Every week, I get at least one call from a reader who has had an unfortunate experience with one of the health problems we have discussed in a recent issue. Often, these readers are anguished and upset with themselves for failing to find and take a treatment path similar to the ones our article discussed because they worried that conventional care led to the demise of their dog.
I can sympathize with them. My Border Collie, Rupert, is 10, and has been afflicted with a number of small but troubling ailments throughout his life. He’s always been itchy, prone to painful ear infections, and a magnet for ticks and fleas. Until I got this job a couple years ago, I thought this was just how dogs were! I fed him Purina Dog Chow, went to the vet every so often to refill his prescriptions for Prednisone (for his itching), Panalog (for the ear infections), and whatever flea-killers seemed to be most effective. And I never made the connection between his chronic health troubles and the toxins I poured on him, in him, and around him. I could have easily killed him with all my loving care.
Since I’ve been professionally steeped in holistic dog husbandry, I’ve made some changes in Rupert’s care. I started buying a top-of-the-line kibble. I stopped having him vaccinated. I quit using Advantage every month (though I’ve used a half-dose on him once or twice a year in the past two years when we had a flea invasion). And those things, alone, have obviated the need for the Panalog and Prednisone prescriptions.
I wouldn’t go far as to say that he is “all better” as a result of these changes. He’s a lot better, though. His arthritis has not gotten any worse in the past two years, and for a dog who showed stiffness and occasional lameness fairly early in life (at about age five), that’s saying something. He’s still prone to fits of itchiness now and then, but he no longer scratches and chews himself until he’s half-naked and bloody, the way he used to. In the midst of an allergic crisis, he may chew himself pink, and lose a little hair, but not so much that most people would notice.
Last month, after Rupert had suffered an outbreak of itching – one that I ultimately traced to a recent change in the formulation of his premium kibble – I finally decided to take the leap and start feeding him a raw meat-based diet. This was made considerably easier by virtue of the fact that my freezer was full of samples of frozen raw meat diets following our article on the same. After all that ran out, I went ahead and placed an order for a month’s worth of frozen food from Old Grandad’s, a local manufacturer. I’m rounding out his new diet with Sojourner Farm’s oatmeal-type food, and as many vegetables as I can remember to toss into his dish.
His itching got a bit worse, but now I think it’s getting a bit better. Holistic health care expert CJ Puotinen has urged me in the past to publish an article about the alarming signs of problems that a dog will sometimes display for a short time when initially put on a raw foods diet . . . now I know what she was talking about! Holistic vets say it’s due to an outpouring of toxins stimulated by the arrival of the vital nutrients present in the “real” food. I think you’ll see an article about this soon!
Last year I reported that I had found a couple of odd lumps on Rupie’s side; one was diagnosed as a small fatty tumor, and one was determined to be a sebaceous cyst. Today, a frozen meat-diet maker I was speaking with on the phone happened to mention that he’s seen raw-meat diets make sebaceous cysts go away. As we spoke, I snapped my fingers for Rupe and felt his side to check on the little lump.
Damned if the cyst isn’t gone. It seems it’s never too late to improve.
Ask the average dog owner about fasting her dog and you may see her blanche at the very idea of making Skippy miss a meal. In a culture that is obsessed with food, it is easy to understand a conscientious dog owner’s reluctance to deliberately withhold sustenance. Yet many dog owners routinely do just that.
We interviewed a number of dog owners who utilize fasting protocols in their feeding regimens. Some had more than 10 years of experience with periodic fasts, and some had started recently fasting their dogs only recently. Often, the fasting was used in conjunction with a natural diet. Almost all the people we interviewed reported improvements in their dogs’ health and attitude as a result of the fasting.
What is a fast?
One definition of fasting is “complete abstinence from food and drink.” This is what your veterinarian means when he tells you to fast your dog prior to surgery, and we can understand why Skippy’s owner blanches at the thought. However, this traditional definition is not what most vets and dog owners mean when they talk about fasting dogs for health reasons. In this article, we are discussing what is sometimes called “modified fasting,” and typically involves eliminating solid foods and taking all nourishment in liquid form – broth, juice, or water.
Humans who periodically fast often report increased energy, mental clarity and spiritual uplift. Many of the world’s great thinkers reportedly fasted regularly: Jesus, Plato, Aristotle, Confucius; Hippocrates, Leonardo da Vinci, and Ghandi, to name a few. Water, broth and juices are low in fat and easy to digest, freeing up energy for other purposes, including healing and thinking. While our dogs may not be interested in the spiritual effects of fasting, they may well benefit from the health-related ones.
Giving the body a break
Many of us have long been aware of the value of fasting a dog with diarrhea for 24 hours in order to give the irritated bowel a chance to rest and empty itself of whatever noxious substance caused the problem. According to Dr. Pat Bradley, holistic veterinarian in Conway, Arkansas, the benefits of fasting go far beyond soothing a queasy digestive tract.
“Overall,” says Dr. Bradley, “fasting is a great routine practice for almost every animal. You know how sluggish and uncomfortable you feel after eating a large meal? It takes an enormous amount of energy to digest food. When you fast – or your dog fasts – that energy can be used elsewhere in the body for healing and cleansing.”
Dr. Pitcairn’s Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs & Cats, by Richard H. Pitcairn, DVM, Ph.D, and Susan Hubble Pitcairn, concurs with this opinion of fasting commonly held by holistic practitioners: “An occasional day of fasting relieves the digestive tract of its usual duties and frees the organs to break down toxins stored in the liver, fats and other tissues. During a fast, the organs can also consume excess baggage, such as cysts, scars and growths.”
Dr. Bradley has found in her practice that in addition to getting rid of toxins, energy saved during fasting that would normally go toward digestion can be used to heal wounds, restore damaged tissue, and fight acute viral and bacterial diseases. She feels that fasting can also improve an owner’s relationship with her animals. Her own dogs, she says, are exceptionally friendly on fast days. They make a greater effort to engage her, and she responds by spending extra time with them on those days, bathing, brushing and playing with them.
Dr. Bradley also stresses the importance of tailoring a fasting program to the needs of the individual animal and owner.
“I’ve seen some pretty dramatic improvements in everything from digestive problems to viral diseases, upper respiratory infections and skin conditions as a result of fasting,” she says. “At the same time, I’ve had some cases where it didn’t help at all. Like every treatment protocol, you have to monitor results and be ready to try a different approach if the fast isn’t having a positive effect.”
Not so fast . . .
Deb Kidwell, of Rhoadesville, Virginia, has had less than positive experiences when she has experimented with fasting her dogs on numerous occasions over the past 10 years.
“When fasting my dogs,” she reports, “they became very aggressive and temperamental with each other. Short tempered spats and large big fights were the norm, unless I separated them out in groups of twos and kept them outside. Also, I had problems with vomiting of bile.”
Dr. Bradley acknowledges that there can be less then pleasant manifestations of the effects of fasting, but says that emotional upsets should not be a problem.
“I caution my clients before they begin fasting their dogs, that they may see some evidence of the body ridding itself of toxins,” she says. “These can include really loose, mucousy, foul-smelling stools; urine with a strong odor; vomiting bile; eye and ear discharges; and sleepiness. If the owner hasn’t been warned in advance, these can be pretty frightening.
“Aggression is not the norm during fasting,” she insists, “nor is a frantic level of energy. When they do occur, they may be signs of underlying health problems such as hyperthyroidism or blood sugar abnormalities. If I were to see these problems as a result of fasting I would perhaps want to conduct lab tests to see if there was something else going on for that dog. If it’s not a health problem, then I would probably refer the client to a behaviorist to determine if it is a relationship problem. Obviously, aggression can frighten (or injure) an owner, and can be seriously damaging to the canine-human bond. In that case, the benefits of fasting clearly would not outweigh the risks of destroying the relationship.
“Even if a fast is unsuccessful,” says Dr. Bradley, “it can give me a lot of information, about the dog, the owner and the relationship between the two.”
According to Dr. Bradley, if a fast doesn’t work it may be because the owner has intensely emotional food issues. If an owner equates food with love, then withdrawing food from a cherished dog is the same as withdrawing love. This can be a red flag to a veterinarian to be on guard for obesity and other food-related health problems. The vet might need to work toward gaining the client’s trust slowly regarding food issues, by discussing more gradual approaches to fasting in the context of a more healthy lifestyle overall, such as feeding slightly less, providing more exercise, occasionally skipping one meal, and feeding a better quality of food – more raw food, with more organic material.
Who shouldn’t fast?
“I’m pretty cautious not to get on my fasting soapbox all of the time,” says Dr. Bradley. “While I believe that fasting can be very useful, I don’t insist on it for all of my clients all of the time.”
Dogs who shouldn’t be fasted include:
• Very young dogs (under a year) because they are still growing and developing rapidly and need the regular nutrition.
• Very old dogs – although “old” varies from one breed and one individual to the next.
• Pregnant or lactating bitches (they are a nutrition source for growing puppies).
• Dogs on any kind of medication – such as diabetic dogs on insulin – whose systems need constant monitoring.
“In fact,” Dr. Bradley cautions, “I recommend that unless someone is very experienced, any ventures into fasting should be done under the close guidance of a veterinarian. Absolutely a vet needs to be closely involved if the fast is longer than 24-hours and being used for the purpose of treating disease.”
Anecdotal evidence
Allopathic medicine is big on scientific evidence, and while mainstream nutritionists may scoff at claims that fasting rids the body of toxins, they have a harder time arguing with a 1993 study at Ben-Gurion University in Israel that found that fasting significantly increases levels of HDL (high-density lipoprotein) – the “good” cholesterol that protects against heart attacks in humans. Meanwhile, holistic practitioners are more willing to accept some things on faith and the results they see before their very eyes. Dog owners polled on the Wellpet and APDT (Association of Pet Dog Trainers) e-mail lists overwhelmingly describe positive results of regular fasting for their dogs. Most follow a once-a-week, 24-hour modified fast, with unlimited access either to water or broth, and some with access to raw bones and maybe a biscuit at bedtime. Here are some of their comments:
“The dogs seem to do better, and all are eager eaters. They hold weight well and stay in good condition. Their stools are consistently good.”
-Ramona Adams
Easton, KS
“I believe it more closely mimics how an animal in the wild would eat – plus I feel it helps the dog get rid of built up toxins. With my dogs it seems to promote good health and weight control.”
-Claire Moxim
Tailwagger Pet Dog Training
Vonore, TN
“It makes perfect sense – after all, food isn’t readily available in the wild, so I follow nature’s way of cleansing and resting the body. My dogs don’t even seem to notice they are going a day without meat, bones and vegetables. They remain active, in fact more active, and they seem to appreciate the break. You don’t have to be a raw or home-cooked feeder to fast your dogs; I think it is even more important for people feeding processed food to provide a weekly fast.”
-Jane Fink
Greyfaire Kennel
Anderson, SC
“There is a big improvement in coat quality. Behaviorally, my Sheltie, “Paisley,” is not as prone to freeze up when he is uncertain, and he does not display the high degree of fear to loud sounds that he used to.”
-Debbie Schaefer
The Well-Mannered Dog
Cottage Grove, OR
“When I started feeding raw diet I had a five-year-old Rough Collie who suffered frequent bouts of idiopathic diarrhea, chronic sinusitis and bladder infections, fibrous histiocytomas in her eyes, corneal distrophy, lenticular sclerosis, frequent vomiting of yellow bile if she wasn’t fed four times a day, and hypothyroidism. Her eyes started to clear within three weeks of changing the diet and fasting. And the rest, except for the hypothyroidism, is history.”
-Laurie Montean
mORIGINS Diet for Dogs and Cat
Cleveland, OH
If you haven’t already, it might be time to get your dog on the fast track. Consult with a veterinarian who approves of fasting, find the protocol that works for you (see sidebar), and give it a try. While you’re at it, maybe you’ll want try fasting yourself. You never know; maybe you’ll become the world’s next great thinker . . . or maybe your dog will!
Fundraising for nonprofit animal welfare groups is a dog-eat-dog business. Competition for donation dollars is fierce, and animal groups often have to fight tooth and claw to stay solvent while they pursue their various missions to improve the quality of life for animals.
While most animal protection groups rely primarily on individual donations, contributions from local businesses, and grants from various philanthropic sources, one of the latest means of fundraising involves corporate affiliations and endorsements. This explains why, increasingly, one finds pet products with labels that boast an “ASPCA Seal of Approval,” for instance, or why a car commercial might mention the blessing of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS).
Our concern about this practice is simple: We think it is just too easy for consumers to misunderstand the relationship between allied animal welfare groups and product manufacturers, and to regard any affiliation as a credible recommendation for either involved party.
We can’t imagine that it hurts anyone if a dog owner decides to buy a Saab because of that company’s corporate affiliation with HSUS, but frankly, there are a few endorsements that do trouble us.
