We get a lot of new readers every February, which is a good thing, since we are supported only by readers (we dont sell ads so we can retain our independent voice). Most of these new readers come on board as a result of their response to one of our direct mail marketing efforts. (I know that many people have negative associations with direct mail, but these mailings are the only way, other than word-of-mouth, that we find new readers; its probably the way we found you!)
So, we love new readers; we need readers. We wouldnt be here without you. However, the challenge for me, in the month that follows publication of the first issue that many subscribers receive, is responding to the tidal wave of calls, letters, and e-mails from people who, being new to our holistic health/nonviolent training orientation, tend to kind of freak out when they read WDJ for the first time.
Some sample correspondence:
What the heck do you mean Science Diet is no good?! I get it from my vet!
Did you really mean to say we shouldnt use spot-on flea treatments on our dogs?
And, I dont want to spoil my dog with treats. Why dont you talk about training with shock collars?
I try to tell people to hang in there; I know its a shock, at first, to see a publication that actually takes a stand on these issues (and more), advocating for healthy, happy dogs instead of toeing the line in consideration of their advertisers, who actually support those magazines. I try to suggest that they read past the headlines to learn the reasons why we dont like certain foods, pesticides, or training methods; were really not coming out of left field. (I have to admit, in fact, that a small percentage of my correspondents complain that we arent left enough!)
Fortunately, just as many of the new people are thrilled to discover a community of dog lovers who are just as committed as they are to getting and keeping their dogs in tip-top physical, mental, emotional, and even spiritual health. Its a great pleasure to hear the stories these people have to tell about their own quests to find the healthiest dog foods and safest and most humane training methods and equipment.
Anyway, I just wanted to say Thanks for your support! to our repeat subscribers, and Welcome! Sit down and relax! to our new friends. If weve piqued your interest in a certain subject, please consider purchasing one of the articles weve published on the subject in the past (see the “Back Articles” page of our site). OR, simply stand by for more information. We talk about all this stuff food, training, products, health, and the dog/human bond in every issue.
The trim, middle-aged lady strode briskly down the rubber mat in the training center, her black Labrador Retriever bouncing happily at her side. She came to a smooth halt, and Skip sat promptly next to her, in perfect heel position. “Yes!” I thought to myself, and then winced as Carla reached down and enthusiastically patted Skip on the head. Skip jumped up and backed away from his human.
“Carla,” I said softly. “You just punished him for sitting straight.” Carla’s face fell. “Darn it!” she exclaimed. “Why can’t I remember that!”
Wait a minute . . . since when is patting a dog considered punishment? Ever since Skip let us know by ducking his head and backing away from Carla’s hand that he didn’t enjoy being petted. All the other Labs that Carla had owned and trained throughout her life had adored being touched as a reward. Carla petted her dog for being good without even thinking about it – it was a well-conditioned response. Unfortunately, since Skip didn’t like being touched, every time she did it to him, she was actually punishing him, decreasing the likelihood that he would perform that perfect sit again!
A dog’s decisions in life, and his resulting behaviors, are based on whether a particular behavior yields something he likes (a reward) or something he doesn’t like (a punishment). Training is simply a matter of manipulating the rewards and punishments in a thoughtful manner . . . But you have to know your dog – be thoroughly aware of his likes and dislikes – and conscious of your own behavior to make “training” work for you.
Rewards and punishments
In the 1950s, behavioral scientist B.F. Skinner developed a number of principles that are applicable to all living things with a central nervous system. He found that animals are likely to repeat behaviors that are enjoyable/rewarding to them, and not likely to repeat behaviors that result in something unpleasant (punishment). Neutral stimuli – things that don’t matter to the animal – don’t have an impact on behavior one way or the other.
Skinner demonstrated that humans can use these simple principles to modify an animal’s behavior. Rewards are the most reliable way to deliberately increase an animal’s offered behaviors; conversely, punishment decreases those behaviors. (See “The Four Principles of Operant Conditioning,” next at end of story). We use these behavioral principles in dog training with great success.
However, as with Skip, the practical application of “rewards” and “punishments” varies from dog to dog, even though the definition doesn’t. A reward is anything a particular dog likes. A punishment is anything that dog doesn’t like.
We frequently use food treats as our reward in training because we can almost always find some food that a dog will value highly enough that it can serve as an irresistible reward, but food is not the only reward available to us. Remember, a reward is anything a dog likes. It could be a pat on the head (but not for dogs like Skip, who don’t like to be touched), verbal praise, a game of tug o’ war, a chase after a stick or tennis ball, a walk on leash, a car ride, permission to jump up on the sofa, the cue to run an agility course, the release from a “wait” to run out into the yard, permission to go jump in the lake, or the signal to round up a flock of sheep.
When the average inexperienced dog handler hears the word “punishment,” he generally thinks of overt forms of physical punishment, such as smacking, pinching, or kicking the dog, or jerking on the leash. I do not recommend or use physical punishment, as it endangers the handler, damages the relationship with his dog, and can destroy the dog’s enthusiasm for training. Fortunately, physical punishment is not the only way to eliminate an unwanted behavior.
Remember, behaviorists define the word “punishment” as anything that causes an animal to decrease a certain behavior. So, in the case of Skip, the Lab who didn’t like being touched, a pat on the head after he performed a straight sit was enough to make him stop performing those straight sits.
“Positive trainers” – people who have made a commitment to train without the use of pain, fear, force, or intimidation – often use certain forms of “punishment” (in the behavioral sense) to accomplish their training goals. For example, when a dog who craves physical contact and attention jumps all over the trainer, she will turn her back on him and step away, removing both her attention (eye contact and interaction) and the possibility of physical contact with the dog. These are the rewards that the dog is seeking by jumping up. When the dog’s jumping behavior keeps resulting in the loss of something he wants badly, he will stop jumping – especially when this “punishment” is paired with the “reward” of attention, treats, and petting for sitting quietly.
What actually constitutes a punishment or reward to any given dog, then, is an individual matter; in behavioral terms, context is everything.
Unintentional training
Training, therefore, is the intentional use of rewards and punishments to purposefully manipulate a dog’s behavior. What is sometimes difficult to remember is the fact that dogs are learning all the time, whether or not we are paying attention. People are often mystified as to why their dogs do some of the things they do, or fail to do what the people want them to do.
It’s actually pretty simple. Dogs do what works for them; they don’t do things unless they get something out of it.
Dogs do things that we consider “inappropriate behavior,” because it’s fun, it feels good, or it tastes good. From a dog’s perspective, behaviors that are unacceptable to us, such as getting in the garbage, chasing cats, or sleeping on the sofa, are just plain fun!
Frustrated owners frequently say to their trainers, “He knows he’s not supposed to do that! I punish him when he does, but he still does it. Why?” Sometimes, the enjoyment the dog gets from the behavior outweighs the owner’s “punishment.” A dog who is highly aroused by the experience of chasing a cat over the backyard fence may not care a bit about getting yelled at for it.
In other cases, the “punishment” may actually be rewarding to the dog. For example, a boisterous Labrador who gets yelled at, hit, or even kicked for jumping up on his owner may not have any clue that the yelling, hitting, and kicking is supposed to be a punishment. To dogs who crave attention and love physical contact with people, this rough treatment is simply an invitation to play an enjoyable (rewarding) game.
Also, dog owners may fail to realize that they often unthinkingly punish a dog for doing the right thing. If you do this frequently enough, you will inadvertently “train” your dog to stop offering the behaviors you want.
Consider the woman whose dog is enjoying a good romp with some canine pals at the dog park. It’s time to leave, so she calls her dog to her. He immediately leaves his play pals and races to her. “Good dog!” she exclaims, and snaps his leash on, taking him from the park. In her view, the verbal praise was ample reward, and leaving the park has no connection to the recall. But here’s how the dog sees it: “Mom called, I came, and the fun’s over. When I come to Mom, a bad thing happens – the fun stops.” He is likely to think twice about coming the next time she calls while he is playing with friends!
Many people have lots of trouble training their dog to come reliably when called. Perhaps they haven’t given enough consideration to what happens to the dog most of the time after he does come. It doesn’t take a canine Einstein to realize that coming when called is a bad idea if something “bad” consistently happens to him immediately afterward – say, he gets stuffed into the basement or locked away from all the guests in the kitchen, or tossed outside in the cold rain.
Training may also break down when the reward isn’t valuable enough to motivate the dog to bother trying to get it. You must program an automatic response to the “come” cue with a high-value reward in the absence of enticing distractions before you try to apply it in the face of dashing squirrels. Few dogs will leave a squirrel hunt in order to come and earn a piece of dry kibble! Many positive trainers use a variety of enticing rewards and mix them up. Then the dog is never sure how big the “payoff” for his good behavior will be; he just knows it will be good.
If you doubt that mixing small rewards (such as verbal praise, a pat, or a piece of dry kibble) with larger rewards (such as pieces of fresh meat, chasing a ball, or being released to run free) is a powerful motivator, consider the slot machine. As long as it pays out a mixture of no rewards, small rewards, and only an occasional jackpot, human gamblers will continue to sit there and pull the handle, long past the time that it makes sense to do so!
Random acts of reinforcement
Having a variety of rewards in your training tool kit gives you greater flexibility and allows you to train your dog without always having a huge supply of treats in your pocket. A good training program moves toward variable reinforcement once the dog is reliably performing a new behavior. Instead of clicking and giving the dog a treat every time he performs the behavior, you occasionally skip a click and praise the dog instead, then ask for the behavior again and click the next one. Gradually increase the variation and length of the reinforcement schedule, remembering that randomness is important.
If you simply keep making your dog work harder and harder for a click, he’s likely to quit on you. If you vary the reinforcement schedule, like a Las Vegas slot machine, he can’t predict when you will pay off. Will I get a click this time? This time? This time? Click! Just as people will continue inserting quarters, your dog will keep offering behaviors with enthusiasm, sure that the next one will hit the jackpot.
To maintain his enthusiasm as you gradually lengthen the reinforcement schedule, use other rewards to let him know he’s still on track. I frequently use “Good dog!” as praise after I click and treat, so that my dogs associate the same warm fuzzy feeling of getting a food reward with the verbal praise. Then, when I use the verbal praise even without the click and treat, they still have the same classically conditioned response from the association of praise with food, and it makes them feel good. Thus, “Good dog!” becomes a useful reward even without food.
Other rewards may create more of an interruption in the training game. If you use a toy as a reward, you have to stop and let your dog play with it for a while. This can work really well to amp him up on the enthusiasm scale, especially for a dog who is ball crazy or loves to tug. It doesn’t work well when you want to do a lot of repetitions of a discrete behavior in a row. If you toss the ball every time he responds to your “down” cue, it will take you a long time to do a half-dozens repetitions. It does work well as a reward for an extended behavior, such as heel. A ball-crazy dog can learn to heel with perfect attention for long stretches in anticipation of the ball-chase that happens at the end.
Timing is key
It is important to a successful training program to understand what your dog likes and doesn’t like, and to use those rewards and punishments effectively. In order to be effective, consequences – good or bad – must be delivered in close proximity in time to the behavior you are trying to influence.
Say your dog tips over your kitchen garbage can while you are away at work. If you reprimand him when you get home from work, hours after the garbage raid occurred, it only teaches your dog that you are sometimes unpredictable and dangerous when you come home. No matter how “guilty” he looks when you scold him, he makes no connection between your behavior of yelling at him and his behavior of getting in the garbage hours earlier. Your perception of his apparent guilt-stricken conscience, manifested in his lowered head, lack of eye contact, and slinking along the baseboards, is a faulty interpretation of his classic canine body language attempts to quell your wrath, whatever the cause.
Behaviorists agree that a reward or punishment must be delivered within three seconds, preferably one second or less, of the behavior you are trying to increase or decrease. This is a pretty small window of time, and underscores the value of using a clicker or other reward marker (or no-reward marker) to mark the instant of desired (or inappropriate) behavior. If you say “Oops!” the instant your dog jumps up and you turn away, you are teaching your dog a no-reward marker, which you can use to communicate to your dog which behavior it was that made the good thing go away (negative punishment). If you Click! or say “Yes!” the instant your dog sits, he will come to understand that the sit earned the reward, even if it takes several seconds for you to get the treat into his mouth, and even if he gets up from the sit before you manage to deliver the treat.
