WDJ Training Editor Pat Miller wrote an article for the June issue of WDJ about unconventional or unintentional cues – things that people taught their dogs that are far from the ordinary sit, down, stay-sort of behaviors. In the article, she and other trainers describe how they taught their dogs things such as locating a pile of poop that needs to be picked up, standing in a certain place and a certain pose that’s convenient for grooming, and coming when it’s time to take a daily medication. My favorite was, “You’re not going!” – which is what Pat taught her Kelpie, Kai, to indicate he shouldn’t get excited about going for a car ride, because he’s not invited on that impending trip.
Pat asked readers to send in descriptions of the unconventional cues and behaviors they had taught their dogs. I’m going to post some over the next couple of weeks; we’re getting a lot, thanks! You guys are an unconventional bunch, apparently! And Pat will be selecting one – perhaps by random, because there are so many great ones to choose from! – to win a prize.
I’m going to share my own secret cue – which is a behavior many people teach their dogs, but is particularly useful to me. Many trainers teach their dogs “Look at me” so their dogs will watch them for the next cue. I use “Look here” with my dog, Otto, when I need him to look at me so I can get a good photo for the magazine!
Here are the first few submissions from readers:
Diana Liebich:
While reading WDJ in bed before going to sleep, my two dogs think this is a good time for pets and cuddling. I tell them, “Shhhh,” and they curl up and settle down.
I have a special spot in my heart for that one!
Julie Thomaa:
I just read the article on Unconventional or Unintentional Cues and would like to share a few I’ve used for my dogs.
1. I often teach my dogs, “Out!” after I had unintentionally gotten them to leave the room by yelling out. Now I teach it and generalize it to mean leave the room we are in at the moment. It’s very useful in the kitchen when they get under foot while I’m cooking. It’s especially useful when a glass breaks on the floor. I know they’ll leave immediately and don’t have to worry about paws stepping in glass.
2. When my Sheltie was recovering from a broken elbow- which couldn’t be casted, I had a lot of trouble with him anticipating being picked up. After a scary incident with the dog walker when he anticipated and jumped before she was ready, I put a command to it – “Up!” He learned over time to turn his rear toward me & wait for the “Up!” command to lift up for my arms.
I also use “out!” with my dogs at home. It’s also great for keeping a clean floor temporarily clean.
Candace Liddy:
Here are some words and phrases we use:
1) We live in the country and have a very large fenced area for the dogs but dirt, mud, and grass are normal after romps. However during the winter or when it rains, they can get pretty grungy. I have arthritis so cleaning up large dogs each time they come in was a chore. I laid several soft mats in the front hall and when the dogs come in dirty or wet we say “Muddy Dog ” and they promptly go lay on the mats. They stay on them until they are dry. We taught this by asking the dog to lay on the mats and giving them a treat. If they leave before they should we just put them back with no treat but still give the cue. Doesn’t take them long to figure it out. The time spent on the mat was lengthened until they can stay there indefinitely.
2) Our driveway is close to 300 feet long and the daily newspaper is tossed at the end in a plastic bag. Going up each day, in bad weather or winter was not fun, so we taught our latest dog to “Get the Paper.” We started with a newspaper in the plastic bag and rewarded him each time he put his nose on it. Then we went to actually having him hold it and finally tossing it on the floor with the cue. Eventually we could throw it far away and he would get it. Now he roars up the drive and roars back with the paper and loves his “job.”
3) When we leave the house and everyone is excited to possibly go along we say “Sorry” and they know this is not their trip and relax.
4) We also taught them to run to the front door and bark if we ask “Who’s here?”
5) Several of our dogs learned to bring groceries into the house after we had shopped. It started with their curiosity about what we had purchased and they would greet us at the car door and check out the bags. We started giving them something simple like a can or box and told them to “Take it in the kitchen.” They would follow us in and were asked to drop it on the floor and then we would go out and repeat with other items until all the groceries were inside. Now we just hand our dog an item and he runs right in and comes back for more. One of our past dogs, Zeke, was so terrific at this, we experimented with the kinds of things he would take in. He could grab a plastic gallon of milk by the handle very gently so as not to puncture it and take that in. Five-pound bags of potatoes, loaves of bread, and, yes, even meat packages were safely carried in!
We also use “enough” and “go lie down” all the time so it was fun to see others use those words too!
I may have to put “Who’s there?” into place at home, especially when I see solicitors approaching the door!
Jim Dilda:
Bessy, our first Bernese Mountain Dog, lived with us in an apartment at Ramstein Air Base, Germany. The woman in the end unit took meticulous care of the yard immediately adjacent to the building. Even if we “bagged” meticulously, we were alerted by our neighbors not to dare allow Bessy to poop anywhere near the building.
Sometimes it required a mad dash, but we taught her that she couldn’t stop until we had gone “All the way” to the edge of the yard, near the woods.
That cue stuck with us through moves to California and North Carolina, even when Bessy was off leash in her own backyard. If we said, “All the way,” she kept moving until she reached a safe area and we gave her the cue, “Find a spot,” at which time she took care of business.
Our current dog, Sadie, is the third Berner we have taught that cue. It’s especially helpful if we’re out in public – with or without a plastic bag – and need her to hold off until we can find someplace discreet.
Love it! Does anyone know if service-dog trainers teach some sort of cue for “you may not pee or poop now”? Or is that behavior just expected? I like the cue for “not here, not now, but over there is ok!”
We’ll be posting a lot more of these in the coming days. Remember, you have until June 15 to send us your description of a useful or fun unconventional or unintentional cue and behavior. Send to WDJEDitor@gmail.com.
We’re well into foxtail season in California. “Foxtails” are what people call any number of grasses that have bushy spikelets that look like a fox’s tail, but the most common culprit in my home state is Hordeum murinum. This grass is a ubiquitous volunteer in the rainy months, springing up anywhere and everywhere, including cracks in sidewalks, the edges of roads, alongside trails, and in pastures. It could even be called pretty, especially as it develops its distinctive, thick foxtail spikelets, and these turn a sun-brushed tan color as warm weather dries the grass and the state turns summer brown.
Even one single “foxtail” contains enough material to make a whole kennel full of dogs miserable. Each “tail” is made up of dozens of hard, pointed seeds, each trailing an individual filament that is studded from tip to tail with microscopic barbs set in the same direction. Anything touched by the filament pushes the filament in the direction of its pointed seed. Even when the grass is green and you pick a tender foxtail, you can feel the microscopic barbs; it’s like rubbing a rasp – your finger can slide along their length in only one direction. If you try to stroke them in the opposite direction, the filament catches, bends, and breaks. And when the plant dries out, the barbs become even stiffer and more resistant, and the “foxtail” starts to come apart, with every seed in the “tail” springing away if the plant is touched.
If you walk through dried foxtail grass wearing sneakers, you will quickly experience the problem; the sharp seeds get lodged in the fabric, and every step you take pushes the seed head deeper, through the fabric of your shoe, then your sock, and into your flesh (if you are able to ignore it and keep walking).
Dogs don’t wear sneakers, but they are prone to getting the seeds in their noses, ears, eyes, between their toes, in their vaginas, urethras – anywhere there is an opening. If the dog’s coat is matted or curly, the foxtails will enter the mat or curl, and then start to dig into the skin. The seed heads are so hard, they resist bacterial breakdown, even if they have managed to get imbedded under the dog’s skin. They can travel great distances in the dog’s body; you hear about foxtails that went into the skin between the dog’s toes, and weeks or months later, caused a pulmonary embolism when they emerged into a lung. But it doesn’t take weeks or even days to know when your dog has gotten one lodged in his eye, ear, or nose. The results are dramatic.
