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Canine Agility Training: The Ultimate Team Sport

By
Mardi Richmond, CPDT-KA
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Eddie Pepper’s muscles flex as his compact body flies over the jumps and scrambles up the A-frame. Eddie’s guardian, Bonnie Vogt, rewards him for hitting the contact zone and then signals him through the tunnel and over the teeter. When Eddie takes the last obstacle in the sequence, he races back to Vogt for a quick game of tug and a whole lot of praise.

By now, if you’re into dogs, you’ve probably heard about agility. Maybe you’ve even seen it in action or tried it with your dog. Agility is one of the fastest growing dog sports in the world, and with good reason – it’s fun! “Of all of the dog things I’ve done, agility is the most fun,” says Vogt, a resident of Scotts Valley, California, who has participated in a multitude of dog activities, including search and rescue, obedience, hunting tests and flyball, as well as agility.

dog agility competition

The Ultimate Team Sport

Agility is fun for a whole bunch of reasons. It’s fast. It’s always different. The dogs love it. The handler is constantly challenged. But perhaps the most wonderful part about agility is the way the dog and handler work together as a team. It is the ultimate team sport – and like any team sport, the relationship of the team members is key.

“It’s a really active and involved thing,” says Bud Houston, a long-time agility teacher and seminar leader who resides in Ostrander, Ohio. Houston has written numerous books on agility and is founder of the Just For Fun (JFF) agility organization. He points to his dogs’ joy and enthusiasm for the sport when he describes why he loves agility. “They really light up when we go out to the training building.”

Vogt echoes Houston’s sentiment. “Playing agility has brought us closer, sealed that bond a little tighter. Eddie seems to thoroughly enjoy the running and playing, and it’s helped us have more of a partnership.”

From the beginning, agility seemed to be a hit with dogs and people. Agility began as a demonstration event at the Crufts Dog Show in England in 1978. The obvious enjoyment of the dogs and the enthusiasm of the crowd at the first agility demonstration could have predicted the future popularity and growth of the sport. Today, agility is practiced throughout the world. In North America alone, you can find more than 10 organizations that sanction agility trials.

The goal in agility is for the handler and dog to run an obstacle course, with the handler directing the dog through and the dog navigating the obstacles. The course generally consists of between 14 and 20 obstacles that are designed to test a dog’s balance, speed, jumping, and climbing ability as well as the communication between the dog and handler. The obstacles commonly include:

• Jumps: A variety of jumps are used in agility including single jumps, double jumps, triple jumps, winged and non-winged jumps, panel jumps, broad jump, and tire or hoop jumps. The height of the jumps varies depending on the size of the dog.

• Tunnels: Flexible tunnels, 15 to 20 feet long, are used, as well as a collapsed tunnel made with a barrel opening and a fabric sleeve that the dog pushes through.

• A-frame: One of the “contact” obstacles (an obstacle that the dog must touch in a yellow-painted zone to insure a safe performance on the obstacle), the A-frame is a large climbing structure that the dog runs over.

• Teeter-totter: Also called the seesaw, the dog tips the board as he runs across. The teeter-totter is another contact obstacle and the dog needs to touch the yellow zones for safety.

• Dog walk: This contact obstacle is a type of balance beam that is three to four feet in the air. The dog runs up a ramp, across the beam, and down the descending ramp.

• Weave poles: Up to 12 weave poles are found on a standard agility course. Weave poles are often considered the most difficult obstacles to teach a dog.

• Table or pause box: The dog gets on the table and stays in either a down or sit position for five seconds. This is a control exercise and requires a dog to stop in the midst of running through the course.

In a competition, the course must be run within a certain amount of time and the team can be judged “faults” for mistake, such as taking the wrong obstacle or knocking down a jump bar. The courses are always different, making communication between the handler and dog as critical as the dog’s ability to navigate the obstacles.

Agility Not Just for Superdogs

Big dogs, little dogs, fast dogs, slow dogs, mixed breeds and pure breeds – all types of dogs can do agility. In fact, agility is one of the few dog sports providing as many opportunities for mixed breed dogs as for pure breeds. With the exception of AKC Agility, every dog agility organization in the United States welcomes mixed breeds in competition. Dogs as small as a Papillon and as large as a Great Dane can and do enjoy agility. Of course, not every dog (or person) is cut out for competition and only a select few will win national championships. But almost all dogs can enjoy some version of the sport.

Agility is an obvious choice for high energy and athletic dogs. It gives dogs that are often seen as “hyper” a place to put their drive and energy. It is also a good way to help timid or shy dogs build confidence. It’s a great way for both people and dogs to get some exercise.

“Agility keeps Eddie and me both in better shape,” says Vogt. “We both need the exercise and he needs a job to do.”

In general, dogs who play agility should be physically able to do the sport safely – they should have sound hips, elbows, good vision, and be in good physical shape. But even dogs and handlers with some physical limitations can enjoy the just for fun experience of agility. For example, jump heights can be lowered for a dog that is not physically able to jump full height. A dog shouldn’t do agility if it will make a condition worse, cause pain, or be unsafe in any way. It’s a good idea to have your veterinarian conduct a basic health examination before beginning agility.

Agility for Competition or Fun?

As with all sports, agility encompasses elements of competition. The competition can be as intense as professional basketball or as casual as a pick up game of softball on a sunny afternoon. In other words, agility can be played at the Olympic level, the city league level, or strictly for fun in the backyard or park.

In agility trials, teams compete in two ways. First, the dog and handler run against the time on the clock, with the goal of completing the course under the time limit and with no faults (called a clean run). In addition, the team is also competing against the other dog and handler teams within their class and height for placement – generally first, second, and third place dogs are recognized and awarded ribbons. The competition for a clean run and title are not the same as competing against other dogs. You can have a clean run and not win. You can also win and not have a clean run. As in other dog sports, you can compete at different levels and earn titles on your dog.

In addition to the standard agility course, dozens of games can be played in agility. Games range from those commonly found at trials, like Jumpers (which tests the dog’s speed and the person’s handling skills), Gamblers (which offers challenges in distance handling), and Snooker (which incorporates elements of both strategy and control), to those designed for fun or to help build specific skills.

But do you have to compete to do agility? Absolutely not. Some people do agility with the goal of winning at the highest level. Some people run their dogs with the goal of a clean run and earning a title, but aren’t really concerned about winning. Others play agility strictly for fun, without ever needing or wanting to compete. Agility can be enjoyed in a totally non-competitive fashion. That means that you can teach your dog the obstacles, learn to direct him through course, and run courses either with or without a time limit. Playing agility non-competitively eliminates the pressure to perform – so you and your dog really can just get out there and have fun.

Agility practice, even without competition as a goal, is a wonderful way to build everyday skills. Agility strengthens basic training such as the down, stay and recall. It is a fun way to work on off-leash behaviors and develop off-leash reliability. It can help dogs become more confident in the world, and it can help people learn to better train and communicate with their dogs. (If you can teach a dog to run through a set of weave poles – which is anything but a natural behavior for a dog – you can probably teach him just about anything!) Quite simply, agility practice can improve relationships between dogs and people.

“I’d like to get to the point where we can compete,” says Vogt, when she talks about training with Eddie. “But if we don’t, that’s OK too.”

Houston, who has competed and earned many titles on his dogs, says that one of his dogs, Ringer, will probably not become a dog he takes to trials. “Ringer gets carsick if we go more than about four miles,” says Houston. “So he will probably never do a lot of agility trialing in the world. But, he loves the game and he’s developing very nicely.”

Houston strongly promotes the recreational aspects of agility, and cautions against making agility into something that validates the handler, rather than something that is fun to do with your dog.

“It’s not about winning, you know,” says Houston. Houston emphasizes that agility is a recreational sport we play with the canine members of our family. It is about the relationship, the fun, and enjoyment of playing with your best friend.

Houston also stresses that agility should be accessible to anyone who is interested and can be a “lifetime sport” that we share with our dogs. With this spirit in mind, Houston formed Just For Fun agility. JFF’s slogan, “dog agility for the rest of us,” is helping to make the sport more available to those who may not have the perfect “competition” dog as well as to those who cannot afford the time or money needed to train competitively and enter trials.

JFF agility does promote a degree of competition, but emphasizes that it should always be low cost (or no cost) and fun. With that in mind, JFF agility launched the idea of league play – a version of the sport that can be organized and played on a local level, similar to local softball or basketball leagues offered through park and recreation programs. As with local softball and basketball leagues, anyone can join and play at the level at which they are comfortable. In JFF, each person chooses the jump height that is most appropriate for his dog’s ability.

Positive Training and Agility

The sport of agility has, perhaps inadvertently, become a huge promoter of positive training methods. You can probably imagine that it would be difficult to drag a reluctant dog over an A-frame or force a dog to run at top speed through a set of weave poles. Agility training generally incorporates positive-oriented training techniques, including clicker training, lure and reward, and classical conditioning. Dogs are motivated and rewarded with food, praise, and toys. Although some agility instructors do use punitive methods, most do not.

Nancy Gyes, co-owner of Power Paws Agility and a top level agility competitor in the United States, addressed the very issue of using compulsion methods in training at a recent seminar in Watsonville, California. Gyes admitted to the seminar crowd that she is so competitive that if using a pinch collar on her dog would help her win, she might use it for training in agility. But that the fact is, according to Gyes, positive reinforcement training methods work better in building accuracy, speed, and enthusiasm. Gyes went on to point out that the leading agility competitors in the country all use some elements of clicker training in working with their dogs – even those who do not consider themselves clicker trainers.

Getting Your Dog Started

Because agility is still relatively new, many of the people who are currently involved started out self-taught – building equipment, reading books, watching videos, attending seminars, and learning by trial and error. With the growing popularity of the sport, however, agility-training facilities are popping up everywhere. If you’d like to try agility, you could begin on your own, but your best bet is to find a trainer in your area to help you get started. When you are looking for a trainer, look for someone who:

• Focuses on safety and the well-being of the dogs above all else.

• Uses motivational methods. Forcing a dog onto equipment can ruin the fun for both of you.

• Can help you understand both how to teach your dog to use the equipment and help you learn to direct your dog through the course. Agility is a 50/50 team sport. You both need to learn your part.

If you do not plan to compete, your instructor does not need a competition background. But if you do want to compete, look for a teacher who has competition experience to mentor you through the process. If you or your dog have any special needs or limitations, ask the instructor if she is willing to work with you around those areas.

Because agility training is a long-term training process, it becomes especially important to find an instructor with whom you enjoy working.