The most offensive, from our perspective, are the humane groups’ approval of training and containment systems that utilize shock collars. WDJ is opposed to the use of any kind of training or containment device that utilizes electric shock on the dog – not just because of the shock element itself, but also in the case of electronic containment systems, because of the potential for product failure and the system’s inability to protect the dog from outside threats. (See “Visible Problems,” May 1999, for more information about our opinions of shock collars.)
Consider that both the ASPCA and HSUS are widely known, high-profile animal protection organizations whose missions encompass at least a national, and sometimes global, perspective on animal protection. One would like to imagine that any product stamped with the ASPCA or HSUS logo would have nothing short of the best and purest interests of animals at heart.
But we would guess that few people understand that the appearance of these logos on a product has more to do with money changing hands than it does with the literal “endorsement” of the products.
Let’s take a closer look at the biggest players in dog products endorsement, and how the practice has the potential to affect their missions.
The “A”
The ASPCA, founded in 1866, was the first humane organization in the Western Hemisphere. Its mission is “to provide effective means for the prevention of cruelty to animals throughout the United States.”
To this end, the “A”, as it is known in animal welfare circles, has programs that include direct animal care (with an animal hospital and adoption facility in New York City); enforcement of humane laws in NYC, influencing legislation in the state and federal arenas; distribution of humane education materials nationwide; administration of a toll-free service for animal behavior and veterinary information; and management of the National Animal Poison Control Center telephone hotline. In recent years, the ASPCA relinquished its long-standing animal control contract with New York City in order to focus on other programs, and it opened an office in Los Angeles, California, to facilitate its reach across the country to the West Coast.
The ASPCA has one of the most ambitious corporate affiliate programs of any of the high-profile animal organizations. They offer a variety of corporate and product licensing opportunities that include:
Spokescharacter licensing – A partnership with the Creative Resources Division of The Disney Company that creates animated characters that help finance the Society’s mission. Companies such as Ames Department Stores, Crown Crafts, Stevens Linen, Color Fantasy and Ashleigh Manor pay the ASPCA to have characters like Purrsilla the cat, Fremont the dog, and Harry the horse promote and sell their products in advertising campaigns. The products need not have anything to do with animals.
Name and logo licensing – Banking on the concept that the ASPCA name is a widely recognized icon with broad-based appeal, manufacturers who produce merchandise for animals and/or animal lovers can pay for the privilege of placing the ASPCA logo on their products. Participants in this program include Golden Turtle Press, Anita Lang, and FAO Schwartz.
ASPCA “Seal of Approval” – Manufacturers who wish to use the ASPCA Seal of Approval submit their products to the ASPCA’s Animal Science Review Committee to determine whether the product is one that the organization wishes to recommend. The Review Committee is made up of veterinarians, veterinary toxicologists, behaviorists, and ASPCA administrators. Current “Seal of Approval” companies include Johnson Pet-Dor, T.F.H./Nylabone, Prestone Products, and the Invisible Fence Pet Protection Company.
We were happy to hear that “Seal of Approval” decisions were made by a review committee made up of animal health and training professionals. However, according to a staff member of the ASPCA (who asked to remain anonymous), in at least one critical instance – the decision to confer the ASPCA Seal of Approval on the Invisible Fence products – the committee’s approval process was circumvented, to the dismay of staffers who are opposed to shock products.
According to Amy Lieberman, Licensing and Merchandising Coordinator for the ASPCA, details of the financial arrangements with affiliated companies vary. Commonly, it is based on a royalty/percentage agreement that ranges from 1-15 percent of sales. About 60 companies participate in the Seal of Approval and Name and Logo programs.
HSUS
The Humane Society of the United States describes itself as “America’s leading animal protection organization.” With 250 staff members and annual expenses in the neighborhood of $37 million (1998 fiscal year), that’s probably an accurate description. HSUS does not operate any hands-on shelters or animal care facilities, but instead directs its resources primarily toward public education and legislative efforts, with occasional assistance to local independent shelters in the areas of humane investigations and disaster relief.
While HSUS Board policy prohibits actual product “endorsements,” they do allow product licensing, sponsoring and corporate partnerships – a fine distinction that is probably lost on the general public and most HSUS supporters. Steve Putnam, HSUS’s Director of Business Development, admits that when they license a company for the use of HSUS’s “name and marks” it does imply some level of tacit approval. According to Putnam, there are 18-20 HSUS licensed products.
Unlike the ASPCA, which has established a committee to review products for potential “Seal of Approval” status, in the HSUS, licensing and partnership decisions can be made by anyone “from the President on down.” While that may be a bit simplified, according to Putnam, contact with an interested company often comes through line staff working in HSUS’s various program groups.
The decision to license is generally based on the economic viability of the agreement and consistency with HSUS’s mission, says Putnam. For example, HSUS turned down a potentially lucrative relationship with a company that sold vitamins and supplements because the parent company was one of the country’s largest factory farms and a leader in multinational agribusiness.
Does money corrupt?
Unfortunately, despite the best intentions of the animal welfare groups, both have formed “corporate partnerships” with companies whose corporate missions are arguably inconsistent with animal welfare organizations. Perhaps the most glaring example involves the manufacturers of electric shock collars, a dog training tool whose mention sparks heated debate among dog trainers.
Trainers who practice compulsion-style training are more likely to accept or even embrace the use of electric shock as a training tool. Trainers who believe in primarily positive reinforcement training and behavior modification (as does WDJ) generally abhor the use of shock collars and consider them to be unnecessary and inhumane.
To the dismay and bewilderment of positive trainers and portions of the humane community, both HSUS and ASPCA are involved in financial relationships with companies who produce electric shock collars for dogs. Positive trainers cringe at the message this sends to the dog owning public that they are trying to reach with their gentler, kinder dog training methods.
The ASPCA partners with and loudly praises Invisible Fence Brand Pet Containment, the original non-visible electric shock containment system, first marketed in 1973.
Several years ago, HSUS entered into a relationship with Radio Systems, another company that produces electric shock training equipment, and the HSUS logo has been prominently displayed on Radio Fence products.
While some in-house HSUS animal experts vehemently defend the electric shock affiliation for dog training purposes, the organization’s own email newsletter, HUMANE-Lines, recently sent a mixed message about HSUS’s position on the humaneness of electric shock. In the July 2000 issue, an article in HUMANE-Lines decried the United States Fish and Wildlife Service’s recent use of shock collars on a Montana wolf pack, calling it a “cruel control tactic.”
Putnam defends HSUS’s Radio Systems affiliation decision. Input on the issue from their Companion Animal Division, he says, was that there is a tremendous problem in communities across the country with dogs running loose, and electronic containment can represent a viable means of dog confinement. The systems are, he added, very popular with consumers, pointing out that Radio Systems actually offers three aversive confinement methods: electric shock, citronella spray, and ultrasonic tone.
However, Putnam also acknowledges that the affiliation with Radio Systems was not popular with some HSUS supporters, and that it hadn’t been as successful a marketing tool as Radio Systems had hoped. According to Putnam, while Radio Systems is still an important sponsor for some HSUS activities, as of January 2000, the HSUS name has been removed from the company’s products. While some old inventory in stores may still bear the HSUS name, Putnam says new inventory does not.
In search of good will
The shock-collar industry has apparently bought the good will of some smaller non-profit animal groups as well. In 1998, the Invisible Fence Pet Containment Company established a $60,000 endowment fund for spay/neuter projects and to encourage the adoption of animals across the country.
The Doris Day Animal League (DDAL) worked with the ASPCA to distribute the money to shelters in 12 cities. In return, an ASPCA source tells us, the Invisible Fence Company requested that recipient shelters mention the Invisible Fence Containment System favorably in their newsletters. DDAL Executive Director Holly Hazard responded to comments from a concerned dog owner by defending the Invisible Fence and describing her successful personal experience keeping her own Beagle confined by use of electric shock. Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, a high-profile “no-kill” animal facility in Kanab, Utah, partnered with Tri-Tronics, another electric shock company. Tri-Tronics sent a trainer to their facility in Utah to shock dogs with behavior problems in an effort to “fix” them. Best Friends touted the success of that program in their May/June 2000 newsletter, representing electric shock as a painless way to eliminate behavior problems.
Full disclosure
There is no doubt that partnerships and affiliations are a valuable source of revenue for important animal protection organizations and programs. In our opinion, however, these well-respected nonprofit organizations would better represent themselves if they fully disclosed the nature of their relationship when they “lent” their good names to commercial products or services. People should clearly understand that the appearance of the humane organization’s logo should not be construed as any sort of guarantee as to the product’s lack of “cruelty to animals.” Dog lovers should be prepared to judge that for themselves.
We put collars on our dogs for several reasons. Collars give us a convenient place to hang ID tags and licenses – very important for a dog’s health and safety should he ever get lost. They make a convenient handle when we need to restrain our dog for some reason – for safety, training, or to comply with leash laws or social convention. Finally, in some cases, collars are used as training tools, to reinforce cues to a dog; this is a compulsion-based application, not generally used in positive training.
In this article, we’e looking at dog collars primarily as a restraint tool, especially as a means to keep our dogs from slip-sliding away.
The best collars, in our opinion, are the simplest: standard flat buckle (or snap) collar in leather, nylon, or cotton. The standard fitting instruction is to allow space for two fingers between the dog’s neck and collar. This works fine for many dogs, and is the type of all-purpose collar we recommend for most occasions.
However, if a dog’s head is not much wider than his neck (a standard occurrence with slender-skulled sighthounds like Greyhounds and thick-necked breeds such as Pugs), a two-finger gap allows him to back easily out of his collar and be unrestrained. Even wider-headed dogs sometimes learn a swift duck-and-pull-back maneuver that wins them their freedom – and exposes them to the many hazards of stray dogdom, collarless and tagless.
If you have a Slippery Sam in your family pack, you might want to consider a limited-slip collar, sometimes called a martingale collar or a Greyhound collar (because they are often used on Greyhounds, whose owners are well aware of the collaring-challenge presented by their dogs’ anatomy). Unlike the choke chain (which is sometimes called a slip collar by those who are trying to improve the punishment-collar’s image) the properly fitted limited-slip cannot tighten enough around the dog’s neck to cause serious discomfort or damage to the trachea.
A Martingale’s Tightness is Limited
Limited-slip collars generally have one piece that goes around the dog’s neck and is adjustable for fitting. A second, smaller loop piece fits through the hardware on the ends of the neck piece and has a metal ring to which the leash is attached. When the neck piece is properly fitted, if the dog pulls, the loop piece tightens enough to prevent the collar from slipping over the head, but not enough to choke the dog.
A nice feature seen on some models is a “dead ring,” where a person can snap a leash for a normal, non-tightening grip, if they so desire. While some people fasten license and identification tags to this ring (better this than the ring that would tighten), we don’t recommend making a limited slip collar your dog’s full time collar.
While the limited-slip collar increases the level of security for escape-prone dogs, we should mention that, improperly used, the collar also increases certain hazards. Because these collars do tighten when pulled taut, don’t leave them on dogs who are left unattended or are turned loose to play with other dogs. With some models, dogs are at an increased risk of catching a front paw in the extra loop. Also, dogs should never be tied with a limited slip collar on. (Whole Dog Journal does not recommend tying dogs at all.)
A good limited-slip collar is sturdy and durable, safe, comfortable, easy to adjust, aesthetically appealing, and affordable. It will slip and release easily, and not tighten when it shouldn’t.
The adjustability of these collars is critical because the purpose is to have the collar loose enough to be comfortable, tight enough under tension to prevent the dog from slipping out of it, and, at maximum tightness, not tight enough to choke the dog.
We’ve rated several limited-slip collars on our 0-4 Paws scale based on our observations and preferences. The descriptions should help you determine which product would be the best choice for your dog.
Training, says Massachusetts dog trainer Donna Duford, should be fun, not work. Her seminars are such upbeat, tail-wagging events that the dogs seem to be having a party. Look closer and you’ll see a serious class, with participants taking notes as Duford reviews the laws of learning and defines classical conditioning, operant conditioning, positive and negative reinforcement, positive and negative punishment, continuous and variable reinforcement schedules, and other fundamentals of behavioral training. An internationally recognized lecturer, consultant to rescue groups, and former co-director of the exclusive dog training program for Tufts Veterinary School, Duford brings the theories of behavior modification to life with lively demonstrations.
“The secret to getting your dog to do what you want,” she says, “whether it’s learning a new trick, stopping an unwanted behavior, or improving performance for competition, is to understand why dogs act the way they do. Dogs are honest, and they do their best to communicate with us.