I pull up, by hand, as many of the plants on my property as I can, but there are far more than I can get each year. My husband and I also use a mower with a bag that catches most of the mowed grass, and that helps to reduce the number of dried foxtails that my dogs will have the opportunity to sniff up or sit on or roll around on. My husband didn’t always appreciate my near-hysterical objection to the use of his preferred tool, the weed-eater, but, with enough time, he observed the result – essentially, helping the foxtails broadcast themselves over a wider area. If I could, I’d take a flamethrower to each plant I see, but the only practical way to reduce their numbers is to carefully pull the plants up by hand, capturing each and every “foxtail,” and disposing of them (we have green waste cans that get hauled off by the city; people say they can resist composting, and I wouldn’t even try it).
My son spent a couple nights in town last week, before leaving his coonhound Cole to stay with me for a few days while he traveled with his team over the long weekend for his sport. On his second day in town, as we were standing in front of my house and I was introducing him to a friend who had stopped by, Cole managed to sniff a foxtail into his nose. Right in front of us. Within about three seconds of walking out the front door and sniffing. You generally know exactly when it happens; the dog sneezes repeatedly, violently, and then pauses, with his nose all twitching and crimpled on one side, or he starts rubbing it violently with a paw or front leg. Cole did all that.
I bid my friend a hasty farewell and called my vet; the clinic was jammed and I couldn’t get an appointment until the next day. So we ended up taking Cole to the urgent care clinic a town away. Time is of the essence with foxtails in the nose. Sometimes the seed can go in the nose, but travel just the right way so that it ends up being swallowed, no major harm done. That is, I HEAR that can happen; it’s never happened to a dog of mine! You also hear that the seed can travel in such a way as to enter the dog’s brain and kill him. Thankfully, that’s never happened to a dog of mine, either, because I rush them all to the vet when I hear that distinctive, violent sneezing.
While you can sometimes remove a foxtail from a dog’s ear or other body part with tactful restraint, noses are too sensitive and the “nasal turbinates” too complex to visualize simply. The vets administer a sedative, so the dog is completely unconscious before they try to insert a long otoscope into the dog’s nose. When they see the filament of a foxtail, they use forceps to grab and remove it. It can be tricky, because the “foxtail” can come apart and the vet may have to go in several times to get all the pieces. After the foxtail is removed, a reversal drug is given to the dog, and he can go home generally within an hour. The charge for Cole’s nasal foxtail removal: $400.
We were lucky. While we waited for our turn in the waiting area, another black dog came in with her owner, who said he was also there for a foxtail in his dog’s nose . . . for the third time in two weeks. Ouch.
Once in the exam room, the vet confirmed that she has seen practically nothing BUT dogs with foxtails for the past few weeks. Something about the heavy rain we got after years of drought, maybe.
This seems like the perfect time to remind people about the only thing I’m aware of that can keep foxtails out of a dog’s nose, ears, and eyes: the Outfox Field Guard – essentially a mesh bag that the dog wears over his head on walks or when out in his yard during the height of the foxtail season. Despite the funny look of the thing, dogs don’t seem to mind wearing them, and they can see, breathe, pant, drink, and even carry toys while wearing them. They can’t take treats, though, and the dog’s paws (and other body parts) are still vulnerable. But the grass awns can get into the most common and very sensitive parts of the dog’s body. See outfoxfordogs.com for purchasing info. Scenthounds like Cole may be best off rocking one all summer!
Wish us luck in getting through this summer with no further grass attacks.
As I mentioned last week, I’m fostering a very skinny Great Dane mama dog and her 11 puppies. After this litter is healthy and ready for spay/neuter and adoption, I’m going to take a little break from fostering for a while, even if I have to block the phone number of my local shelter. This is a lot more work than anything I’ve taken on before.
(I’m kidding about blocking the shelter’s number, of course. I couldn’t be more grateful for the very hard work they do for the animals in this community, year-round, whether they are exhausted or not, broke or not. The hard-working employees don’t slack off because they are tired of the animals’ needs, or because the animals have cost them a lot lately. I have a choice, and I feel privileged to be trusted and able to help when I can.)
This mama was picked up as a stray by a county animal control officer on a Monday. It was obvious mama had puppies somewhere, but where? On Friday, the shelter got a call from the person with all the puppies whose mother was missing. He saw her photo on the shelter website, and called to say that the shelter had his dog, but he didn’t want her OR the puppies, who were now – obviously – in a lot of distress. This is not out of the ordinary behavior, in my area. When I moved here, in the upper Sacramento Valley, about 10 years ago, it felt like I had moved back to the 1960s, at least in terms of typical dog-keeping practices. Spay/neuter rates are low, lots of dogs live outdoors (some on chains) 24/7, wandering/loose dogs are super common – and lots of people seemingly never think to go look for or recover their dogs from the shelter.
Anyway, the first week I had the mom and her puppies, she LOST five pounds, despite the fact that I had a high-quality kibble in front of her all day and night, and was feeding her about four cans of food a day, and letting her drink any puppy formula that I made that the puppies didn’t drink. And some of the puppies were doing way better than some of the other puppies. Two in particular refused to try any supplemental food of any kind, and weighed more than a pound less than their littermates. So I separated the six fat ones from the five skinny ones, and put the skinny ones with mama. She was far more able to feed five than 11, and has since gained back those five pounds and a few more.
One of the fat pups started to drop weight in the pen when he was cut off from Mama, so he went back to the skinny group. There is another puppy that is the fattest of the skinny ones, who I tried in the fat pup group, but he, too, started to sink, so now Mama is nursing six and still holding her own.
The fattest five are doing well and seem stable, so this week, I’m going to send them to a friend’s house. My good friend Leonora, who took on a litter of six tiny Chihuahua/terrier-mixes in November (and foster-failed the littlest one), and took half of the litter of the nine Cattle Dog/pit-mix puppies that I fostered in February, is going to take on the fat group for a few weeks. That will help immensely. Keeping not one but TWO puppy environments clean, and feeding two groups with very different appetites, is, as I said before, a lot of work. It would be one thing if I had a purpose-built environment for doing this – and maybe someday I will! – but my efforts are centered around exercise pens and a portable kennel and a lot of shavings; it’s not perfect by any means. But it’s not a damp concrete pen surrounded by barking dogs at the shelter, either.
It may sound nutty, but this week, the addition of one more dog lessens my stress, rather than adds to it. Cole, my grand-dog, is staying with me for a week while my son travels across the country for his sport. Cole has grown into such a lovely young adult dog, gentle and well-mannered – AND still young enough that he is willing to play with Woody, my now-six-month-old puppy. Neither of my eight-year-old dogs will play with Woody for even a minute, so Cole’s playfulness is a valued commodity. Plus, Cole is already teaching Woody when enough is enough, a terribly important thing for adolescent dogs who are going to mature into big, strong dogs to know and accept. He’s worth his weight in gold to me right now.
By the way, thanks for all your comments and discussion on the last blog, about pediatric spay/neuter and shelter adoption. As more than one person said, there is no single right answer to the pet overpopulation problem; I hope that the combined and different efforts of the people who care about such things and are working to help dogs will keep the tide turning until no so-called adoptable dogs are euthanized anywhere in this country, ever.
More than 70 percent of the 140 breeds recognized by the American Kennel Club recognize hypothyroidism as a major health concern. Below is a list, in order, of the top 30 breeds most affected, according to Michigan State University. Remember, however, that breed alone should not rule out hypothyroidism as a possible diagnosis. Dogs of all breeds can be affected.
On April 1, I was at the shelter, dealing with some paperwork aftermath of a bat encounter with my cat, when one of the front desk people asked me, “Are you going to take the puppies we got yesterday?” Keep in mind, the last of the nine cattle dog/pit-mix puppies I had fostered from about three weeks of age to 12 weeks had just gotten adopted. So I was like, “Naw, I think I’m going to take a little break.” But then of course I asked, “What kind are they?”