Backyard Agility Fun

Interested in giving agility a try, but don’t have a training center near you? Here are a few things you can try at home. Remember to make these exercises as easy as possible until your dog gets the idea, offering lots of rewards along the way. Never force a dog to do any agility exercise. One of the most important aspects of agility is the dog’s enthusiasm and willingness to play the game; forcing a dog to participate may spoil his natural inclination for fun. In addition, make sure your dog is physically able to comfortably do the exercises you are asking of him.

Most adult dogs can safely try out the exercises below, but if you have any doubts, check with your veterinarian first. For serious agility training, your dog should be at least a year old and in excellent condition. Excellent condition for agility means a dog who has good hips and elbows, who is a good weight (for agility, this means scrawny – you will want to be able to easily feel your dog’s ribs when he is in a standing position). In addition, a dog who trains for agility should run off leash for at least 20 minutes four or five times a week. Walks alone are not enough to keep a dog in shape for agility.

Practice Handling

Because agility means working with your dog on both sides of you and making lots of twists and turns while running together, it’s helpful to practice “handling skills” with your dog. You will want to do these “on the flat” without any agility obstacles in the picture. First, try running in a straight line with your dog off leash on your left side. Then try it with him on your right side. If he’s a bit confused, you can put a treat in your hand to help him follow you, giving him the treat when you stop. Use the palm of your hand to guide your dog as you move.

Once your dog can run in a straight line, try turning to the left, then to the right. Help your dog understand where you are turning by using your foot, shoulder, and hand closest to your dog to motion to where you want him to go. Practice turning and moving in the opposite direction, too. Try having your dog turn toward you, and then have your dog move away from you.

Jumping into Action

You can put together a make-shift jump by placing a broomstick on top of two cinder blocks, or you can build or buy practice jumps made out of PVC pipe. When you begin teaching your dog to jump, use a very low jump – below your dog’s elbows. As he begins to get the idea, you can gradually raise the jump to between his elbow and shoulder. Unless your dog is in very good shape and conditioned to jump, do not raise the jump above his shoulder height.

Begin teaching your dog to jump by having him stay on one side of the jump. You move to the opposite side and then invite your dog over. You can use a treat or a toy to encourage him the first couple of times. When your dog is coming over the jump, click and treat. Once your dog is happily coming over the jump to you, start sending your dog away from you, over the jump, to a target. The target can be a touch object like a small plastic lid. Or, have your dog wait, toss a toy over the jump, and then send him over to get the toy. When he goes over the jump to the target or toy, lavish him with praise. Next, try walking, then running with your dog as he goes over the jump.

Fun with a Play Tunnel

You can purchase a small tunnel for kids at a toy store or use a long box (like those that hold hot water heaters) with ends cut off as a play tunnel for a smaller dog. For larger dogs, you can put together a makeshift tunnel with chairs and a bed sheet. As with jumping, begin by encouraging your dog to come to you through the tunnel. You may need to get down on the ground and stick your head in the tunnel, reaching through with a treat to get your dog to go through the first few times. When your dog comes through the tunnel to you, click and treat. As with jumping, after your dog can come to you, practice sending him to a target, and then practice< running next to your dog as he goes through the tunnel.

Walk the Plank

A 12-inch wide board, eight to twelve feet long, balanced on two cinder blocks is a fun way to start the dog walk. Encourage your dog to walk across the board. Walk with your dog if necessary. Be sure to click and treat when your dog is on the board, not when he steps off. Then spend some time helping your dog understand where his back feet are (so he won’t slip off when moving quickly), by having your dog do tricks like sitting, laying down, or changing direction on the board. Encourage your dog by clicking and treating for keeping all four feet on the board. Once he gets the idea of walking across the board and knows where his back feet are, try running in both directions and with you on each side.

Putting it All Together

Once your dog can jump, run through the tunnel and across the board, you can try putting it all together in a mini course. At first, put your obstacles in a straight line, 10 to 15 feet apart. Try running back and forth with your dog. You can encourage your dog by clicking and treating each obstacle at first. Once you have mastered running together with the obstacles in a straight line, try with the obstacles in a circle.

Remember to keep it fun and give your dog lots of rewards. Try treats, ball play, or a great game of tug. Experiment and see what motivates your dog the most.

Dog Agility is Addictive

When asked what he would say to someone who was considering trying agility, Bud Houston responds, “You’ve got to do this. It’s too much fun!” Anyone who has tried agility can tell you that it’s addictive. You just may end up with jumps in your backyard, weave poles in your living room, and a whole new set of vocabulary words. You may end up practicing front crosses and reverse flow pivots as you vacuum. You may start muttering terms like “clean runs” and “yards per second” in your sleep. Like any person exhibiting signs of addiction, your friends and family may wonder if you’ve lost your mind – or just given it to the dog.

Mardi Richmond is a writer and editor living in Santa Cruz, California. When she’s not busy playing with her dogs, Mardi teaches Just for Fun Agility classes. She is also the co-author of Ruffing It: The Complete Guide to Camping with Your Dog.

Understanding Congestive Heart Failure in Dogs

By
CJ Puotinen
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Understanding a dog with congestive heart failure, and the medication can help them live longer.

Dogs don’t experience heart attacks the way humans do, but this doesn’t mean they don’t die of heart disease. Heart failure is increasingly common in America’s dogs, with many showing symptoms by age seven or eight. Even some young dogs develop congestive heart failure, inheriting the propensity for the disease from their parents.

Conventional medical practitioners consider congestive heart failure and other circulatory problems to be progressive and irreversible, but holistic veterinarians know that in many cases, heart disease can be slowed, reversed, and even cured. Understanding heart disease will help you prevent it in healthy dogs and treat it in dogs who are already ill.

UPDATE: For information on another common heart disease, dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) in dogs, see Whole Dog Journal‘s September 2018 story.

What Does Congestive Heart Failure in Dogs Look Like?

dog with congestive heart failure

The symptoms of congestive heart failure (CHF) are easy to overlook, and the illness is often mistaken for other conditions, such a respiratory infection or the normal aging process. In short, the condition is an inability of the heart to pump enough blood to meet the body’s needs, because of a failure to adequately empty the venous reservoirs.

In congestive heart failure, the heart doesn’t actually fail or stop beating; instead, its valves become thick with scar tissue, which prevents them from closing properly. Leaking valves cause fluid to accumulate on either side of the heart, and the heart grows larger as it works harder. Fluid accumulating on the right side of the heart produces lung congestion and coughing; fluid on the left side leads to edema (fluid retention) in the abdomen. Arrhythmia, or an uneven heartbeat, can occur as well.

In dogs as in humans, there are four functional classifications of CHF. Class 1 has no obvious signs. This early phase, during which the heart begins to malfunction, can last for years.

In Class 2 CHF, fatigue and shortness of breath begin to accompany active exercise or heavy physical activity. There are no symptoms when the dog is sitting still or lying down. A lack of circulation in the extremities in this and later stages may interfere with wound healing, and mental confusion can occasionally result from a lack of oxygen in the brain.

In Class 3 CHF, even slow walking on a level surface can produce shortness of breath and fatigue. Other possible signs include a persistent dry or hacking cough, wheezing, sudden collapse, and a bluish discoloration of the tongue and gums during exercise. Because the accumulation of fluid in the chest interferes with deep breathing, the dog may seek fresh air more than usual.

In Class 4 CHF, the patient is uncomfortable at all times, even while resting. Edema can affect the legs and feet as well as abdomen and chest area. In advanced cases, fluid collecting in the chest cavity can push on the heart and collapse the lungs. In contrast to the long time lag between Class 1 and Class 2, the illness progresses quickly from Class 3 to Class 4, so that a dog that seemed healthy and active may suddenly enter a critical condition.

Conventional vs. Complementary Approaches to Congestive Heart Failure

Conventional medicine treats CHF with diuretics, which remove accumulated fluids; digitalis or other heart drugs, which stimulate and temporarily strengthen the heart muscle; oxygen, which improves the animal’s breathing; and a low-salt diet, which helps prevent further edema. These treatments effectively treat the symptoms of the disease, vastly improving the quality of the animal’s remaining life, but do nothing to prevent the progression of the illness.

Generally, holistic practitioners also employ the effective conventional drugs to suppress the symptoms of CHF and seek to augment conventional treatments with nutritional support and herbs. Their goal is to improve whatever underlying imbalances or deficiencies the dog may be experiencing, which may help to slow or stop the progression of disease.

Since all drugs used to treat symptoms of CHF have some adverse effects, another goal of holistic practitioners is to facilitate the safe reduction or even elimination of the dog’s conventional prescriptions. Of course, success depends on the type, severity, and duration of the dog’s illness, but many veterinarians and dog guardians have seen great improvements in their patients with this approach.

Nutritional Support for Dogs with Congestive Heart Failure

Vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and other nutrients play a crucial role in maintaining circulatory health.

• Vitamins: In the 1940s, Drs. Wilfrid and Evan Shute, who were brothers, began a 40-year study of the effects of vitamin E on the heart. Wilfrid Shute’s research involved dogs as well as humans, for he was a show judge and Doberman Pinscher breeder. Soon, thanks to his efforts, vitamin E improved the health of dogs around the world.

As Wendell O. Belfield, DVM, reports in his classic book How to Have a Healthier Dog, many of these cases were dramatic. In 1945, Dr. N. H. Lambert in Dublin, Ireland, learned of the Shute brothers’ work and began giving vitamin E to dogs, the first of which, a nine-year-old Griffon, was dying of heart disease complicated by an inflammatory uterine condition. Conventional treatment had been unsuccessful. “Placed on vitamin E, she made a spectacular recovery,” Dr. Belfield reports. “Lambert said she became quite rejuvenated and lived for another six years.

“Among the virtues of vitamin E is the prevention of excessive scar tissue production,” he adds.

Vitamin C is another crucial nutrient for heart health, as it stabilizes blood vessel walls by supporting the production of collagen, elastin, and other connective tissue. Some physicians consider congestive heart failure a form of scurvy, caused by a deficiency of vitamin C. A powerful antioxidant, vitamin C protects the cardiovascular system as well as speeds wound healing throughout the body, including tiny lesions and wounds within blood vessel walls. In addition, vitamin C is a cofactor for enzymes (biological catalysts) that improve the metabolism of cholesterol and triglycerides.

But of all the vitamins associated with heart health, the most important may be those of the vitamin B complex, including one that has never been recognized as important to human health (vitamin B4, or adenine), even though animal research has shown that withholding it produces congestive heart failure. Vitamin B4 is found in yeast, liver, and wheat germ.

In the last 20 years, Bruce West, DC, has treated thousands of congestive heart failure patients with nutrition rather than drugs. Although he works with humans rather than dogs, his explanation of how congestive heart failure develops applies to both. The cause in most cases, he says, is what he calls American beriberi, or beriberi of the heart. Beriberi is a B-vitamin deficiency that causes nerve conductivity problems, weakness, and muscle paralysis. “Congestive heart failure,” he says, “is a problem of poor nerve conductivity to the heart, an almost paralyzing weakness of the heart muscle, and the resultant failure of the heart muscle to be able to pump out blood.”