Skipping ahead
Carla and I had a long discussion about how to continue with Skip’s training. We identified two options. Using desensitization, we could teach Skip that having Carla pat him on the head really was a reward, by consistently pairing her touch with an off-the-charts treat reward, using gentle contact at first, then increasing in intensity until he learned to associate vigorous patting with “really good stuff.” Carla made a commitment to doing this for the long term, as she really wanted Skip to enjoy her touch.
We also initiated a short-term approach of modifying Carla’s behavior, agreeing to use positive reinforcement and negative punishment with her. Every time Skip sat and she didn’t reach down to pat him, Carla earned a reward, such as a quarter, a piece of chocolate, or a dog toy. Every time she forgot and reached down to pat him, I stepped out of the training room without a word, for a period of time from 30 seconds to three minutes. It worked beautifully, and in short order, Skip was sitting happily in perfect heel position when Carla halted, without fear of being punished for his good behavior.
Spot-on flea products are advertised in every sort of media available to animal guardians and veterinarians, and are touted as safe and effective. However, as we discussed in February 2002, the safety record of these products is not as spotless as the manufacturers would make us believe. After all, they contain pesticides, which are poisons, and they also contain toxic ingredients that are not disclosed to consumers – or even veterinarians – without applying through the Freedom of Information Act.
The danger presented by these products becomes apparent in the hundreds of incident reports that sit in the Environmental Protection Agency’s files – not to mention the manufacturer’s own animal laboratory studies. These logs indicate hundreds of deaths and illnesses of cats and dogs who have been treated with these products by their guardians and veterinarians.
Veterinarians have even reported their own systemic reactions to the products.
In spite of this documentation, some of the manufacturers continue to claim that their products cause no internal or external health effects to animals or people. They even go so far as to assert that the products are not absorbed into the skin of the animal or human; this is not true, according to studies by the Environmental Protection Agency (see “Are Spot-On Flea Killers Safe?“).
You Have Safe Flea Removal Options
Fortunately, we have safe alternatives – effective, nontoxic methods to keep our companion animals and households free from fleas and their irritating and sometimes debilitating impacts. The safest and most effective way to eliminate fleas utilizes an approach called “integrated pest manage-ment” (IPM).
IPM is an ecosystem-based strategy that focuses on long-term prevention of pests. Pest control materials are selected and applied in a manner that minimizes risks to human and animal health, beneficial and nontarget organisms, and the environment.
The first step in any IPM program is to learn everything we can about the target, in this case, the flea. Who is the flea, and what are his habits? With this knowledge, we can implement an effective, nontoxic approach – and the knowledge that everyone in our household and surrounding environment is safe from the ravages of pesticides.
All There is to Know About Fleas
Ctenocephalides felix, the “cat flea,” is what we find in greatest numbers on our dogs and in our homes; they represent 85 to 95 percent of all household fleas found in North America. But Pulex irritans, the “human flea,” and Ctenocephalides canis, the “dog flea,” can also be found. Their bites can cause varying degrees of problems in our dogs, including an allergic skin reaction known as “flea allergy dermatitis,” tapeworm, and in severe cases, even anemia. Some dogs may host a small population of fleas for years without exhibiting problems; others may suffer a single flea bite that triggers a major allergic reaction. In most homes, it is often the dog’s scratching and chewing himself that leads his guardians into some form of flea control.
The flea progresses through four life stages: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. The time span, choice of place to inhabit, and climate conditions are relevant to each stage of development.
The average life span of a flea is about six weeks, but under certain conditions they can live as long as a year. While in the adult stage, the flea lives on our dog’s skin, and even lays its eggs there. However, the eggs laid by the females (up to 200-600 eggs in her lifetime) fall off and hatch in the environment, not on the animal.
When these eggs hatch, the emerging larvae feed on the feces of the adult fleas, which makes our dog’s bedding an ideal place for this development to take place. The larvae are wormlike, and burrow down into any available dark, protected areas, including cracks in flooring, or underneath furniture cushions; outdoors, they migrate to areas underneath leaf piles, decks, or porches. After a week or two of feeding, the larva spins a cocoon where it can maintain a pupal state until an external stimulus triggers it to hatch into the adult – sometimes upward of 140 days. While in the cocoon state, the flea pupa is protected from insecticides and other external threats.
Stimuli that initiate the emergence from the cocoon can include heat, vibration (a vacuum cleaner is a great trick tool!), moisture, physical pressure, and carbon dioxide – essentially anything that indicates a warm-blooded host is available. Larvae turn into pupae, and new adults emerge.
It’s been estimated that at any given time, only about 1 percent of a population of fleas is in the adult stage. About 14 percent are in the pupal stage, 35 percent are in the larval stage, and 50 percent are in the egg stage. Focusing flea control efforts – especially, resorting to chemical poisons – on only this tiny minority of the flea population (the adults) just doesn’t make sense. That’s why IPM techniques work so well: They target every aspect of the flea population.
Fleas prefer temperatures of 65 to 80 degrees and humidity of 75 to 85 percent. Individuals living at high elevations (above 5,000 feet) and in climates where freezing can occur year-round are at the lowest risk of flea problems. In cold weather (40 degrees or below), adult fleas die and the other stages lie dormant. In temperate climates, where winters rarely bring freezing temperatures, fleas may be active all year long. A flea program that is effective in temperate climates will be dependable anywhere.
1. Begin Your Flea Removal Operation with the Dog
In order to control a flea infestation with IPM techniques, it is necessary to treat not only your dog, but also the indoor and outdoor environments surrounding your dog. In discussing all of these, we’ll start at the center: The dog.
Improve the Dog’s Health
“The most important measure you can take for flea control is similar to that with any illness, and that is to strengthen the overall health of the animal,” states Don Hamilton, DVM, author of Homeopathic Care for Cats and Dogs: Small Doses for Small Animals. “In general, given the same environment, healthier animals suffer less from fleas. It all comes back to good food, lots of love, and minimal stress.” Dr. Hamilton prescribes a human grade food, preferably a raw meat diet for dogs, along with supplements, a clean indoor air environment (see “No Room to Breathe,” WDJ October 2001), and no vaccinations. Carolann Mancuso, one of Dr. Hamilton’s clients living near Tampa, Florida, has used this protocol for keeping her dog family healthy and flea-free for over a decade.
A healthy dog is less likely to be the target for fleas. Fleas seem to know which dogs are ill in a household. If you are not already feeding a raw meat, homemade diet or human-grade food, this is the time to shift gears. A healthy immune system will make your dog less tasty to a flea. Consult a holistic veterinarian to help boost the health of your dog’s immune system. Some complementary therapies that are useful include acupuncture, Chinese herbs, homeopathy, and nutritional therapy.
Use Supplements
There are numerous dietary additives reputed to be helpful in repelling fleas. Unfortunately, their effectiveness varies from dog to dog. Some people have found the following remedies to be effective for their dogs. If, after giving your dog any of these supplements for a month, you see no improvement in the flea population, consult your holistic veterinarian for further direction.
Garlic: One clove per day of crushed organic garlic for a large dog, half for a medium-sized dog, and a quarter for a small dog. Or, use a capsule of cold-pressed garlic oil; adjust the canine dosage from the human dosage on the label (assuming a 150 pound human dose).
Vitamin B complex (with vitamin B1): Use a plant-source vitamin B complex, and again, adjust the dose for your dog’s weight. Some people simply add brewers yeast to the dog’s diet for its vitamin B1. Note: Some dogs are allergic to brewers yeast.
Natural Topical Preparations
The results with topical solutions vary widely. Only some users have success with this. What works well for some dogs may not work at all for others. Desist if these suggestions do not work within three to four weeks.
Essential oils of cedar, tea tree, citronella, lavender, eucalyptus, and pennyroyal (Note: the last two are toxic to cats): Mix 10 drops of certified organic essential oil to one tablespoon of olive oil. Spray on your dog as a repellent.
A lemon rinse: Steep a cut-up lemon or two in a quart of boiling water and allow to cool. Use liquid as a rinse or sponge onto the coat. Remember that topical preparations – whether safe, natural remedies or poisonous chemicals – target only 1 percent of the flea population, the adults. While repelling adult fleas will help a flea-allergic dog, it should never be your only focus.
Comb the Dog Daily
Using a flea comb will help you determine the effectiveness of your efforts. Comb around the dog’s tail, stomach, and face, where they tend to collect in greater quantities. Look for fleas, as well as flea eggs (tiny white specks) and flea feces (slightly larger black specks). Drop anything you find into a glass of water; it will drown the eggs and fleas. Flea feces is comprised largely of your dog’s blood, and will turn the water reddish brown, confirming the presence of fleas even if no adults are found.
During the Height of Infestation, Bathe Your Dog Weekly
Use a noninsecticidal soap; reduce this frequency as the flea problem diminishes, because over-frequent bathing can dry out the skin. Rinsing the dog completely to remove all soap will help prevent drying the dog’s skin, as will increasing the essential fatty acids in the dog’s diet. For dogs who are being bathed frequently, using a nonscented hypoallergenic shampoo, such as Logona Free Shampoo and Shower Gel, will be less irritating to their skin.
Keep Your Dog Confined
Restrict him to areas of the house that are easy to manage when a flea problem exists (close off basements or extra bedrooms).
2. Now Remove Fleas in the Outdoor Environment
Outdoor flea populations can be controlled quickly and easily. Again, the focus here is on the 99 percent of the flea population: the nonadult stages of the flea.
Keep Grass Cut Short
Mow often and rake leaves to prevent piles where flea eggs, larvae, and pupae can harbor.
Apply a Mixture of Water and Food-Grade Diatomaceous Earth (DE)
DE is a calcium dust ground from single-cell ocean organisms. Apply it to your lawns, walkways and planting beds (anywhere your dog frequents). Be sure you use food-grade DE. In wet, humid climates, apply every other month; in drier climates, you can apply this less frequently.
This application works as an abrasive and desiccant, physically drying out and destroying the adult fleas’ breathing organs as well as drying out and killing flea larvae. This process is inexpensive, and the flea cannot develop resistance to DE. Use a mask whenever handling DE; the dust can irritate the lungs.
Thoroughly hose down any outdoor areas where dogs hang out; this will drown adult fleas, and kill flea larvae, pupae, and eggs.
Beneficial Nematodes
Nematodes are tiny worms that kill flea larvae and pupae by feeding on them. They can be purchased from progressive garden supply stores and catalogs and spread around the garden. Nematodes work especially well in warm, humid climates. They are available through Gardens Alive and Planet Natural.
3. Sterilize Your Indoor Environment
Indoor environment control is relatively simple, and like your outdoor control efforts, should focus on the largest part of the flea population – the nonadult stages.
Wash Floors Frequently
Flea eggs, larvae, and pupae are attracted to cracks and joints in floors.
Remove Area Rugs During the Flea Season
If you are considering a remodel or new construction, choose alternatives to wall-to-wall carpeting, such as cork, wood, ceramic, or linoleum (not vinyl) flooring.
Vacuum Carpeting Daily
Do this during most intense time of infestation, cutting back to once or twice a week when it is under control. Seal the vacuum bag each time and put it in a freezer to kill the fleas before reusing.
Wash Your Dog’s Bedding
Wash it at least once a week in hot water and a mild detergent, vinegar, or hydrogen peroxide (a whitening agent).
Professional Steaming
Hire a professional to steam clean your carpeting, furniture, and dog bedding. Use only hot water in the steam cleaning – no additives. Steam kills adult fleas and larvae and stimulates flea eggs to hatch. Vacuum daily within two days after the steam cleaning treatment to capture the newly hatched fleas. Be thorough; move all furniture and vacuum underneath and in all corners. Bathe your dog right after steam cleaning.
Set Flea Traps
A light trap attracts and kills adult fleas. Most traps employ light to attract fleas, and either adhesive material or water to trap and kill the adult fleas that arrive. You can also make your own trap with sticky tape or a pan of soapy water beneath a hanging light bulb.
Flea Removal Options with *Slight* Toxicity
So far, all the indoor approaches we discussed are nontoxic. The methods we’ll discuss next have some toxic properties. However, properly used, these are very safe – far safer than pesticides.
Inert Desiccant Dusts
There are several chemically inert desiccant dusts, including diatomaceous earth (DE), that can be applied to your carpeting to effectively kill fleas in all their life stages. Use only food grade (natural) DE – avoid swimming pool grade. Use care when applying; keep animals out of the rooms being treated. Dusts can cause breathing problems in humans and animals and exacerbate asthmatic conditions. Do not use if any household members have asthmatic or upper respiratory conditions. Wear a mask when handling and apply close to the carpet surface (avoid creating airborne dust).