So I went to look at them, back in the isolation section of the shelter. It’s such a misnomer. It’s the most crowded, loud, stinky part of the shelter, because it’s where all the dogs from the unincorporated areas in my county are initially held when they are picked up as stray, or brought in as purported stray, or surrendered by their owners. Also held here are dogs from my town in identical situations, and dogs from two outlying Native American reservations. If they go some days (sometimes weeks) without being claimed, and they are judged as adoptable, and they have recovered from the inevitable kennel cough that is always present at the facility, in waxing and waning amounts, the lucky ones get moved into a second part of the building, the adoption kennels.
One look and of course I said I’d take the puppies: seven pups, about four weeks of age, that looked like German Shepherd/hound mixes, with maybe an Akita thrown in for good measure. Two had fluffy coats – a disaster in a shelter pen, where dogs and especially puppies are going to be wet for a good part of every day; there is no way to keep a crowded concrete kennel clean without hoses, and with seven pups in one pen, a certain amount of walking through each other’s poop and pee is expected.
We had some ups and downs. For the first week, the pups were really missing their mom, and didn’t want to eat anything I had to offer, and I offered them EVERYTHING: puppy formula of course, but also various types of canned food, soaked dry food, rehydrated dehydrated food, and tons of things from the fridge. My sister roasted a chicken and brought broth, and then rice she made with the broth, and the chicken itself. It took a while, and a lot of incredulous looks from my crew of dogs, who enjoyed a lot of rejected puppy food, but eventually they all started eating, and finally gaining weight, strength, and health. And they went back to the shelter, and were altered. Five were adopted within days – two to two different friends of a person who adopted one of my six foster pups from LAST summer!! – but I held two back from shelter placement, hoping to find homes for them with someone I knew personally.
I fell in love with these two, and had prospective homes for them: one with a friend who has a four-year-old daughter, and one with my trainer friend Sarah Richardson, who has an excellent training business (The Canine Connection) in the next town over from me.
As it turned out, neither home worked out, and both puppies found perfect homes anyway. My friend’s daughter, though she talks a lot about dogs, seemed indifferent to both the puppies and to my own friendly dogs. She meowed a lot, though; Dad, I think she’s trying to tell you something! And Sarah decided that now is not the time for a puppy. This past year, she’s lost two of her senior dogs, but felt an addition to her pack now is not right. Instead, she endorsed the puppies on her Facebook page, and within days, had found them both really amazing, perfect homes with former clients.
But her photos and discussion of the pups initiated one comment that jolted me – just as it has jolted me every time I’ve mentioned in this blog the pups that I’ve been fostering, pretty much nonstop since November. When I’ve discussed raising the pups until they are big enough and strong enough to return to the shelter for spay/neuter surgery, so they can be adopted, someone ALWAYS says, “What a shame they have to be altered so early, it’s so bad for their health.” Sometimes, the person adds, “Shame on WDJ for promoting this.”
Occasionally, I explain that this page is a blog post: a place where I can have personal discussions and ask for personal reflections and opinions from other dog owners. It’s not a Whole Dog Journal “article,” which would offer facts about practices like the pros and cons of pediatric spay/neuter. We did that article in the magazine in 2013: “Risks and Benefits to Spaying/Neutering Your Dog“.
My personal opinion is this: Yes, it’s absolutely healthier for any individual animal to be intact, not altered, particularly at such an early age. It’s not ideal. But neither is the fact that my shelter ends up with so many damn puppies in the first place. But state law (here in California, anyway) requires that all dogs and cats that are adopted from a shelter are altered. While some rescues might have the means to foster puppies until they are far older, my shelter is not. I am sort of it for my shelter’s ability to handle large litters of puppies (without losing any) at all.
People who have lost a dog to a certain cancer, or lost time/money/health to certain conditions that may be related to early spay/neuter, such as joint disease, or a CCL rupture, may well feel strongly that dogs not be altered early, or perhaps not at all. I sympathize with that stance. But as long as the incoming tide of puppies and dogs into my shelter is bigger and more relentless than the outgoing tide of adopted dogs and puppies, I will always adopt altered animals, and encourage anyone who isn’t in the market for a purpose-bred dog from a responsible breeder to save an altered shelter dog, instead.
Literally the day after my last foster pup’s adoption was finalized, I had a text from my shelter’s veterinary technician. “We have a starved Great Dane mom and her 11 puppies. Can you help?”
There’s a saying that is widely known among certain circles of competitive dog sport enthusiasts: “If judges made house calls, we’d all have obedience trial champions!” The phrase speaks to the challenging nature of getting a competition dog “ring ready” – that is, training to the point where he can perform successfully not just at home or at the local training center but also in unfamiliar, distracting locations common to dog show environments. The expression has been made a little less relevant, though, by the advent of “video titles.” Many dog sports enthusiasts have embraced technology and its ability to offer a variety of remote performance options, allowing dog and handler teams to demonstrate performance skills via video submissions rather than in-person at a dog show.
Nicole Vaughn
Today, dog-and-handler teams can earn video-based titles in rally obedience, freestyle, obedience, tricks, assorted training skills, and parkour.
Similar to participation requirements for traditional, in-person organizations, most video-based titling groups require handlers to register their dogs for a fee, plus pay an entry fee ($20 to $30) for each video entry to be judged. Some titles require multiple qualifying runs, while others can be earned after successfully demonstrating mastery of skills at a certain level.
Video-based performance opportunities offer a variety of benefits. They are ideal for dogs (and their handlers!) who enjoy training, but for whom demonstrating their knowledge in unfamiliar settings is difficult.
For some dogs, becoming “ring ready” is about learning to ignore myriad distractions in favor of the performance task at hand. For other dogs, the biggest challenge to ring readiness is tolerating unfamiliar people, places, and other dogs – working through emotional issues such as fear or aggression. Often, despite a handler’s best efforts, such dogs fail to progress to the point where they can comfortably (or, in some cases, safely) perform in a traditional dog show environment. In the past, these dogs would often be “washed out” by handlers. Dog-sports organizations that allow “video titles” enable these dogs and owners to continue working toward specific achievements.
Fan and Founder
“For me, it all started with my reactive dog,” says Jude Azaren of Willingboro, New Jersey, who founded Cyber Rally-O, one of the first video-based titling organizations, in 2011. “He was an adopted foster who was initially so sweet, but became aggressive.”
Rally obedience (often called Rally-O) competitions are similar to regular obedience, but instead of waiting for a judge to tell the competing team what to do, the handler directs her dog around a “course” that consists of 10 to 20 signs, each describing a specific behavior.
The signs typically include simple behaviors such as a sit/down/sit sequence, and heeling behaviors that require challenging food refusals, backward heeling, and assorted obedience “finishes,” which require the dog to move swiftly into heel position. Cyber Rally-O adds challenges not often seen in other venues, such as figure-eight jumps, sending the dog to jumps from a distance, and sequencing multiple jumps with retrieving.
So far, the organization has awarded an estimated 300 titles over five levels in two rally divisions, and recently added a separate dance division.
Like any organization sanctioning in-person events, each video-based organization sets its own rules. For example, Cyber Rally-O teams are allowed to use food rewards during a run, but only when the team is stationary, after completing one task and before moving to the next task. Visible food is not allowed; food must be hidden in the handler’s pocket until it can be given at the appropriate time, such as between exercises. If a handler feels safer using a long-line during a distance exercise, that’s fine, too.
While performance “traditionalists” might scoff at the idea of using food during a run, or at the need for a leash as a “safety net” for fearful and/or reactive dogs, Azaren says allowing the judicious use of such training tools is all about accessibility.
“What’s the difference?” asks Azaren. “If the dogs can do the behaviors, why shouldn’t they participate? They aren’t competing against each other, they’re competing against a standard, so let’s make it accessible for people.”
In the spirit of accessibility, Cyber Rally-O does not have required jump heights for elements requiring jumping. Handlers are free to set jumps as low as is needed for a dog to safely and comfortably execute the obstacle. If that means the dog can’t technically jump (such as participants using mobility carts), that’s fine, too; handlers can simply guide the dog through the jump uprights.