“Dogs do what works,” she continues. “They are obedient to the laws of learning. If you want your dog to do something, find a way for it to make sense to her, and she will respond. Dogs are easily distracted by the world around them. You have to be more exciting than the floor, other dogs, someone else’s treats, and all the other sights, smells, and sounds that compete for attention. Once you understand the laws of learning, you can break any behavior into its component parts and understand it from your dog’s point of view. As soon as you present what you want in a way that makes sense to your dog, it’s easy to change her behavior.”
Duford, best known for her work in musical canine freestyle, the new sport of dancing with dogs, is the author of Agility Tricks for Improved Attention, Flexibility and Confidence. Don’t let the title mislead you. Her book’s tricks and the lessons they teach are just as valuable to obedience competitors, show dogs, therapy or service dogs, canine athletes, and family pets. At a recent two-day seminar sponsored by Skyline Agility Club in Haverstraw, New York, Duford showed how correctly timed positive reinforcements can be used not only to improve the performance of dogs competing in agility but also, to solve problems of every description.
Find the key to YOUR dog
“There is no single training strategy that works for every dog,” Duford told the group. “If your dog isn’t motivated by food, you won’t accomplish much with treats. The same is true for toys, praise, petting, and other rewards. Some dogs are excited by movement and like to chase things, or they love to run and play. Some are chow hounds. Some love to carry a toy. You have to find what works for your dog – or more accurately, what reward your dog will work for. The more your dog wants something, and the more clearly he understands that the right behavior will bring that reward, the faster he’ll learn.”
Dogs respond in different ways to physical manipulation, says Duford. Some are helped by gentle physical prompts, but others are stressed by tugging, pushing, pulling, and physical positioning. If your dog dislikes or is distracted by physical handling, use other methods. Some dogs enjoy learning new things and are willing to try just about anything, while others find the learning process stressful and work best with short training sessions, frequent positive feedback, and frequent repetition.
Emotional sensitivity is another consideration. Sensitive dogs are like sensitive people; they take everything personally! “It takes patience and understanding to train sensitive dogs,” says Duford, “because they are affected by voice, mood, facial expression, and body language. Their training works best when you give lots of positive reinforcement and keep your mind on what you’re doing because insufficient encouragement, outside distractions, or your own impatience can cause a sensitive dog to shut down and stop working. Less sensitive dogs are often easier to train because they bounce back no matter what mistakes you make.”
Another way in which dogs are different is in their response to cues and signals. Some dogs are more attentive to sound and focus their attention on voices and other auditory cues, while others are more visual and do better with physical signals.
“By far the easiest way to train a dog,” says Duford, “is to observe its natural behaviors. Most dogs already do some version of what you want. It’s just a matter of capturing and expanding on that behavior.” Once owners take the time to understand what motivates their dogs, says Duford, they can plan a sensible training schedule that incorporates all of this information. “In general,” she says, “dogs do best with short training sessions. An hour-long class is convenient for people, but dogs learn faster in five-minute sessions scattered through the day. In fact, too much training can be counterproductive.”
Shaping behavior
Donna Duford’s seminars have a party atmosphere because dogs and handlers use treats, praise, and other rewards to explore positive reinforcement. “To capture or shape a behavior,” she says, “you need a way to communicate quickly.” Duford uses a hand-held clicker because it pinpoints timing exactly, but she uses other cues as well.
“I like the word ‘yes’ because it’s easy to remember, appropriate, and easy to pronounce,” she says, “but you can use another word or a visual cue. Whatever you use, start by showing your dog that it means something positive.” This exercise involves food treats, toys, and other motivating rewards. Give a click or say “Yes!” while handing your dog a treat or toy, then repeat it until he associates the sound with a reward. No wonder tails were wagging around the room.
“A conditioned reinforcer is anything you pair with a primary reinforcer,” Duford explains. “The conditioned reinforcer is the cue. The primary reinforcer is whatever your dog enjoys enough to work for.
“To create a conditioned reinforcer, present it first. This means click or say yes, then immediately give the primary reinforcer, which is the treat, toy, or whatever your dog wants. Repeat this several times, then wait for your dog to look away and focus on something else. Click or say yes, and if your dog comes back and gives you an attentive look, she is making the connection. As soon as she associates the two stimuli or events, you have started training.”
In the seminar, Duford worked with dogs of every age and description. To teach an exuberant Portuguese Water Dog to nod, Duford waited for his head to dip even a small amount, then she clicked and gave him a treat. Soon the dog was bobbing his head so enthusiastically that everyone laughed and applauded. Then he began prancing forward and back while bobbing his head. “I have mixed feelings about this,” Duford told the crowd. “Freestyle is my first love, and this dog is a natural dancer. If this were a freestyle seminar, we’d almost be ready to choose the music. But today all I want is a nod of the head, so I won’t reinforce the dance steps. I’ll just ignore them. Because prancing doesn’t generate any clicks or treats, he’ll soon stop.” As though he understood what she was saying, the dog stood still, nodded his head, and wagged his tail as soon as this simpler behavior produced a click and treat.
Timing, as Duford demonstrated, is everything. “For a reinforcement to be effective,” she says, “it must be immediate. A reward given too late or too early won’t just fail to reinforce the desired behavior, it can reinforce something else entirely. Your dog will focus on whatever she was doing when you gave the reinforcement, and that may not be what you intended at all.” Duford recommends alternating reinforcers (a clicker, the word yes, verbal praise, visual signals, and other reward indicators), so you always have a way to communicate quickly and efficiently.
At the beginning, follow the cue with a reward every time, but when a behavior is well established, reward every other time, then on a random schedule.
“If you and I get the same reward every time we do something, like when we turn on a light switch or put money in a Coke machine, it becomes a mindless routine,” says Duford. “If we don’t get the reward we expect, we know the machine is broken or the power is off and we stop trying. But if we get a positive reward only some of the time on an unpredictable schedule, like from a slot machine, we’re more likely to repeat a behavior in hopes of getting a prize. Dogs respond the same way.”
This is why random reinforcement works so well to improve performance. When dogs are motivated to get something that might come on the next try, they try harder.
“If you want speed, wait until your dog moves faster or sooner,” says Duford, “and reward that. If you want a different improvement, like a deeper stretch, higher head position, or straighter body alignment, reward that. Reward familiar behaviors on a random schedule, but reward improvements as soon as they take place. And if the improvement is significant, increase the reward by giving a jackpot, which is a bigger or better prize than usual.”
Teaching fun tricks
Tricks are amusing, but according to Duford, the lessons they teach build a sound foundation for serious training and problem solving. Teaching your dog a new trick requires careful observation and quick responses. The more accomplished you become in timing rewards, finding the right rewards to motivate your dog, and matching your training methods to your dog’s personality, the easier it will be to tackle anything from her entry to an agility course’s weave poles to improving her retrieve or come-when-called command.
Using your hand or an object as a target is an easy way to get started. Most dogs will sniff a hand held out to them. As soon as your dog’s nose touches your hand, give a reward. Repeat this until your dog turns to touch your hand wherever it is. If your dog loses interest, make your hand more interesting by holding it behind your back, inspecting it, talking to it, kissing it, or pretending to eat something from it. Using one hand as a target helped seminar participants teach their dogs how to turn in circles, spin, shake their heads from side to side, bow, and walk while weaving in and out of their owners’ legs.
For tricks in which the dog was further away, they used a small piece of transparent plastic as a target. Other popular targets are sticks or wands. “I like transparent plastic,” says Duford, “because it’s hard to see, which makes it easier to eliminate once it’s no longer needed.” Throughout the seminar, she emphasized the importance of removing targets, rewards, and other aids as soon as possible. “Some trainers are systematic,” she says, “and they follow a scientific schedule. I’m fond of shortcuts and use them whenever possible. If your dog doesn’t need something any more, why use it? Try doing without it once or twice, and if she doesn’t understand what you want, go back to using the target, lure, or reward until she does.” Duford is quick to raise her standards. As soon as a dog seems to catch on, she withholds the conditional reinforcer, which motivates the dog to repeat the behavior faster, more decisively, or more often.
“When you and your dog understand this approach to training,” she says, “it’s incredibly exciting. It’s tempting to keep adding one more thing or try the behavior one more time, but the best you can do is keep the session short and stop while you’re ahead. As soon as your dog seems confused, tired, slow, or stressed, do something simple and end on a high note.”
A step backward can help
Duford emphasizes the importance of temporarily lowering your standards whenever you introduce something new. “Your puppy may have learned to sit on the living room rug,” she says, “but take him outside and he’s clueless. That’s because the environment is completely different, and he’s distracted. Whenever you make a trick more complicated or introduce a new distraction, your dog may seem to forget the behavior. Be patient, give him lots of praise and rewards, and lower your criteria until he catches on again.
“Focus on one thing at a time,” Duford advises. “If you’re working on speed, ignore everything else, even if the dog is out of position. When she’s moving faster, go back to body alignment, understanding that as soon as you do so, her speed may suffer. Ignore speed until her alignment improves, then return to speed. With each change of focus, lower your standards. Click for small improvements. The same is true for distractions, which is why it’s important to be patient when your dog is working in a new location and contending with new sights, smells, and sounds.”
To those who felt frustrated when their dogs’ attention wandered, Duford asked whether any had ever walked into a room and forgotten why. This produced nods and chuckles. “Or have you ever driven your car from one place to another with no recollection at all of how you got there?” More laughter. “Maybe you even drove to the wrong place,” she said. “Were you being willfully disobedient?”
Relax, she says. Forgive your dog, forgive yourself, and enjoy each other. If you aren’t accomplishing anything, take a break. It’s better to interrupt a training session and try again later than insist that the dog repeat an exercise that isn’t working.
Wave hello!
Waving one paw in the air is a fun trick that impresses people, gives the dog something useful to do, provides a healthy stretch, and illustrates the versatility of Duford’s approach.
She explains – and better, quickly demonstrates with a student’s dog – how to master the wave with one paw, and then suggests ways that you could build on the simple behavior. When the dog can wave with either paw, she suggests, have her do it while standing rather than sitting. Then have her do it lying down. Teach your dog to give both paws at the same time. Have her wave when you give a visual signal by itself or a voice command by itself. Or work on distance. If she waves reliably at three feet, step back and try six or ten feet, or give the command from across the room.
“My dogs never know what to expect,” says Duford, who lives with a Border Collie and Petit Basset Griffon Vendeen. “I’m always trying something new, or trying to get them to do something faster or better. Both of them offer all kinds of behaviors because they know something will earn a reward sooner or later.”
Solving problem behavior
To Donna Duford, problem behavior is simply an unsolved puzzle. “The behavior, whatever it is, makes sense to the dog,” she explains. “It’s the person who hasn’t figured it out yet.” Whether the problem is house training, bad manners, separation anxiety, incessant barking, or a fear of the see-saw on an agility course, Duford approaches it systematically.
“We think of going to the store as a simple operation,” she says, “but stop for a minute and think of all the steps involved. You put appropriate clothes on, get your car keys and whatever else you need, check your list, go out the door, lock the door, walk to your car, unlock the car, get in, adjust the seat, turn the radio on, adjust the rear-view mirror, put the key in the ignition, turn the engine on, and release the brake – and you still haven’t gone anywhere. A lot of behaviors are involved in taking you to the store, and each of them can be examined in detail. When you’re analyzing a dog’s behavior, you have to think in similar terms.”
Once you isolate whatever triggers the behavior you don’t want, you can replace it with something else. A dog that charges the door whenever the doorbell rings can be rewarded for holding a quiet down/stay of increasing length and increasing levels of noise distraction. A dog that whines when his owner goes out of sight can be rewarded for staying quiet for two seconds, then five, then increasingly long periods.
“When training is the problem,” says Duford, “it’s usually because the handler is trying too much too fast or is simply inattentive. Break the trick or command into small components and reward these little things instead of insisting on a complex finished behavior. Many trainers raise their criteria too rapidly, before the dog really understands the command, or they complicate the picture by asking for several things at once. Remember to work on one component at a time, and eventually the pieces will come together. Sometimes trainers raise their criteria without meaning to, such as when they try a trick outdoors for the first time. Go back to the most basic parts of the command and start from scratch.
“When a specific behavior is a problem,” she says, “you have to examine it from the dog’s point of view as well as your own. A dog will repeat a behavior that served a useful purpose in the past, even if the situation that caused it happened only once or no longer exists.”
In the agility seminar, Duford sometimes sounded like a detective, asking owners detailed questions about what, when, how, and where a problem occurred. The same approach that worked for these agility competitors works for household pets and dogs in other circumstances.
“I don’t claim that every owner can solve every behavioral problem with fun training methods,” says Duford, “but for most dogs and most people, learning tricks with positive reinforcement can transform the dog/handler relationship and lead to all kinds of exciting adventures. It’s an excellent place to start.”