Apply at the beginning of your flea season, and keep crawling children and animals out of those rooms. A day after application, vacuum well to remove the residual.
Using Boron to Kill Fleas
There are several boron-based compounds that can be used to kill fleas, including (unscented) Twenty Mule Team Borax (available in grocery stores) or boric acid powder (available in most garden centers; use only products that are 100 percent boric acid). Flea Busters Rx For Fleas can be hired to apply sodium polyborate (100 percent active ingredient) to your carpets about every eight months.
Note: Tests indicate that boron has some toxicity when applied to broken skin.
Give Integrated Pest Management Time to Work
Sometimes the answer to our problem is very simple, but takes the one thing we seem to struggle with daily – time. Time to understand the full impacts of the flea product you are considering using, and time to create a healthy environment for your dog during the flea season, and year-round.
It does take more time for an IPM program to work than it would if you used pesticides. But it is important to understand that pesticide use can be dangerous to your family’s health. In her book Designer Poisons – about the dangers of pesticides – Dr. Marion Moses minces no words: “When we share metabolic or neuro pathways with insects, we are impacted by these chemicals. The difference is only in amount – just because it doesn’t kill humans or animals doesn’t mean it is not having damaging health effects.”
Kathleen Dudley is a writer and photgrapher, and lives in New Mexico.
Some people will never give up their use of spot-on pesticides, despite the health risks to themselves and their dogs. I know you’re out there, and I understand. Perhaps you have a dog with a flea allergy so severe – a dog who scratches and chews himself so badly that he develops severe hair loss, “hot spots,” and/or worn teeth – that taking time to reap the benefits of an integrated pest management plan seems unthinkable. Giving up these fast, effective flea-killing products may seem like a step back into the dark ages.
I don’t think it has to be that hard; there is certainly some middle ground you can explore, something between using spot-on products monthly and not using them at all. Consider the following as a compromise.
1. Don’t use flea-killing pesticides as your only form of flea control. Continue to use integrated pest management techniques such as frequent vacuuming, washing the dogs’ bedding weekly, and using flea combs and traps to monitor the flea population.
2. ALWAYS read the directions for the products and follow them explicitly. Many chemical product injuries result from misapplication. If a label indicates you should not administer the product to dogs of a certain age, or to dogs who are sick, don’t use the product. Don’t guess your dog’s weight to determine the dose; ask your vet if you can bring your dog into the clinic to weigh him. It’s important that you use only the correct amount of the product and no more.
3. Although the makers would like you to regard the monthly application of their products as a necessary monthly chore, it may not be needed that often. In many homes, once fleas have been eradicated, it may be months or even years before a new population is somehow introduced.
Try discontinuing use of the products, and keeping a close eye on all pets in the house. Check each animal for fleas visually and with a flea comb every few days. Don’t use the spot-on products as long as all animals appear flea-free.
4. Stretch the period between applications. I know people who treat their dogs two to three times a year with great success.
5. Make a note on your calendar every time you apply a spot-on product to your dog – but not to remind you to do it again next month! Do it so you can keep track of the total exposures you have subjected your dog to over time, and so you can track any reactions he may exhibit. Best of all, devote a small notebook to keeping a complete health history for your dog, noting use of flea treatments, major diet changes, veterinary treatments, and any unusual reactions you may see.
6. Try to limit the number of ways that new populations of fleas can be introduced to your home. I don’t take Rupert, my severely flea-allergic dog, to my friends’ homes because most of them have dogs, and in the mild climate of the San Francisco Bay area, most of us struggle with fleas.
More difficult is the issue of my friends’ dogs coming to my house. Although I edit this magazine from my home, and I love my friends’ dogs, too frequently, Rupert would break out in paroxysms of itching and chewing after dogs visited. Frequently, I could never find a flea on him; I assumed it was probably a single flea bite that set him off. Finally, I had to ask my friends to either leave their dogs at home or leave them in the car when they came over. And when it is necessary to have a dog over (boarding relatives’ dogs over the holidays, having the neighbor’s dog come over to relieve her separation anxiety), I check him or her for fleas before they get to the front door! If the flea comb turns up fleas, into the bathtub they go.
7. Say your situation displays all of the signs of the worst-case scenario: You live in a mild climate, where fleas are a year-round problem. You have multiple dogs, and you regularly take them to dog parks, daycare, beaches, or other areas where many dogs congregate. Maybe you have friends who bring their dogs over, too, so introductions of new fleas are more or less constant. The only way you have ever been able to achieve a flea-free household is to use spot-on products on your dogs.
If this describes your household, consider taking all of the following steps: Implement all the integrated pest management techniques you can (don’t rely on chemicals alone for control); extend the time between applications as long as you can; and treat healthy adult dogs more frequently than very young, old, or sick dogs. For example, treat the two healthy dogs and skip the immune-compromised individual, concentrating every nontoxic remedy that exists on that dog.
8. If your dog ever shows signs of a reaction following administration of a spot-on product, take your dog to your veterinarian.Report the reaction to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which tracks adverse pesticide experiences. You can also report the incident to the product manufacturer; pesticide makers are required by federal law to forward any adverse experience reports to the EPA.
Another good resource is the National Pesticide Information Center, which provides information on recognizing and treating pesticide poisonings, and can make referrals for investigation of pesticide incidents.
Signs of pesticide poisoning include external reactions such as redness, swelling, or blistering. Signs of internal injuries include shortness of breath or rapid breathing, drooling, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, excessive fatigue, or muscle twitching. If your dog displays any of these signs following pesticide application (even a week or weeks afterward), discontinue use and consult your veterinarian. And – seriously – don’t use that sort of product again.
The last time we reviewed dog beds was in the January 2000 issue. At that time, we were overwhelmed by the multitude of disparate models that are available: cot-style, foam, cedar-filled, fiber-filled, waterproof, waterbeds, circular, round (there’s a difference!), washable, impossible . . . it was kind of hard to know how to choose which ones to talk about.
This time, we decided to review just one category of bed: foam-filled. We chose this area of concentration for several reasons.
First, thick foam beds offer the most cushioning for your dog’s comfort – and a dog who is comfortable on his bed won’t continually sneak onto yours!
Second, in our opinion, after much exploration and experimentation, we have come to the conclusion that (good quality) foam beds hold up better than any other type over time. If you compare the life expectancy of a good foam bed with that of a good fiber-filled bed, for example, you’ll find the foam bed still in use long after its rival has gotten funky and been thrown out.
Not all foam beds can be thrown in a washing machine (we love the ones that can). But at least they can be taken outside and hosed off, which is a good thing to do occasionally, since immersion is an amazing anti-flea technique (see the article “Integrated Pest Management for Flea Control”). It’s a little difficult to wring them out – letting them drain by propping them up on one edge helps – but they air-dry surprisingly quickly. In contrast, many beds that are stuffed with cedar chips, fiberfill, or a combination of the two are almost impossible to wash.
Finally, we found so much variation in the quality of the products in this one category, we felt compelled to help you identify the beds that were truly worth the money and avoid the cheesy ones. And there are a lot of cheesy beds being sold.
Cheesiness may not be a huge concern for those commendable individuals who shop only in person; a one-minute, hands-on inspection of a bed is enough to prevent you from buying a product that is woefully inadequate. But many of our readers commonly buy products from online stores and print catalogs; all they have to go on is a scanty (and often inaccurate) description and a photograph. Believe us, the personal ads are more accurate than these portraits!
It’s funny; in the personal ads, people generally describe themselves as thinner than they really are. In ads for foam beds, sellers always describe their products as fatter than they really are! The foam is described as firm, thick, soft yet supporting, and cuddly; still more claims are made of “orthopedic foam,” also known as eggcrate or “cone and valley” foam. It’s frequently said to “distribute the dog’s weight” in some special but unspecified way and to “relieve pressure on joints.” A top-quality, dense eggcrate foam does provide variable pressure, which helps prevent loss of circulation, which is why hospitals use eggcrate foam mattresses on their beds. However, only a few of the “orthopedic” foam beds we examined utilize foam that is thick enough or dense enough to actually provide the sought-after effect. Most are so thin that they can easily be squashed between your thumb and forefinger to a blanket’s thickness.
Selection criteria
As you may have guessed, the density or thickness of the foam used in the beds we examined was our main criterion for choosing which beds to order. We selected beds that either looked especially thick or were described as especially thick. In a couple of cases, where the description made the bed sound luxuriously dense and the picture made the bed look thin, we ordered the product anyway, just so we could bust ’em on it.
On the following pages, we describe the products we tested, including beds we love and a bunch that we don’t want you to waste your money on. While the thickness of the foam, as we’ve hinted, was a major preoccupation, it wasn’t our only selection criteria. We also considered the following:
• Foam quality (not just thickness): Some of the foams used are very granular and feel like they will quickly disintegrate. The ones we like are more dense and durable.
• Cover quality: Some of the fabrics we examined appeared to be no more durable than a premium paper towel. Others were tough as all-get out, but not very cozy. We like something in the middle. You may have a reason to choose one or the other; we describe all the fabrics so you can choose.
• Ability to easily replace the cover after washing: This is a hard-and-fast rule: If a bed makes us weep in frustration or gnash even a single tooth, we don’t like it. In our house, a reputation of being difficult to launder means it won’t get laundered very often, and that’s not good. (Maybe you have someone who handles this sort of thing for you. We don’t.) To this end, we like zippers that are positioned on the long side of beds, or elastic that has enough latitude to allow for less than factory-perfect placement without folding the bed into a strange parabola that your dog feels differently about ever afterward – you know what we’re talking about, don’t you?
• Unique features: We note anything that increases the convenience or charm of one of the beds, such as free alternate covers, or the availability of a waterproof cover (for incontinent dogs).
• Attractiveness: We’re putting this last, because it’s not really very important. But we are including it, because these dang beds are laying all over all of our homes, and they might as well look good, right?
We’ll note prices, but don’t suggest using price as your main selection criterion. We found a couple of bargains (relative to the products’ quality), and we’ll note those. But some of the expensive beds are costly because they truly are so much better. Also, we ordered fairly large sizes in all of the beds, which cost a lot more than small sizes. In general, we suggest you get a bed that is bigger than your dog really needs; dogs tend to reject beds that are too small.
We used to include “Ability to be returned” in our list of criteria. We actually did return a number of beds this time, and didn’t have a problem receiving a refund for the purchase price from any of the sellers.
However, we were horrified to discover that the shipping for some of the beds – which are generally light but shipped in big boxes – ended up costing almost as much as the beds themselves! The sellers, we learned, receive commercial, bulk rates for shipping from all the major carriers. We have no such account, and it cost us big time. With our warnings about all of the beds that we don’t think are worth their cost, you shouldn’t have any reason to return one.
Note: Be advised that in the time since this article was originally published the company PC Panache has changed its phone number and the old one is not forwarding. The number listed in the chart is now incorrect. The new number is 610-689-3829.
Everywhere you look someone is clutching a bottle of “pure” drinking water, adorned with a label showing pristine, snow-covered mountains, or lush, northern forests. True, in some cases, people are responding to a fad. Increasingly, however, health-conscious Americans are reacting to serious concerns about the safety of drinking water available for their own consumption, and for the animals in their care.
Water plays a critical and complex role in the health of all mammals, constituting 55 to 75 percent of the body mass of warm-blooded creatures. A fetus develops in its mother’s amniotic sac and, from birth till death, water bathes and fills every one of a mammal’s billions of cells. In essence, the bodies of people, dogs, and other mammals are water-cooled engines. Releasing water vapor by panting and sweating through its paw pads induces gentle cooling in a dog’s body.
Water also lubricates a dog’s joints and muscles, cushions the spaces between each individual cell, and fills up all of the minute hollows in a dog’s body. The principal element of blood, water transports oxygen to all canine body tissues, and helps the white blood cells produced by a dog’s immune system move about its body and fight infections. Water provides an environment in which enzymes can digest food in a dog’s stomach, and convert it to energy for survival.
Water cleanses and detoxifies a mammal’s entire body. Known as the universal solvent, water is extremely stable and can carry many different substances, either in suspension or solution, without being permanently changed itself. However, this characteristic of water is a double-edged sword. Water’s ability to remove toxins from a body makes it capable of transporting quite a bit of toxic material into a body, as well.