Dr. West recommends nutrient-rich foods that contain the entire B-vitamin complex as well as all of the nutrients important to circulatory system health. Unlike prescription drugs, these supplements help the body repair itself by providing the nutrients whose deficiency caused the damage in the first place.

According to Dr. West, most human patients who follow his protocol reduce their prescription drugs and diuretics within a few months and stop them altogether within a year, and this is quite possible for canine patients, too. “Heart drugs are powerful and can prolong life,” he notes, “but when they are no longer needed, they can do serious damage to the heart and kidneys and should be discontinued.”

Recommended dosages vary widely, depending on the prescriber’s philosophy. Practitioners of orthomolecular medicine use very high doses of synthetic vitamins to treat heart disease and other conditions. In Keep Your Pet Healthy the Natural Way, Pat Lazarus lists the supplements used by Richard J. Kearns, DVM, to treat canine heart disease, which include 400,000 International Units (IU) of water-soluble vitamin A, 20 to 25 grams of vitamin C, and up to 4,000 to 6,000 IU of water-soluble vitamin E. Megadoses of synthetic vitamins have a drug-like effect and require professional supervision.

At the opposite end of the spectrum are those who use whole-food supplements rather than synthetic vitamins or isolated nutrients. Even though they supply individual nutrients in minute quantities, whole-food supplements such as those made by Standard Process and Wysong contain all of the C-complex, B-complex, and other families of vitamins, plus hundreds of other nutrients. Food-source supplements are readily absorbed and utilized, have no adverse side effects, and work synergistically to repair damaged tissue.

• Coenzymes: Coenzyme Q10 is used by holistic practitioners for many heart ailments, including CHF. Coenzyme Q10 (generally written as CoQ10 and pronounced “Coe-cue-ten”) is a vitamin-like substance that resembles vitamin E in its action, and strengthens the heart muscle and enhances immunity.

For his canine CHF patients, San Diego-based veterinarian Stephen Blake (see “Holistic Veterinarians Propose Other CHF Causes and Treatments” sidebar at end of story) prescribes one milligram of oil-based CoQ10 per pound of body weight per day, or two milligrams of powdered CoQ10 per pound of body weight.

• Amino acids: The amino acids taurine and L-carnitine are popular supplements because they have been shown to help strengthen the heart muscle, increase its output, and help relieve edema. These amino acids work best when given with high-quality protein and are usually recommended for CHF in doses up to 10 mg per pound of body weight.

• Minerals: Of the many minerals that help maintain heart health, the most important are found in raw bones. Dogs on a raw bone-based diet ingest these minerals daily. Calcium supports the contraction of muscle cells in the heart as well as the conduction of nerve impulses that trigger heartbeats. Magnesium helps normalize an irregular heartbeat, and works synergistically with calcium to strengthen the heart. Trace elements such as zinc, manganese, copper, selenium, chromium, molybdenum, and boron are also important, but are needed in only small quantities.

Supplements such as Calcifood, Min-Tran, and Organic Minerals from Standard Process or Wysong’s Orgamin and Chelamin contain all of these important nutrients. Powdered kelp (½ teaspoon per 15 pounds of body weight) and liquid colloidal minerals (½ teaspoon per 30 pounds of body weight) can be added to food for additional support.

• Essential fatty acids: Essential fatty acids (EFAs) can be important supplements, especially for dogs fed a grain-based commercial diet. EFA supplements that contain fish oils (marine lipids) provide omega-3 fatty acids that improve heart function by correcting EFA deficiencies and balances.

• Enzymes: Systemic oral enzyme products such as Wobenzym and Nutrizyme help repair damage to the heart and other organs, especially where inflammation is involved. Systemic oral enzymes are enteric-coated digestive enzymes taken between meals on an empty stomach.

“Instead of staying in the stomach and digesting food,” explains enzyme researcher Charles Green, “these enzymes circulate through the body, removing inflammation, breaking down scar tissue, and restoring healthy tissue.” According to Green, this therapy reduces inflammation quickly, within a matter of days or even hours, while the removal of scar tissue takes place more slowly. These products have been proven safe even in large doses for long-term use.

Herbs for Your Dog’s Heart

Of the many herbs that support heart health, several are suitable for use with dogs.

The hawthorn berry (Crataegus oxyacantha), is gentle, effective, and nontoxic. Hawthorn’s flavonoids increase coronary blood flow while slightly enhancing the force of the heartbeat; it stabilizes the pulse, increases the heart’s tolerance of oxygen deficiency, and increases cerebral blood flow. Because it has a gradual effect, hawthorn should be taken over a long period, such as several months or years, for maximum effectiveness. Prolonged use is safe, as hawthorn has shown extremely low toxicity in every animal species tested. Any hawthorn preparation sold for human use can be given to dogs, adapting label directions to the patient’s weight.

Another herb with impressive cardiovascular benefits is garlic. Garlic improves cholesterol balance, inhibits harmful platelet congregation, and acts as an antioxidant. There is much debate about which type of garlic is best, and every preparation (fresh, dried, cooked, raw, aged, or extract) has its proponents. Although side effects are rare, garlic does thin the blood and should not be used by dogs with bleeding disorders. Otherwise, it is usually safe to take in “courses” of five days on and two days off for four weeks, then discontinued for one week before resuming, with occasional breaks of a month or more.

Cayenne pepper (Capsicum annuum), another culinary herb with cardiotonic properties, helps stop internal bleeding, relieves pain, strengthens tissue, and improves circulation. Cayenne capsules are widely sold and easy to administer in food.

Other tonic herbs with circulatory system benefits include ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba), gotu kola (Centella asiatica), rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis), and bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus).

Liver support, which is important in most cases of congestive heart failure, is well provided by dandelion leaf or root (Taraxacum officinale) and milk thistle seed (Silybum marianum).

For best results, work with a veterinary herbalist to determine which herbs would benefit your dog, adjust the dosages, and monitor their effects. As mentioned earlier, success with nutritional support or herbal medicines may enable you to reduce your dog’s conventional medications. However, this must be done under a veterinarian’s supervision. Contact the American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association to find a holistic veterinarian in your area.

Holistic Veterinarians Propose Other CHF Causes and Treatments

It’s in the Food

To Australian veterinarian Tom Lonsdale, author of the book Raw Meaty Bones and a longtime advocate of raw diets for dogs, the cause of almost every case of canine congestive heart failure is commercial pet food. “Domestic dogs that are fed the way a wolf or dingo feeds itself bloom with health,” he says. “I’m talking about whole carcasses or large lumps of raw meat and bones as the staple of the diet. Congestive heart failure is rare in dogs that eat the diet nature intended.

“Heart disease usually starts in the mouth,” he continues. “A diet based on raw meaty bones provides the nutrients and exercise that keep teeth and gums clean and healthy, while commercial pet food promotes periodontal infections like gingivitis and pyorrhea. These infections have consequences for other body systems. Harmful bacteria drain from the mouth and spread throughout the body, leading to multiple problems, including heart disease.”

According to Dr. Lonsdale, congestive heart failure involves collagen, the connective tissue that holds the body together. Dietary deficiencies and mouth infections affect all of the body’s collagen adversely, he says. As circulatory system collagen loses its flexibility, inflammation results, producing scar tissue, leaky valves, and circulatory insufficiency.

“As with so many things,” says Dr. Lonsdale, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. This is especially so with dogs that have an audible congenitally acquired heart murmur. If one can improve the patient’s dental hygiene and diet before signs of congestive heart failure arise, then, despite the heart murmur, general health often remains surprisingly good. That’s a relief because drug treatments are at best unreliable.”

Detoxification

San Diego veterinarian Stephen Blake agrees that congestive heart failure is a syndrome rather than an isolated illness. “It’s a mistake to focus exclusively on the heart,” he says, “because the heart is only part of the problem. Ninety percent of the congestive heart failure patients I see also have some kind of liver problem, which isn’t surprising considering our toxic environment. Dogs are exposed to toxins in their food and water, not to mention vaccines and prescription drugs, all of which overwhelm the liver. So in most cases, in addition to supporting the heart, I’m going to be treating the liver.”

Dr. Blake begins this process by removing as many toxins as possible from the dog’s environment and diet. “Anything that’s not natural should be eliminated,” he says. “I recommend that the dog not receive vaccinations, heartworm preventatives, flea or tick treatments, food that contains chemical preservatives, or anything that might contain pesticide residues or other chemicals. If the patient is on prescription medication, I consider whether going off the drug would be beneficial or dangerous. For example, if the dog has diabetes as well as congestive heart failure, I’m not going to pull him off insulin. But in most cases, you can discontinue prescription drugs by providing herbs or supplements that have similar effects.”

One patient who recovered on Dr. Blake’s protocol of improved nutrition, herbs, homeopathy, and acupuncture is Mia, a Chow who, two years ago, had a chronic lung infection and congestive heart failure. Despite conventional treatment with antibiotics, heart drugs, and diuretics, her condition was rapidly deteriorating.

“She was on a low-protein food for senior dogs,” he says, “and that has to be the worst kind of diet for the heart. We increased the amount of protein in her diet and improved its quality by switching her to raw meat and bones. I had her take colostrum, which is rich in growth factors and helps promote tissue repair, as well as Cardio-Plus and glandular products from Standard Process for support of the heart. Then I chose a homeopathic remedy to fit her constitutionally.

“At her first appointment, this dog could barely breathe, coughed all the time, was extremely uncomfortable, and was close to death. Now she no longer takes Lasix (her prescription diuretic) or other medications except for one heart drug, which she takes at a reduced dose. She just turned 16 and is in great shape, full of spit and vinegar.”

Homeopathy and Energy Medicine

Gloria Dodd, DVM, uses homeopathy, nutrition, and energy medicine to treat dogs with CHF. Her Web site features beforeand-after photos of some of her patients, including Snookie, a 12-year-old spayed female Poodle who had severe congestive heart failure, emphysema, plus liver and digestive problems. She was also deaf.

After treatment with an improved diet and Dr. Dodd’s homeopathic combination for CHF, Snookie looks years younger. Her lungs are clear, she plays like a puppy, and her hearing has returned.

Dr. Dodd’s interest in energy medicine prompted her to design a halter that combines color therapy, quartz crystals, pyramid configuration energy, heart chakra energy, and an antiradiation bead. The first dog to wear the harness, which now comes in different sizes, was her own Poodle, who had CHF and a severe mitral heart valve murmur. After wearing the halter, her CHF and heart murmur disappeared. Now 18 years old, the Poodle has remained active and free from disease for the past four years, with all clinical exams and blood tests remaining normal.