-By CJ Puotinen
Author CJ Puotinen is an herbalist, holistic pet care expert, the author of Encyclopedia of Natural Pet Care, and a frequent contributor to WDJ.
Have you ever looked up suddenly and seen your dog staring at you intensely, longingly – a look that grows no less pleading when you offer treats, a walk, or a scratch behind the ears? Or perhaps you’ve seen your dog leap up at some seemingly nonexistent noise, sniffing and whining for no reason you can imagine. Have you wished that you could know what your animal wants, understand what he’s thinking? Or have you ever wondered, when your dog mysteriously disappears at bath time, if he knows what you’re thinking?
Some people believe it is possible for humans and other animals to bridge the gap of spoken language and understand each other. Ape language studies and the development of animal behaviorism as a science have both contributed to our knowledge of other species’ minds. But another, more controversial group of people, who usually call themselves “animal communicators,” believe that the key to understanding our animal companions lies not in science, but in spirituality. Could they be right?
Dr. Doolittle’s heirs
Doctor Doolittle, hero of the children’s fantasy stories, could “talk with the animals” – and they, in turn, could speak to him and be understood. Hugh Lofting, author of the Doctor Doolittle books, may have been inspired to create his character after serving in World War I, where he was disturbed by the killing of horses injured in battle: “If we made the animals take the same chances as ourselves,” he wrote, “why did we not give them similar attention when wounded?” Sadly, he came to the conclusion that to develop horse surgery as effective as human surgery “would necessitate a knowledge of horse language.” Lofting went on to create a character who could not only understand horse language, but was also fluent in dog, pig, parrot, monkey, and crocodile.
Doctor Doolittle may be the fictional world’s first “animal communicator,” but to his real-life counterparts, the good doctor’s achievement is no fantasy. Animal communicators do not actually bark at dogs or whinny to horses; rather, they believe they can send and receive images, ideas, or even words telepathically.
An inborn ability
Penelope Smith, one of the best known animal communication specialists, is considered a pioneer in the field. She has written two books on what she calls “interspecies telepathic communication,” publishes a newsletter called Species Link, and travels the world, speaking and teaching workshops on communicating with animals. Smith lives in Point Reyes, California, with her menagerie of two llamas, two Afghan hounds, three cats, three chickens, and a rabbit. A lifelong animal lover, Smith began her career as a professional animal communicator in 1977, but she remembers feeling an intuitive connection to animals in early childhood.
Smith believes all children are born with the ability to “hear” animals’ thoughts and feelings, but learn to suppress or hide what adults label an over-active imagination. She worked as a human counselor before concentrating her practice on animals, but Smith feels both are essentially the same work. “We’re all connected,” she says, and in working with animals, she believes she’s also helping people.
Smith says she believes many of the behavior problems we see in dogs are actually the dog’s attempt to communicate something. Domestic animals, Smith notes, have been taken out of a natural environment and expected to cope with human rules and inconsistencies. As house pets, they’re subjected to peoples’ emotions, family conflicts, indoor environmental pollution, and food that bears no resemblance to their hereditary diet. These stresses may cause some behavior problems, while in other cases, what we see as “bad” behavior may be a misunderstood attempt to please us.
For example, in her book Animal Talk, Smith tells the story of Tip, a dog who had begun scattering droppings from the cats’ litter box, as well as soiling the rug. Tip’s owner tried punishing the dog, but he persisted. Smith “talked” to Tip and discovered that he had observed his owner scooping out the cat box, so he thought she’d be pleased when he joined in the game. He also decided, since his owner was so interested in the cats’ droppings, that he would leave her some of his own to play with.
Sonya Fitzpatrick, an animal communicator and author of What the Animals Tell Me, tells the story of a client who came to her in distress because her cat had stopped using her litter box and seemed to spend much of her time hiding in a closet. Moving the litter box to the closet helped at first, but then the cat began having accidents inside the closet. Fitzpatrick “asked” the cat why she was not using the box, and learned that the client’s husband mistreated the cat and had been throwing shoes at her while she was in the closet, frightening her so that she had accidents. When she told the client what she had learned, the client confirmed that her husband disliked the cat. Plausible? Yes. But not necessarily proof of psychic powers. Dr. Nicholas Dodman, Director of the Behavior Clinic at Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine, offers another view of the story. As a behaviorist, he says, he might walk into the client’s house, learn that the cat was soiling, and notice that the husband doesn’t seem to like the cat. He might then deduce from the circumstances that the cat was being abused and was soiling out of stress. Perhaps, he suggests, animal communicators are in fact using a combination of intuition, observation, and common sense to get inside animals’ minds.
Finding Sebastian
Probably one of the most terrifying experiences a loving pet owner can face is the loss of an animal. When a pet is missing, worry and uncertainty may turn even skeptics into believers, and people who would normally scoff at the idea of psychic phenomena may find themselves working with an animal communicator. That’s what happened to Richard Caparco of Coventry, Rhode Island, when his family’s beloved collie, Sebastian, disappeared one day after a run on the dunes. Sebastian was lost on April 25, 1998. He was found more than six weeks later. And he was found, says Caparco, thanks to the help of animal communicators Alison Hamilton and Sonja Fisher.
Alison Hamilton owns Pet Sitters, a pet-sitting service in Newport, Rhode Island. Sonja Fisher, a registered nurse, has worked as a facilitator of One Brain and Three in One Concepts, a holistic practice using body energy. Using kinesiology techniques (also known as muscle testing), Hamilton and Fisher have taught workshops in animal communication, and they have worked in private practice with people and animals. On several occasions, Hamilton says, they have helped to find lost animals, including a cat lost in the baggage area of an air terminal, but Sebastian’s story was the most dramatic. Richard Caparco took the two family Collies, Sebastian and Samantha, out to some open sand dunes, as he did every day. On April 25, for some reason, Sebastian took off. Caparco looked for hours and called the dog, but couldn’t find him.
He returned later in the day and spent at least 10 hours combing the dunes and the woods for Sebastian, but found no sign of him. Caparco’s daughter, Michelle, was distraught: Each day, says Michelle, she would tell her father: “Go out and find the dog!” Samantha, the female dog, was also distressed by Sebastian’s absence. Caparco kept looking, he says, putting up posters and asking people if they’d seen “a Lassie dog,” calling police and dog pounds throughout the state, but after weeks had gone by, he had almost given up hope. Then one day, he got “a phone call from the psychics,” Sonja Fisher and Alison Hamilton. “They told me they were going to help me find this dog,” Caparco relates. “They never asked for a penny . . . they were happy just to help.”
Fisher and Hamilton encouraged Caparco to continue the searching he’d been doing. They told him that they had been in contact with the dog, and Sebastian was alive. In fact, they said, Sebastian told them Caparco had driven by him several times. The psychics looked at a map and pinpointed an area in rural Exeter, Rhode Island, where they said the dog was living. Caparco would find Sebastian, they said, because they had received a message that the dog was coming home.
One day, on a sudden impulse, Caparco drove to Exeter, about nine miles from where Sebastian was lost, and an animal ran into the road ahead of his car. Initially, his daughter thought it was a fox, but Caparco jumped out of the car and screamed the dog’s name. It was an incredibly emaciated Sebastian, still wearing his collar, his coat matted and full of ticks and fleas. After more than six weeks in the woods, the collie had lost 33 pounds and was near death, but he survived, and today is a healthy, loving, beautiful dog.
Caparco found Sebastian exactly where the psychics had told him the dog would be. “I never really believed in that stuff,” he says, but after finding Sebastian, “I had to change my mind.”
Communication and health
Dr. Liz Campbell, a veterinarian at the Wolf Rock Animal Clinic in Exeter, Rhode Island, offered a seminar in animal communication at the clinic, featuring communicator Nedda Wittels. The clinic offers holistic care, including acupuncture and herbal remedies, as well as traditional medicine. The staff members try to be sensitive to animals’ emotional needs and comfort, providing a quiet, calm atmosphere when possible.
“We really try to focus our energy on the fact that we are healing them and try to let them know that. We’ve always done this,” says Dr. Campbell, “but after the seminar, it’s been working better, and it’s amazing. Instead of just saying the words to the animal, you have to put the words through your body and into your heart and out your heart . . . if it comes from your heart, I think it goes into the animal.”
Sensing what the animals feel is more challenging. “I’m not so sure that it’s easy to hear them – that’s a little harder. It takes a lot of concentration to hear them, but we did learn to better project what we’re thinking and feeling through the seminars.” She believes that some people can “hear” animals’ thoughts, and says that she has heard some impressive stories from her clients and from other holistic veterinarians.
However, Campbell cautions that dog owners must use their own judgment about what the communicators report. She said that some of the psychics who offer telephone consultations end up giving more general pet care advice than doing actual psychic work, which “is great if you want to pay a dollar a minute to talk to someone about the best way to give your pet a pill or how he wants his bed fluffed.” What they are doing, she suggests, is telling clients what they think an animal might want, rather than actually communicating with the animal. Their advice isn’t necessarily wrong, but it isn’t any more valid than the animal care tips an owner might get from a good dog care book or a holistic veterinarian – and it may be more expensive. Though skeptical of some of the commercial psychics, Dr. Campbell still thinks the concept of animal communication has validity, and said she and Beverly Shear, technician at the clinic, have had success using nonverbal communication to help animals feel less threatened. Shear is particularly good at this, says Dr. Campbell. “I find that when she holds an animal, the animal calms down so quickly, it’s amazing.”
Beverly Shear says she has been using some elements of animal communication working with animals at the clinic. In addition to body language (gentle handling), she tries to send mental messages to animals: for example, asking permission before beginning a treatment, “Is it all right if I help you through this?” She says the animals often look at her and seem to respond with their bodies; occasionally, she adds, a dog will turn his back on her. “I take that to mean, ‘no!’ ” she laughs. Shear believes animals can pick up on our energy and our intentions, and when an animal is getting medical treatment, it’s especially important for the owner to communicate calm, positive feelings.
Veterinarians’ mixed reactions
While holistic veterinarians may be more open to the idea of animal communication, Kate Reilly, an animal communicator in Aiken, South Carolina, says she has been consulted by all kinds of veterinarians. Some veterinarians with traditional medical practices do consult animal psychics, just as police use human psychics, she explains, but “it’s not something they care to publicize” for fear of ridicule.
Reilly, who has been offering her animal communication services for 11 years, studied with Penelope Smith and Jeri Ryan, another California animal communicator. She now offers small workshops in her home. She does consultations over the phone, and says she finds this works best for her, because she’s not distracted by physical cues. It’s easy for her to get in contact with the animal, she notes, but she works hard to maintain the connection long enough to get the information the owner needs. She likes to “check in” with the animal at different times of day, to get inside them and feel what their bodies are feeling. Reilly says she can tell what kind of animal she is “speaking” to just by the animal’s way of thinking. Horses, for which Reilly has a special affinity, are “the most sensitive and desirous of a relationship with humans;” cats are philosophers; and dogs are easygoing and blasé. Reilly says she was drawn to her work because of her love for animals: “I have the best job in the world,” she says.
While some animal communicators, like Reilly, may be asked to consult with vets, sharing their perception of an animal’s feelings, their advice should not be seen as a substitute for a trained veterinarian’s care. A “Code of Ethics for Interspecies Telepathic Communicators,” designed by Penelope Smith, expressly states, “It is not our job to name and treat diseases, and we refer people to veterinarians for diagnosis of physical illness.”
Beyond human perception
Historically, dogs have been seen as having a “knowingness” beyond human understanding. Folk wisdom even holds that they can sense when someone is evil or dangerous. In her book, How to Talk to Your Animals, author Jean Craighead George, tells the story of Orion, a Malamute, who was walking with his owner on a dark Alaskan road one night.
A young man in a sports car stopped, seemingly to offer a ride, then sped away just as Steve Wood, the dog’s owner, went to open the door. Wood shrugged and kept walking, but a few minutes later, Orion jumped on his chest repeatedly, finally knocking him into a snowbank on the side of the road. He lay there, puzzled by his dog’s bizarre behavior, when suddenly, the same car came racing down the road again, headed straight at the spot where Wood had been standing. “Apparently Orion had sensed something crazy about that kid,” Wood told the author, and when he heard the car returning – long before a human could – he forced his owner off the road. “He saved my life,” Steve Wood stated. “I’m convinced of that.”
Rupert Sheldrake, a British researcher who taught biochemistry at Cambridge University, also believes dogs possess extrasensory abilities. His new book, Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home, outlines his theory that dogs and other animals can communicate with humans or with each other through telepathy. Drawing upon surveys and interviews with more than 1,000 people who own or work with animals, Sheldrake describes lost dogs and cats finding their way home through unfamiliar territory; pets who seem to know, even at a great distance, when their owners die; animals who predict earthquakes, bombing attacks, and other disasters; and, as the title suggests, dogs who know when their owners are coming home.