Nicole Vaughn
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Increasing Access
For many people who live in remote areas, traditional dog shows are inaccessible for practical reasons. Exhibitors often must travel long distances to attend in-person performance events, complete with overnight hotel stays, dining out, gas, and the occasional need for a pet sitter to check on other animals back home.
Laurie Graichen of Catawba, South Carolina used to travel up to three hours (one way) twice a month to attend agility trials with two of her Belgian Tervurens, Dillon and Bravo. After a company buy-out led to a 40 percent drop in her income, she had to do some serious re-budgeting, and travel to dog shows was one of the first things to go.
“I no longer have the luxury of an extra couple hundred dollars per weekend to trial,” she says. To stay active with her current dog, Extra, the pair has earned a novice and intermediate Trick Dog title with Do More With Your Dog, and she has plans to explore video-based rally, obedience, and parkour titles.
A Different Goal
Critics of video-based titles often say it’s “too easy” to earn a title in the comfort of your own home, specifically because it doesn’t require the same level of generalization or the ability to withstand the various pressures associated with performing successfully at an in-person event. While training to the standard typically required to attain success at in-person events is different from training behaviors that stand up in the privacy of one’s backyard, one goal need not be considered better than the other – they’re just different.
And, just because remote sport runs are videoed in the comfort of your own home or local training center doesn’t mean it’s a cake walk. Organizations that offer video titles for sports that require a sequence of behaviors (such as obedience, agility, rally, and freestyle) generally require video submissions to show the behaviors as a continuous sequence; most disallow editing that stitches together the best attempts from multiple tries.
Also, in agility, rules often stipulate that markers must show proper ring size and contact zones must be clearly visible. Many exhibitors say it can be difficult to find the best camera angles to appropriately demonstrate each required element; this technical challenge may be beyond the ability of some participants. And just because handlers are often working alone, doesn’t mean they don’t get nervous during performances. Just hitting the record button on the camera often introduces ring nerves!
“There’s a lot to be said for showing up to a trial where someone else has set up the ring, you do your one run and you go home, for better or for worse,” says Azaren. “With video trials, there’s added pressure. Often, you’ve rented training space for an hour and you need to set up the course, warm your dog up, and repeat the course however many times until you get every station correct. It’s a lot to do.”
Most people we spoke with support the idea of video-based entries as a way to encourage people to spend time with their dogs.
And that’s what it’s all about, says Azaren, who explains how one’s relationship with a dog often changes once the pair begins to explore dog sports.
“As close as I’ve always been with my pet dogs, when you have a dog who is also your teammate and partner, it’s just a whole new dimension, and it’s so much fun!”
Stephanie Colman is a writer and dog trainer in Los Angeles.
A friend sent me a message today and shared what I can only describe as a very personal struggle. I believe she chose to confide in me because she knows that I’m passionate about helping dogs and their humans live better lives together. But the situation she described was not even on my radar screen.
My friend and her husband had recently started their family. About a year ago she gave birth to their first child. Then, just three months ago, they were blessed with twins. Needless to say, my friend has her hands full. Prior to becoming pregnant, she and her husband had always considered their 8-year-old Catahoula-mix and her 12-year-old feline sidekick their kids.
They adored their pets. They were also proactive in researching how to properly and safely introduce their babies to their pets. They wanted to make it as stress-free as possible for everyone involved.
What they were not prepared for is how my friend’s postpartum hormones would make her feel toward their beloved dog and cat. As she describes it, “Every scratch, water slurp, and food crunch set my blood boiling, and I hated myself for it.” If the dog would sneeze or shake her head, it would invariably wake one or more of the babies, and this would invoke extreme anger in my friend.
In addition to the anger, she also felt crushing guilt and an overwhelming sadness; she knew it wasn’t the animals’ fault, and she knew they didn’t understand why she was acting differently toward them. She referred to them as “my first babies and ones who have been so loyal, despite my constant shoves to try to get them to leave me alone.”
What is Postpartum Depression?
According to the Centers for Disease Control, 11 to 20 percent of women who give birth each year have symptoms of postpartum depression. If a median percentage of the women responsible for the 4 million live births in the United States annually experienced PPD, it would amount to approximately 600,000 suffering moms each year in the United States alone. In addition to those who are formally diagnosed with PPD, every new mom experiences a lack of sleep and hormonal surges, which can affect how she reacts toward those around her.
One website with help for women with PPD describes the malady this way: “In addition to sadness, postpartum depression symptoms can also include anxiety, frustration, anger, and rage. You may have a tendency to be impatient, reactive, and volatile. You might have feelings of resentment or hatred toward your baby or other members of your household. These emotions are completely normal as a mother adjusts hormonally, mentally, and emotionally to the new demands of first-time or even fourth-time motherhood.” While the website does mention “other members of your household,” in my research I couldn’t find any references to pets.
As a trainer and behavior consultant, I am always ready to provide all sorts of helpful information and internet links on the subject of bringing home a new baby to meet the dog. But I can honestly say that I never considered the emotional and hormonal component of the new mom and how it would affect her relationship with her pets.
I am thankful that more and more women are willing to openly share their experiences with postpartum depression. We need to do a better job at considering every family member in the home when discussing this important topic. After reading my friend’s message, I wondered if this phenomenon contributes to the re-homing of a significant number of pets once couples add human children to their families.
I’m also grateful to my friend for bringing this subject to my attention. With this knowledge I can better inform and educate my clients in the future. Because of her bravery, many more women will understand that what they are feeling toward their cherished pets is normal and they aren’t alone.
To learn more about PPD, visit postpartum.net or call (800) 944-4PPD. And see the suggestions in the sidebar (right) for ways to immediately improve matters for you and your family pets at this trying time.
8 Ways to Improve Your Postpartum Depression (When Living with Pets)
The following are tips and ideas for moms who are experiencing PPD, and whose pets are adding to their stress or depression.
1. Reduce Pet Noise
Dog and cat ID tags are vital to pet safety; however, their constant jingling can be annoying. This is easy to fix. Products that keep tags quiet include neoprene pouches that contain the tags, keeping them quiet, such as the QuietSpot. Another alternative are tags that slide onto collars, rather than hanging on collar rings. Another good option are collars that have the owners’ phone numbers stitched into the fabric; these are are available from a number of companies, including Orvis and In the Company of Dogs.
2. Try Soothing Music
Classical music has been proven to be soothing for both infants and dogs. Try playing some in your house and you might even find that it has a calming effect on you, too. One example sold specifically for dogs is “Through a Dog’s Ear“.
3. Enlist Help
Most new moms have friends, family, and neighbors who offer to help in any way they can. Why not ask if they would be willing to walk your dog or play a game of fetch with her? Making sure your dog gets adequate (or extra) exercise will help everyone in the house live together more peacefully.
4. Two words: Dog Walker
Hiring a professional dog walker is another great option. It ensures your dog receives the attention and exercise she needs and gives you a break from having to manage every family member at once. (See “Finding a Reliable Dog Walker, ” WDJ March 2014.)
5. Two more: Dog Daycare!
Check to see if there is a reputable doggy daycare facility nearby. My recommendation would be to bring your dog there a few times prior to the baby’s arrival. These “trial runs” will show you if your dog enjoys and is not overwhelmed by this type of environment. Not all dogs are suitable or comfortable in this type of setting. But for those who are, it can be extremely beneficial to the whole family.
6. Include Your Dog in Activities
Be careful not to always exclude your pets when you spend time with the new baby. This could cause your pets to develop a negative association toward the child. Instead, provide a frozen, stuffed Kong or similar food toy for your dog while you tend to the baby in the same room. Making good and yummy stuff happen for the dog in the baby’s presence is always the best idea.
7. Make a Special Place for Your Dog
Start early, introducing your dog to a crate or exercise pen (x-pen) to create your dog’s own special suite where all her favorite toys and bedding are available. Make great things happen in this area by hiding and/or dropping surprise treats here randomly. She will happily go to her suite when you need to separate her from the baby.