“The basis of all my treatment for any illness is one of detoxification and support, which I describe on my Web site,” says Dr. Dodd. “I find that in order to effect a cure (and that is what I aim for; I don’t espouse repressive therapy even with natural methods), one has to ferret out the true cause of disease. It is multilayered, and I consider energy medicine my most important tool.”

Unorthodox Approaches

As one might guess, the ideas forwarded by these holistic practitioners are not supported by most conventional practitioners, who generally treat CHF with modern pharmacology alone. If your conventionally oriented veterinarian scoffs at your queries regarding complementary therapies, look for a holistic veterinarian who can augment your healthcare options. The American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association (AHVMA) can help you find a practitioner in your area.

In Conclusion

Congestive heart failure has many possible causes and many possible treatments. By focusing on diet and nutrition, by avoiding conditions and products that add stress to the body, and by providing appropriate support therapies, many patients with CHF can experience a total restoration of health.

Freelance writer CJ Puotinen is the author of  The Encyclopedia of Natural Pet Care and many other books.

What to Do If Your Dog Bites Someone

By
Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA
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70
dog bite
Your dog might seem to love being around your children – and still be at risk of biting one of them. It depends on what her specific stressors are. You need to know what her stressors are, and manage her environment carefully.

There are few things quite as disconcerting as having your own dog bite you. I can recall with crystal clarity the time our Scottie nailed me in a classic case of redirected aggression. He had taken an intense dislike to a Labrador Retriever who had entered the room, and when I touched him on his back to try to distract him, he whirled around and redirected his aroused state, and his substantial Scottish Terrier teeth, at my hand.

Despite the horror stories of free-roaming Pitbulls mauling children as they walk to school, the majority of dog bites occur in the owner’s home. The majority of dog bite victims are friends or members of the owner’s family. Sixty-one percent of dog bites occur in the home or a familiar place, and 77 percent of bite victims are family members or friends, according to attorney Kenneth Phillips, who specializes in dog bite cases. A relatively small percentage of bites are inflicted by errant stray dogs. This means that most bites leave a shocked owner feeling betrayed by his loyal canine, and wondering whether he can ever trust his four-footed friend again.

Why Do Dogs Bite?

Why did your sweet dog bite you? All dogs can bite, and given differing circumstances, all dogs will. Although we humans regard any bite as aggression, for dogs, biting is a natural and normal means of canine communication and defense. It’s actually surprising that our dogs don’t bite us more often than they do!

Aggression and bites are generally caused by stress, which can come from a variety of sources. Some dogs have high bite thresholds – it takes a lot of stressors to make them bite. Some have low thresholds – it doesn’t take much to convince them to bite. A dog with a high bite threshold may seem like the best choice around kids. This is often true, but if noisy, active children are very stressful to the dog, even a high-threshold dog might bite them. Conversely, a dog who has a low bite threshold may be a fine child’s companion if children are not one of his stressors, and if he is kept in an environment that is free of the things that are stressors for him.

Pain, fear, anxiety, arousal – any kind of threat to the dog’s well-being can be considered a stressor. A timid dog whose space is trespassed upon will retreat, but if prevented from retreating, will bite out of fear. A mother with pups whose space is trespassed upon may feel threatened by the intrusion, and bite. A resource-guarder bites because he is offended (stressed) by his perception that the human might take a possession. The bite often resolves the situation for the dog and relieves his stress, which is why a dog may bite in one instant and seem fine the next. When the resource-guarder bites, the human (generally) withdraws; with the threat to his food bowl gone, the dog is perfectly calm and happy again. Wounds to the human victim’s skin often heal far more quickly than the breach in the relationship between dog and human. This is unfortunate, because the majority of bites are perfectly justified – from the dog’s point of view – although often misunderstood by the human.

If humans better understood dogs, we would realize it’s about behavior, not trust. Many biting dogs could easily remain in their homes and lead long and happy lives, with a low risk for a second bite, if their owners only understood how to identify and minimize their dogs’ stressors.

What to Do If Your Dog Bites Someone

If your dog bites, you have at least four options:

  • Manage his behavior to prevent him from ever biting again
  • Implement a comprehensive behavior modification program
  • Rehome the dog
  • Have the dog euthanized

1. Manage his behavior to prevent him from ever having the opportunity to bite again.

While difficult, this is possible. It means greatly restricting his movements so he has no access to humans, other than adult family members. If company comes over, the dog is crated in a closed room. If the grandkids visit, he is crated or sent to a kennel that is equipped to safely handle a biting dog. Even if he adores the grandkids, the fact that he has bitten puts them at unacceptable risk. Unless you are 100 percent confident that you know what his stressors are and can prevent them from occurring during the kids’ visit, you cannot take the chance.

Of course, selecting this option means a reduced quality of life – no more walks in the park, on or off leash; no more rides in the car; and no more spending hours on his own in the fresh air and sunshine in the fenced backyard.

2. Manage his behavior to prevent him from biting while you implement a comprehensive behavior modification program. This requires a serious commitment.

If your dog’s behavior is relatively new and mild, you may be able to accomplish this on your own. (See “4 Steps to Modify Aggressive Dog Behavior,” below.)

Most owners, however, need the (sometimes costly) help of an experienced, positive behavior counselor or behaviorist to help them succeed. The behavior professional will help identify your dog’s stressors, and set up a program to use desensitization and counter-conditioning to convince him that the things he now perceives as “bad” (stressors) are really “good.” If he changes his perception, they will no longer cause him stress, and they won’t push him over his bite threshold.

This doesn’t happen overnight. The longer your dog has practiced his aggression responses, the longer it takes to modify them. The more committed you are to working with him, the more opportunities he will have to reprogram his responses and the faster it will happen. Meanwhile, he must be crated or kenneled while visitors or grandkids are at the house, and not taken for walks, car rides, nor left to his own devices in the backyard.

3. Rehome him with a new owner who is willing and able to do one of the first two.

Rehoming a dog that bites is a long shot. Depending on the circumstances of the bite and the dog’s general nature, some dogs who have bitten may be accepted into training programs for government drug or bomb-sniffing dogs, or as police K9 units. Your average adoption home, however, is no better equipped than you to make the commitment necessary to safely keep a biting dog. Most rescue groups will not accept dogs who have a history of biting, and shelters that do accept them will often euthanize, rather than take the risk (and the liability) of placing them in a new home.

If you rehome him yourself, you risk having the dog fall into the hands of someone who will punish him severely for biting, or otherwise not treat him well. You may even continue to bear some liability, moral if not also legal, should the dog do serious damage to someone at his new home.

There are millions of dogs looking for homes who haven’t bitten anyone. You love your dog and are trying to rehome him. What are your chances of finding someone to adopt him who is willing to take the risk of bringing home a biting dog?

4. Have the dog euthanized.

This is never a happy outcome. Still, you need to think long and hard about this dog’s quality of life. If you can only manage his behavior, will he be happy, or miserable, being shut out of the activities he loves? Can you guarantee that the home you find for him will treat him well? Once a dog bites, will he bite again?

If you can manage and modify, and still maintain your own quality of life as well as his, by all means, that is the best choice. But if not, remember that aggression is caused by stress, and stress is not an enjoyable state of being. If the dog is so stressed that you can’t succeed in managing and modifying his behavior and he is a high risk for biting someone else, he can’t be living a very enjoyable life. Nor can you! As difficult as the decision may be, it is sometimes the right and responsible one for the protection of all of your loved ones, including the dog.

What you should never do is close your eyes and hope and pray that he doesn’t bite again. You are responsible for protecting your family as well as other members of your community. Denial will only result in more bites.

TREATING A DOG BITE: WHAT TO DO IF A DOG BITES YOU

What NOT to Do When a Dog Bites

The most dangerous course of action – for the dog and the human – is also the one taken by most uninformed owners of dogs who bite. Many people react to their dog’s bite by physically and sometimes severely punishing the dog into submission. Some dog trainers even recommend this method, to be employed at the dog’s first sign of aggression. A warning growl or snarl is met with a harsh verbal correction and a leash jerk, followed by more serious measures such as hanging or helicoptering if the dog continued to resist. While this method does manage to “whip” some dogs “into shape,” others will escalate their resistance, fighting back until dog, human, or both, are seriously injured or even dead. You should NOT punish a dog for biting.

This method may also teach the dog not to give a warning prior to the bite. It certainly doesn’t do anything to minimize the dog’s stressors. If anything, it increases the stress, since the dog now associates a severe beating along with whatever other negative feelings he has about the stressor.

Let’s say, for example, a dog is not fond of children. A child approaches and the dog growls – his attempt to let us (and the child) know that her presence is stressful to him. We jerk on his leash and tell him to knock it off. He snaps at us in response to the jerk, so we punish him harder, until he stops fighting and submits. The end result is a dog who isn’t any happier about being around small children, who has now learned that it isn’t safe to growl. This dog is now more likely to bite a child next time he sees one, rather than growling to warn her away, since he has learned that his growling makes us unreasonably aggressive. We may have suppressed the growl, but we haven’t helped him feel any better about being around kids!

A growl is a good thing. It tells us that our dog is nearing his bite threshold, and gives us the opportunity to identify and remove the stressor. Snarls and air-snaps are two steps closer to the threshold – our dog’s last-ditch attempts to warn off the stressor before he is forced to commit the ultimate offense: The actual bite.

If your dog growls or snaps frequently, you need to take notice. He is telling you that there are lots of stressors pushing him toward his bite threshold. If you don’t take action, chances are good that he will eventually bite. And if your dog bites a child – then what? Let’s just say dogs who bite tend to have short lifespans.

Dog Bite Classifications

Well-known veterinarian, dog trainer, and behaviorist Ian Dunbar has developed a six-level system of classifying bites, in order to make discussions of dog biting behavior more consistent and understandable. Those levels are:

Level 1 Bite

Harassment, but no skin contact. This is the so-called snap. Don’t kid yourself. A snap is an intended “air bite” from a dog who did not intend to connect. He didn’t just “miss.” It is a lovely warning signal, telling us that we need to identify his stressors and either desensitize him or manage his behavior to avoid exposing him to the things that cause him undue stress.

Level 2 Bite

Tooth contact on skin but no puncture.This is from a dog who wanted to bite but didn’t break skin, and a warning that this dog is serious. It’s a very good idea to remove the dog’s stressors at this point, before he graduates to the next level.

Level 3 Bite

Skin punctures, one to four holes from a single bite (all punctures shallower than the length of the canine tooth).

Level 4 Bite

One to four holes, deep black bruising with punctures deeper than the length of the canine (which means the dog bit and clamped down) or slashes in both directions from the puncture (the dog bit and shook his head).