Sheldrake conducted a study using a terrier named Jaytee, simultaneously videotaping dog and owner as they spent a typical day apart, the owner at work and Jaytee at home. The tapes often showed Jaytee getting up and going to the door or window at the same time when his owner, miles away, decided to come home.
Sheldrake and his videotape appeared on the television show 20/20 in September, 1999, as did Dr. Nicholas Dodman, who took a skeptical view of Sheldrake’s methods and conclusion. The experiment was not completely randomized, Dr. Dodman pointed out, and it did not take into account the many times Jaytee got up and went to the window or door when his owner was not coming home. And when Richard Wiseman, a psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire tried to replicate the Jaytee experiment under controlled conditions, Wiseman said he found no evidence of telepathy.
Still, Sheldrake claims his results are significant, even when visits to the door or window for other reasons (barking at passing dogs, sitting in the sun) are included. In an interview with the British journal New Scientist, Sheldrake says, “More than half the dog owners we surveyed think their dogs can read their minds or pick up their thoughts . . . I think so many people claim their animals can read their minds because sometimes their pets do read their minds, they are picking up their intentions.”
Explaining the inexplicable
Whether or not dogs have a sixth sense, they certainly are better than humans at using the five senses they do have. Dogs have been known to “predict” thunderstorms, earthquakes, and fires.
Now dogs are even helping people with epilepsy and other seizure disorders to predict when seizures will occur. By sensing the coming seizure minutes ahead of time, the dogs allow patients to get into a safe position and call for medical help.
A research study at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine confirmed that dogs do alert their owners to seizures; researchers there are now seeking funding for a larger study to find out why and how the process works. The dogs may perceive unconscious behavioral changes that precede a seizure; they may, with their powerful sense of smell, detect changes in a person’s odor brought on by neurological and chemical changes (as in the popular expression that dogs can “smell fear”); or they may, in some way not yet understood, be able to sense a disturbance in the electromagnetic pulses of the person’s brain.
All of this is remarkable, but does it mean dogs have ESP? “It’s not extrasensory perception,” Michael Goehring of the Great Plains Assistance Foundation in North Dakota told the MSPCA publication Animals. “It’s extraordinary sensory perception.” Dr. Nicholas Dodman of Tufts agrees: “Before a seizure, a person’s affect changes. Dogs are very sensitive to physical changes.”
“Dogs are past masters in the sensory world,” says Dr. Dodman. With hearing, smell, some aspects of sight, and a directional sense that far surpass those of humans, dogs are exquisitely attuned to every aspect of their physical environment. While humans have evolved into a cerebral, speculative world of abstract thinking and symbolic language, often shutting out our environment, dogs remain grounded in physical reality.
“We live in a world of language and we think animals are a little silly because they can’t sit down and write a letter or speak,” Dr. Dodman says, yet dogs have their own form of intelligence, and the ability to use senses we’ve lost. Dogs often have an inborn sense of dead reckoning and are able to construct “mental maps” of territory. This accounts for some dogs’ legendary homing instinct and the many instances of dogs who find their way home from great distances. This ability, however, is not telepathy; it is a natural instinct which is “innate and biologically appropriate.”
Dogs have other natural advantages in the world of the senses. They can detect changes in barometric pressure, they can hear frequencies of sounds undetectable to human ears, and they have eyes perfectly adapted for night vision and detecting motion. Their sense of smell, Dr. Dodman says, is amazingly acute: “If you spread out the smell organs in the human nose, the total area of sensitive tissue is about the size of a thumbnail.” In a dog, he says, “It’s more like a pocket handkerchief.”
Dr. Dodman, while emphasizing dogs’ great natural abilities, discounts any claims that they have supernatural abilities. He is similarly skeptical of humans who claim to be able to communicate telepathically with animals. “They believe they can” talk to animals, he says, “but I don’t believe they can.” Dr. Dodman feels that the current interest in animal communication is just another example of the tendency of humans to attribute supernatural powers to things they don’t understand.
“Once we thought (animals) were gods, then demons. Now some people think they can talk. What’s next?”
-By Kathryn Kulpa
Kathryn Kulpa is a freelance writer from Middletown, Rhode Island. This is her first article for WDJ.
I still have the very first Kong I bought 20 years ago for my Australian Kelpie, Keli. The indestructible black toy looks like it could have been purchased yesterday, despite 14 years of intensely hard use by typically obsessive herding dogs. Pre-dating the popular sport of Kong-stuffing by more than a decade, Keli was dedicated to chasing the four-inch, hollow, beehive-shaped rubber object as it bounced and boomeranged erratically across the asphalt at the shelter where we worked. Dang, it was almost as much fun as herding sheep!
Twenty years ago the Kong – originally available in just one size and color – was a novelty. Today it is made in numerous sizes, shapes, colors, and chewing densities, and is a “must-have” staple in the tool kit of most dog trainers and many wise dog owners. Dog care professionals have invented an almost endless list of uses for the innocuous-looking rubber object.
This amazing dog toy can distract a dog suffering from separation anxiety, entertain a bored dog who otherwise gets into trouble, train an under-motivated dog, etc. etc. You wouldn’t think that a mere toy could go so far as to help us cope with canines who might otherwise be labeled difficult dogs, or worse, end up on the discard pile at the local animal shelter, but Kong can do.
Top 10 uses for a Kong:
The Thrill of the Chase
This was the original application of the Kong. Because of its unique shape, the Kong bounces every which way but straight, providing intriguing quarry for the prey-oriented pooch. I doubt I would have survived the Kelpie-owning experience without engaging Keli in several intensive Kong-chasing sessions every day. Watching your dog bound and rebound after the elusive rubber prey is guaranteed to entertain you for hours on end as well as your dog.
Caveat: Herding breeds, especially, are known for literally running themselves into exhaustion. If you have a Kong-crazed dog, be careful not to induce heat-stroke or physical collapse (as I inadvertently did with Keli on two occasions) with too much Kong fun!
Puppy Distracters
Many of the more recent Kong applications involve Kong-stuffing (see “Stuff It!”, next page). Puppy distracting is one. Play-biting and inappropriate chewing are common complaints of new puppy owners. An ideal solution to perfectly normal but undesirable puppy mouth explorations is to provide an irresistible alternative to human flesh or wooden table legs – a Kong stuffed full of tantalizing treats.
Crate Training
The crate, or kennel, is a vital dog behavior management tool, and one often slighted by dog owners because of an initial poor crate training experience. (See “Crate Training Made Easy,” August 2000). When Pal is trained to the crate properly and positively, the kennel becomes his den, a haven of security and comfort. A well-stuffed Kong combined with an appropriate training program can help your dog decide that his crate is a wonderful place to be.
Cure for Cabin Fever
A few years ago, during a rain-soaked, endless El Niño California winter, our four dogs were getting seriously edgy with signs of a full-blown case of cabin fever. Stuffed Kongs to the rescue! Silence soon settled over the troubled household as our snarling canine siblings settled into their separate corners, gnawing contentedly on their respective rubber pacifiers.
Stress Reduction
Stress is the underlying cause of most canine aggression. For a dog who is uneasy with houseguests, a Kong stuffed with doggie delicacies can help change the response to visitors from negative to positive. Stress is an involuntary response – the dog can’t help it. The dog’s body reacts without conscious thought in the presence of the negative stimulus, with an immediate “Visitor – BAD!!” response. We can use the stuffed Kong as part of a well-planned counter-conditioning/desensitization program to change his involuntary response from “Visitor – STRESS” to “Visitor – OH GOODIE!”
Someone’s At The Door!
Another great visitor-related Kong application, this basis for this one is suggested by positive trainer Donna Duford. Dogs who want to greet guests too enthusiastically at the front door can be taught to fetch a toy instead. The knock at the door or the ringing of the doorbell becomes the cue to fetch the Kong, stuffed (if you know company is coming) or empty. Pal may then either retire to his rug to chew his treasure as your visitors enter, unmolested, or greet your guests politely at the door with his mouth filled with Kong instead of company. Caveat: If your dog is a food or object guarder, this may not be a good Kong application for him.
Destructo-Dog
Destructive behavior can range from simple high-spirited puppy fun to full-blown separation anxiety. By providing ample exercise for your dog, you can deplete the excess energy sometimes that leads to ruinous house-romps. An intelligently Pal-proofed environment (crate, puppy pen, safe room) can minimize the destruction that occurs during your absences. And one or more stuffed Kongs often keeps dogs happily occupied and their home damage-free while their owners are away.
Note: Crating is generally not recommended for dogs with true separation anxiety (SA) behavior disorders. While Kongs can be a useful element of a complete SA behavior modification program, this complex and troubling behavior should be addressed with an in-depth, punishment-free behavior modification program, usually under the guidance of a competent dog trainer or behavior specialist.
Hide-and-Seek
This game is an extension of the destructive behavior application of the Kong. You can occupy Pal’s mind as well as his mouth by teaching him to look for and find his stuffed Kongs before he can chew on them. Start by hiding the Kong in plain sight and asking him to “Find it!” Praise him when he does, and let him chew on it for a while. Then play the game again, hiding the toy partially behind a chair or table leg. Gradually make the hiding places harder and harder, until Pal learns to really search for his prize. Now you can hide two or three Kongs before you leave, tell him “Find It” as you walk out the door, and your dog can keep himself occupied for hours, finding and emptying his Kongs.
NOTE: Hide your Kongs wisely. If you bury them in the sofa cushions or under the bedcovers you can expect to come home to an unmade bed, and strewn cushions…or worse.
In The Swim Of Things
Here’s another good exercise application that combines Kong fun with a favorite canine activity – swimming! While most Kongs sink, the company makes one model that has a polypropylene rope tied to it, and contains a chunk of bouyant spongey material inside, so it floats like a dream. The floating rope makes the “Cool Kong,” as it is called, easy for owners to throw (swing it around and fling!) and easy for dogs who have trouble getting a whole Kong in their mouths to retrieve. It’s a durable, ideal fetch toy for the dog who already loves to swim, and the perfect training tool for the Kong-loving dog who is a bit hesitant about getting his feet wet. (See “In The Swim,” August 2000, for non-force methods of teaching your dog to enjoy the water.)
Boredom Barking
In my backyard, at this very moment, is Princess, a little stray Beagle-mix that my husband I found on the highway. She is clearly an accomplished escape artist, as evidenced by her constant running of the fenceline and her determined efforts to squeeze through our fence. Thwarted in her efforts to escape, she has taken to non-stop barking to express her displeasure at being effectively confined while we try to contact her owner. Time to bring out the stuffed Kong! Princess is now happily licking cream cheese out of the Kong, and peace has returned to the neighborhood.
There’s no doubt in our minds that this versatile toy deserves to be called “King” Kong. You can find them in almost every pet supply store and catalog – not to mention anywhere dogs are happy! In fact, we’re betting that some of you have come up with some other very creative uses for Kongs yourselves. We’d love to hear them!
Pat Miller is a freelance author and a professional dog trainer in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
All dogs love a gentle pat on the shoulder or the rump. To them it can be a signal of a job well done or simply an indication of our affection. Touch strengthens the bond between dog and owner and is a basic building block of the canine-human relationship. We have already considered effleurage, the open-hand technique that resembles smooth petting strokes yet does so much for the dog’s circulation, relaxation, and balance. Compression, another open-hand technique, also affords enjoyable physical contact between you and your dog while providing important health benefits to your canine friend.
Do your neck and shoulder muscles ever get tense and sore from sitting at the computer too long? How do your hip muscles feel after you have over exerted at some activity that you undertake only occasionally such as biking or working in the yard? Dogs can suffer from the same type of muscle fatigue and stiffness. It can be brought on by over-exerting at play or by participating in a demanding sport like lure coursing, agility, obedience, or fly-ball. On the other hand, our muscles and our dog’s can become sore from lack of activity and fitness. Being a couch potato can be hard on a body, because the dog doesn’t get the physical and mental exercise necessary to stay fit. Compression is a move that can relax, tone, and refresh tired stiff muscles.
Releasing tension
Compression is a rhythmic pumping motion pressing the “belly” of the muscle against underlying bone to create a sustained increase in circulation and muscle relaxation. It is very effective on the large muscle groups of the shoulder and upper foreleg and on those of the hip and thigh. The hand does not move from side to side. Instead, it pumps gently in a slow 1 – 2 – 3 motion. Use light pressure for the initial compression on the first stroke. Increase the pressure slightly with each pumping motion for strokes 2 and 3. Each move should be slow and deliberate. Perform one to three repetitions of the three-stroke motion at one location on the muscle. Then move your hand an inch or so along the length of the muscle and repeat another set of pumping compressions. Continue until you have covered the length of the muscle belly. You should be able to feel the muscle tissue soften as the circulation increases and the muscle relaxes in response to the gentle compressions.