8. Renew the Relationship with Your Dog
When you feel a bit more grounded in your daily routine with the new baby, try to renew your relationship with your dog by having a special “pup date” once every week or two. Take a walk, just the two of you (while the baby is being watched by a family member or friend). Toss her ball or flying disc in the backyard. Practice teaching her a simple trick like “Sit pretty” or “Spin” and reward her with her favorite treats. This can be a much-needed break from the baby for both you and your dog.
As you may know, because for months I’ve talked about almost nothing else, I’ve been on a puppy-fostering jag since November. My shelter has a hard time with keeping large litters of puppies clean, warm, dry, and healthy, particularly in the winter; I guess that’s true for many if not most shelters. So I’ve been taking on one litter after another, starting with my first-ever foster-fail pup Woody, who was one of nine puppies; then a litter of six Chihuahua/terrier-mixes, all boys; another litter of nine cattle dog/pit-mixes, all adorably freckled; and I’m at the tail end (no pun intended) of a litter of seven German Shepherd/hound/who-knows-what-mixes. Playing with and caring for the pups has been fun, challenging, messy, expensive, and interesting! But here is the latest thing I’ve been fascinated with: the people who come to adopt a puppy – and end up walking out, or at least trying to walk out, with two.
It’s happened every single time that I brought the pups to the shelter. As soon as the pups in a given litter were judged to be big enough, healthy enough, and socialized enough to be put up for adoption, and I brought them (tearfully) to the shelter, a parade of potential adopters came to meet and greet them. Not a single person walked in saying “I want to adopt two puppies!” – but almost everyone said, at some puppy-covered point, “Oh honey, should we get two?”
For some people it’s a joke – someone teasing his or her partner. For some, it’s a fleeting impulse, one that’s quickly banished by the reality of the size (and cost!) of the commitment. But some people jump in with both feet! They hadn’t considered it before, but by gosh, they have every reason to do so now.
My shelter doesn’t have a policy against such a thing, as much as I wish they did. Perhaps shelters in less economically challenged parts of the country are more selective about sending puppies out the door; here, they are happy to place two at once . . . even if I’m standing on the sidelines, wringing my hands.
My hand-wringing and dire predictions worked to dissuade adopters every time, until this last litter. I wasn’t there to cheerily let the owners know everything that could go wrong when adopting two, and guess what? The shelter put me in touch with the young couple with the five year old son who did adopt two pups. Of course, they are having trouble managing both puppies. I’m giving them lots of advice and encouragement – and begging them to stay open to the idea of returning one while they are still young enough to be relatively undamaged by time getting away with the sort of behaviors that lead many people to return pups as adolescents: a lack of housetraining, barking at novel things, and chasing, jumping up on, and biting the baby.
Why am I and so many trainers against this practice? The biggest reason is that puppies tend to bond more to each other than to their new human family members, making training and management much more difficult. It takes MORE than twice as much time to properly train two puppies than one (and few people take enough time to train even one!). Many dogs raised full-time with a sibling also develop crushing separation distress when they finally have to be separated.
What’s your opinion? Do you have problem-free sibling dogs? Or have you experienced all the bad things that, later, trainers told you would happen?
Chippy, our Toller, is a terrible food thief. (Of course, the use of the word terrible is one of perspective. Given his impressive success rate, Chippy would argue that he is actually a very good food thief). He’s an incredibly sweet-looking dog; just don’t turn your back on your toast. Or any delicious food! Chip has become so proficient at his food thievery that our dog friends all know to “keep eyes on Chippy” whenever we celebrate a birthday or have snacks after an evening of training. We are often reminded of the now-infamous “birthday cake incident” during which Chip and Grace, an equally talented Aussie friend, succeeded in reducing a section of cake to mere crumbs, no evidence to be found. Suffice it to say, we watch food in our house.
Like many other expert food thieves, Chip is quite careful in his pilfering decisions. He will steal only when we are not in the room or when we are being inattentive. The parsimonious (simplest) explanation of this is a behavioristic one: Chip learned early in life that he was more likely to be successful at taking forbidden tidbits when a human was not in the room, and more likely to be unsuccessful if someone was present and attentive to him. In other words, like many dogs who excel at food thievery, Chip learned what works!
However, while a behavioristic explanation covers most aspects of selective stealing behavior in dogs, a set of research studies conducted by cognitive scientists suggest that there may be a bit more going on here.
Do Dogs Have a “Theory of Mind”?
Many dog owners can attest to the fact that dogs will alter their behavior in response to whether a person is actively paying attention to them or is distracted. For example, in separate studies, dogs were more apt to steal a piece of food from an inattentive person, and would preferentially beg from an attentive person. (Cited references1,2)
One could explain this in very simple terms, based on well-established observations about how animals learn. For example, a dog could learn over time that human gaze and attentiveness reliably predict certain outcomes, such as positive interactions and opportunities to beg for food. Similarly, a lack of eye contact and attention might reliably predict opportunities to steal a tidbit (or two or five).
But it’s also possible that, just like humans, dogs use a person’s gaze to determine what that person does or does not know. This type of learning is considered to be a higher-level cognitive process because it requires “perspective-taking”- meaning that the dog is able to view a situation through the perspective of the human, and can then make decisions according to what that individual is aware of. The import of this type of thinking is that it reveals at least a rudimentary “theory of mind” – the ability to consider what another individual knows or may be thinking.
So, while it’s established that dogs are sensitive to the cues that human eye contact and gaze provide, it’s not clear whether they can use this information to determine what the person may or may not know.
Enter the cognitive scientists!
The Toy Study
Here’s one approach to teasing out “theory of mind” evidence: Researchers set up a scene that causes the test subjects to change their behavior based on the inferences they draw from watching another being, whose own view of the scene is limited. They wanted to see what a dog does when he can see that a human may or may not be able to see what the dog sees.
In 2009, Juliane Kaminski and her colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology set up a clever experiment (reference 3) in which they used a barrier that was transparent on one end and opaque on the other end. A dog and a human were positioned on opposite sides of the barrier, and two identical toys were placed on the same side of the barrier as the dog. The dog was then asked to “Fetch!” They found that the dogs preferred to retrieve the toy that both the dog and the person could see, over the toy that only the dog could see.
The results suggested that the dogs were aware that their owners could not know that there was a toy located out of their view, and so retrieved the toy that they (presumably) assumed that their owner was requesting.
An additional finding of this study was that the dogs were capable of this distinction only in the present, at the time that the owner’s view was blocked. When the researchers tested dogs’ ability to remember what the owner had been able to see in the past, such as a toy being placed in a certain location, the dogs failed at that task.
Food Thievery Study
Recently, the same researchers (reference 4) provided additional evidence that dogs are able to consider what a human can or cannot see. Twenty-eight dogs were tested regarding their tendency to obey a command to not touch a piece of food under various conditions; the variation had to do with the commanding human’s ability to see the food.
The testing took place in a darkened room that included two lamps, one of which was used to illuminate the experimenter and the second to illuminate a spot on the floor where food was placed. During the test conditions, the experimenter showed a piece of food to the dog and asked the dog to “leave it” while placing the food on the ground. The experimenter alternated her gaze between the dog and the food as she gradually moved away and sat down.
In two subsequent experiments using the same design, the experimenter left the room after placing the food, and the degrees of illumination were varied. For each experiment, four different conditions were tested, and the dog’s response with the food in each set of conditions was recorded. The conditions were:
1. Completely dark; both lamps off
2. Food illuminated, experimenter in the dark
3. Experimenter illuminated, food dark
4. Both food and experimenter illuminated
There were several illuminating results in this study (sorry, I could not resist this opportunity to make that pun):
1. Dogs steal in the dark.
When the experimenter stayed in the room, dogs were significantly more likely to steal the food when the entire room was in the dark. (They do have excellent noses, after all). If any part of the room was illuminated while the experimenter was present, the dogs were less likely to steal. Conversely, when the experimenter was not present, illumination made no difference at all and most of the dogs took the food. (Lights on or off; they did not care. It was time to party!)