Level 5 Bite

Multiple-bite attack with deep punctures, or multiple attack incident.

Level 6 Bite

Killed victim and/or consumed flesh.

Can a Dog Who Bites Be Rehabilitated? Dog Biting Can Usually Be Improved

The good news is that relatively few dogs are beyond help. If you make a commitment to helping your dog feel more comfortable with the world, there’s a good chance you will succeed. You will understand why he has bitten in the past, and be able to avoid his stressors while you work to convince him that what are now stressors for him are actually good things.

Like my own encounter with my Scottie’s capable canines, you will realize that the bite wasn’t personal, but simply the end result of a chain of events that were beyond your dog’s control. What a proud day for you both, when you can take him out in public with confidence, knowing that he is as safe as any dog can be in the face of the unknown elements of the real world.

Four Steps to Modify Aggressive Dog Behavior

Aggression is a classically conditioned response. Your dog does not generally take a seat and ponder whether he is going to bite the next time you try to clip his nails or remove him from the bed. When a stressor occurs, it triggers an involuntary reaction – the dog’s brain screams, “Nail clipping – BAD!” and the dog bites. If you want the dog to stop from biting when you clip his nails, you have to change his brain’s reaction to “Nail clipping – GOOD!” See how disciplining a dog for biting is counterproductive yet?

You will use food, a very powerful positive reinforcer, to change the way your dog’s brain responds to a stressor, using “desensitization and counter-conditioning” (D&CC). Here is one possible program for a dog who bites during nail trimming, as an example. You can change the steps to fit any situation that typically causes your dog to bite.

NOTE: Because the risks associated with a failed program for aggression are high, I strongly recommend that you work with a competent positive behavior professional to implement a D&CC program. The following program is not intended to take the place of professional guidance.

1. Write down every step of the process.

Record every single step you normally take for nail trimming, (or whatever situation your dog has problems with). Your list may look something like this:

a.) Set the nail clippers on the coffee table
b.) Grab dog
c.) Drag dog to coffee table; keep stranglehold of dog’s collar
d.) Grip dog in unbreakable headlock
e.) Pick up clippers
f.) Pick up dog’s right front paw with the left hand while maintaining headlock
g.) Move clippers toward paw
h.) Touch paw with clippers
i.) Clip first nail
j.) Clip second nail, etc., all the way through all the dog’s nails.

2. Determine how to separate different elements of this procedure into separate goals for Desensitization and Counter-conditioning.

Separate goals might look like this:
a.) Develop positive association with clippers
b.) Teach dog to sit quietly and accept paws being held
c.) Convince dog to allow nail clipping

3. Create a mini-D&CC program for each separate element.

Work on each program separately but concurrently so you can put them all together later.

a.) Positive association with clippers. Purchase several nail clippers. Leave them around the house next to his dinner bowl, on the coffee table, etc. Carry them in your hand as you go about your daily routine. Feed the dog treats while you are holding the clippers. Teach him to touch the clippers with his nose for a high-value reward. (This training technique is called targeting.) Pet him with the clippers in your hand and feed him treats.

b.) Teach your dog to accept paw-holding. Have dog sit quietly with you. Touch him at a point that does not elicit tension – perhaps the top of his head. Feed him a high-value treat. Repeat several times, giving him a treat each time, then move your hand slightly down his neck and feed him a treat.

Repeat this process, giving him treats all the while, very gradually moving down to his elbow, his knee, his paw. It may take several sessions just to get to his elbow. If at any time you elicit signs of aggression – a growl, snarl, or snap – you have moved too quickly. An ideal D&CC program never elicits the behavior you are trying to eliminate. Continue this gradual process until you can lift each paw and hold it longer and longer without resistance.

c.) Convince the dog to allow nail clipping. Your dog now thinks that nail clippers are GOOD and paw holding is GOOD. You must now convince him that the actual clipping is GOOD as well.

Do this gradually. Hold the clippers in one hand while you repeat the paw desensitization step (step 3b) with the other, to show him that paw touching in the presence of clippers is also good. Be generous with your high-value treats. Then use the hand with the clipper to repeat step 3b until he is happy about having you touch his paws with the clipper. Continue by closing the clippers near his toenail, then against his toenail, then by actually clipping the very tip off one nail.

4. NOW STOP!

If he handled this well, it is tempting to go on to the next nail, but it is important that you stop here. One nail clipped without resistance is a huge success. Don’t spoil it by pushing him into feeling stressed, and undoing your work.

Repeat the process the next day, and if all goes well, clip the next nail. The third day, if he still does well, try clipping the next two nails. Eventually, when he is comfortable with the whole process, you can sit down and clip all his nails in one session, without risk of being bitten.

To minimize your dog’s other stressors, make a complete list of all you can identify, then create and apply a program such as the one above to desensitize and counter condition him to each. There may be some stressors for which this is impossible, but remember that the more stressors you desensitize him to, the more likely it is that he will spend the rest of his life bite-free.

Older Dogs and the Onset of Cataracts

By
CJ Puotinen
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A dog’s eyes, like those of its human companions, change with age. The passage of time and the progression of certain illnesses increase the risk of canine cataracts, glaucoma, and other vision-related problems.

Fortunately, not all age-related vision changes are serious, and some that are serious can be prevented and even reversed. By being aware of the eye conditions that are common in aging dogs, we can do much to help our canine companions see well throughout their lives.

Canine Cataracts

Cataracts make the lens of the eye opaque or cloudy, which gradually reduces vision to the point of blindness. In their early stages, cataracts cause blurring and distortion of vision, but they are invisible to the naked eye. By the time most owners notice them, cataracts involve more than 60 percent of the dog’s eye. Cataracts often accompany other illnesses, such as diabetes and hypothyroidism (low thyroid function).

Surgery performed by a veterinary ophthalmologist is the only treatment considered effective in conventional veterinary medicine – and is indicated only in cases where the cataracts are not a result of a secondary disease such as diabetes.

Here are answers to the most common questions about cataracts in dogs.

Lenticular Sclerosis

Lenticular sclerosis, also called nuclear sclerosis, is very different from cataracts, though the two are often confused. “Lenticular sclerosis is a normal age-related change in the canine eye,” explains Jeff Wayman, DVM, of Belton, Missouri. “As the dog ages, the interior portion of the lens becomes harder and more compact, producing an indistinct greyish-blue haze. Your veterinarian can easily distinguish cataracts from lenticular sclerosis with an ophthalmoscope.”

Some veterinarians believe that lenticular sclerosis does not interfere with vision at all, while others say it causes slight blurring and interferes with depth perception. “This would be more of a problem if dogs had to read or if they were strongly dependent on central vision,” says Mike Richards, DVM, at www.vetinfo.com, “but they don’t read and they don’t lose the ability to see movement, which is more of a peripheral vision ability. Most dogs with lenticular sclerosis will continue to see well enough to get around for the remainder of their lives.”

Glaucoma in Dogs

One of the most common causes of vision loss in dogs, glaucoma is caused by a buildup of fluid in the aqueous humor of the eye, which results in increased pressure. Several factors can interfere with the normal drainage of fluid from the eye, including structural problems with its filtration (known as primary glaucoma) or mechanical problems caused by a displaced lens or the accumulation of blood and other debris in the eye (secondary glaucoma).

Glaucoma can be chronic, in which the illness’s gradual progression may result in tunnel vision, or acute. Acute glaucoma is a medical emergency requiring veterinary attention. A common symptom of acute glaucoma is the sudden development of a red, painful eye. The pain, which may not be obvious at first, can manifest as lethargy, a loss of appetite, or excessive sleeping.

If this condition goes untreated for 48 hours, it may be impossible to save the eye’s sight, and when one eye has succumbed to glaucoma, the other usually follows. While dogs of any breed can develop glaucoma, those most associated with primary glaucoma are Northern breeds such as the Norwegian Elkhound, Siberian Husky, Malamute, and Samoyed, as well as the Bouvier de Flandres, Basset Hound, Chow, Cocker Spaniel, Shar Pei, Poodle, and Shih Tzu.

Elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) damages the retina and optic nerve, resulting in partial to complete vision loss. “Early recognition of glaucoma is vital if vision is to be preserved in the eye,” says Dr. Wayman. “In my opinion, most glaucoma cases should be managed by a board-certified ophthalmologist if possible.” Conventional treatment includes drug therapy and surgery, including the removal of eyes blinded by glaucoma, as this disease can cause severe pain.

Retinal Degeneration

Most common in Collies, Irish Setters, Miniature Poodles, Labrador Retrievers, and Cocker Spaniels, inherited retinal degeneration or PRA results in vision loss, usually starting with night blindness or difficulty seeing in low-light situations. Sudden acquired retinal degeneration (SARD) can occur in any breed and is believed to result from metabolic disorders such as Cushing’s disease. There is no conventional veterinary treatment for blindness caused by retinal degeneration.

Prevention of Eye Problems

Although injuries can be a factor, holistic veterinarians believe that the leading cause of cataracts, glaucoma, retinal degeneration, and other vision problems is inadequate nutrition.

In his book, Natural Health for Dogs and Cats, holistic veterinarian Richard Pitcairn notes that cataracts frequently accompany immune disorders and chronic diseases such as diabetes. “Many dogs with chronic skin allergies, hip dysplasia, and ear problems will develop cataracts as they get older,” he says. Removing the lens surgically may help, he explains, but unless underlying conditions such as diet are addressed, the eye will never be healthy.

Research on humans has shown that glutathione may help prevent cataract formation and correct damage from free radicals. Some studies have shown that many lenses affected by cataracts contain only 20 percent of the glutathione found in healthy lenses. Glutathione is composed of three amino acids, cysteine, glycine, and glutamic acid. Natural sources include eggs, broccoli, avocados, and garlic, and glutathione is sold as a nutritional supplement.

Wendell O. Belfield, DVM, a pioneer of nutritional therapy for pets, cites human studies that show vitamin C improves the vision of elderly patients suffering from cataracts. He describes one veterinarian who successfully treated hundreds of dogs with cataracts and related eye conditions using injected and oral vitamin E and selenium.

In addition, the famous vitamin E researcher Dr. Wilfrid Shute told Dr. Belfield how he treated a champion Doberman Pinscher that stopped siring and went blind with cataracts at age seven. After a few weeks of taking 300 International Units (IUs) of vitamin E daily, the dog sired several litters of puppies and, within three months, his cataracts cleared up.

Another veterinarian mentioned by Dr. Belfield successfully treated canine cataracts with 20,000 IUs of vitamin A daily for 10 weeks. “There are many different types and causes involved with cataracts,” he concluded. “My opinion is that a good diet and supplementation program will contribute to preventing them and may, as the above cases show, eliminate them should they occur.”