All of the above are reasons why drinking the purest water possible is important for any person’s or any dog’s good health. It’s even more important for certain individuals to drink pure water. Any dog (or human) who has cancer; kidney, liver or immune dysfunction; or chemical sensitivity should receive the purest water possible. (See “Which Dogs Need the Best Water?” at the end of the story.)
What’s wrong with tap water?
Most adult Americans grew up without ever giving the quality of their municipal drinking water a second thought. It was readily available, it usually tasted fine, it didn’t smell bad, and it had been “treated” by the municipal water company, so it must be safe, right?
Yes and no. The Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974, the 1986 Amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act, and the Water Quality Control Act of 1987 all authorized the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to set and enforce quality standards for drinking water. As a result of this legislation, water utilities concentrate on eliminating immediate and severe health threats from tap water, such as harmful bacteria. Their purification methods do not target the small amounts of chemicals that are harmful only after years of ingestion. The “safety thresholds” that scientists use to set “acceptable” levels of pollutants in drinking water don’t account for these small amounts of toxins consumed over time, or for the combined effects of small amounts of many toxins consumed together.
Because of the uncertain impact of these possible health hazards, and the lack of irrefutable proof of their long-term health consequences, water utilities set standards that reduce the risks of unhealthy water, but often end up as a compromise between what is safest and what is practical in the cost-conscious real world.
At the Second International Conference on Pharmaceuticals and Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals in Water, held in Minneapolis in October 2001, researchers and scientists confirmed the presence of 129 widely used drugs in U.S. municipal wastewater, 49 at levels above a cutoff point for regulation.
Wastewater treatment plants remove solids and partly purify water before releasing it back into the environment, where it mixes with other water supplies in rivers, lakes, streams, and oceans. Substances such as caffeine, nicotine by-products, antibiotics, antidepressants, antacids, heart drugs, and more make it back into water supplies. It’s true; these substances have been found in low, but detectable levels in water supplies all over the U.S.
At the conference, New Mexico water engineers announced that they detected low concentrations of birth control hormones, the anti-seizure medicine Dilantin, the antidepressant Elavil, and the painkiller Darvon. In Atlanta, they found diltiazem and gemfibrozil (both heart drugs), and metformin (a diabetes drug), among other things.
Water treatment processes do not completely purify the water provided to residential consumers – not because they can’t, but because it is not cost-effective to do so. Typically, only about five percent of the water purified by treatment plants and delivered to our homes is used for drinking and cooking. Consumers use the rest – about 95 percent of the water from our municipal suppliers or wells – for bathing, washing, watering lawns, flushing toilets, and other household chores. It would be very expensive to apply the world’s most stringent drinking water standards to the entire water supply provided to a home. Instead, water managers are charged with the task of bringing water to “safe standards” – good enough to not make people sick.
Understandably, many people choose water prepared expressly for their families’ drinking water by purchasing it, or by removing the final traces of contaminants from the water just prior to its consumption, using a home-purification system. This is a wise choice, especially as scientists are just starting to realize that we may not know very much about the long-term effects of consuming even very low levels of contaminants. Holistic health improvement programs aim to reduce the level and type of pollutants introduced into a body from any source.
What’s in our drinking water
What potential, waterborne contaminants may be found in our drinking water, and how can dog owners remove them? The answer is not as simple as lugging home a few jugs of bottled water every week. First, let’s examine the kinds of health-threatening impurities that can appear in drinking water, and then evaluate the various water purification methods designed to remove them:
• Microorganisms: Bacteria, viruses, and parasites: Water treatment plants can easily determine the presence of bacteria in public water supplies and add chlorine to kill them. Viruses are much smaller than bacteria and more difficult to detect. Although disinfecting tap water with chlorine probably kills most viruses, it is difficult to test for their presence. Some waterborne viruses cause cold and flu epidemics in humans. Giardia and crypto-sporidium are the most common parasites found in drinking water. They occur in the form of hard-shelled cysts that protect them from chlorine, and they can cause mild to severe gastrointestinal problems in healthy people and animals.
• Minerals and metals: Some of these inorganic substances are considered mere nuisances, such as calcium, which causes hard water. Others, such as lead, mercury, nitrates, and aluminum are harmful to health. These substances can originate from naturally occurring sources, industrial discharges, runoff from urban or agricultural areas, or metal pipes and fixtures. Generally, water treatment plants reduce these substances to safe levels for immediate consumption; storage in contaminated pipes can recontaminate the water.
• Organic chemicals: Derived from plant or animal matter, organic chemicals include fertilizers, pesticides, petroleum-based fuels, preservatives, and dyes. In addition to the organic chemicals that have reached the tap water supply, the water purification process itself may create dangerous ones. Chlorine, which is added to virtually all U.S. drinking water, combines with organic chemicals and other natural debris to form trihalomethanes (THMs). Chloroform, the most common THM, is a known carcinogen.
• Radioactive substances: Radon, a naturally occurring source of radioactive gas, can become concentrated in well water that enters directly into a home water system before the water becomes exposed to air. Radon gas in water dissipates quickly when the water is aerated.
• Additives: Public water treatment facilities, from small community systems to large urban waterworks, all add substances to tap water. Chlorine, an effective disinfectant, also produces THMs. In 1947, the U.S. first introduced fluoride into drinking water to help prevent tooth decay in children. There has long been a controversy over this practice, with some scientists suspecting that long-term ingestion of fluoride may cause bone disease; other scientists refute this claim and defend municipal fluoridation. Although some American communities have discontinued this practice, it continues in many others.
• Pharmaceuticals and drugs: As much as 90 percent of the prescription and over-the-counter drugs humans consume are excreted in their urine and feces. Waste from farm animals is similarly loaded with antibiotics and fertility hormones. These contaminants lace drinking water in trace amounts with unpredictable, long-term consequences.
Is bottled water better?
While most people automatically assume that bottled water is from a better, more pure source than what comes out of their taps, this may not necessarily be true. Bottlers often derive their water from the same municipal water source thats fill the consumer’s tap, though they treat it in different ways, depending on how it will be sold: as basic drinking water, fluoridated drinking water, or distilled water.
Bottlers disinfect all three types of water with an ozone treatment or with ultraviolet light, and generally filter the water to remove dirt and some chemicals, take out some minerals, and aerate it to reduce odors. Because water tastes “flat” after its minerals are gone, some bottlers add back some minerals into their drinking water and fluoridated water to improve its taste.
They do not add minerals back into distilled water. Purified or distilled water represents the purest form of bottled water as it is essentially empty of foreign elements, including minerals. However, because distilled water acts as a highly effective solvent, some researchers refer to it as “aggressive” water. Over time, it can leach out any chemicals in a plastic container that are loosely bonded. Some holistic practitioners warn their clients away from buying and using distilled water sold in plastic jugs. The best long-term storage container for purified or distilled water is a glass or stainless steel jug or bottle.
Many bottled waters are identified as from a “natural source” – a naturally occurring spring or underground aquifer. But not all natural sources are safe or healthy. While natural spring water bottlers regularly test their water for the presence of several common contaminants, they generally do not test their water for a wide range of possible pollutants.
When buying bottled water, select a well-known brand of water bottled by a company that belongs to the International Bottled Water Association. They generally utilize the best purification methods, and have invested in the best quality control processes.
Buy bottled water from a store that sells a lot of water, and moves its inventory quickly. It will be less likely to harbor organic contaminants that multiply over time. Warmth and sunlight encourage the growth of microorganisms in water, so store bottled water in a cool, dark place. Responsible water bottlers do not make any claims of improved health resulting from drinking their water. They emphasize their water’s good taste and relative purity.
In some states, water sellers must label their products with levels of ash and/or minerals. If you are lucky enough to live in such a state, it would be wise to buy the product with the lowest level of ash or minerals. (The mineral-bearing properties of water are one of its least important attributes; most people and dogs receive all the minerals they need from a proper diet.)
Finally, keep a close eye on your dog to make sure he likes whichever water you choose. It will do him more harm than good if he doesn’t like the taste of your selection, and reduces his daily intake.
Purifying your own water
Home purification systems are a great way to produce fresh, healthy drinking water. Advocates of these systems like to say ominously, “Use a water filter or be one.” Don’t worry; after considering the effectiveness, cost, and convenience of home purification systems, it’s easy to find a system that will do the job.
Some companies that sell home purification systems will try to convince you that it is necessary to “test” your tap water to identify its contaminants before selecting a purification method. These dealers use inexpensive and generally ineffective, unreliable test kits designed to produce dramatic results for a potential customer.
Because of the vast number of possible pollutants, comprehensive laboratory tests are expensive. Most labs perform custom testing work for large water utilities, and are not set up to serve individual consumers. Several automated testing laboratories offer tests by mail for reasonable prices. However, testing may be an unnecessary expense if a consumer selects a comprehensive purification system.
There are four main types of home water purification systems: Filters, ultraviolet purifiers, reverse osmosis units, and distillers. We’ll describe each type and discuss their relative advantages and disadvantages.
• Water filters: Simple filters use a substance called a medium, which traps, absorbs, or modifies pollutants in the incoming tap water. Sediment filters use a medium that traps contaminants like a sieve. Municipal treatment plants have removed the coarse particles from water, but fine particles and viruses can remain. In a privately owned water system or well, if the water is dirty, a coarse filter will be required.
Mini-filters, such as the self-contained devices that fasten to the end of the kitchen faucet, offer very limited protection from water pollutants. Because of their miniature size, they do not contain enough medium, like carbon, for the water flowing through them to have adequate contact time to become purified. They are relatively inexpensive, but require frequent changing of the cartridge. Products such as the Brita Pitcher Filter also uses a carbon filter. Consumers who use these types of filters should trickle water through the filter slowly, and change the cartridge often.
Carbon filters are particularly good at removing bad tastes, smells, and organic chemicals from water, but they do not remove microorganisms or toxic minerals. Like most filters, a carbon filter accumulates pollutants within the filtering medium, so its effectiveness decreases with use. Also, when the water pressure changes quickly, pollutants can break away from a contaminated filter and enter the drinking water. Because the buildup of pollutants in the filter can support the growth of certain kinds of bacteria on the filter itself, the medium must be changed regularly.
This is true of sediment filters, too, which can remove bacteria and parasites from tap water. When bacteria and microorganisms are trapped on the surface of the filter, they form a film that eventually clogs the filter or harbors the growth of new bacteria. Some membrane filters can be cleaned, but most must be replaced at regular intervals.
Although sediment filters can remove toxic particles from water, these filters cannot remove dissolved toxins, especially metals. Special filter media, like alumina, attract and hold toxic metals, like lead, with their electric charge.
• Ultraviolet (UV) purifiers: These purifiers have a single purpose… to kill bacteria and viruses. Municipal and commercial water treatment managers accomplish this with chlorine; UV is a nontoxic alternative to chlorination. However, the purifiers are very specialized devices and, as such, are commonly used in combination with other purifiers, like filters. This layering of treatments quickly becomes costly. What circumstances warrant the use of a UV purification device? If a consumer is drawing tap water from a private system or well that is not chlorinated, then UV is one of the safest ways to disinfect drinking water.
• Reverse osmosis (RO) units: Osmosis is the tendency for a liquid of lesser concentration (more pure) to pass through a semi-permeable membrane into a liquid of higher concentration (less pure). A reverse osmosis unit, as the name suggests, forces water of lesser purity across a semi-permeable into another chamber of greater purity. The membranes used – generally made of cellulose acetate or polyamide resins – have only microscopic “holes” in them, allowing water molecules through, but blocking larger molecules. Forcing water from a “contaminated” state, like tap water, through a membrane and into a “pure” state is, therefore, the reverse of natural osmosis.
The RO membrane holds back a wide range of contaminants, making this system a good choice for home purification. RO units remove even dissolved impurities in water. Because there are several types of RO membranes to choose from when selecting an RO unit, consumers might consider testing their tap water to determine its mineral content. The test results will help to decide what kind of RO membrane is best suited for treating their home tap water.
RO units work with normal water pressure, they usually fit under the kitchen sink, they are quiet, and most require no electric power to operate. The membranes have a long useful life, but they can become clogged over time. Most RO units flush themselves out occasionally with tap water to reduce the replacement interval of the membrane.
Tap water runs through the RO unit slowly, then enters a holding tank to await consumption. If your need for pure drinking or cooking water suddenly increases, when you have a number of guests, for example, there may be a delay in providing drinking and cooking water from a small RO unit. Also, RO units cost more than sediment filtration systems.