2. Smart dog thieves work fast.
Within the set of dogs who always took the food, when the experimenter was present, they grabbed the tidbit significantly faster when it was in the dark, compared to when the food was illuminated. This result suggests that the dogs were aware that the experimenter could not see the food and so changed up their game a bit. (“I’ll just weasel on over to the food and snort it up, heh heh. She can’t see it and will never know. I am such a clever dog!”) Chippy would love these dogs.
3. It’s not seeing the human that matters, it’s what the human sees.
Collectively, the three experiments in the study showed that illumination around the human did not influence the dogs’ behavior, while illumination around the food did (when a person was present). This suggests that it is not just a person’s presence or attentiveness that becomes a cue whether or not to steal, but that dogs may also consider what they think we can or cannot see when making a decision about what to do.
Take Away Points
Without a doubt, gaze and eye contact are highly important to dogs. They use eye contact in various forms to communicate with us and with other animals. We know that many dogs naturally follow our gaze to distant objects (i.e., as a form of pointing) and that dogs will seek our eye contact when looking for a bit of help. And now we know that dogs, like humans and several other social species, can be aware of what a person may or may not be able to see and, on some level, are capable of taking that person’s perspective into consideration.
As a trainer and dog lover, I say, pretty cool stuff indeed. Chip, of course, knew all of this already.
Just One More Thing
I was excited about this research because these results continue to “push the peanut forward” regarding what we understand about our dogs’ behavior, cognition, and social lives. Learning that dogs may be capable of taking the perspective of others, at least in the present, adds to the ever-growing pile of evidence showing us that our dogs’ social lives are complex, rich, and vital to their welfare and life quality.
That said, because these studies had to do with dogs “behaving badly” – i.e., “stealing” food – I was a bit hesitant to write this article. These studies provide evidence that dogs have a lot more going on upstairs than some folks may wish to give them credit for. And as can happen with these things, evidence for one thing (understanding that a person cannot see a bit of food and so deciding to gulp it on down), may be inappropriately interpreted as evidence for another (“Oh! This must mean that dogs understand being ‘wrong!’). Well, no. It does not mean that at all.
If you have ever thought, “My dog knows he was wrong!” or “I trained him not to do that; he is just being willful!” or “He must be guilty; he is showing a guilty look!” – then I have a message for you: These studies show us that dogs understand what another individual may and may not know, based upon what that person can see. This is not the same, or even close to being the same, as showing that dogs understand the moral import or the “wrongness” of what they choose to do. Chippy knowing that I cannot see that piece of toast that he just pilfered is not the same as Chippy feeling badly that he took it. (For more on this, see “Debunking the Myth of the ‘Guilty Look,’ ” WDJ October 2015.)
The bottom line: These studies show us that dogs may be sneaky, but neither the studies nor the results say anything at all about whether the dogs feel guilt when they sneak a bite of food they’ve been told to leave alone.
Linda P. Case, MS, owns AutumnGold Consulting and Dog Training Center in Mahomet, Illinois. She is the author, most recently, of Beware the Straw Man (2015) and Dog Food Logic (2014), and many other books about dogs. Check out her blog at thesciencedog.wordpress.com.
Nature’s Variety was founded in 2001 by Bob Milligan, a Nebraska businessman with experience in pork production and pet food manufacturing. As indicated by the name, he founded the company on the principle that dogs (and cats) should be given a variety of dietary options, both in terms of ingredients (chicken, beef, lamb, pork, etc.) and in the very form of food they are given (kibble, canned, etc.). While many companies offer a dry and a canned form of their products, Milligan was ahead of the curve in adding frozen raw diets to the Nature’s Variety offerings from the get-go. To ensure that consumers were well educated about these unique products and the concept of “rotational feeding” – very new at the time – Nature’s Variety products were sold only in independent pet supply stores when they were introduced to the retail market in 2002.
The company has experienced continual growth since then, to the extent that a complete review of the company’s offerings is a monster of a task because of the sheer variety (sorry about the pun) and number of skus (stock-keeping units) offered by the company. And it’s not a sitting target! At press time, the company was announcing a number of changes to its lineups.
Nature’s Variety offers two distinctly different lines of food: Instinct and Prairie. True to the promise of “variety” present in the company’s name, each line offers several forms of food – which may include kibble, canned, raw frozen, dehydrated raw, and/or treats – that are all formulated in accordance with the precepts of that line.
INSTINCT
All of the products in all of the Nature’s Variety Instinct lines are grain-free and contain raw meats – some, more raw than others.
Raw Frozen Diets
Nature’s Variety’s frozen raw diets are the foundation of the Instinct line. Eight different formulas are available: beef, chicken, duck, lamb, rabbit, tuna, turkey, and venison. Three of the formulas (beef, lamb, turkey) contain protein from only the species of animal in the name. The rest contain various proteins from a second species: The chicken products also contain turkey heart and liver; the duck products also contain turkey heart, liver, and ground bone; the rabbit products also contain pork liver, heart, fat, and ground bone; the tuna products also contain chicken meat, ground bone, and liver; and the venison products also contain lamb ground bone, kidney, heart, and liver.)
All of these diets are comprised of 95 percent animal ingredients: named meats, organs, and ground bone. The rest is comprised of vegetables, fruit, and other foods, including pumpkin seeds, flaxseed, yeast culture, Montmorillonite clay (a natural source of trace minerals), salt, cod liver oil, dried kelp, and dried chicory root.
These foods do not contain vitamin/mineral premixes.
All of the products contain a minimum of 14 or 15 percent protein (depending on the formula) and a minimum of 8 or 9 percent fat on an as-fed basis. (See chart below.)
These frozen raw formulas are offered in four different forms: “raw bites” (grape-sized nuggets); “raw medallions” (1-ounce, coin-shaped); “raw patties” (8-ounce, hamburger-patty-shaped); and a 5-pound “chub” (a solid tube of food). All eight formulas are available in the raw patties; seven formulas are offered in “bite” form; six in the medallions; and only two in the chubs. The ingredients for each variety are the same, no matter the form it comes in; in other words, the Chicken variety has the same ingredients whether it’s in the bites, medallions, patties, or chub form.
Each of the formulas provides “complete and balanced” nutrition for dogs of all life stages. Each of the products carries the statement that they are “comparable in nutritional adequacy to a product which has been substantiated using AAFCO feeding tests.” This statement should alert the consumer that the product has qualified as “complete and balanced” by virtue of what’s known as the AAFCO “family rule.” For an explanation of the strengths and weaknesses of this qualification, see “Complete and Balanced Dog Food.”
Though it is under no obligation to disclose which product was actually subjected to feeding trials – the “lead product” – Nature’s Variety disclosed to WDJ that the company subjected its Raw Chicken diet to feeding trials between 2007 and 2010; that’s the lead product. The company’s other raw frozen diets have met the criteria for inclusion in that product’s “family.”
As of press time, complete nutrient analyses for these or the other Nature’s Variety products are not made available to consumers upon request, nor are they available on the company’s website, though, according to a company spokesperson, the company websites are undergoing a complete redesign and this information may well be available at some time.
All of the raw frozen products are made in Nature’s Variety’s own facility in Lincoln, Nebraska (a facility that I toured in 2005, and again, a decade later, in September 2015). After production, all of the Instinct raw frozen products are treated with high pressure processing (HPP) by Universal Pasteurization, also in Lincoln, Nebraska. HPP kills pathogenic bacteria that might be present in raw meats and renders this finished product free of any possible pathogens. (For more information about HPP, see “High Pressure Processing” in the April 2015 issue of WDJ.)
As Fed VS. Dry Matter
The percentages of protein, fat, etc., shown on a pet food label are expressed “as fed” – meaning, as the food is delivered in its package. Some percentage of the food is comprised of moisture (water), which of course contains no protein, fat, fiber, or any other nutrients. Kibble generally contains about 10 percent moisture; wet foods (canned, frozen, or fresh) contain as much as 80 percent or more moisture.