It is so difficult to treat glaucoma in dogs that prevention is crucial. Some veterinarians recommend vitamin C and/or the mineral selenium because deficiencies of both have been found in human glaucoma patients. Vitamin C was found to lower intra- ocular pressure in many studies, even in patients who did not respond to prescription drugs.

Cod liver oil has dramatically lowered intraocular pressure in rabbits, humans, and other animals, and oils rich in omega-3 fatty acids, such as flax seed oil, also help lower pressure. Bioflavonoids such as grapeseed extract and the herb bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus) help prevent glaucoma by maintaining healthy collagen in the eyes. The herbs gotu kola (Centella asiatica) and ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba) may help lower pressure by increasing circulation in and around the eyes, while coleus (Coleus forskohlii) relaxes smooth muscles in the eye and helps lower pressure. For best results, consult an herbalist or holistic veterinarian to determine the best preparations and doses for dogs at serious risk of glaucoma.

Advocates of natural feeding plans claim that dogs raised on well-balanced raw food rarely develop retinal degeneration or PRA.

The same vitamins, herbs, and supplements that help prevent glaucoma and cataracts can prevent or slow the progression of retinal atrophy. Bilberry, which British World War II pilots used to improve their night vision, is especially appropriate. Because there are strong links between the eyes and the liver, many holistic veterinarians use herbs and supplements to support liver function while treating PRA. The herbs milk thistle seed (Silybum marianum) and dandelion leaf or root (Taraxacum officinale) help tone and repair the liver, as do supplements containing liver.

Acupuncture is an important support therapy for dogs with vision problems. It corrects energy imbalances throughout the body, stimulates self-repair, and strengthens individual organs, including the eyes and liver. Acupressure and massage are also helpful.

With a lifetime of good vision as their reward, any improvements we can make in our dogs’ food, supplements, and support therapies are investments worth making.

CJ Puotinen, a frequent contributor to WDJ, is the author of The Encyclopedia of Natural Pet Care, Natural Remedies for Dogs and Cats, and several books about human health including Natural Relief from Aches and Pains.

Regaining What Was Almost Lost

By
Nancy Kerns
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0

Remembering what occurred in a few quick seconds on that sunny December afternoon seems like watching a film running in slow motion to Karen Scussel, co-owner of a 12-year-old terrier mix named Petey. Returning home from Christmas shopping on December 19, 2000, Karen looked forward to Petey’s usual greeting as he raced around to the driver’s side of her car after she had entered the garage and turned off the engine. But, at just the moment before the garage door closed, Petey spotted a squirrel across the road, and dashed after it in typical terrier fashion.

Karen describes what happened next as Petey hitting a car, rather than Petey getting hit by a car. The terrier ran right into the side of an automobile that was passing by their house. Fortunately, the car did not run over his body, but the impact did launch him up in the air and he landed hard in the road.

Horrified, Karen rushed to Petey’s side and saw he was unconscious and bleeding from the mouth. His left eye appeared damaged. She scooped Petey up and immediately drove him one short mile to the Adobe Animal Hospital in Los Altos, California.

At the animal hospital, veterinarian Dave Roos stabilized the little dog and controlled the bleeding, then began to investigate the extent of the damage to Petey’s body. As she watched Dr. Roos care for Petey, the trauma of the events that had occurred in just the last few minutes descended on Karen. “I lost it,””she says. “The doctor’s assistant asked me for my telephone number because that’s how the animal hospital files its patient records. I couldn’t even speak to answer their questions. Because he was not responding at first to Dr. Roos’s treatments, the doctor advised Karen that Petey might not survive the accident.”

Determined guardians
Karen and her husband, Curt Riffle, first discovered Petey at their local humane society shelter in 1990. Scheduled for euthanasia the next day, the shelter considered the little dog, then four months old, to be un-adoptable. Unsure of his background, they thought he might have suffered an accident in the recent past, as he had shaved patches on his legs as though he had received anesthesia.

But Karen and Curt found his blond terrier coat and his dark brown eyes irresistible, and he became a welcome member of their family, which already included a Dachshund/Chihuahua mix named Rascal. Petey proved to be a sweet, mellow, 14-pound pet, with a low-key temperament, and no behavior or health problems. An affectionate fellow, he developed a special attachment to Karen.

As her canine friend lay unconscious in the veterinary hospital, Karen phoned her husband and told him about Petey. When Curt arrived at the hospital, the veterinarian told the couple that, although Petey’s chances of recovery were questionable, his x-rays, amazingly, revealed no broken bones. Originally concerned that Petey might have broken his back, Dr. Roos concluded that Petey suffered a severe concussion and spinal contusion, and that his injuries may have inflamed his brain. Petey had regained consciousness, but he could not see and was not able to walk or even stand. Dr. Roos could not assure Curt and Karen that their dog would ever regain his sight or mobility.

Though they were devastated by Dr. Roos’s words, Curt and Karen committed to doing everything possible to help Petey.

We were both on Christmas vacation from our jobs, Curt explains. We visited Petey at the animal hospital every day, all day, during the three days following the accident. Rascal even came to visit Petey, too. When Rascal and I saw Petey after the accident, Petey wagged his tail. That’s when Dr. Roos said Petey had a small chance to recuperate to some extent. Petey realized that we weren’t going to give up on him, so he decided not to give up, either.”

In the Intensive Care unit, Curt and Karen constantly talked to Petey, and gently stroked him. Although the dog received nourishment through IVs, Karen encouraged him to eat baby food. Dr. Roos told us that Petey should be able to eat and drink before he could return home. Although his jaw was not working properly, I was determined to get him eating, and I did. On the third day following his accident, Curt and Karen brought Petey home, still blind and unable to stand, but able to eat with difficulty.

At first, Curt and Karen carried Petey outdoors, supporting him so he could relieve himself. During the first week, Petey took a few wobbly steps and his sight returned; however, Curt and Karen noticed that Petey’s body curved sharply to the left and his abdomen seemed twisted to the left side of his body. When Petey walked, he constantly turned to the left. I felt very guilty and sad to see him that way, Karen admits. I thought he must be so confused to suddenly find himself in that condition, but the doctor told us not to worry about it as Petey wouldn’t know the difference after a while.”

Petey in the swim
Not satisfied with Petey’s condition after leaving the hospital, Curt decided to research holistic therapies that might be suitable. He and Karen subscribed to WDJ, but had no experience with complementary therapies for themselves or their animal companions. A horse owner, Curt did know other equestrians who were enthusiasts of holistic practices, so he thought it was worth researching for Petey.

In the October 2000 issue of WDJ, he discovered an article about hydrotherapy as a rehabilitative treatment for injured dogs, and noted that one of the hydrotherapy clinics mentioned in the article, the Animal Fitness Center in San Jose, was close to home. During hydrotherapy, the dog floats with support in a warm pool where its muscles can relax; a trained therapist guides the dog through appropriate exercises, helping the dog overcome muscle, skeletal, and nerve damage.

Curt discussed the therapy with Karen, and together they decided to let Petey try it. In late December, they brought Petey to the Animal Fitness Center for his first hydrotherapy session with Kathy Kern.

A veterinary technician and hydrotherapy practitioner for 17 years, Kathy herself experienced the healing effects of hydrotherapy after a drunk driver struck her car. She underwent shoulder surgery following the accident, but was not able to regain full range of motion or freedom from pain. A physical therapist recommended hydrotherapy, which was key to a successful recovery. Shortly after her own success with the therapy, Kern began training to become a veterinary hydrotherapist.

Petey exhibited an overall lack of circulation due to his injuries, Kern remembers. The injury interrupts the circulation and the body forms collaterals, or circulation paths around the blocked blood vessels, but these paths are not efficient and delay healing. The sooner we treat dogs after an injury, the more effective we can be, because they have not yet created too many collaterals. Petey couldn’t get his circulation going again through his injured paths because he could not support his body weight enough to exercise properly and restart his circulation.”

Animals and people retain brain memory from traumas that cause them to anticipate pain from attempted movements. Floating in a pool heated to about 92 degrees, a body can relax and move in new ways that are not painful. Kern calls this process erasing erroneous pain patterns from the brain, allowing the brain to accept movement without attaching painful memories to the effort. In contrast to chiropractic, where the therapist manipulates the patient’s body, a hydrotherapist provides physical support in the pool, and a relaxed environment, allowing the animal to make its own adjustments.

Kern recommends one-hour treatments each day for three consecutive days to treat almost all conditions. The owners remain in the pool area during treatment, helping the dog to feel secure and focused. The treatments are as good for the owners as they are for the dog,” she says. Seeing their dogs in the pool moving freely again, and without pain, encourages the owners and makes them feel good, too, says Kern.

Curt and Karen noticed that Petey’s body was much straighter after the hydrotherapy treatments. However, he still had trouble eating, drinking, using his tongue, and grabbing and holding objects in his mouth. During January 2001, Curt and Karen debated the need for additional treatments for Petey, and wondered whether Petey’s current improvements represented the best recovery he could make. We had already gone beyond our traditional response to a medical situation by arranging for the hydrotherapy treatment. We weren’t sure we wanted to go overboard by layering other therapies on top of hydrotherapy, says Karen.

In January, as they pondered Petey’s condition, they adopted a third dog from the shelter. A bright and happy-go-lucky Spitz-mix they named Chloe, she seemed to help Petey to lighten up. Curt and Karen began to suspect that Petey could improve even further.

After his three hydrotherapy treatments, Kern had asked Curt and Karen to consider acupuncture to further support Petey’s healing, and to encourage the long-term recovery of his damaged nerves, both in his body and in the left side of his face. Hydrotherapy improves most muscle and skeletal conditions, traumatic and chronic, but Petey had also suffered significant nerve damage, and nerve regeneration proceeds very slowly. Kern thought that acupuncture might be just the thing for Petey.

Another adjunct
Back Curt went into his WDJ archives, and found the July 2000 issue with an overview of acupuncture. We were so pleased with the success of our first venture into holistic therapies that we were now open to learning about and trying another new therapy, if we could again enhance the quality of Petey’s life, says Karen. We made an appointment with Dr. Sarah Skiwski, who had just started practicing acupuncture at the Adobe Animal Hospital. We felt we were off on another learning adventure.”

Petey’s severe left-side weakness was readily apparent to Dr. Skiwski. He had significant problems working his mouth and tongue, which seemed beyond his conscious control. On the left side of his face his muscles had atrophied from a lack of nerve impulses stimulating them, and you could see his jaw bones through his skin, reports Dr. Skiwski. Nerves take an especially long time to heal, she adds, and I knew I had to get Petey’s circulation going in his face before the muscles atrophied beyond repair.”