Perhaps the most daunting disadvantage of RO units is that they use a lot of “contaminated” water to produce “pure” water; they recover only 5 to 15 percent of the water entering the system, and the remainder is discharged as waste water. This can add a load on small septic systems, or, even add a significant cost to those who pay for water.
• Water distillers: Today, home distillation units are rapidly gaining in popularity. Unlike filtration methods that remove impurities from the water, the distillation process removes the water from all of its impurities!
Distillers heat tap water until it turns into steam. Then it condenses the steam into water again. All pollutants are left behind, and the condensed water that results from the process is very clean. A few impurities, like some THMs, have a lower boiling point than water, and vaporize right along with the water. For this reason, many distillers use a small carbon after-filter that removes the few impurities that remain following distillation.
Because distilled water is so pure, many nutritionists refer to it as “empty” water. This characteristic makes distilled water an excellent cleanser and detoxifier, with plenty of “room” or “power” to carry away impurities from a person’s or a dog’s body. Detoxification is the most important function of water.
Some people complain of distilled water’s “flat” taste, which results from its lack of virtually any mineral content, and some animals avoid it. However, other people love its sweetness and the lack of mineral or chlorine taste, and some dogs prefer it. It’s totally a matter of individual preference.
Distillers use electricity, and create heat and humidity in their surroundings. Some units are fan cooled and can be a bit noisy. The units take time to process a tank full of water, and the drinking water comes out warm immediately after treatment. Most distillers include holding tanks where the purified water cools before consumption.
A 20-year-old distiller’s most recent batch of water is as pure as its first batch because there is no filter medium to degenerate each time it is used. With some maintenance to clean away mineral residue that has been removed from the water, distillers operate very consistently, and remain very effective over time. There are no filters or membranes to replace, except carbon after-filters, if desired, but the unit must be cleaned regularly, and large units can be costly.
I chose a home distillation system for my husband, my dogs, and me more than 10 years ago. It continually provides my family with delicious, pure water for drinking and cooking, and requires little maintenance. When I travel, I “crave” my distilled water, so, when I pack for a weekend at an agility trial, I always include a jug of home-distilled water for me and my Border Terrier.
Worth the effort
Selecting a home water purification system can be a daunting task. But remember: Any purification devices, properly maintained, will produce healthier water than tap water. Dog owners who feed a natural diet, and seek out holistic healthcare alternatives for the dogs in their care, can supply an added measure of protection to their dogs by providing the purest possible drinking water.
-by Lorie Long
Lorie Long is a freelance writer and avid agility competitor living in North Carolina.
Dogs romping, playing, running free. I don’t think there is anything quite as beautiful and exhilarating as watching my dogs take off through an open field – their powerful, long strides, muscles glistening as they race each other through the tall grass. Wild dogs uninhibited by leash or fence. Off leash training can help you and your dog achieve this!
Equally exhilarating is that moment when I call and they turn in tandem, racing each other back to me. After eight years, I am still in awe when my dogs respond with such instant enthusiasm. I am in awe not because it hasn’t happened with amazing regularity – it has. But rather because these two dogs are not the easygoing, stick-with-you type of dogs that make off-leash reliability a given. (They are more like the kind of dog you might see running away down the beach with a person in hot pursuit. You know the type. Perhaps you even share your life with one.)
If you do have a dog whose off-leash skills leave something to be desired, the tips in this article may help you gain the reliability you want, so both you and your dog can enjoy more freedom.
Off Leash Risks
I need to start with a word of caution: There is no way to guarantee the safety of your dog off leash. I would like to think that if we trained hard enough, or long enough, or with the right methods, that we could overcome all of the risks, that our dogs really could be completely reliable and safe. But the fact is that when dogs are off leash in an unsecured area, there will always be a chance that their instincts or desires will lead them into the path of danger. In addition, our environment is often unpredictable. When dogs are off leash, there is the chance of a sudden bang, an unexpected animal, or something else that may frighten or harm our dogs.
So why train for off-leash skills? Why not keep our animals on leash or in a safely secured area at all times? As hard as we may try to contain our dogs, the day may come when a gate is left open and our dogs are off leash unexpectedly. And, besides, dogs love to run, romp, and explore. Time spent off leash gives our dogs physical and mental exercise, keeping them healthy and happy. While 100 percent reliability may not be possible, the risks associated with a dog being off leash will be greatly minimized through a combination of training and management.
Off Leash Training
For your dog to learn to respond when off leash, start by training without the aid of a leash whenever possible. This may seem obvious. But many of us spend weeks in dog classes working on sit, stay, down, and come with our dogs on a six-foot leash. When we head to the beach or woods and snap off the leash, our dogs act as if they’ve never been to training class. Unfortunately, on-leash training – while valuable for on-leash behaviors – can’t prepare either of you for the challenges of the off-leash experience.
This is partly due to the fact that people often and inadvertently use physical cues such as a slight pressure on the leash to help the dog know what they want. When the dog and handler lose that added signal, their communication falls apart.
Of course, you can’t simply head out to the stimulating environment of the park and expect your dog to behave as he would on leash in a quiet, controlled atmosphere. Start at home, in your kitchen or living room. When your dog can easily and happily move through a repertoire of off-leash skills in your home, move your training to the backyard. When he is an expert in the backyard, move to the (fenced) front yard, then to a fenced park. As your dog becomes more and more reliable working off leash, he will find it easier to respond to you even in new environments.
Include Training in Daily Play
I have a friend who claims she doesn’t like “training.” She has, however, taught her dogs to ride in the car, sit before dinner, stay when asked, race each other across the park on cue, come when called, retrieve a ball, hop into the bathtub, and a whole lot more – all without the aid of a dog class or training drills. How has she done this? She simply incorporates big rewards for good behavior into everyday life.
Incorporating off-leash training into daily activities can help you and your dog prepare for off-leash adventures. Your dog will learn to respond to you everywhere, all of the time. Simply offer big rewards for good behavior when you and your dog play, walk, feed, or just hang out.
In addition, incorporate off-leash exercises into your dog’s favorite experiences. Think about the types of play and activity your dog finds most engaging. Does your dog enjoy playing with other dogs? Chasing Frisbees? Tug games? Sniffing the ground in search of gophers? Dinner time? Incorporate off-leash training into each of these activities. For a dog that loves playing with other dogs, you can use dog play as a reward for a fabulous recall or a great down. If your dog loves sniffing the ground and exploring, you can teach him searching games (described below). If your dog loves to eat more than anything, have him work for his dinner.
Recall Games to Train With
Turning your recall practice into fun and games helps both you and your dog enjoy the training. Mix your “regular” training sessions with sessions of the following recall games:
Back and forth recall game. For this game, you will need another person. Call your dog between the two of you. Each time your dog comes, give a great big happy reward (silly play, jumping up and down, great food treat, play ball, etc.)
Hide and seek. Have your dog stay in one spot. Go into another room and hide. Ask your dog to “COME find me” (emphasize the word “Come!”). When your dog finds you, give a great big happy reward. Repeat 3 to 10 times, and stop while your dog is really engaged. Once your dog knows this game, you can initiate a game of it unexpectedly. Example: At the beach, dart behind a rock and call, “Come find me!” When your dog finds you, get crazy happy.
Dinner time recalls. Have your dog sit or down and stay while you prepare his dinner. Continue to have your dog stay while you take the dinner into another room. Call your dog to you; dinner is his reward.
“You’re the most wonderful dog” recall. Call your dog to you. When your dog comes, get down on the ground and play, play, play for at least three solid minutes.
Ball between the legs. Call your dog to you. As she comes running, throw a ball (or a favorite treat) between your legs and call “get it.” (Or, if your dog is too big to walk between your legs, you can simply turn around and toss the ball.) Remember to say “get it” when your dog goes by so she doesn’t start to think the recall means to run past you.
Avoid Food “Lures”
Positive reinforcement training and the use of a reward marker, like a clicker or the word “Yes!” are essential tools for training off leash. Reward markers let your dog know that he got it right and the reward is coming, even when he’s 20, 30, or more feet away. A dog who is appropriately rewarded for his efforts will quickly learn to listen and respond off leash. Make his rewards match the difficulty of the exercise. In other words, make his response worthwhile!
However, it is very important that you don’t rely on a lure, such as a visible food supply or toys – when working on off-leash skills. It’s fine at first to hold out a treat for your dog to see while encouraging him to come to you, but repeated and ongoing use of a lure will fail more often than not in novel off-leash environments.
If your dog sees in advance what reward you are offering in exchange for a given behavior, he can weigh its value against whatever it is that he’d rather be doing, say, chasing a squirrel. You might even witness his thought process, “Hmm. Dog biscuit? Or squirrel chase? Dog biscuit? Squirrel chase?” In this case, the squirrel chasing will generally win the dog’s attention.
Instead, always make the rewards for off-leash behaviors interesting, exciting, and most importantly, unpredictable. I find it helpful to list all of the things my dog likes – from favorite food and toys, to freedom and doggy play – and rank them in order with his favorites at the top of the list. For one of my dogs, a tennis ball easily tops all other rewards. For the other, chicken chunks and chasing small animals (not a reward I choose to use) compete for the number one spot. Freedom, or the chance to run and romp like wild dogs, is probably next on both of their lists.
Pick your dog’s top five or six rewards and, if possible, reserve those for off-leash training. Mix up his favorites, varying which one you give him for which behavior. When you keep your dog guessing, he will stay engaged, giving you an edge in a stimulating environment like a dog park or beach. For example, when I call my dog to me, she may get a romping game of ball, a chunk of fresh chicken, or a dog treat followed by a release to go off and play again. She’s never sure which will be coming. For an especially difficult recall, she may even get them all.
Recall Rules for Off-Leash Success
These simple rules will help you and your dog maintain a reliable recall.
1. Don’t end play by calling your dog to you. Instead, go get your dog or wait until he is ready to come to you on his own.
2. Always follow a recall with one of your dog’s favorite things, be it food, a Frisbee, or playing with another dog.
3. Do a few “high-value” recalls right away during off-leash play; let your dog know that coming to you will be worth his while. Then release your dog to play again.
4. Work on your timing. It may be very difficult for dogs to “hear and obey” when they are in the middle of greeting another dog, the moment they find a great smell, or in the midst of a prey drive chase (after a squirrel, for example). At these times, you can increase your chances of success by calling him at the moment he can most easily disengage from his other activity. For example, if your dog is greeting another dog, wait for the moment when you can see they are about to turn away from each other, then call your dog.
5. Avoid repeatedly calling your dog when you know he won’t or can’t come. Go get him instead.
6. Always (and this is a golden rule) act or behave as if your dog is the most wonderful being in the world when he comes to you – no matter what he was doing before he came.
Build a Reliable Recall
Some people might think coming when called should top the list for building off-leash reliability. Coming when called, or the recall, is indeed the backbone of off-leash skills. A dog that will come immediately in almost any situation is safest off leash. But I’ve found that without the first three tips (training off leash, making training part of daily play, and training positively without the use of lure), it’s almost impossible to train a reliable recall. Once you’re incorporating the first three tips, training a recall becomes much easier.
For a dog or puppy that doesn’t yet know “come,” you can start by encouraging him to move toward you. When your dog gets to you, Click! (or use another reward marker, such as the word “Yes!”) and give him a treat. Instead of feeding the treat from your hand, toss it a short distance away. Tossing the treat moves your dog away from you, so he will have to move toward you again for the next Click! and treat. Wait for your dog to come back to you (after eating the treat). When he gets to you, Click! and toss the treat. When he is consistently coming to you for the Click! and treat toss, you can start adding the word “come.” (For more details on teaching your dog to come, see “Why a Reliable Recall is So Important,” WDJ December 2000.)
The secret to building a reliable recall is to teach your dog to come when called in a low distraction environment (like your living room) and then very gradually train him to respond in the face of increasing distractions. Increase the distractions slowly enough so that your dog can handle it. Consistently and repeatedly reward successful recalls while avoiding situations where your dog may not come when called. The biggest mistake most of us make when training a recall is expecting our dogs to automatically be able to come in difficult situations from the get-go.