When working on the large muscle of the shoulder or hip, place one hand gently on the dog to maintain contact and to monitor body position and reactions. This hand should tell you if the dog is relaxing, tensing, or otherwise responding to the work being performed. Place your other hand, your working hand, gently on the area to be massaged and begin the slow rhythmic compressions of muscle against underlying bone. You should feel the tissues soften as the muscle responds to the work.
Compression is a very effective tool for the large muscles of the upper limbs but requires a little caution. To massage the upper forearm, first place one hand under the limb for support. You must be careful not to press on the muscles of the limb in a way that stresses the shoulder joint. With proper support for the limb and joints, place the second hand on the large muscles on the surface of the arm and begin the slow rhythmic compressions. You can massage muscles on both sides of the long humerus bone by gently compressing with both hands. The slow rhythm should be maintained. After completing a few repetitions on one area, slide your hands along the length of the muscles and repeat the motion. Continue until you have covered the length of the muscle belly.
Compression of the large muscles in the upper thigh require the same precautions as those of the upper foreleg. One hand should be used to support the leg to protect the hip joint from inappropriate or abnormal pressure. With this precaution in place, one hand can be used to apply compressions to either the lateral (upper) or medial (lower) thigh muscles. Or, rhythmic compressions with both hands can be applied to massage both surfaces of the thigh simultaneously.
Timing is everything
So far a slow rhythmic motion has been stressed when employing the compression technique intended to foster a relaxed and softened muscle. Compression can also used before and after athletic competitions to excite or stimulate a dog. Massage should never be used to replace a warm-up before a competition or a cool-out afterward, but it can be used to enhance or sometimes shorten these important routines.
Pre- and post-competition massage should be performed on a standing dog. The idea is to stimulate, not encourage relaxation. Again the compressions are rhythmic pumping motions applied to large muscled areas. However, the timing involved is very different. The slow deliberate motion that encourages relaxation is replaced by more rapid compressions. Now the rhythm should be a staccato 1-2-3 or “cha, cha, cha,” like the beat or the Latin dance. Not only should the compressions be quick, they should be brief! Deliver one set of three compressions (cha, cha, cha) to an area and move to the next. Massaging too long on one area will increase the blood supply to the area to such an extent that it softens and relaxes muscles thus defeating the purpose of a stimulating the dog and preparing it for competition. After a demanding workout in competition, compression is an excellent move to help rid the muscles of lactic acid and other accumulated metabolic wastes.
Whether your intent is to use compression to calm, relax , and release muscle tension or to excite and stimulate, remember to massage both sides of the dog. It is important to leave the dog feeling balanced. Also, remember to thank the dog!
-By C. Sue Furman
Author Sue Furman is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology at Colorado State University in Ft. Collins, CO. In addition to her academic career, she is active as a free-lance writer and teaches equine and canine massage classes. This article is adapted from material in her new book, Canine Massage, that will be available in spring 2000.
Some dogs have a rough start in life. Consider BP, the 50-pound black-and-tan Shepherd-mix owned by Lucia Colbert of Cordova, Tennessee. BP was dumped in a neighborhood and left to fend for herself until rescued by Colbert in 1988. Colbert took the thin and sickly dog to the vet: BP had a host of internal parasites, including heartworms; part of her tongue was missing; and she had a chest full of buckshot (discovered later on a chest x-ray). “I knew she’s hadn’t had a piece of cake for puppyhood,” says Colbert.
Once adopted, BP thrived. She enjoyed a good life with Colbert, a professional tennis player and triathlete. BP jogged daily with Colbert and sat by the tennis court while she taught.
BP’s new life wasn’t without challenges, however. All her adult life, the floppy-eared mix was plagued with severe allergies. BP suffered hot spots, and chewed and licked herself constantly. Life was a parade of visits to allopathic vet clinics ( including specialists); her medical file was three inches thick. “She was constantly on antibiotics, and then they’d give her cortisone shots,” says Colbert.
Colbert fed BP whatever her veterinarian recommended, usually a high-priced food sold at the clinic. “I thought, I’m buying the best thing here. This has got to be it,” she says.
As Colbert saw it at the time, BP’s only other health problem was some mild arthritis. However, the condition responded fairly well to Rimadyl, an anti-inflammatory drug prescribed by the veterinarian.
Crisis leads to change Allergies and arthritis aside, Colbert thought her canine companion was fairly healthy. But in 1997, Colbert noticed her jogging companion wasn’t running as well and was coughing at night. Subsequent veterinary examinations saw BP diagnosed with congestive heart failure, with a grim prognosis for the future.
“Well, I didn’t like that,” says Colbert, who began researching congestive heart failure. She also consulted with a friend who was a holistic nutritionist. Colbert’s efforts prompted her to change BP’s diet immediately to Flint River, a commercially prepared food that is free of artificial preservatives, colors, or flavors, and contains better-quality ingredients. She added a fresh blend of oils (flax, sesame, evening primrose) to give BP the right balance of Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids. “The allergies went away within a month or two,” says Colbert, “never to return.”
Colbert also stopped giving BP Rimadyl, replacing it with a glucosamine and chondroitin supplement. With the help of these far more benign supplements, she still displayed a small amount of stiffness, but did not get sore and achy.
The new diet and supplements improved BP’s heart condition, to the point where she could resume her runs with Colbert. Eventually, she was back up to her old mileage, easily jogging with her athletic friend for as much as 10 miles at a clip.
The improvements were so dramatic, that Colbert herself began taking some supplements for her own health, with great effect. “I take a few supplements for my health and endurance, too,” she laughs. “I’ve gotten fascinated with all these things.”
Not yet the end In summer 1999, BP began experiencing another downhill slide. With the onset of hot Tennessee summer weather, even with a vastly reduced exercise schedule, the senior Shepherd began having a difficult time breathing. Colbert’s veterinarian told her that this was to be expected of a 15-year-old dog. “She’s just getting old,” the vet told Colbert.
But Colbert decided to do some more research. Her efforts to improve the dog’s health with a better diet had strengthened her belief that there was probably more she could be doing to help her beloved dog.
Colbert bought a copy of a book written by holistic veterinarian Martin Goldstein, The Nature of Animal Healing: The Path to Your Pet’s Health, Happiness and Longevity (Knopf 1999). Dr. Goldstein, a graduate of the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine and owner of a veterinary clinic in South Salem, New York, offers an alternative approach to healing in his book. The author’s premise is that the best way to treat an sick pet is to help the animal heal itself.
Colbert was thrilled with the veterinarian’s approach, and took the book’s message to heart. She also contacted Dr. Goldstein’s brother, Robert Goldstein, who is also a holistic veterinarian, for help with BP.
Since Dr. Bob and Susan Goldstein’s Holistic Veterinary Center is located in Westport, Connecticut – quite a distance from Cordova, Tennessee – an office visit was out of the question. But the Goldsteins, like many holistic veterinarians, offer consultations by telephone, e-mail, and/or fax, usually in conjunction with the client’s hometown veterinarian.
One of the most frequently employed services of Dr. Robert Goldstein’s clinic is his use of what he calls a “bio-nutritional analysis” of the patient’s blood tests. Generally, the client will have his or her own veterinarian draw blood and submit the samples for specific tests according to Dr. Goldstein’s directions. Goldstein or one of his associates at his clinic then analyzes the results and makes recommendations for changing the dog’s medication or supplements accordingly.
Colbert’s local veterinarian supported the plan, and drew blood from BP so the analysis could take place. After the results of the tests reached Dr. Goldstein’s clinic, Colbert received a call from Dr. Brian Wessels, an associate at the Westport clinic. One thing the tests revealed was a problem with BP’s liver. “Her liver enzymes were out the roof,” says Colbert. A normal count is 200-300, says Colbert. BP’s were 1200.
Dr. Wessels made several recommendations for BP. The “to do” list included adding some 19 nutritional supplements, and some homeopathic and herbal remedies to bolster BP’s various weaknesses (heart, arthritis, liver). He also suggested adding raw and cooked vegetables, garlic, and brewer’s yeast to her natural dog food. Two further steps were also recommended for strengthening BP’s immune system: discontinuing administration of BR’s heartworm preventive and any vaccinations.
“I had been using a Band-Aid approach to using herbs and things to help BP, to some extent, it worked,” says Colbert. “But with the analysis, they were able to zero in on what she needed. They would say, ‘OK, the garlic is good, this one is good, but hold off on that one . . .’ It helped me target the best supplements.”
However, adding 19 different things to BP’s food, “took a little getting used to,” admits Colbert. “At first, I used to mix all the tablets and powders into a half a cup of plain, non-fat yogurt, and she’d eat most of them, but I’d find a few things around the house that she had spit out. The I bought one of those little baby Cuisinarts, and mix everything in there – the supplements, the garlic, carrots, broccoli, and what I call the ‘enticer,’ a spoonful of tuna, salmon, egg, or chicken – and then mix the whole concoction into her kibble. She’s a chowhound, so she cleans all this up.”
Colbert was more reluctant to implement Dr. Wessels’ recommendation of stopping the heartworm preventive because of her past bout with the condition. However, garlic and brewer’s yeast is believed to help repel mosquitoes from some animals so Colbert followed doctor’s orders.
BP’s health improved. “Within two weeks I could tell a huge difference,” says Colbert. “Her whole body language changed. We re-tested her blood again in about two months and the liver scores were down to 600; the other numbers were coming into line and she was much, much better.” Colbert will continue having BP’s blood tested every six months to monitor her health and enable her to change anything in the protocol as necessary.
Maintaining the program Colbert is extremely happy with BP’s new lease on life. “I think the holistic treatments added years to her life. I really do. Because most people look at me like I’m nuts when I say she’s 16. I don’t know how long she’s going to live, but I know she’s way healthier than she was.”
Colbert will also admit that it takes a lot of commitment to follow through on a program that is this complex. It’s also very costly. “The bloodwork and the evaluation is not that bad, but the supplements themselves are very costly,” says Colbert. “I appreciate everything they have done for us, and I will continue to consult them regularly, but I’m not rich! I’ve made it more affordable by finding a lot of the supplements (14 of the 19) on my own; the rest, I buy from the Goldsteins’ clinic.”
Colbert says the Goldsteins accept this readily. “They say it’s OK if you get these things on your own, but there are a couple I can’t find anywhere else!” she laughs. “But those ones, fortunately, are not the most expensive ones.”
Colbert wishes she had learned about a holistic approach sooner; but hindsight is 20-20. “For years I thought I was such a caring owner, which I am,” she says. “But I was unaware of the problems with putting her through all that cortisone, all those antibiotics, all that crummy food. Had I known that years ago, she wouldn’t have had to go through all that. There’s so many people who think they’re doing the right thing by doing that. But they’re just not doing their pets any favors by using the ‘quick fix’ medications. They don’t understand it takes the food, supplements, and consideration of the dog’s medication, and exposure to toxins. . . it takes time.”
Colbert says she realizes that giving BP Rimadyl in the earliest days of her arthritis didn’t do the dog any favors. “I probably overran her because of the Rimadyl,” she says regretfully. “I didn’t realize it at the time, but it masks the pain; that’s what enabled her to do more than she should have. I’d look at her and she’d look OK, she didn’t seem to be hurting, and I’d take her running when she probably shouldn’t have gone.” Today, Colbert uses the medication in a very low dose (half a tablet three times a week or so) to help the Shepherd stay mobile, but is careful that the dog doesn’t overdo it. Though greatly improved, BP is a senior dog and experiences some limitations that go along with that stage of life. “She can’t run anymore,” says Colbert, “but can do a great one mile walk.” Today, BP is happy to sit court-side while Colbert teaches; that’s her job now.
Colbert isn’t sure how much longer BP will live, but all indications are she has a ways to go still. Even Colbert’s conventional veterinarian is impressed with the elderly dog’s condition. Colbert reports, “Recently I was at the vet here in town and he made a comment that really made me feel good. Keep in mind this is the guy that three years ago told my husband to get ready because BP didn’t have long to go . . .
“In our most recent visit he examined BP and looked at me and said, ‘BP is going to outlive all of us. She is doing just fine!” He also said, ‘You know, there is something to all this stuff you are doing.’ ”
As if Colbert didn’t know!
-By Virginia Parker Guidry
Virginia Parker Guidry is a freelance writer from San Diego, CA.
This, the last installment in a three-part series, looks at some of the conventional and holistic therapies commonly prescribed in combating canine immune problems.