If you feed your dog in a manner as varied as the Nature’s Variety offerings, using some combination of kibble, canned, dehydrated, and frozen-raw foods, it’s important that you know how to compare the amounts of fat and protein in each form of the food, so you don’t radically overfeed or underfeed your dog.
Let’s compare, for example, the raw-frozen Instinct Chicken food with the Chicken variety of the Instinct Raw Boost dehydrated food. The frozen food says it contains 15% protein and 9% fat; the dehydrated food says it contains 32% protein and 24% fat. You might be tempted to think that the dehydrated food has a LOT more protein and fat in it, and that you’d better not feed very much of it – but that’s exactly wrong. Let’s take moisture out of the equation and compare the foods on a dry matter basis. To do so, you also need to look at the moisture content listed in the guaranteed analysis.
To calculate dry matter (DM) percentages of protein and fat, first determine the amount of dry matter in the food by subtracting the percentage of moisture from 100. The raw-frozen Instinct contains 67% water, leaving 33% dry matter. The dehydrated Instinct contains 6% moisture, leaving 93% dry matter.
Next, divide the “as fed” percentage of the nutrient you want to compare by the amount of dry matter in each product; this will give you the dry matter percentage of each.
PRODUCT
MOISTURE
DRY MATTER
“AS-FED” PROTEIN
“DRY MATTER” PROTEIN
“AS FED” FAT
“DRY MATTER” FAT
INSTINCT RAW FROZEN
67%
33%
15%
45%
9%
27%
INSTINCT DEHYDRATED
6%
97%
32%
34%
24%
25%
As it turns out, on a dry matter basis, the frozen diet has just a little more fat (27%)than the dehydrated version (25%) , but way more protein: 45% to the dehydrated version’s 34%. It’s a good idea to make these comparisons any time you feed foods of different forms, such as canned and kibble foods, too.
Freeeze-Dried Foods
Instinct’s raw-food offerings also include freeze-dried products. These offerings are much more limited than the raw-frozen line; only three complete and balanced formulas are made: beef, chicken, and lamb.
As with the raw frozen food, the chicken variety also contains turkey liver and turkey heart, and the beef and lamb varieties only contain protein from those animal species.
Comparing the freeze dried foods to the raw frozen foods is interesting; we assumed that Nature’s Variety simply freeze-dried the raw frozen products to make its freeze-dried food, but that’s not the case. Because they fall into a different moisture content category (the freeze-dried products are in the “less then 20 percent moisture” category, and the raw frozen products are in the “more than 65 percent moisture” category, the products cannot be considered in the same nutritional “family.” Therefore, they have to meet an AAFCO standard of their own, in this case, the AAFCO nutrient levels standard. And in order to meet that standard, added vitamins and minerals were needed.
The Instinct freeze-dried foods contain a lot of the same ingredients as their raw frozen counterparts, but in slightly different order. A vitamin/mineral pre-mix is added to these freeze-dried products. Some carb sources (like butternut squash) and an apparent higher percentage of non-animal ingredients appear in these products than in the raw-frozen ones. As a result, these products contain less protein and fat than the raw frozen diets, though you have to compare them on a “dry matter” basis to see this. (Read the “As Fed” sidebar again, to make sure you understand how to compare the protein and fat content of different forms of food.)
The Instinct freeze-dried diets (and their new incarnation, Raw Market Meal Blends) carry the AAFCO “nutrient levels” claim of nutritional adequacy for dogs of all life stages.
All of the Instinct freeze-dried products are mixed in Nature’s Variety’s own production facilities in Lincoln, Nebraska. They are then treated with HPP, and then sent to a freeze-drying facility in either Oregon or California.
Supplemental Products
Nature’s Variety makes a number of “Instinct Raw Boost” freeze-dried products that are not complete and balanced, but labeled as “for supplemental or intermittent feeding only.” The ingredients are very similar to those of the complete and balanced diets, without the addition of vitamin or mineral sources. These products include Instinct Raw Boost Munchies, Instinct Raw Boost Minis Treats (same as Munchies only smaller), and Instinct Raw Boost Mixers.
Raw Boost Kibble
This line consists of grain-free kibble with pieces of freeze-dried raw food mixed in the bag, a bit like Lucky Charms (human) cereal, only likely much healthier. The kibble in made at CJ Foods in Pawnee City, Nebraska; the bits of freeze-dried food (made as previously described) is mixed with the kibble and bagged at CJ Foods.
All of the foods in this line contain more than one source of animal protein. Nature’s Variety says these foods are comprised of 70 percent or more “animal ingredients and nutritious oils,” with the balance comprised of vegetables, fruit, herbs, vitamins, and minerals.
There are five “regular” adult foods: Beef (the formula includes protein from beef, turkey, whitefish, lamb, and Menhaden fish); Chicken (includes protein from chicken and turkey); Duck (includes duck, turkey, and salmon); Lamb (includes lamb, salmon, and whitefish); and Venison (includes venison, turkey, salmon, lamb, and whitefish). Then there are two small breed products (a chicken and a duck variety), a “toy” breed chicken variety, a puppy and a large breed puppy variety. All of the regular, small breed, and puppy varieties meet the AAFCO “nutrient levels” requirements for dogs of all life stages. There is also a variety meant for senior dogs that meets the AAFCO “nutrient levels” requirements for adult maintenance.
The Instinct Raw Boost kibble ranges from 32 to 38 percent protein and 12 to 21 percent fat, as fed. (The small breed varieties contain the least amount of fat.)
Kibble
There are several sub-sets of grain-free kibble products within the Instinct line. All the kibble are made at CJ Foods.
There are three varieties of Instinct Ultimate Protein Kibble. All three of these foods are complete and balanced as per the AAFCO “nutrient levels” requirements for dogs of all life stages. These products contain the highest amounts of protein of any of Nature’s Variety’s kibbled foods.
The Chicken variety contains fresh chicken (no chicken meal), as well as freeze-dried chicken, turkey, and turkey liver, and are labeled as containing a minimum of 47 percent protein and 17 percent fat on an as-fed basis. There is a similarly formulated “small breed” chicken variety with a minimum of 18 percent fat (as fed).
The Duck variety contains fresh duck, chicken, and eggs, as well as freeze-dried turkey, turkey liver and duck. This variety also is labeled as containing a minimum of 47 percent protein and 17 percent fat (as fed).
There are six products in the line of “regular” Instinct dry foods: Beef, Chicken, Chicken for Small Breeds, Duck, Rabbit, and Salmon. All contain more than one animal protein source, and range from a minimum of 33 to 38 percent protein and 15 to 20 percent fat (as fed).
There are five “Limited Ingredient” Kibble products. All of these foods are complete and balanced as per the AAFCO “nutrient levels” requirements for dogs of all life stages. Each contains just one source of animal protein. They are: Duck, Lamb, Rabbit, Turkey, and Turkey for Small Breeds. They range from a minimum of 22 to 32 percent protein and 13 to 18 percent fat on an as-fed basis.
The last Instinct kibble product is called Healthy Weight. Its animal protein sources include chicken meal, chicken, whitefish meal, Menhaden fish meal, and freeze-dried turkey, chicken, and turkey liver. It contains a minimum of 32 percent protein and 12 percent fat. It meets the AAFCO “nutrient levels” for adult maintenance.
Canned
There are nine “classic” foods in the Instinct canned line. Seven of these are formulated to meet the AAFCO nutrient levels requirements for dogs of all life stages: Beef, Chicken, Duck, Lamb, Rabbit, Salmon, and Venison. Two products are intended for small breeds and meet the requirements for “adult maintenance” only; these come in chicken and salmon varieties.