When teaching the recall, plan frequent practice times. They don’t have to be long or formal – a couple of fun repetitions in the middle of playtime is great – but do try to train a little on most days. Practice your recalls with the following in mind:
• Pay attention to what distracts your dog. This is another time when it may be helpful to make a list. Write down what your dog finds distracting and rank those distractions from easiest to overcome to those that are the most difficult. For example, a young puppy may find everything in his environment distracting – from a leaf on the ground, to a new person coming into the room, to a dog across the street. An older dog may be able to ignore the leaf, but a new person or dog may still pose a challenge. To really build a successful recall, plan on practicing with at least 30 different distractions.
• Practice your recall with one distraction at a time, starting with the easiest distraction on the list and progressing to the most challenging. Practice at the easiest level until your dog will come happily each time he is called in spite of the distraction. This could take one or two practice sessions for some distractions, but may take up to a week or more for others.
• Practice each level of distraction in a variety of places – the more places the better. For example, for a puppy who is distracted by a leaf on the ground, practice with a leaf as a distraction in your living room. Then practice with a leaf as a distraction in a bedroom, the kitchen, and the garage. Next, take the leaf outside in the backyard and front yard. Then graduate to a local park during a quiet time of day (like 7 am), where you can practice around lots of leaves.
• Make the value of your dog’s reinforcement match the difficulty of the recall. The more difficult the distraction or training situation, the better the reward. Continue to reinforce your dog’s recall with high-value treats or games until he comes when called consistently and reliably even in the face of all different kinds of distractions. Be careful not to make the mistake of thinking that because your dog “knows” to come when called, that you can stop giving great rewards every time.
• If you have a dog with a lot of experience in not coming when called, you may have greater success starting over with recall training. Pretend that you’ve never trained a recall before. Pick a new word (for example, instead of “come” you can say “here”) and start training from the beginning. You’ll find that your dog will progress faster than if you try to re-teach using the same word.
By systematically teaching your dog to come when called, you can gradually “proof” the behavior so that he can respond successfully in increasingly difficult situations. This sounds like a lot of work, and it is. But the work will pay off big time when your dog responds to your recall with great enthusiasm under even the most difficult circumstances.
Moving Away
The ability for dogs to herd or run agility requires communication at a distance. A dog who works as team member in these or other off-leash activities learns that he is “working” even when the leash is off and he is some distance from his handler.
One of the best ways to ensure that your dog will stay “connected” to you at a distance is to teach him that it’s rewarding to come when called and to move away when asked. The idea is to shift his concept of off-leash time from one of a vacation away from you to one of a vacation with you. You want your dog to understand that staying connected with you while running, romping, and playing will ultimately make play time even more rewarding.
Even if you’re not into dog sports and you don’t live on a sheep ranch, you can incorporate some distance behaviors in your everyday play. Some that I find fun include:
• Go out: With this exercise, you teach your dog to move away from you across a yard or field. Teach your dog to “target,” that is, touch an object such as a highway cone or a small plastic lid with his nose. Begin by shaping your dog to touch the target while it is near you. When your dog is happily touching the target next to you, gradually move it farther away. Build up to sending your dog 20 or 30 feet to the target. (See “Right on Target,” March 2001 for more details on teaching targeting.)
Alternatively, teach your dog to “go out” with ball play. Just before you toss the ball, say “Go!” Soon your dog will race away when he hears the word, before you throw the ball. At that point, you can send your dog out and then ask for another behavior, like a distance down, before tossing the ball.
• Around: The easiest way to teach your dog to go around something is to use a chair as the “around” object. Stand on one side and motion your dog around the chair with your hand or a treat. Once he gets the idea, you can use just a hand motion, giving your dog a Click! and treat as he rounds the chair and turns back toward you. Use your reward marker the moment your dog turns back to you; if you Click! too early, he may turn back toward you the way he came.
After he will happily circle the chair, you can gradually move away until you can send him around the chair from a distance. Later, you can have him circle trees or other natural features. It’s a great way for him to get exercise while working on off-leash skills!
• Right and left: Teaching your dog to turn to his right or left on cue is a fun (and impressive) off-leash behavior. As with the “go out” exercise, you can teach this with either a target (good for food-motivated dogs!) or with a ball (better for toy-motivated dogs). Start with either the right or left – don’t try to teach them both at the same time.
Let’s say you choose the left. Begin with your dog sitting on your left side – facing the same direction as you – and a ball in your left hand. Say the word “Left” and a half-second later toss the ball to the left. Soon your dog will begin anticipating the toss and turning to the left when he hears the word. After your dog has this down, try it with your dog sitting on your right side, but still asking him to turn to the left. This will make him think a bit more as he will have to move around you to perform the behavior.
Next, try it with the dog facing you. The tricky part here is remembering to toss the ball to the dog’s left – not yours! (One of my students came up with the great idea of putting a chalk mark on her dog’s left ear to help her remember which way to toss the ball. Since she never made mistakes in her cues, her dog never got confused.)
Don’t start working on “right” until your dog has his “left” down pat. Train the rights and lefts at separate times until he can do them both easily. Then you can start mixing them up and impressing your friends!
• Find it: This is a particularly fun behavior for a dog whose nose always seems to be on the ground. Start with a favorite toy or a treat. Show him the toy or treat, then place it in plain sight nearby. Lead your dog to the item. When he starts to sniff it or pick it up, say “Find it!” After a few times, he will start to go to the item on his own. When he happily moves away from you to the treat or toy, hide it behind a tree or rock. At first, let your dog see where you put it, but once he understands the game, make it harder to find. Before you know it, your dog will be a “find it” fanatic.
Train for Safety, Too
When your dog is off leash, two simple behaviors can add to his safety:
• Leave it or Off. Teaching your dog the “Leave it” or “Off” behavior can be of great value in off-leash situations. (See “Teaching Your Dog ‘Off’,” January 2002, for detailed instruction in teaching “off.”) I practice “Leave it” with my dogs around food, other animals, and people. You can use it if your dog finds a tasty piece of garbage or if he wants to visit another dog. It’s also a helpful behavior when you have a friendly dog who wants to meet every person she passes. For those happy canines that love to roll in smelly things, a well-timed “Off!” can prevent a bath later on!
• Distance down or down on recall: Imagine your dog is across the street from you; perhaps the gate was left open and he wandered over to visit the neighbor’s dog. He sees you and is ready to race toward you. Out of the corner of your eye, you see a car coming. You raise your hand, giving the signal for your dog to down. Your dog drops. The car speeds by. The coast is then clear and you can now safely call your dog to you. Teaching your dog to down at a distance can save his life in an emergency.
Your dog should know how to do a “down” on cue when she’s near you. “Shape” faster and faster responses, by marking and rewarding your dog’s increasingly quick responses. Then, gradually increase the distance between you and your dog as you ask for the down. When you are far apart, it may be inconvenient to keep up a liberal reinforcement (treat) schedule for her successes, but make sure you do. You want her to be highly motivated to perform the down as quickly as possible.
Respect Your Dog’s Limits
Every dog has limits. Some dogs have special fears that may compromise their off-leash safety – for example, some dogs will run blindly at the sound of anything that sounds like a gun, including a distant backfiring car. Others may have strong drives that can lead them astray, such as the fresh scent of a pheasant for a hunting dog, or the sight of a rabbit running for a sight hound. Get to know your dog’s limits, understand what motivates him, and anticipate when and where you may have problems. You may be able to set up special training situations to work through some challenges; for example, for the noise-phobic dog, you can slowly increase the amount of “background noise” in your training area with a portable stereo.
With other dogs, it may not be worth the effort it would take to make them reliable in certain situations; you may need to disallow off-leash play with some dogs in certain situations. For a dog who is fearful of loud thunder, for example, it’s best to keep the leash on when a storm is coming.
Dogs with high prey drive and car chasers are two other examples. While the dog’s behavior can be improved through training in each case, he may never be completely safe off-leash when near prey animals or moving cars, respectively. The more aware you are of your dog’s limits, the better you will be able to determine when and where to let your dog romp free.
The Freedom Balance
You’ve probably seen one – a dog who is off leash all the time and responds to his handler’s cues almost instantly. For a dog who has freedom all of the time, attention from his handler becomes more rewarding than the freedom.
Conversely, a dog who gets very little freedom will find it hard to do anything but revel in joy when he does finally get the opportunity to run, romp, and explore. The best of treats (or the worst of punishments) may not be enough to dissuade a dog who gets only fleeting experiences with freedom. In fact, for many of our dogs, being off leash is such a novel experience that they will lose their brains (and all of their good training) whenever the leash is snapped off. The only way to combat this syndrome is to provide your dog with as many off-leash romps as possible.
For those of us who live in areas with strict leash laws, off leash romps can be difficult to arrange – difficult, but not impossible. Here are a few ideas:
➤ Find parks, trails, or beaches in your area where dogs are allowed off leash. Plan weekend romps to nearby parks or forests.
➤ Visit fenced playgrounds early in the morning or after dusk, when they are empty. (This is a safe option for dogs that are still learning to come when called.) Visit fenced sporting areas such as tennis courts or baseball fields when games aren’t in progress.
➤ Sign up for training classes that offer off-leash play time. Or enroll your dog in doggy daycare, even for just a day or two a week.
➤ Make play dates with your dog’s friends. Take turns going to different homes. Someone else’s backyard is a novel off-leash environment for your dog. (Of course, this is recommended only for dogs who do well with other dogs in their homes.) Or visit dog-less friends who are amiable to your dog exploring their backyards. Remember to allow your dog to romp off leash only where it is allowed and where it is safe.
Mardi Richmond lives in Santa Cruz, California, where she teaches agility for fun classes and writes about dogs. She is the co-author of Ruffing It: The Complete Guide to Camping with Dogs.
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A few months ago, I was reminded of a statement my parents used to repeat to me and my siblings when they saw us struggling with a moral or ethical challenge. They would decline to give their teenaged daughters and son any specific recommendations for a particular course of action, but would encourage us to think things over and then commit ourselves to whatever we thought was best. One of their favorite adages was, “If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.”
This aphorism was applied to many situations, and its intent was subtly interpreted to mean slightly different things. One recurrent message was, “Don’t just go along with your friends, do your own thinking.” Another was, “Don’t be lazy and just repeat whatever you have heard or read!” Also, my folks had activist leanings – we were brought along to more than one march for this or that cause – and they encouraged us to fully commit ourselves to whatever causes we felt strongly about.
I guess it’s kismet that I fell into working for Belvoir Media, publisher of Whole Dog Journal. All of the company’s publications – journals about aviation, sailing, skiing, health, horses, etc. – look over products and issues in their niche and take a position. We are free to do so by virtue of the fact that all of our publications are supported by subscriptions; we don’t have to temper our observations to pacify our advertisers because we don’t sell ads! This consumer-oriented publishing company is a great place to carry out my parents’ counsel.
So what does Whole Dog Journal “stand for”? Simply put, we’re all about raising, maintaining, and happily living with healthy, happy dogs. Of course, any dog magazine can make that claim – but most other publications don’t talk about topics that fly in the face of conventional veterinary medicine or traditional dog training practices. We take into account the fact that there is much more to health than being free of disease, and that there is more to a pleasurable relationship with your dog than his instant obedience. We’re not only about results, but also about the process.
Our mission is to provide dog guardians with in-depth information on effective holistic health care methods and successful nonviolent training. 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 intend our articles to enable readers to immediately apply training and health care techniques to their own dogs with visible and enjoyable success. All topics should contribute to improving the dog’s health and vitality, and deepening the canine/human bond. Above all, we wish to contribute information that will enable consumers to make kind, healthy, and informed decisions about caring for their own dogs.
Well there’s our “mission statement.” I’ve been meaning to formalize and publish one for ages. I’ll find a spot for it in the magazine somewhere and let it stay there, both as a reminder for longtime subscribers and to let new readers know what we’re all about.
I’ve also been meaning to update the picture that appears in this space every month, the one of me and my faithful friend, Rupert. Neither one of us looks much like we did in our old photo, which was taken for the very first issue of WDJ four years ago. I’d like to extend my thanks to the thousands of dog guardians who have responded to WDJ’s ethos and have supported the magazine this long, and look forward to helping them help their dogs for a long time to come.
How should you select your dog’s food? When you walk into your local pet food store, and walk the miles of aisles of stacks of bags, what is it that makes you grab that sack, and not any of the others? Is it:
• price?
• label claims or package appearance?
• the recommendation of a friend?
• your veterinarian’s prescription?
