the world.
While a dog that is diagnosed with parvo will be quickly isolated by his veterinarian and his recent environment will be cleaned and disinfected, some infected dogs have such minor symptoms that no one realizes they are ill. Infected dogs, with or without symptoms, shed the virus for about two weeks. If conditions are right, the virus can survive for up to six months. Although parvo is destroyed by sunlight, steam, diluted chlorine bleach, and other disinfectants, sterile environments can be quickly reinfected.
Medical Treatment
Most veterinarians treat parvovirus with intravenous fluids and antibiotics. In addition, treatment may include balancing the blood sugar, intravenous electrolytes, intravenous nourishment, and an antiemetic injection to reduce nausea and vomiting. None of these treatments “cure” the disease or kill the virus; they are supportive therapies that help stabilize the dog long enough for his immune system to begin counteracting the virus.
According to Los Angeles veterinarian Wendy C. Brooks, DVM, “Every day that goes by allows the dog to produce more antibodies, which bind with and inactivate the virus. Survival becomes a race between the damaged immune system, which is trying to recover and respond, and potentially fatal fluid loss and bacterial invasion.” Puppies and very small dogs are at greatest risk because they have the smallest body mass and can least afford to lose vital fluids.
Bill Eskew, DVM, sees more parvo patients than many veterinarians because he specializes in emergency care. A veterinarian for 25 years, Dr. Eskew currently works in busy clinics in California and Florida. He says fluids and electrolyte balance are the most important aspects of parvo treatment.
“My typical parvo patient is a four-month-old unvaccinated or partially vaccinated puppy,” says Dr. Eskew, “and I see as many as 20 a week. I’m convinced that of all the treatments we use, intravenous fluids make the most difference. In one case I treated a litter of puppies for a man who couldn’t afford antibiotics or other drugs, so I used fluids alone, and the pups all recovered. In fact, as far as I know, all my parvo patients have survived.”
While antibiotics have no effect on viruses, they are considered an important aspect of treatment, especially for puppies. The parvovirus causes the gastrointestinal mucosa, which usually serves as a protective barrier to infection, to slough away, leaving the puppy vulnerable to bacterial infections. Antibiotics protect the puppy from infection until his body’s own system of protection recovers.
CPV Recovery Rates
According to Dr. Brooks, an estimated 80 percent of parvo-infected dogs treated at veterinary clinics recover.
Dr. Eskew credits his success rate to early diagnosis. “The minute we see a puppy that’s been vomiting or has diarrhea,” he says, “we give it a parvo test. The one we use is a rectal swab that shows results within 10 minutes.”
Of course, such early detection tools can be used only if the dog’s guardian is alert to the early signs of illness and hustles him to the veterinary clinic as soon as possible. The sooner the dog receives supportive care, the better his odds of recovery.
Vaccines: Imperfect Protection
Properly administered, vaccines protect most puppies and dogs from parvovirus. But there are cases of vaccinated canines contracting the disease.
In late 1998, WDJ received a letter from a reader whose nine-month-old puppy had contracted (and, happily, recovered from) parvovirus. She was perplexed as to how her properly vaccinated puppy could have become infected, especially since she also owned a brother from the same litter who did not become sick, even though both pups had received the same vaccinations and had been exposed to the same things and places!
The experience of the letter writer’s next-door neighbor added to the mystery. After hearing about the puppy with parvo, the neighbor took her six-month-old, vaccinated puppy to the veterinarian for titer tests, to make sure this puppy was protected. The test indicated that the puppy had no immunity to parvovirus, so she had the pup revaccinated immediately.
For explanations for all these puzzling events, we turned to Jean Dodds, DVM, an expert in veterinary hematology and immunology. Dr. Dodds is also founder and president of Hemopet/Pet Life-Line, of Garden Grove, California. Hemopet is a national nonprofit animal blood bank and adoption program for retired Greyhounds.
Dr. Dodds offered numerous explanations as to why, sometimes, the parvovirus vaccine fails to work as intended.
First, she made clear, no vaccine produces 100 percent protection 100 percent of the time. “Vaccination is not a sure thing,” she explained. “It certainly improves the odds that an animal will be protected from disease, but it does not guarantee this. There is no way, even with the best vaccines, to be sure that any given individual’s immune system will respond in the desired way to protect that animal.”
Not all dogs have perfectly functioning immune responses, and, similarly, not all vaccines function perfectly, either. “There will always be an occasional case of a ‘vaccine break,’ which is what we call it when a vaccine fails to protect an individual against an infectious disease challenge,” said Dodds. “However, when a break occurs, if the animal has been appropriately vaccinated, it will usually experience only a mild form of the disease.” Dr. Dodds speculated that this is the most probable explanation for what happened with the infected puppy mentioned above.