To calm Petey, Dr. Skiwski inserted one acupuncture needle on the top of Petey’s head, in a location that aids in relaxation. She added another needle in the left side of his face. The animal relaxes, and then tells me when the treatment is finished, notes Dr. Skiwski. Usually after about 15 minutes, the animal starts to move around and acts restless. Then I know the needles have done their work and its time for them to come out.”

Karen, who accompanied Petey to his sessions and held him while Dr. Skiwski placed the needles, was astounded by Petey’s reaction to the acupuncture. I could feel Petey relax as soon as Dr. Skiwski inserted the needles, Karen recalls. Then I could actually feel his body heat up and, sometimes, going home in the car, Petey would pant. I knew the acupuncture was getting things moving again. Dr. Skiwski also instructed Curt and Karen to massage Petey on certain pressure points she identified around his head. They performed this treatment at home twice a day, for two to three minutes each time.

After three acupuncture sessions, Petey showed great improvement in his ability to eat. By the fourth session, he was able to grasp his toys more tightly in his mouth. By the eighth session, much of his facial paralysis had diminished, the muscles on the left side of Petey’s face had begun to fill out, and he was able to blink his left eye normally. “We consider about seven or eight sessions a course of treatment, explains Dr. Skiwski. We often get resolution within that time.”

Petey’s owners played a key role in Petey’s improvement, Dr. Skiwski emphasizes. They encouraged him to use his mouth by playing ball and tug with him. They didn’t baby him too much it took a little bit of tough love on their part. Also, their expectations were reasonable. I told them that healing nerve damage would be a slow process, and they stuck with it all the way.”

An almost total recovery
Today, Petey eats and drinks normally, plays with his Kong toy, and joins his family on long hikes in the California hills. If you know what to look for, says Curt, you can still tell that he drifts slightly to the left when he walks. But it’s barely noticeable. We are delighted with his recovery. Previously without any experience with holistic therapies, Karen states that now she is much less inclined to agree to invasive treatments until she has tried appropriate holistic therapies.

Curt summarized what he believes were the key ingredients in Petey’s successful recovery:

Providing emotional support in intensive care: Curt, Karen, and Rascal spent many hours each day with Petey in the intensive care unit of the animal hospital. They spoke to him, touched him, and hand fed him, and Rascal licked his face. Petey knew his family would not give up on him.

Relishing little victories: Petey responded so well to each course of treatment that Curt and Karen did not become depressed or discouraged for long. They valued the small advances Petey made, one at a time. But, eventually, the small successes all added up to big improvements.

Adding Chloe to the family: A fun-loving and playful dog, Chloe helped to keep Petey alert and active during his recovery period. He herded her as she ran around the yard, and they became fast friends. Her spirit helped to heal Petey’s body, and regenerate his own spirit.

Addressing quality-of-life issues: Although the veterinary hospital provided excellent emergency medical treatment, it was up to Curt and Karen to fully research and select the therapies that could impact the quality-of-life aspects of Petey’s recovery. Curt’s initiative in identifying holistic therapies, and Karen’s willingness to attempt holistic treatments, provided the impetus to return Petey to the level of health he enjoys today.

Enhancing all elements of Petey’s lifestyle: As Petey responded so well to the hydrotherapy and acupuncture, Curt and Karen decided to begin using the high quality dog foods recommended by WDJ, supplemented with fresh vegetables. We are able to keep Petey at a good weight for his structure now, said Curt. He has lots of energy for the exercise that keeps him fit.”

Curt calls their experiment with holistic therapies a great adventure and learning experience that really worked. Karen agrees and adds, I’m so glad we didn’t give up on my best buddy.”

-by Lorie Long

Lorie Long is a freelance writer and an avid agility competitor living in North Carolina.

Treat-Dispensing Dog Toys

By
Nancy Kerns
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1

Interactive toys that require your dog to do something to make the toy pay out food treats are a great invention. They can assist with behavior modification programs and help to keep your dog busy, out of trouble, and well-behaved in your home. The more time your dog spends pursuing one, the more energy she expends in your absence, the more tired she is by the time you get home. And a tired dog is a well-behaved dog.

First on the interactive scene was the Buster Cube, followed by the Roll-A-Treat Ball, now joined by a whole host of other interactive products. We decided it was high time to compare some of these treat-dispensing toys to see which ones can give you and your dog the most value.

We evaluated several features in our test products: sturdiness, rate of treat payout, ease of treat-loading, steepness of the learning curve for our test dogs, value as an interactive toy, safety, noise factor, and cost. We also looked for the following traits:

• sturdy enough to withstand the assault of frustrated canines’ canines when the well of treats runs dry
• no parts that can be easily removed and swallowed; no holes big enough to trap doggie jaws
• ability to keep dogs active and interested for long periods
• offer a high enough payout rate to hold the dog’s interest but not so high that the treats run out in five minutes
• quiet enough that they don’t drive you (or your next-door-apartment-dwelling neighbor) crazy
• easy to load with treats
• simple enough for the dog to learn how to use them in a reasonable period of time
• and, of course, affordable.

All of the top-rated products are hard to clean, by the way. When they need cleaning, we suggest sending them through the dishwasher, then doing your best so shake out excess water and setting them out to finish drying before loading them up with treats again.

Teaching Fido to treat himself
Dogs who have not been exposed to treat-payout toys will probably need to be shown what to do. This is simple. Just load your treats into the toy, show it to your dog, and tip it so a treat falls out. Encourage her to sniff and paw at the toy. If your dog has been taught to target, you can use the “touch” cue to get her to push at the ball with her nose. (See “Right on Target,” WDJ March 2001.) It may be necessary to tip out a few more treats until she gets the idea. An occasional dog never gets the idea, but most will catch on sooner or later.

Once your dog has learned the technique, you can use these products to keep her occupied and to use up excess energy by making her work for her meals while you are away all day working for yours. The toys can even help with separation anxiety, by getting the anxious dog to focus on something other than your imminent departure. Instead of plopping her breakfast in her bowl, load her kibble or other morsels of food into the ball and give it to her shortly before you leave. While she is engrossed in pursuing her breakfast, quietly pick up your car keys and escape.

Caution: This obviously does not work for dogs who are crated during your absence, or for dogs who will have to defecate if they eat their meal while you are gone. It is also not appropriate for multiple-dog packs whose members include one or more dedicated food-guarders; in order to avoid dogfights, these dogs should be separated if you are going to leave them with treat-payout products.

Also, remember that safety and sturdiness are relative – one dog’s lifetime play object may be another dog’s five-minute hors d’oeurve. Be sure to judge the safety of these products for yourself, based on your own dog’s history and behavior.

Top dog toys
We started with the Buster Cube, since it’s been on the market the longest and has lots to like. It is made of a sturdy hard plastic and the payout cylinder is adjustable, so once your dog learns how to use it at maximum payout level, you can set it to minimum and make the fun last longer for her.

It is moderately easy to load, and we love that the company recently came out with the Mini model, since the original cube was definitely a challenge for small dogs to maneuver.

There are a few things we don’t like about it, but they aren’t significant enough to take away a 4-paw rating. The Buster Cube’s learning curve can be too steep for some dogs. While our assertive Scottish Terrier tester had no trouble working the cube, some of our “softer” dogs never did get the hang of it. It was also difficult to move the loading cylinder from maximum to minimum – we had to use a screwdriver to accomplish this.

The Buster Cube is more time-consuming to load than some of the other products. Made of hard plastic, it can make a lot of noise. And, while the price range for treat payout products is narrow (from $3 to $20), this one is at the higher end of the range at $12 – $15.

We were pleasantly surprised by the Molecuball. Very simple, with no moving parts or adjustable payout, it is made of hard rubber-like plastic in a “molecule” shape that tends to cause dog teeth to slip off rather than destroy. The softer plastic also makes it a much quieter play toy, which can be a sanity and neighbor-relations saver. It rolls more easily than the Buster Cube, so might be a better choice for softer dogs. Our Scottie adored it, and continued to play with it long after the treats were gone, and most of our less forceful test dogs were able to make it work as well. It’s very affordable, easy to load, and dishwater drains out easily.

It’s not perfect, however. The rubber-like plastic is nowhere near as indestructible as a Kong; an aggressive chewer could probably succeed in destroying the Molecuball fairly easily.

The Roll-A-Treat Ball is our favorite choice for soft dogs who can’t or won’t push hard enough to make the Buster Cube or Molecuball work. It rolls at the touch of a feather, and our Scottie had a wonderful time playing high-speed soccer with it. Our softer dogs also had no problems learning how to make it work, although they preferred following the Kelpie, happily picking up the treats that she ignored, as she was more obsessed with making the ball roll than eating treats. The payout cylinder is easily adjustable from minimum to maximum, and the ball is very easy to load – just remove the cylinder and pour in the treats, reinsert the cylinder. We love the price and the choices of sizes and colors.

The Roll-A-Treat ball does have some flaws. It makes an ungodly racket, especially on cement or hardwood floors, and can do some damage smashing into furniture when it gets up to speed. Carpet slows it down, but the noise can be very annoying, and repeated impact can cause significant wear and tear on your household.

Even more serious, the payout cylinder is way too easy to remove. A dog intent on mayhem could probably gnaw it out in short order, munch it, and risk intestinal damage from sharp plastic pieces. We would recommend this ball for dogs who are not determined chewers, and suggest that you supervise the activity at first to be sure they don’t dismantle the innards.

The Wobble Bone is entertaining, and a relatively safe hard plastic, but it’s a stretch to call it a true interactive toy. The treat reservoir is small, located in the small end of the bone, and the dog tips the toy over to make the treats fall out. The weighted bottom then makes the toy stand back up. Our Scottie figured it out in no time, and also delighted in picking it up by the slender “waist” and carrying it around. Some of our softer test dogs also got the hang of it easily, but our two older dogs never did manage to figure it out.

The Wobble Bone loads easily, but its real shortcoming is that the treat reservoir is so small and the treats fall out so easily that it takes only a couple of minutes to empty it. That leaves at least seven hours and 55 minutes of an eight-hour day for your bored dog to get into mischief.

The Talk To Me Treat Ball is actually a combination of two different types of toys. It does dispense treats, but it also has a small, battery-operated, motion-activated, recording and playback unit snugly screwed into one end.

You can remove the unit, record your own voice, screw it back in, and when your dog pushes the ball around he hears your voice. It’s a cute gimmick.

As a treat ball, it’s a decent product. Although the payout isn’t adjustable, it’s easy to load and the treats fall out at a reasonable rate. There’s no cylinder to come loose as with the Roll-A-Treat Ball, and the recording unit fits tightly enough to not be a concern, except perhaps, for the most aggressive of chewers. It is, however, made of that noisy hard plastic, and another good candidate for annoying the neighbors.