Bzzzzzzt! Bad answers! Here’s why:
Price: The most expensive foods are not always the best ones in a store (they are not even necessarily good!). Many chain pet stores charge a small fortune for foods that (by our criteria, described further along) are no good at all. Generally (but not always) we find the best foods in small, independent stores and where, interestingly, the prices for the great foods are not much higher than the chain stores charge for their (low-quality) “best.”
On the other hand, you can be certain that the least expensive foods are generally not good. This is not snobbism, by the way. It costs the manufacturer more to buy top-quality ingredients, and it’s only reasonable to expect that he will have to pass along those costs. And if a food costs pennies per pound, you can be assured that its contents cost the maker next to nothing – in other words, the food is vitamin-fortified sawdust, more or less. (And to take care of the inevitable question, “Can’t a dog live on vitamin-fortified sawdust?” we’ll say right now that the answer is, “Yes, but if you take that approach, you can expect to pay every penny you’ve saved in veterinary bills later.”)
Label claims, package appearance: Each and every day, the food makers are getting more sophisticated in their approach to packaging. They know that dog owners are becoming increasingly health-conscious and interested in dog food ingredients, so they are rushing to show us how healthy their foods are – and we do mean “show.” We haven’t seen so many beautiful depictions of vegetables and grains since Andy Warhol’s time. And the label descriptions! Carefully rhapsodic!
Unfortunately, there’s rarely a correlation between what’s shown on the bag and what’s in the bag. Perhaps the most notorious example of this is Purina’s new food, Beneful. (What a name, eh? Beneficial, bountiful, it’s all there. You have to hand it to them.) The front of Beneful’s bag shows fresh ears of corn, snappy unshelled peas, and gorgeous green-topped carrots. In fact, what it actually contains is ground corn, used here as a dried grain and a lower-cost source of protein, and dried peas and dried carrots. The latter, by the way, appear 17th and 18th on the list of ingredients, far below sugar (10th), sorbitol (another sweetener, 11th on the list), and even sorbic acid, a preservative that appears 15th on the list of ingredients. Purina must be counting on people to take one look at the color photographs of the vegetables, read the word “vegetables” on the front, and assume that “Gee, Purina really has come around, putting fresh veggies in its food!”
As far as we’re concerned, this food is a perfect example of everything that’s wrong with the conglomerate dog food industry; it’s all sizzle and very little steak (beef is 7th on the list of ingredients). The product has been manipulated in every way possible to appeal to humans, complete with a variety of cute shapes, artificial colors, and chemically enhanced textures, a pretty bag, and lots of healthy-sounding adjectives (wholesome, moist, meaty, real, vitamin-rich). But the contents don’t come close to fulfilling all this promise.
The recommendation of a friend: Your friend may, in fact, feed her dog the best possible food – for that dog. In no way does that guarantee that her dog’s food will agree with your dog.
Feeding dogs is an individual matter. Everything including the dog’s size, age, breed, health, activity level, allergies, intolerances, condition of teeth, past nutritional status, and even the his preferences will affect whether he thrives or merely survives on a given food. We don’t want to discourage you, but we know people who have to buy their three dogs three different foods. All three dogs look like a million bucks, so that’s that.
Your veterinarian’s prescription: Would this be a good time to mention that veterinarians who register for an online account with Hill’s, makers of Science Diet, can expect, as its Web site tantalizes, “convenient, easy ordering with real-time pricing and product availability plus a chance to win a Porsche”?
Sorry, but not many veterinarians know much more about nutrition than your next-door neighbor. But when they’ve been given free Hill’s dog food in vet school, their veterinary nutrition textbooks have been underwritten by Hill’s, and written by Hill’s researchers, is it any wonder they have really good feelings about Hill’s products?
Good answer!
All right, you’re overdue for some positive reinforcement. Here’s the best possible answer to the question, “How should you select your dog’s food?”
“I choose the food that appears to have the largest amount of whole, top-quality ingredients, and the smallest amount of low-quality or undesirable ingredients, and that my dog thrives on.”
In our opinion, the list of ingredients, printed by law on every bag of dog food, is the best source of information about a food. You don’t need a veterinarian, or us, for that matter, to tell you what is a good food and what is an exceedingly mediocre food; you just need to teach yourself to recognize the hallmarks of each kind of food. We’ve boxed this information for you on page 20 (“The Good, Bad, and the Mediocre: What the List of Ingredients Indicates”). Don’t take our word for it! Compare the ingredients, and decide for yourself; it’s really not that difficult. Look for a food that contains lots of the “hallmarks of a high quality food,” few of the “high-quality foods should contain a minimum of. . .” traits, and none of the “hallmarks of a low-quality food.”
Then, have your dog try it. Give him a month or two on the food. If he breaks out in itching fits, begins licking his paws incessantly, develops an ear infection, or has dramatic digestive reactions, give the food away and try another one! If, on the other hand, he’s always had one or more of the aforementioned symptoms, and they clear up, you’re on the right track. A good dog food will contribute to a healthy coat, good energy level, balanced temperament, and flawless health.
One final word about what’s “best” for your dog: It might change. As dogs age, their nutritional requirements change. They can develop food allergies or intolerances at any point in their lives. Don’t get so attached to a food that you fail to see whether it’s failing your dog. It may be a good food, but if it’s not working for your dog, there is no point in buying it.
Our selection criteria
We’ve told you how we suggest selecting a food. On the following pages, we will share with you a few foods that we think are above average. But we should probably also explain what we did NOT do when we picked these foods:
• We DID NOT conduct lab tests to make sure the “Guaranteed Analysis” printed on the label accurately reflects the contents; that’s the job of state feed control officials, and way beyond the scope of our resources.
• We DID NOT inspect manufacturing plants or investigate the manufacturers’ Boards of Directors. We hear rumors all the time about company owners who are rude or even big, fat liars. We hear about moldy food and mislabeled bags. If you experience one of these things, we suggest that you call the company and let them know they have a problem – and that you select another food.
• We DID NOT select foods on the basis of protein or fat content; more is not always better. Some dogs need more; some dogs need less.
• We DID NOT examine every food on the market. That would be impossible! You may find a food that looks as good or better than ours. Good for you! Send us some information about it; we’d love to share.
• We DID NOT rank-order the foods. They are presented in alphabetical order, because, remember, what’s “best” for your dog isn’t necessarily best for ours’.
ALL the following foods are good; we like them all. And, for the record, we still like all the foods we’ve selected in the past. If we’ve named a food before that does not appear here, it’s due to space limitations, not because it’s fallen out of our favor.
The elderly man’s voice quavered haltingly in my ear. “Whiskey is just too energetic for us. We have to keep him penned up in the kitchen, and when he’s outside he just bounces on the door. He already broke the glass once! How do we stop him from bouncing on the door?”
Whiskey was an 18-month-old Labrador Retriever, adopted three weeks prior from the local humane society, to a couple in their mid-70s. His new guardians were experienced dog owners and had owned Labradors before, but their last dog died a decade earlier, at the ripe old age of 14 years. It had been almost a quarter of a century since the well-meaning couple had managed an active young dog!
It was clear that they had made an ill-advised adoption choice when they brought home an adolescent Lab with an unknown history, who had clearly missed more than a few of his good manners lessons. Rather than being the loving companion they had envisioned, Whiskey was making this couple’s life miserable.
Unfortunately, their solution (banishing Whiskey for longer and longer periods of time to the backyard) was compounding the problem, making Whiskey even more lonely and hence even more overstimulated when he was finally granted time in their company. They would, they promised, bring him in the house once he calmed down, but the more time he spent outside, the less calm he got. The relationship was spiraling rapidly downward, with the wife insisting that Whiskey was beyond help, and threatening to take him to their veterinarian for euthanasia.
We hastily scheduled an appointment for a private consultation. I assured the couple that there was no need to rush Whiskey to the euthanasia table – the young dog’s behavior sounded pretty normal for an untrained adolescent Lab, and even if he wasn’t suitable for their home, there were other options available to him, such as Labrador Retriever Rescue, or one of the many government search dog programs.
Sadly, Whiskey’s is not an isolated case. A generation or two ago, Mom stayed in the home and taught the dog good manners while the rest of the family went off to work or school. Today, many family canines are latchkey dogs, left to their own devices all day, and family members are often too busy or too tired when they get home to spend the time necessary to properly train the dog. So, while it’s increasingly socially acceptable to spay and neuter, and many animal shelters are seeing fewer litters of unwanted puppies as a result, shelter kennels are often filled with out-of-control adolescents like Whiskey.
Clicker Training is Key to Behavior Management
Whether you have a pup with normal puppy energy or an obstreperous teenager who has good manners lessons to catch up on, clicker training can be a magically effective and gentle way to convince a dog to calm down. No yelling, no physical punishment; just clicks and treats for any pause in the action.
That said, the biggest challenge with a “hyper” dog is that any praise or reward may cause her to begin bouncing off the walls again. It is nearly impossible to deliver a treat to an excitable dog while she is still in the act of being calm. By the time you get the treat to her mouth she is once again doing her Tasmanian devil act. She may well perceive the treat as a reward for her jumping jacks rather than for the sought-after calmness that occurred briefly several seconds before. Fortunately, this problem is not insurmountable.
Timing and consistency are key to successful training. If you give a reward to your dog more than a second or two after she exhibits the desired behavior, she will lose the connection, and may even come to believe she was rewarded for whatever she was doing at the moment you gave her the reward. However, once a dog has learned the connection between a reward marker (I recommend using the Click! of a clicker or a verbal “Yes!”) and a pending reward, your timing can be impeccable – an instant of calm elicits a Click!, and the treat can arrive several seconds later. An added advantage of the clicker is that once most dogs hear the Click!, they pause in anticipation of the coming morsel, drawing out the relatively calm behavior even longer.
Modifying Your Crazy Dog’s Behavior
Here’s how you can turn your Tasmanian Devil into a Serene Sally. Follow this simple program to help her get rid of excess energy, prevent her from being rewarded for out-of-control behavior, and consistently reward her for being calm.
1. Exercise Your Dog Thoroughly
The first element in an “all is calm” program is to provide your dog with lots of exercise. Wise dog trainers and owners know that a tired dog is a well-behaved dog. Often, when people think their dogs are at their worst, they are simply chock-full of energy, bursting to find an escape. Tug o’ war on your pants leg, donuts around the dining room table, and record high-jumps over the back of the sofa are just some of their outlets for that pent-up energy.
If this sounds like your dog, schedule at least three tongue-dragging sessions of fetch per day. Climb to the top of a hill or staircase and throw the ball down so she has to keep climbing back up to return it to you. Set up an obstacle course with lots of things to climb and jump over. Be careful not to send her into heat stroke, but definitely play until she is pooped. Keep the exercise breed-appropriate – an athletic Border Collie can handle lots more physical challenges than an English Bulldog.
Don’t think that a walk around the block will do it. A walk on leash, even a long one, is nothing but an exercise hors d’ouerve for a young dog. You may be tired when you get home from the walk, but your dog is just getting warmed up! If no one in the family has time to give her adequate exercise, arrange for a dog walker to come by a couple of times a day and wear her out, or take her to doggie daycare as often as possible. Eight hours of romping with other dogs is guaranteed to take the wind out of her sails! (See “Doggie Daycare Can Be A Wonderful Experience: But is it for Every Dog?“)
2. Manage Your Dog Tightly
While wearing out your dog should be part of your regular routine, there are other changes you can make in order to manage her inappropriate behavior (see “Relieving Separation Anxiety Symptoms,” August 2001). Whiskey, the Labrador mentioned earlier, repeatedly bounced against his family’s sliding glass door because it was rewarding to him; it brought him the greatly coveted attention of his people when he did so, and when he succeeded in breaking the glass, it actually gave him access to indoors, where he wanted to be.
All living things repeat behaviors that are rewarding to them. Whiskey’s owners needed to find ways to reward him for good behavior, and prevent him from being rewarded for the unacceptable ones.
The management answer is to physically control your dog’s behavior through the judicious use of leashes, pens, crates, and tethers (see “Tethered to Success,” April 2001, and “Crate Training Made Easy,” August 2000). Use these management tools wisely to prevent your dog from rewarding herself with your attention (at times you do not want to give it to her).
3. With Clicker Training, Timing is Everything
As soon as you have laid the foundation with exercise and management, you can begin an effective clicker-training program. Don’t procrastinate; you can accomplish this on Day One of your “all is calm” program. Start by “charging the clicker” – officially known in behavior circles as “conditioning the reward marker.”