“While there are some rare exceptions, where an appropriately vaccinated animal nonetheless experiences a lethal form of the disease, it is far more typical that such an animal will experience only a mild form of the disease and will recover quickly,” she said.
However, the most common reason for vaccine failures in puppies is maternal antibody interference. Dr. Dodds explained that if a puppy receives a particularly high level of antibodies (passive immunity) from his mother’s colostrum (and to a lesser extent, in utero), these maternal antibodies may cause any vaccine antigens that are administered to be neutralized. Then, when these antibodies wane (usually between 6 and 16 weeks of age), the puppy is left without adequate protection, and has not become actively immunized.
“Maternal antibodies wane at an unpredictable rate, which is why puppies are vaccinated several times at intervals of two to four weeks apart,” said Dr. Dodds. “This is designed in an effort to cover any potential gap in protection or ‘window of susceptibility’ that arises from the waning of maternal passive immunity and the onset of active immunization and protection by vaccination.”
Because of this, a test for serum antibody titer or an additional vaccination is sometimes recommended at 15-16 weeks, especially in high-risk breeds.
Trouble with Titers
Regarding the neighbor’s vaccinated puppy, whose antibody titers showed no antibody protection for parvo: Dr. Dodds thinks that the chances are very good that the puppy actually did have adequate protection from parvovirus, despite the misleading titer test results.
“There are two types of titer tests commonly offered by most veterinary medical laboratories,” Dr. Dodds explained. “One type is intended to detect whether or not a dog has the disease (a viral infection); the other type of titer test checks the level of immunity the dog received from vaccination. In the latter case (a vaccine titer test), antibody levels are expected to be several titer dilutions lower than those conveyed by active viral infection.
“When a veterinarian requests an immunity or antibody level measurement for parvovirus or other disease, the laboratory typically assumes that disease diagnosis, rather than vaccine immunity, is to be performed. When the lab technicians do a test to see whether the dog has parvovirus, they start with a much greater dilution in the test system than is normally used for the detection of vaccine titers. They do this to conserve reagent and reduce cost of testing. But because vaccine titers are lower than disease titers, they won’t be detected until the test reagent dilution is set lower.
“I’ll put it a different way: If they utilize disease exposure methodology, when what is really wanted is a test to assess the adequacy of vaccination, the results will be negative nearly every time,” said Dodds.
While this scenario sounds like an obvious oversight, Dr. Dodds said she has seen it numerous times. Given her expertise and research on vaccine-related issues, many veterinarians consult with Dr. Dodds regarding supposed vaccination failures.
“I’ve seen it again and again: The owner calls me and says, ‘But I keep vaccinating this animal, and my veterinarian keeps testing him and there is no immunity; what do I do?!’
“Very often,” said Dr. Dodds, “it’s a case where the veterinarian looked at the lab catalog and selected the test called ‘Parvovirus Antibody’ rather than the intended one, which would be ‘Parvovirus Vaccine Antibody’ or ‘Parvovirus Vaccine Titer.’ Meanwhile, the poor animal has been vaccinated repeatedly and unnecessarily, and when we finally get the correct measurement, we find that the animal actually had good immunity all along.”
Not Necessarily Parvo
Back to the puppy who was vaccinated but was stricken with parvo anyway: A final explanation is that his illness might have been incorrectly diagnosed. Dr. Dodds explained that veterinarians diagnose parvo by its symptoms – fever, depression, diarrhea, vomiting – and by checking the dog’s stool for presence of parvovirus or serum antibody level. But other gastrointestinal diseases can produce symptoms that closely resemble those of parvo. And even the presence of low levels of parvovirus in the stool doesn’t necessarily mean that the dog’s symptoms are caused by it.
“Dogs who are vaccinated and fully protected against parvovirus may still shed the virus in their stool if they are exposed to the disease agent,” said Dr. Dodds. “Unless the stool sample revealed a moderate to heavy parvovirus infection, I would suspect that the dog’s symptoms could be caused by something else, or a combination of parvovirus exposure and another infectious agent. For example, the puppy could have been exposed to both parvovirus and corona virus, and then suffered diarrhea and other symptoms as a result of the corona virus alone, because he was adequately protected by vaccination against parvovirus.”