While an interesting novelty, the recording aspect is not likely to do much to resolve your dog’s separation anxiety or loneliness as advertised. The recording quality is poor – your dog may not even recognize it as your voice – and our test dogs paid little or no attention to it. Plus, that novel feature jacks the price to the top of this list of toys.

Overall, it’s a fun gadget to give to a fellow dog-lover as a gift, a decent but expensive interactive treat ball, and a better choice than the Roll-A-Treat Ball for aggressive chewers.

The highway-orange product called Tricky Treats confounded us. Although the package calls it “indestructible,” it is made of a rubbery plastic with concave craters of various sizes that showed significant damage from our Scottie’s unforgiving jaws after just moments of attention. Worse than that, the treats simply don’t fall out.

The design is extremely poor – when the treat opening is toward the floor, all the treats collect at the bottom, blocked by the interior lip, and can’t get to the hole to fall out. Our intrepid Scottie couldn’t get a single treat to come out, which frustrated him and made him chew harder on the soft plastic. Even vigorous human shaking was only mildly successful at releasing treats from the ball prison. If you want a bright orange fetch-ball with craters, go for it. If you want an interactive treat ball, look elsewhere.

In our opinion, the Crazy Ball has few redeeming qualities. It’s a hard plastic ball within a hard plastic ball, which compounds its noise potential.

The treats are loaded with some difficulty into the interior ball through bone-shaped slots (to match the shape of Nylabone’s so-called “Healthy Edibles Bacon Mini-Chew” treats, included with the ball). Loaded with artificial colors, the treats are definitely not WDJ-approved. Also, you can’t adjust the rate of payout.

You could, of course, use your own treats. Still, this doesn’t alleviate our concern about this toy’s worst flaw: A dog could get her jaw or paw stuck between the two balls. We suggest you avoid this product.

-by Pat Miller

Letters 04/02: Let’s Talk About Food!

By
Nancy Kerns
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0

Thanks so much for all your calls and letters about our annual dry dog food review (Choose the Best Dry Food, WDJ February 2002). Most people especially new readers, who are not yet accustomed to magazines that take a stand on products! We’re happy to have access to that sort of material.

But no one can win all the time. Other readers still had questions after completing the article, and still others took exception to their favorite foods lack of presence on our list of Top Foods. We’d like to take the opportunity to answer those concerns here.

We’ve also received a mountain of mail concerning the articles in our February and March issues concerning spot-on flea control products. We will publish a number of those letters and answer questions about the topic in the next issue.

Thanks for your interest in WDJ!

-Nancy Kerns, Editor

———-

A reader writes:

I find your top dry dog foods list to be extremely useful. However, it concerns me that a consumer might stop using a food that has been on a previous list because they don’t see it mentioned in your article. People I talked to about the top dog foods list were alarmed that [one particular food] was not mentioned this year.

From now on, we promise, whenever we review foods, we will run a list of all the foods we’ve ever selected as Top Dry Foods. Such a list appears below. In our defense, we did mention in the text that all the foods we have listed as approved before still meet our criteria as good foods.

As we’ve stated many times, the foods that we highlight in our lists of Top Dry Foods” have met our selection criteria, based on a review of the ingredients listed on the food labels. We describe the ingredients that we think should be in a food, the ingredients that ought to be present in a food in only limited amounts, and the ones that ought not be included in a food at all. Our criteria has not changed in any significant ways from year to year. If a food meets our stated criteria, it will always do so unless its ingredients have changed.

———-

I was dismayed that [the food I use] did not make your list. Can you look at the enclosed label and tell me what you think of it?

Our lists of foods contain only some foods that meet our selection criteria; with thousands of foods on the market (some available only in one state or area of the country), we can’t list (or even look at) every good food.

However, if you apply the selection criteria we describe in the Top Dry Foods article, you can judge the food for yourself. Does it have lots of items described in our list of hallmarks of a high quality food? If so, that’s good! Does it have lots of ingredients that are included in our list of hallmarks of a low-quality dry food? That’s bad. Then there are the items we listed under, high quality foods should contain a minimum of the following. If your food has more than two or three of these ingredients, the quality of the food is lessened.

———-

If you don’t inspect the plants that make the foods you have selected, or conduct lab tests, how seriously can I take your results?

As stated before, we simply read food labels and judge their ingredients against our stated criteria.

In past articles, we have spoken about the fact that so little regulation of this industry takes place, and how what the company says is in the bag might well differ from what is in the bag. We’ve even discussed how companies have six months from the time they change a recipe to actually change the list of ingredients on their bags!

There are state and federal regulations that would, conceivably, catch and punish a food maker if they were lying about what is in their foods. Every so often, food makers are caught. This seems to be enough to keep most of them honest.

———-

I live in a rural area, so top quality dog foods are hard to find. I would have to travel quite a distance, probably over 50 miles one way, to look for one of the foods listed in your list. Plus, it would be cost prohibitive for me to order the foods you recommend because I have many dogs.

Many people have complained about the lack of local availability of some of the foods we highlighted. Again, you may be able to find a local food as good or better than the ones we list. Many of the makers of the foods we highlighted will sell directly to pet owners, sometimes splitting shipping costs. In other cases, we’ve heard of people approaching their local groomer, breeder, or pet supply store not national chain stores, which generally carry only the foods that the national office allows them to and asking the store owner to carry one of the foods they like best. If the buyer can tell the store owner that he or she will buy a certain amount of the food monthly, and convince X number of their friends to buy that food, too, the store owner may be able to expand his inventory to include that food.

We can’t address the high cost of good foods. Top quality foods are necessarily expensive because top quality ingredients are expensive. You can’t sell a 30-pound bag of fresh cuts of quality meats, fresh vegetables, and whole grains for less than the cost of those ingredients. Assiduous price comparisons and not overfeeding your dogs will help. People who keep a large number of dogs, or a few very large dogs do have a problem. If they choose to feed those dogs a lesser quality, lesser-cost food, that is their decision. However, many dogs can live and thrive on any food. If your dog maintains peak health on low cost, low quality food, we’re truly happy for you. You and your dog are lucky.

———-

Look, I want to feed my dog the best food possible and money is no object. Which food is the BEST one?

As we’ve said many times before, we believe that the BEST food for a dog would be similar to what you eat yourself maybe better! In our opinion, and that of the nutrition and veterinary experts we have consulted, well-researched home-prepared diets, containing human-quality, fresh foods are truly what’s best for dogs. We have published numerous articles about home-prepared diets and even commercial diets made of human-grade, fresh, frozen foods, and will run many more. (In just the next few months, you will see at least three more articles on these subjects.)

If what you are interested in is the best dry dog food for your dog, well, you are going to have to ask your dog. Selecting a food is an individual matter. The food our dog thrives on gives our neighbor’s dog diarrhea. The food she eats makes our dog itch. Both of the foods are what we would consider great foods.

Dogs, like people, are individuals. Some people (and dogs) can’t tolerate dairy products; some are allergic to wheat. That doesn’t make foods that contain dairy products or wheat bad foods.

All you can do is to select a good food, and try it on your dog. Watch her carefully: her coat, eyes, and ears should be clear. She shouldn’t itch or scratch. She shouldn’t develop digestive problems, or hair loss, or ear infections. If she does, it’s not proof that the food is bad, it just means it’s not the best food for that individual.

Also With This Article
Click here to view “WDJ’s Lists of Approved ‘Top Dry Foods’ 2008.”

———-

Another food-related letter
I’m a recent subscriber to WDJ so I’m not sure if you’ve done any articles about the food called Balance Diet, made by a New Mexico company called Veterinary Nutrition Corporation, also known as NutriVet. Balance Diet is a grain-free, kibble-type food, but made by a fermentation process rather than baking or extrusion. I wonder if a steady diet of fermented food is safe for dogs? The company’s Web site (www.balancediet.com) contains a lot of information, but it’s a bit cloudy for my taste.

Also I’ve read on message boards about the company having poor customer service in the past. I’ve looked at the New Mexico Better Business Bureau site and see that complaints have been lodged against the company. But I’ve also gotten samples from them and my dogs really loved the stuff. Could or would WDJ be willing to turn their investigative eye on the situation presented?

-Name withheld by request

We did mention Balance Diet’s products several years ago (What’s New in Food? November 1999). We agreed that the company’s product is interesting and unique, and that most people we knew who have fed it to their dogs report that the dogs love it. Many people wrote or called to say their dogs looked and felt great when fed Balance Diet.

However, we also received calls and letters from people who said their dogs experienced digestive problems on the food. We also mentioned that numerous readers had complained to us about the company’s business practices, including allegations that consumers were overcharged, paid for product that never arrived, never received promised refunds, and so on. We searched the database of the New Mexico Better Business Bureau (www.bbbnm.com/reports/reports.html), which included the following statement: Based on BBB files, this company has an unsatisfactory record with the Bureau due to unanswered complaints.”

After we wrote to her office, we received a note from Joyce Lincoln, of the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office:

Thanks for your inquiry about Veterinary Nutrition Corporation. When you do your next story about them, please mention that the Attorney General’s Office would like to hear from consumers who have purchased products directly from the manufacturer. They can download complaint forms off our Web site at www.ago.state.nm.us. Go to the Consumer Protection link on the navigational bar. It must be mailed with any documentation that may be applicable. Or, they can call our consumer protection number at (800) 678-1508.”

Balance Diet’s ingredients look great. However, because of reports from readers who had problems with either the food or the company, we are uncertain about what to advise you about the food.

Readers: If you have had experiences with the company and its products good or bad – could you drop us a line and let us know? -NK

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Don’t Panic!

By
Nancy Kerns
-
0

We get a lot of new readers every February, which is a good thing, since we are supported only by readers (we don’t 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; it’s probably the way we found you!)

So, we love new readers; we need readers. We wouldn’t 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 shouldn’t use spot-on flea treatments on our dogs?”

And, “I don’t want to spoil my dog with treats. Why don’t you talk about training with shock collars? ”

I try to tell people to hang in there; I know it’s 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 don’t like certain foods, pesticides, or training methods; we’re really not coming out of left field. (I have to admit, in fact, that a small percentage of my correspondents complain that we aren’t “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. It’s 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 we’ve piqued your interest in a certain subject, please consider purchasing one of the articles we’ve 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.


-by Nancy Kerns

Understanding Reward Based Dog Training

By
Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA
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3

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.

-By Pat Miller

Eliminate Fleas Without Poisons

By
Kathleen Dudley
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3

[Updated August 16, 2017]

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.

dog after bath

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.

Planet Natural sells DE.

Flood with a Garden Hose

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.

Dangers of Spot-On Pesticides for Fleas and Ticks

By
Nancy Kerns
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0

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.

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