Begin by clicking the clicker in your pocket, to avoid startling her with the sharp sound. Click! the clicker, feed your dog a treat. Click! and treat. Click! and treat. As she begins to associate the sound with the treat, bring it out of your pocket and click it in a more natural position at your side or your waist.
Your dog doesn’t have to do anything special to get the Click! and treat, as long as she isn’t doing something unacceptable, like jumping on you or chewing the corner of the coffee table. If necessary, use one of your management tools to keep her out of trouble while you Click! and treat. Most dogs catch on pretty quickly that the Click! means a treat is coming. When your dog’s ears perk and her eyes brighten at the sound of the Click!, you knows she’s getting it. Now you can use your “charged” clicker for training.
The goal of clicker training is to get your dog to understand that she can make the Click! happen by offering certain behaviors – in this case, calm. At first, you can’t wait for long, leisurely stretches of calm behavior to click; some families report that their dogs never stop whirling around like a tornado, at least, when people are paying attention to them! Instead, begin by giving your dog a Click! and treat just because all four feet are on the floor at the same instant. Be quick! You want her to understand that the behavior she got rewarded for was pausing with all four feet on the floor, so your timing needs to be sharp, and the Click! needs to happen the instant all four feet are down.
If your timing is good and you catch her with four-on-the-floor several times in a row, you will see her start to stand still deliberately, in order to make the clicker go off. Light bulb! A door has opened in her brain, and you can now see her thinking. To me, this is one of the most exciting moments in dog training – what we sometimes call the “Helen Keller moment,” when the dog realizes that she can control the clicker and a whole new world of communication has opened to her. You now have a very powerful tool in your little plastic clicker box. You can use it to reinforce any behavior you want, any time it happens, and your dog will quickly start repeating that behavior for you.
Okay, back to calm. How does “pausing briefly on all four feet” translate into a calm dog? Very gradually. You are going to “shape” the pause into longer and longer periods of stillness, by extending the time, in milliseconds at first, that you wait as she is standing still before you Click! and treat. If you err and she starts to jump around again, just wait. Eventually there will be another pause that you can Click! and then start the shaping again.
As your dog gets better at being calm for longer and longer periods, be sure to reinforce randomly – sometimes for shorter pauses, sometimes longer. If you just keep making it harder and harder – longer and longer – she may get frustrated and quit playing the game.
Each training session should be relatively short, to avoid frustration for both of you, but you can do several in a day. You will have the most success, at least at first, if you practice working on calmness right after one of her exercise sessions, when she is tired anyway. As she gets the idea that “calm” is a very rewardable behavior, it will work even when she has more energy.
When your dog can hold still for several seconds at a time, add the verbal cue of your choice – something like “Easy . . .” that you will eventually be able to use to cue her for calmness. Over time, you will be able to phase out the Click! and treat and use petting and praise as a reward instead of food. Keep your voice and body language calm and soothing to reflect and support her own growing calmness. Petting should be done as a massage – slow kneading or stroking, not vigorous patting or thumping.
4. Establish Your Dog’s “Spot”
You can use a management tether and a clicker to teach your dog a very useful calming exercise, called “Go To Your Spot.” Arrange her tether station so it is very comfortable, with a soft bed, really good chew toys, and unspillable water. Toss a treat onto the bed and say “Go to your spot.” When she gets there and is about to snatch up the treat, Click! your clicker.
Repeat several times, clicking and treating each time until she goes to her spot easily, and then attach the tether to her collar. Sit in a chair nearby but out of her reach and read a book. If she fusses, ignore her. When she is quiet, Click! and toss her a treat. This is “positive reinforcement” – her good behavior makes something good happen: She gets a Click! and treat.
Occasionally when she is being calm, get up, go over to her bed and quietly pet and praise her (also positive reinforcement). If she starts to get excited when you are with her, go back to your chair and sit down again. This is “negative punishment”: her inappropriate behavior makes a good thing – you and your treats – go away. Negative punishment is considered effective and humane by most positive trainers.
When she is calm on her tether for long stretches of time – up to 5 or 10 minutes with occasional treats and visits, remove the tether and continue to reward her for lying calmly on her bed. If she revs up again, re-tether her and practice more calm.
You should also practice this when guests visit. Give your dog an extra tiring play session before they arrive so she can be on her best behavior. If she greets them too enthusiastically, have her go to her spot, tethered if necessary, and wait until she is calm to allow guests to greet her. When she is relaxed, untether her so she can mingle with the visitors politely. If she gets carried away, she can do another session on her tether.
Forced Calming Techniques Can Cause More Harm Than Good
In recent weeks, I have seen a number of reports of puppies or dogs who began showing aggressive behavior when their handlers used a certain training technique. In several of the cases, the dog owners were confused and upset, because they were using a training method that had been suggested to them by their veterinarian. In each case, the owners had been attempting to get their puppy or dog to “calm down” by either flipping it upside down and holding it to the floor (often referred to as an “alpha roll”), or by holding the pup upside down on their laps.
Here’s an excerpt from a letter I received from a woman in Greenville, North Carolina:
“I have a question about my puppy, an eight-week-old mix-breed. She is generally a very good dog, but has made me a little concerned because she has growled at me and bared her teeth. Both times this happened when I was holding her on her back to make her submit. I was told by my veterinarian that if she becomes out of control I should flip her on her back and hold her down until she submits and breaks her gaze away from me. She has made growling noises during play, but hasn’t ever bared her teeth before. . .”
In cases like this, it’s clear to me that the “alpha roll” has caused the puppy’s aggressive behavior, however mild it may be at this point. The alpha roll can greatly exacerbate aggression and, in fact, cause aggression to occur where it otherwise would not have. While some dogs don’t take offense at being rolled over or held down, many others will respond out of fear or resentment, and will begin to fight back in self-defense. The more these dogs are physically forced to behave in a certain way, the more they are likely to display aggression.
I encourage people to forget what they have heard or read about dominance, “making the dog submit,” and “letting the dog know who’s the boss,” because the suggested methods of accomplishing this don’t always end with a useful result. Even if the alpha roll doesn’t trigger a dog’s defense mechanisms, it doesn’t teach her to behave calmly on cue. Some dogs may think of their handlers as “the boss” after being flipped, but so what? It’s more likely, as the writer above found, the dog will come to regard her handler as unpredictable and scary. You also stand a good chance of extinguishing his interest in and willingness to participate in the training.
“Positive” Force?
Some trainers who consider themselves “positive trainers” teach a restraint exercise that I would consider a close relative of the alpha roll. In most variations, the puppies or dogs are gently but forcibly restrained and are rewarded (with a treat or with release) when they stop struggling or hold still. This was described as a “positive training method” because the puppy or dog was rewarded for calming down. However, it’s still a force-based method, one that uses negative reinforcement (the dog’s behavior makes a “bad” thing – the physical restraint – go away).
A better technique for teaching a dog to accept restraint would involve brief periods of restraint that the dog or pup could tolerate – perhaps just a second or two at first – and a Click! and/or a treat during the restraint to reward the dog for her calm behavior. Gradually, as she learns to remain calm while being held, the time that she is held can be increased before she gets the treat. If the dog were to struggle, growl, or exhibit any other unwanted behavior, I would suggest simply letting go and walking away from her, ending the session with a cheery, “Too bad!” Here, she learns that her wriggly or aggressive behavior makes a good thing – your attention and treats – go away. This is referred to as “negative punishment,” and is considered effective and humane by most positive trainers.
However, you’ll notice that the intention of the method is not to teach the dog to be calm, but to accept restraint. To teach a dog to calm herself, I recommend using the completely force and restraint-free method, described in the preceding article. When dogs – just like humans – try different solutions and learn from their voluntary behavior how to succeed in a given situation, that knowledge tends to “stick.” In my experience, dogs who have “learned how to learn” in a low-stress, rewarding environment pick up whatever it is that you want them to do faster than dogs who have been trained with force, and they generalize their knowledge even more rapidly.
Change YOUR Behavior
Fortunately, when people cease and desist from using force-based methods, and begin reinforcing their dogs for good behavior, the “aggression problem” they inadvertently created almost always goes away fairly quickly. Check out this note that I received from a couple in Dayton, Ohio:
“We have read your book, The Power of Positive Dog Training, only through Chapter Three and we have already changed the way we view, handle, and speak to our new Labrador puppy, Alex. She’s 15 weeks and our new pride and joy. We adopted her from our local humane society about a month ago.
“At our vet’s suggestion, we’d put Alex in the cradle position for getting hyper, yell “no” when she did something bad, and pinch her under the tongue when she’d bite. I noticed within a week of using these methods that she was hesitant to come near me, afraid to lay with us on the couch, and she began to get more hyper and aggressive.
“I knew there had to be a better way. My fiancé and I began reading your book and instantly stopped all of the above. Alex’s behavior has changed almost overnight. Sure, she still gets into things she’s not supposed to, but now we take responsibility for it and stopped punishing her (after all, we are the ones who dropped socks on the floor). So far she knows that ‘yes’ means treat and she’s learned to sit on cue . . .”
It thrills me to hear stories like this, where a person suddenly sees how easily the use of force can damage a dog’s trust – and how compassionate, intelligent use of learning theory, consistently applied, motivates dogs to offer us their hearts and minds.
Rewarding Your Way to a Calm Dog
Dogs don’t learn to be calm by being banished to the backyard. Dogs are social creatures, and time spent in isolation causes stress, which frequently causes hyperactivity. Dogs learn to be calm by spending time with people and being rewarded for their calm behavior. Rewards can be attention, praise, petting, and yes, Clicks! and treats.
My evaluation of Whiskey confirmed my suspicions – he was a normal adolescent Labrador with no manners, very trainable for someone with the time, energy, and commitment to teach him how to be calm. His owners are still considering whether they are the right people for him, or whether he would be better off in the home of someone more able to deal with his energy level.
Like so many of the things we expect our dogs to learn, “calm” is easier to teach sooner, rather than later, but it is rarely too late. So, whether you have a puppy rushing around the coffee table or an adolescent who is breaking down your doors, it’s time to get clicking for calm!
Drake is an amazing agility dog. He darts onto the field, running smoothly and efficiently through the entire course with grace and confidence. His timing, movements, and keen attention are impressive. Not a moment’s hesitation taking the triple bar in stride, dashing up and down the A-frame, through the chute, on to the pause table, then off again at top speed to the broad jump, and to weave the poles – the consummate dog athlete!
But like many athletes on the day after competition or a long training session, Drake’s shoulders and hips are obviously sore. He gets up from a nap and seems stiff at first, and then stretches his limbs cautiously. At six years old, he is desperately in need of consistent acupressure treatments.
When Drake runs a course, he gets so excited that endorphins – natural pain-reducers – flow through his veins, and he barely feels anything except his utter joy in what he was born to do. He’s not unique in this respect: Any dog who enthusiastically participates in high-energy games of fetch, agility, strenuous hiking, Frisbee, and all the other canine games and sports is subject to a certain amount of physical wear and tear. Even light exercise can cause tendons to become irritated and inflamed, and muscles stressed and sore. As the dog ages, the likelihood of joints becoming arthritic is very high.
These are the types of conditions we see in dogs leading active lifestyles; they can be much worse, of course, in dogs who have been permitted to take these activities to an extreme.
Fortunately, there is a simple, hands-on method that can be used on any dog to help a dog repair the stresses caused by exercise. Acupressure can help your dog be more comfortable and perform at his best. Over hundreds of years, acupressure has proven to help resolve many of the painful conditions we see in athletes because it can:
• Strengthen muscles, tendons, joints, and bones
• Enhance mental clarity and calm required for focus
• Release natural cortisone to reduce swelling and inflammation
• Increase lubrication of the joints for better movement
• Release endorphins to increase energy and relieve pain
• Resolve injuries more quickly by increasing blood supply
• Balance energy to optimize the body’s ability to perform
If your dog shows signs of acute pain or distress, we encourage you to take him to your holistic veterinarian. Acupressure is an excellent resource and complement to your dog’s health care since you can perform treatments yourself, but it is not a substitute for veterinary care.
Your dog will enjoy playing, running, jumping, weaving through poles – whatever your sport – much more if you help take good care of his body. Acupressure is safe, always available, drug-free, and dogs love the touch of their special people.
Amy Snow and Nancy Zidonis are 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.” They also teach workshops on animal acupressure.
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!