The first part of our series (“Looking for Immunity,” WDJ December 1999) described the body organs and molecular responses that actually constitute the immeasurably complex “system” of immunity that protects dogs from invasion by viruses, bacteria, fungi, and parasites. Many of the most common immune system disorders – including immune-deficient diseases, auto-immune disorders, and inappropriate immune responses – were described in the last installment of this series (“When They Are Not Immune,” WDJ January 2000).
Canine immune system disorders range from very common (such as seasonal allergies), to extremely rare disorders that afflict certain breeds (and even, in some cases, certain branches of individual breeds). Someday, the Canine Genome Project may well bring life-saving illumination to the process by which specific genes trigger specific diseases. At present, however, the inheritance of effective immunity continues to be a mysterious, if not star-crossed, commodity. Some dogs, like some people, are unlucky. However, the immunity that any individual dog is born with can often be improved with enlightened canine husbandry practices, traditional medical care, and complementary care from holistic health modalities. Bad immune luck can be turned into improved health for many dogs.
As always, however, any immune-enhancing tactics should begin with a thorough veterinary medical examination and consultation. What therapies work for one dog might not work for another, and, at worst, could trigger immediate life-threatening reactions. Manipulating the immune system is an uncertain science and art. The more a veterinarian knows about your dog’s medical history, genetic inheritance, and lifestyle, the better his or her chance for a favorable outcome.
The goal: Self-healing We’ve learned a lot about the immune system in the past 20 years, most significantly, that the body is full of cells and chemicals that, when the entire system is working as it should, perform miracles of regulation. And, as is so often the case in medical research, our earliest successes have stemmed from our attempts to mimic some of those miracles. These efforts have led to the development and widespread use of a number of drugs that can suppress immune responses, which is helpful (and even life-saving) in cases of autoimmune disease or hyperactive immune responses such as allergies. More recently, we have begun to develop drugs that can stimulate increased immune responses in the case of immune-deficient conditions.
These efforts are laudable – even miraculous in themselves. But it’s well understood that our artificial methods of influencing the complex, mysterious immune system are inferior and clumsy compared to effects of what the body can do when it’s working as it should. All medications produce side effects in the body, and often, the more powerfully they perform the job they were developed to perform, the more adverse these unwanted effects are. Usually, though, we’ll go ahead and take those side effects in favor of no improvement at all!
Grossly simplified, the goal in holistic medicine is to somehow cajole or inspire the body to heal itself. Increasingly, this is the focus of new developments in Western medicine, too. Yesterday’s leading edge technology was focused on creating drugs that “fight” viruses and bacteria; today’s revolution is in developing drugs that stimulate the body to create and/or release its own chemical “medications” that fight invaders.
But as Western medicine focuses on the search for wondrously effective (and profitable) drugs, Eastern and holistic medicine takes a less-sexy approach: trying to “fine-tune” the body by any means possible to empower its all-powerful immune system. This may entail employing all sorts of worthy, if wacky, methods of positive influence. Chiropractic is often used to optimize the function of the nervous system. Nutrient levels are manipulated in numerous ways in an effort to create the most comfortable chemical medium for the cellular agents of immunity. Massage, TTouch, and acupressure are used to enhance circulation of immune cells and to encourage their continued and appropriate production. Bach Flower essences, colors, or fragrant essential oil are used to reduce stress and all of its deleterious chemical cohorts from the body.
The list is endless, but the goal is always the same: to get the body to fight “non-self” cells, and heal its own.
Putting principles into practice Our premise is that improving immune health is probably the single most important thing you can do for your dog. Here’s a common condition that illustrates this point:
Flea Allergy Dermatitis (FAD) is a perfect example of how a malfunctioning immune system reduces a dog’s ability to cope with what should be a minor annoyance. Few dog owners regard this syndrome as an “immune problem,” and yet, by improving the responses of the affected dogs’ immune systems, one can stop this disorder in its tracks. Here’s how:
First, it has been widely observed that healthy dogs have far fewer problems with fleas than unhealthy dogs. One generally thinks of this the other way around – that it’s the fleas that make the dog unhealthy – but there is much evidence to suggest the opposite. In fact, a persistent flea infestation is often an indicator that a dog is suffering from additional, underlying health problems. Healthy dogs seem to have innate immune defenses that keep flea populations in check, but flea populations thrive and multiply on unhealthy dogs. Once a dog develops an allergic sensitivity, it can never be completely overcome, and with reactive rather than proactive treatments, sensitivity tends to increase.
Conventional treatment generally revolves around administration of corticosteroids, which are used for their anti-inflammatory effects; they very effectively “stop the itch.” Unfortunately, these drugs are also immunosuppressive. They compromise the dog’s ability to defend against viral, bacterial, parasitic and other invaders, and depress the body’s resistance to infection. In contrast, holistic veterinarians stress a balanced, long-term strategy. This might not get the dog to stop scratching or chewing himself overnight, but it can encourage the dog’s body to respond to the allergens present in the flea saliva in a less overactive fashion, while increasing the dog’s natural defenses to the fleas.
Needless to say, both conventional and holistic treatments for FAD include strategies for keeping fleas away from both the flea-allergic dog and its environment. How the dog’s owner undertakes this task can have serious repercussions on the dog’s health. There are many commercial flea products which either kill adult fleas outright, or chemically interrupt some stage of their life cycle, preventing young fleas from developing into adults capable of reproduction, for example.
While these products usually work as intended – eliminating a dog’s current flea population – they can trigger unpredictable and serious side effects in sensitive or vulnerable dogs. It’s a conundrum: the dog has immune problems, which leaves it susceptible to reactions from fleas and flea-borne illness, but the most effective flea killers may aggravate immune problems. So the task at hand is twofold: You try to conduct a gentle war on the fleas, discouraging their populations from settling into your home (as discussed in “Flee, Evil Fleas,” June 1998) without causing any disruption or destruction of your dog’s health. (As an example, you may use oils and extracts of lavender, eucalyptus, tea tree, or cedar around the home, to repel fleas without burdening your dog’s health in any way.)
Simultaneously, you work to building the dog’s basic constitutional health, which will, in turn, enable him to mobilize his own defenses against them. Holistic veterinarians usually begin and end all therapies with improved basic nutrition. Natural immune-enhancers could be prescribed: vitamins A, E, and C; fish and primrose oil, echinacea, and others. Massage or other physical therapies promote beneficial circulation.
In addition, you check to make sure that you aren’t mounting any obstacles to the dog’s self-healing: exposure to toxins (including poor quality foods), or too much stress. Any and all health problems the dog may display – such as itchy, irritated skin – are treated with substances that interfere as little as possible with his immune responses; in other words, using little or no cortisone creams or sprays, or immune-suppressing oral or injectable steroids. Instead, irritated skin might be soothed with calendula ointment or an oatmeal bath.
In theory, and thankfully, our readers can testify that in fact, too, as general health improves, signs of FAD naturally subside.
Stopping attacks on “self” In autoimmune diseases, where a dog’s immune defenses inappropriately attack the body itself, mistaking “self” for “non-self” invaders, the desired strategy is to alter the self-destructive cellular pattern. A good example is Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia (AIHA). In simple terms, AIHA causes the body to mount a “defense” against its own red blood cells, destroying the cells that carry the oxygen vital to life. Conventional medicine employs immunosuppressive corticosteroids and other more powerful drugs to disrupt the attacks, in hopes of sparing enough red blood cells to induce a remission. Unfortunately, all of the immune system is suppressed, not just the misfiring antibodies, leaving a dog vulnerable to other opportunistic infections. In life-threatening situations, blood transfusions are sometimes recommended, or even a new artificial blood product called Oxyglobin, which delivers oxygen to the cells faster than real blood and does not require blood typing.
In any non-emergency context, holistic veterinarians would probably begin with nutritional therapies which promote the growth of red blood cells: fresh meat, liver extracts and other B-vitamin sources; Vitamins C and E; and iron-rich herbs such as burdock, nettle or red clover.
While the prevalent forms of AIHA (accounting for 80 to 90 percent of all cases) are less severe and can often be treated as a chronic, controlled illness (as most immune disorders are), in the peracute form, time is of the essence, leading most people to seek conventional treatment first, and alternative therapies as a last resort. But in fact, alternative veterinarians cite successful therapies where, for example, B vitamin injections in certain acupuncture points induced immediate red blood cell production in a dog’s bone marrow, buying time for other immune-enhancing therapies to take hold.
Conclusion When your dog has a life-threatening immune illness, there may not be a veterinarian on earth who can work miracles for that particular dog; immune problems tend to pick up momentum over time, compromising more and more systems. And many immune diseases are linked to factors beyond a dog owner’s control, in any reasonable sense of the word. But by optimizing those immune variables that they can control – foods, and exposure to drugs, vaccines, toxins, and stress – dog owners can level the immune playing field with the best home care, and the best professional advice they can find.
-By Roger Govier
Roger Govier is a freelance writer from San Francisco. Govier has prepared articles on many of WDJ’s toughest topics, from cancer to vaccinations.
Everything I read says give this herb or give that supplement – garlic, lecithin, vitamins, yeast. But what should I give my dog on a regular basis? In order to do everything the books say, I would have to give about 15 pills or supplements. Is it OK to give all that? What is too much?
We turned over this question to Dr. Nancy Scanlan, a veterinarian for 30 years, who has integrated holistic medicine into her practice for 12 years. Dr. Scanlan is also the author of Stop That Itch! Dr. Scanlan’s practice is located in Sherman Oaks, California.
I’m glad the subject of supplements has come up in this general way. As they learn more about nutrition and holistic health care, a lot of dog owners worry that they should be doing more to feed their dogs in the most healthful fashion.
You’re right; if you feed your dog every supplement that you ever hear about or read about, you could very well end up giving the dog 15 different things. You could also inadvertently cause as many problems as you had hoped to solve. And just because you have read an article about the wonders of a certain supplement, doesn’t mean your dog will benefit from that supplement. You have to take these things in context.
Do all dogs need supplements?
There are three main reasons to add specific nutrients to the dog’s diet. The first is to compensate for a known or suspected deficiency of the nutrient in question.
Sometimes, the deficiency is discovered when a blood test is performed for the purpose of analyzing the dog’s nutritional status (although, in my opinion, there are some problems with this methodology (see “Blood Testing for Deficiencies,” next page). In other cases, a dog owner might know that the diet he feeds is deficient in a certain nutrient, and he supplements rather than changes the formulation of the diet. For example, dogs who are fed a diet based on raw meats and vegetables, but who don’t receive fresh ground bones, are more than likely to be deficient in calcium.
When a dog is deficient in a certain nutrient, and he begins to receive the optimum dosage of that nutrient, his health will markedly improve. Sometimes, correcting a deficiency of even a very small nutrient will make improvements in dogs that already seem fairly healthy. Very often you will see that the coat has a better sheen to it, a little bit of dandruff might go away, a greasy coat will turn nicer. The holistic nutritionists say this is because these little micro-minerals have been depleted from the soil, so the grains and animals that are the dog’s major food sources (cattle, sheep, chickens) don’t have them, either. It’s difficult to show deficiencies from these things, because the animals don’t die, they can still reproduce, they look pretty good, they live about the same amount of time. But they will have a little better look and have a little bit more spring to their step if you add it to their diets.
“Optimizing” nutrient levels
The second reason to supplement a dog’s diet is less compelling, but not a bad idea: to cover suspected deficiencies as insurance. Dog food manufacturers will tell you, “We made these foods to contain everything a dog needs, so why are you giving them anything extra?” The answer is, “Because what is now called an ‘adequate’ dosage may not be the optimum dosage.” Many people (including a growing number of veterinarians) feel that the values set forth by the National Research Council for minimum daily requirements of vitamins for dogs are inadequate. The levels for the major minerals seem to be fine.
We know that for humans the minimum daily requirement is not always the optimum daily dosage. It is simply the minimum that is required to keep signs of major deficiencies from appearing. In the human field, many nutritionists now consider the optimum dose for a lot of things, including the “micro” minerals and vitamins, to be about double the minimum daily requirement recommended by the National Research Council.
From my experience, I suspect the same is true of animals. In cats, for example, we know that for years and years we didn’t have a good number for the amino acid taurine; it takes years for signs of taurine deficiency to show up in cats, and it took years and years to prove this. The amount that is recommended now is more than twice what it was in previous years! This can occur because the studies for supplementation are often of a duration that is only long enough to raise an animal from birth to reproductive age and let them have a litter; if all of that works they consider the study sufficient. But some problems take years – or even generations – to show up.
So, in my opinion, giving a dog who eats standard commercial foods a vitamin supplement – one that contains no “mega doses” of any nutrient, and no extra calcium or other minerals – can be a good idea. All good quality commercial dog foods seem to contain sufficient quantities of the major minerals such as calcium, iron, copper, and zinc; I wouldn’t add any without a specific reason.