Preventive Measures for Unvaccinated Dogs
Can a superior diet protect unvaccinated dogs against parvo? When parvovirus first infected the world’s dogs, thousands credited Juliette de Bairacli Levy’s Herbal Handbook for the Dog and Cat and its Natural Rearing philosophy for saving their dogs’ lives. Levy was the first to advocate a well-balanced raw, natural diet for pets.
Marina Zacharias raised four Basset Hound pups on the Natural Rearing diet. When they were six months old, they played with a puppy the day before it was diagnosed with parvo. “For 10 days after exposure, I gave them one of Juliette’s disinfecting herbal formulas plus homeopathic remedies to help boost their immune function,” she says. “On the tenth day, one of my pups started to show symptoms so I treated it with castor oil to help sweep away the virus as Juliette describes in her book, and I continued with homeopathics. Within two hours this pup was completely back to normal. The other three never showed symptoms and remained healthy.”
Zacharias has received similar reports from numerous clients whose raw-fed, unvaccinated puppies were exposed to parvo. Homeopathic nosodes, which are highly diluted remedies made from the disease material of infected animals, have become popular alternatives to conventional vaccines. But many veterinary homeopaths believe their use as surrogate vaccines is inappropriate.
One is Maryland veterinarian Christina Chambreau, who explains, “The best time to use a homeopathic nosode is after exposure. If you know your dog has been exposed to parvo, you would give a single dose of a 200C-strength homeopathic parvo nosode. This treatment can be given any time after exposure and before the animal gets really sick, such as when it shows minor symptoms like throwing up once or having soft stools.”
Dr. Chambreau says she is aware of about 50 cases in which unvaccinated or minimally vaccinated litters of puppies, kennels of dogs, or individual dogs were exposed to parvo, and after a single treatment with the parvovirus nosode, either did not get the disease at all or had only minor symptoms.
Dr. Chambreau also recommends feeding the best possible diet and boosting the dog’s immune system with supplements such as vitamin C and infection-fighting herbs like echinacea. It is not uncommon, she says, for holistically raised, unvaccinated puppies to have parvo without being diagnosed.
“Many of my clients choose not to vaccinate at all,” Chambreau says, “and it’s not uncommon for their puppies to get sick with a mild case of diarrhea or vomiting that we treat homeopathically or with other holistic therapies. These puppies recover quickly, and what’s interesting is that later, when they’re directly exposed to parvo, they don’t catch it. That minor bout of diarrhea was probably parvo. It’s possible to raise puppies so that they get a natural exposure rather than a vaccine exposure to parvo, and that builds a better immunity than the vaccine in most animals.”
California veterinarian Gloria Dodd first dealt with parvovirus when it appeared 20 years ago. “When parvo first mutated from the Feline Distemper virus, it hit the canine world hard,” she says. “Here was an entire population with no immunity to this new viral infection. In a single week, I was overwhelmed with 55 dogs that had severe clinical infection with bloody diarrhea, vomiting, dehydration, and shock.” The virus affected dogs of all ages, from puppies to 15-year-old dogs with congestive heart failure and others with liver and kidney disease.
“To treat this new illness,” she says, “I made an autoisode. An autoisode is a homeopathic remedy made from the secretions, excretions (saliva, urine, or feces), blood, and hair of the infected animal, for these substances contain the infective agent. I used them to make a sterile intravenous injection and gave this to all of the animals. I didn’t lose a single patient.”
The 30C potency parvovirus autoisode that she made during the epidemic has become the basis of her homeopathic parvo prevention, and she is not aware of any animals, either her own or her clients’, breaking with parvo. “On the contrary,” she says, “it has proven to be protective for unrelated infections by building and strengthening the dog’s own immune system to ward off other infective agents. When I gave it to a Connecticut kennel of Boston Terrier show dogs, they were the only dogs that did not contract kennel cough during an outbreak at a dog show in Massachusetts.”
Weighing the Risks
We want our dogs be healthy and to live forever. Conventional veterinarians see parvo-virus as an easily prevented, unnecessary illness, and vaccination as a simple, inexpensive component of basic care. Many holistic vets take a different view. Both sides make compelling arguments.
“These are difficult decisions,” says Dr. Chambreau. “Which is more devastating: To have an animal die at any age from an acute disease? Or to protect it from the acute disease and watch it develop chronic skin problems, allergies, or autoimmune disorders before it dies of cancer? There are no easy answers.”
I have never owned a dog with separation anxiety, thank goodness. The condition is hard on the dog who suffers from the condition and hard on the dog’s caretakers, too, including owners, vets, groomers, pet sitters, and dog walkers. Care must be taken to prevent triggering the dog’s panic at being left alone—in severe cases, even just long enough for the person caring for the dog to use the restroom!