Therapeutic dosages
The third reason to give a dog supplements is to try to optimize the dosage of certain nutrients for therapeutic or preventive effects. Please note that I used the word optimize, not maximize. Over-supplementation can cause many problems, which I’ll discuss below.
Therapeutic supplementation would include, for instance, feeding a dog with specific health problems – allergies, say – higher doses of those nutrients which can help the body deal with that condition more effectively. For example, giving a dog with pollen allergies extra doses of the antioxidant vitamins C and E during the peak season for those allergens.
Preventive supplementation is an attempt to prevent the onset of disease. However, this only makes sense when the disease is expected, and when that supplement has proven capabilities to help prevent that disease. One example is the use of iodine supplements to prevent hypothyroid disease in Golden Retrievers, among whom the disease is very common.
Problems with dog supplements
Though there are many cases where intelligent and appropriate supplementation literally saved a dog’s life, Unfortunately, there are many ways that people can do actual harm to their dogs with supplements. Here’s a great example: I once saw a dog who had been seen previously by another vet for kidney stones. As we’ve discussed in a previous article (“Urine Trouble,” November 1999), kidney stones can be caused by too-acid urine or too-alkaline urine. First the dog had the kind caused by overly acid urine. The vet changed the dog’s diet so the dog would have more alkaline urine. That went OK for a while, and then the dog got the kind of stones from over-alkaline urine.
Now the vet was up a creek; what can you do if you can’t shift the diet very far in either direction? The vet was so baffled, she decided to get a second opinion and sent the owner and the dog to me. I was puzzled, too, so I started asking a lot of questions. I asked about supplements – and hit the jackpot. She was giving three different kinds of calcium supplements. All we had to do was cut out the calcium supplements and the dog never had a problem again.
Here are the most common mistakes made when supplementing:
• Over-supplementing
One of the most dangerous ways that people can over-supplement is with minerals, especially in growing animals. People can cause all sorts of bone deformities in young dogs by feeding over-doses of calcium, for instance. Also, other minerals can actually cause mineral poisonings if they are over-dosed.
The place where you can get into the biggest trouble is with the minerals that are required in the greatest quantity: calcium, iron, copper, and zinc. Over-supplementation of calcium in the large and giant breeds can cause joints to break down; also, calcium can bind with other minerals and cause problems. I have seen studies with large and giant dogs where they decreased the calcium to where it was just below the amounts in regular pet foods, and have actually had dogs with healthier joints.
I have also seen copper toxicity and zinc toxicity. Copper binds zinc, so sometimes you won’t see copper toxicity, but you will start seeing a zinc deficiency – not because the diet is deficient in zinc, but because the copper is binding up the zinc and interfering with the zinc in the animal’s body.
With other nutrients, diarrhea may be the least of the problems you can get from over-supplementing. If you feed high enough doses of antioxidants, they can actually change from being antioxidants to pro-oxidants. Some of the anti-cancer supplements can be poisonous in high doses.
One of the most common ways that people inadvertently over-supplement is when they feed their dogs one of the “kitchen sink” supplements, one that has everything you have ever heard of in it, and then feed additional single-ingredient supplements as well. You have to read all the fine print, go over the ingredients to make sure that you are not over-supplementing.
Some nutrients do build up in the animal’s system; minerals can cause problems over time. A nice, steady, moderate dose of antioxidants is pretty safe, even for long periods of time, but if you are feeding maximum dosages for enough time, they can actually promote cancer.
• Imbalances
Some nutrients have to be fed in a proper ratio to another nutrient, or it can cause imbalances that can harm the dog. The best known example is the calcium/phosphorus ration, which should be between 1–1 and 2–1. If it’s not, it can cause rickets in young growing animals, and “rubber-jaw” or osteoporosis in the older dogs.
• Negative Interactions
Very dangerous drug interactions can result from mixing certain medicinal herbs with certain medications. To use both types of medicine safely, you have to consult someone who is familiar with both the drugs and the herbs. One example is willowbark, which interacts with aspirin and also with butazolidin and Rimadyl, and causes what is essentially an aspirin overdose, with intestinal and/or stomach bleeding. Vitamin E and Digoxin (Digitalis) also interact badly; vitamin E can cause a Digitalis overdose, even when the animal is receiving a normal dose of Digitalis.
• Long-term effects
Artificially supplementing an animal with certain nutrients – especially if you are using the maximum recommended amounts – can cause the animal to cease its own production of the nutrient. For instance, dogs manufacture their own vitamin C. If you feed a dog a maximum dose of vitamin C daily, the dog will stop making its own vitamin C. And if you were to suddenly stop that maximal dose, you might even see a temporary case of scurvy!
Managing dog supplements
To supplement intelligently, you have to understand exactly what is in each supplement you feed, and have compelling reasons to feed it. A lack of knowledge can lead to all kinds of problems. For instance, I saw a lady who had an arthritic dog. She had read about the benefits of GAG supplements, and had accordingly bought five different kinds – and was feeding all of them to the dog. An excess of glucosamine will sometimes cause an upset stomach, and sure enough, her dog’s appetite had decreased. Plus, she was wasting an awful lot of money.
When considering giving supplements to your dog, you have to ask yourself, “What is going on with this dog?” and prioritize the issues. If you have a basically healthy animal and your major concern is disease prevention, then you would take one path. If your dog has cancer, or a genetic predisposition to cancer, you would take a different supplementing path. If your dog has terrible arthritis, then concentrate on the supplements that can help with that.
Basic supplement rationale
In general, if your dog is less than six years old and seems basically healthy, there are just a couple of things I would recommend. The first is a trace sea-mineral supplement that supplies the tiny little trace minerals that are no longer present in our soils; these are not the ones that appear on anyone’s list of “required” nutrients. (There are two products I like: one is Source, the other is one I helped PetNutrition develop called “Life Energy Supplement.” The other types of supplements that are helpful for most dogs are digestive enzymes and probiotics like acidophilus. I think most dogs do better if they have the digestive enzymes all the time; I suggest adding probiotics occasionally.
If the dog is more than six years old, then you should start thinking about warding off degenerative conditions (arthritis and joint problems) that start happening at about that time. That’s when I tell people to consider giving a glycosaminoglycan (GAG) supplement, and vitamin C and E.
Outside of these basic suggestions, I give additional supplements only to dogs with problems. For example, if your dog has intestinal trouble, you might want to think about probiotics and/or digestive enzymes. If there is any problem involving anemia, then a B-complex would be a good thing to add. Supplements for treating cancer should be given only to dogs with cancer.
Then there are health problems that are more complex, that are related to the dog’s general level of wellness. The theme here is to do the fewest number of things that will have the most benefit. In these cases, it’s always advantageous to add antioxidants, especially vitamins C and E. Fatty acids, especially the Omega-3 fatty acids, are often lacking in prepared foods, and are helpful for many conditions, including any skin and heart problems, cancer prevention, circulation, and problems with the nails.
Vitamin C has numerous benefits and can help many diseases and prevent other diseases, so that’s a good one to add. But if you look at something like IP6, which has recently shown to have an anti-cancer benefit, with some other benefits suspected but not proven, then I wouldn’t add that unless your dog has cancer. Don’t add supplements unless you have a specific reason for doing so.
Say you have an older, arthritic, cancerous dog. If an animal has multiple ailments, then multiple supplements may be good. It should definitely receive more supplements than a young, healthy animal.
However, even if you have the best reasons in the world for adding a lot of things to an individual’s diet, you will run into certain problems. For example, you can make a dog refuse to eat if his meals are overly laden with all sorts of supplements. Also, you can cause digestive upset – nausea, vomiting or diarrhea – with a lot of supplements; this happens with chronically ill human patients, as well.
Again, try to at least get the things that will do the maximum good into the dog, those supplements that can help with all the dog’s symptoms. And start with the things that are research-proven, like glucosamine for joints. Address the conditions that are more likely to threaten the life of the dog. Fighting a life-threatening cancer tumor may be more important than fighting arthritis, for example. And then, if you still need more, you can gradually add them in. But give everything enough time to start working before you add the next thing in, depending on the supplement, between a week and a month.
Most importantly, I suggest working closely with your veterinarian when making decisions about supplements. If your vet is resistant to the idea of using any supplements, don’t be surprised; many veterinarians have so little experience with nutrition that they just don’t know how to deal with the concept. Find a different vet, one who has advanced education and experience in nutrition, if possible.
The use of “nutraceuticals” to influence your dog’s health can be powerfully positive or negative. Make sure you have someone who can help you best utilize this powerful tool, keep a close eye on your dog for signs that your approach is working or failing, and change it accordingly.
Thank you for mentioning our product, Home Made 4 Life (“Food in the Freezer,” March 2000). Some important information was not mentioned in your article! We feel these key points set our companies and our product apart from our competition:
Home Made 4 Life pet food is formulated by professional animal nutritionists Jennifer Boniface, MS, and Trina Nowak, BScAgr, each of whom hold higher education degrees in animal nutrition.
Home Made 4 Life is the only international pet food of its type, with manufacturing taking place both in Maryland (Aunt Jeni’s Home Made) and Ontario, Canada (Pets 4 Life).
-Trina Nowak Ontario, Canada -Jennifer Boniface Aunt Jeni’s Home Made Temple Hills, MD
Regarding your “Top Dry Dog Foods” article in the February 2000 issue: I understand that our Eagle Pack Natural Formula did not make the Recommended listing because we use the term “animal fat” in our ingredients list. The fat listed is pure bacon fat (pork fat), melted from human grade bacon to reduce the fat content prior to being shipped to restaurants. We also include chicken fat, produced under USDA inspection, the same fat sold to human food companies worldwide. There is no further refining or rendering.
Until recently, we used a mixture of the pork and chicken fat. We have since discontinued the pork fat.The “meat meal” listed is pure pork, from USDA-inspected plants. We are now changing our ingredients listing to state pork meal and chicken fat. These items were not listed as species-specific previously, because of ethnic considerations.
We subscribe to the nutrition philosophies of WDJ. As noted, our meat proteins and fats are from USDA-inspected plants with product sold to human food companies. Our carbohydrates/grains are ground fresh. There are no pesticides applied from the day the seed is planted until harvest. To prove the depth of our commitment, we now include certified, organically grown chicken in our cat food. As supply of this ingredient increases, we will include it in our dog food.
-John Marsman, Director of Nutrition Eagle Products, Inc. Mishawaka, IN
We’ve heard from representatives of several companies whose products did not make our “Top 10 Dry Foods” list for various reasons. Most wanted to communicate their reasons for making the decisions they did for using certain products (ones WDJ does not approve of ) in their formulations, or to explain why the ingredients they use are better in reality than they appear to be on the lists of ingredients found on their labels. Each person hoped we could further qualify or explain the listings on their labels.
In good conscience, all we can say is this: Virtually no one from any agency “polices” either the verbal claims of the food companies’ representatives or the literature published by the companies in pamphlets or on web sites. On the other hand, what is printed on their products’ labels is regulated by Federal law. For this reason, we suggest that consumers continue to judge foods by the list of ingredients found on their labels.
But here’s a wrench in the works: We recently learned that companies have six months to change the label of a food following any change in its formulation. This ostensibly protects the company from the expense of “wasting” perfectly good (but inaccurately labeled) bags.
Unfortunately, this practice leaves the consumer without any certainty that what they see is what their dogs will get. Especially vulnerable are dogs who have food allergies or other sensitivities. Short of calling the company every time you buy a bag of food, how can you know that no changes have been made that may affect your dog?
We’ll be looking into this practice further in future issues.
–Editor
Why didn’t you include hypothyroid disease as a possible underlying cause of itching in your article, “Stop the Itch!” in the February issue?
My Akita went through a couple of years of almost constant skin infections. We’d get rid of each infection with antibiotics, only to have it come back again quickly. Her constant scratching and biting were tormenting for her after a while, and her sad eyes often reflected that. Her thyroid tests were coming back normal, but as I got more desperate I began researching on the Internet. Eventually it was determined that she did have the disease when she responded within weeks to treatment. She’s never had a skin infection or serious itching since.
One estimate says that more than 90 percent of Akitas will have the disease at some point in their lives. Some other breeds are especially prone to it, too.
I had to take the initiative with my vet by bringing her the information; she wouldn’t have treated her for the disease based on the tests. The results of treatment were truly amazing. If publishing this information could help even one owner and dog with this problem, that would be great.
For more information about hypothyroid disease and its diagnosis and treatment, go to the Delaware Valley Akita Rescue web site (www.dvakitarescue.org) and ask for the thyroid packet. Their postal address is PO Box 103, Carversville, PA 18913.
I’ve had a number of older owners book lessons with me lately—more than half a dozen individuals and couples in their 70s and even 80s, all wanting some training help with their new dogs or puppies.