The foods are pâté-style or what industry folks call “loaf” products (as opposed to “stews”). Ninety-five percent of the ingredients in each of these foods are animal protein sources; the rest consists of vegetables, fruits, herbs, vitamins, and minerals. Consumers who read labels may be impressed by the inclusion of ingredients such as artichokes, cranberries, pumpkin, tomatoes, blueberries, broccoli, cabbage, kale, and parsley. While these ingredients are certainly nice, when they appear on the ingredients list after the vitamin and mineral supplements, you should be aware that they are present in miniscule, perhaps irrelevant quantities.
Very recently, these foods were reformulated, with most of them showing a small reduction in the amount of protein and a slightly larger (but still small) reduction in the amount of crude fat. For example, the Chicken variety went from 11 percent protein and 8 percent fat to 10 percent protein and 6.5 percent fat. The major ingredients appear to be the same, with very small changes in order of some of the lesser ingredients on the label.
There are five Instinct “limited ingredient” canned foods; these, too, are loaf-style foods. All of them are formulated to meet the AAFCO nutrient levels requirements for dogs of all life stages. These products contain protein from only one animal source apiece: Duck, Lamb, Pork, Rabbit, and Turkey.
The Instinct website indicates that the Turkey, Lamb, and Duck formulas have been slightly revised, but only the old and new ingredient lists are available for comparison; with only one guaranteed analysis panel appearing on the website as of press time for this issue – and no indication as to whether they are the old or the new GA – it’s unclear whether these foods, too, have seen a reduction in the amount of protein and fat they contain.
In our opinion, the advantage of feeding canned food to your dog is that you can purchase a complete and balanced diet that is mainly comprised of meat that is shelf-stable and that cannot contain live pathogenic bacteria, such as Salmonella or Listeria (as the heat of the canning process cooks the meat in the can and kills the bacteria). Therefore, it makes sense to look for canned foods such as the Instinct products that are mostly animal products and do not contain grain or other carbohydrate sources; if you want to feed them, these ingredients can be sourced in other forms (such as kibble, or even added as individual ingredients from your cupboard) much less expensively.
The Instinct canned products are made by Simmons Pet Food; Simmons has canned food production facilities in Kansas, Arkansas, New Jersey; and Ontario.
Bones and Bully Sticks
Nature’s Variety sold raw, frozen beef bones as part of its rotational lineup from the beginning of the company, but recently discontinued this offering.
Its bully sticks are made by Dakota Treats in Hawarden, Iowa.
PRAIRIE
Prairie is Nature’s Variety’s more conventional line of dog foods. These products do contain grains, and they cost less than the Instinct foods. This is how the company describes the Prairie foods on its website: “Prairie offers holistic foods that deliver optimal nourishment through a variety of simple, natural ingredients.”
Kibble
There are four Prairie kibble formulas: Beef, Chicken, Lamb, and Salmon. All four contain more than one animal protein source, and each ingredient list starts with a fresh, whole, named meat source. All four meet the AAFCO nutrient levels requirements for dogs of all life stages. Each is labeled as containing a minimum of 14 percent fat and from 23 percent to 27 percent protein (as fed). A vitamin/mineral premix has been added to each formula. The guaranteed analysis (GA) of each food contains nutrient levels for not only the macronutrients that are required to appear (protein, fat, fiber, moisture) but also micronutrients including vitamin E, and omega 3 and 6 fatty acids.
Like the Instinct dry foods, the Prairie dry foods are made by CJ Foods in Pawnee City, Nebraska.
Canned
Prairie’s canned foods were reformulated several years ago, and are now called Homestyle by Prairie. There are seven varieties, and each is a “stew” style food: Beef, Beef & Bison, Chicken, Lamb, Pork & Sweet Potato, Salmon, and Turkey & Duck. Only the chicken variety contains only one animal protein source. All of the foods are labeled as meeting the AAFCO nutrient levels for “growth and maintenance,” meaning they meet the standards for all life stages.
Homestyle by Prairie foods do contain carbohydrate sources, such as brown rice, sweet potatoes, barley, oats, oatmeal, and potato starch (any given product may contain two or three of those; none of the foods contain all of them!). It follows, then, that they also are lower in protein (ranging from 7.5 to 8 percent) and fat (from 4 to 5 percent), as fed, than the Instinct canned foods. They also cost less.
The Homestyle by Prairie foods list omega-3 and -6 fatty acid levels on the GA on the label. In addition, the prairiepetfood.com pages for the Homestyle by Prairie canned foods list a lot of extra nutrient levels on the GA.
Like the Instinct canned foods, the Homestyle by Prairie canned foods are made by Simmons Pet Food.
Biscuits
There are four varieties of baked biscuit-style treats that are sold under the Prairie name: Bacon & Apples, Chicken & Cheddar Cheese, Peanut Butter & Bananas, and Pumpkin & Cranberries. None of the varieties contain corn, wheat, soy, or artificial preservatives, color, or flavors. They contain 8 percent protein and 7 percent fat (as fed), except for the Chicken & Cheese variety, which contains 10 percent protein and 8 percent fat (as fed). The biscuits are made by Mountain Country Foods in Okeene, Oklahoma.
1. Nature’s Variety had revenue in 2015 of $126.7 million.
2. The company has two production facilities in Lincoln and three warehouse facilities, including frozen. In 2008, Catterton, an international private equity firm, invested in Nature’s Variety and CEO Reed Howlett came on board. In 2009, the company headquarters was moved from Nebraska to St. Louis, though manufacturing and warehouse operations remain in Lincoln.
3. Early on, NV formed an in-house “Nutrition Council” of experts within the company who meet to improve old products and develop new products. In 2011, Nature’s Variety added two outside members to that group, both of whom are well respected holistic veterinarians: Susan Wynn, DVM, CVA, CVCH, RH (AHG), of Georgia Veterinary Specialists, Atlanta, Georgia; and Lea Stogdale, DVM, Diplomate ACVIM Holistic and Integrative Medicine and Care, of Aesops Veterinary Care in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The Council meets a minimum of three times per year.
4. The NV foods are formulated with input from the Nutrition Council by Susy Tejayadi, Ph.D., Food Science; Ricardo Moura, Ph.D., Grain Science and Industry; and Jason Meents, B.Sc., Animal Science.
5. For years, Nature’s Variety had engaged in a number of smaller philanthropic and volunteer initiatives that supported its corporate mission, “empowering people to transform the lives of pets.” A number of these involved donations to or volunteer work at facilities that took care of homeless pets.
6. In 2014, the company began evaluating potential partners for a formal, nationwide program that focused on furthering the no-kill movement. NV initially reached out to Best Friends in the summer of 2014. After realizing the match between their organizational philosophies and cultures, NV began formally developing a partnership with Best Friends, culminating in Nature’s Variety Instinct being named Best Friends’ Official Pet Food Partner of 2015. In 2016 NV continued as Official Pet Food Partner and expanded the relationship to also provide food and treats for Best Friends’ NKLA (No-Kill Los Angeles) Pet Adoption Center and Spay/Neuter Center, both in Los Angeles; and Best Friends Adoption Center and its Spay/Neuter Clinics in Salt Lake City, part of NKUT (No-Kill Utah). And when it opens later this year, Instinct will also feed the dogs and cats at Best Friends’ new adoption center in New York City.
7. NV uses a “test and hold” program, and doesn’t release foods for sale until test results have indicated that each batch is free of Salmonella and other pathogens. And yet, in mid-2015, one of NV’s products was recalled for Salmonella. What happened? A company spokesperson answered, “The recalled lot was produced in our older facility, where we manufactured both pre- and post-HPP diets. In May of 2015, we entered a new, state-of-the-art facility to form our products post-HPP. It is possible that a cross contamination from pre-HPP product to post-HPP product occurred in the recalled lot. However, with the new facility our pre- and post-HPP products are segregated into separate buildings, providing an added assurance that potential cross-contamination cannot occur again. As a result of the recall, we have increased our sampling plan to be even more robust, strengthening our testing.
8. “As we understand more of the capability of HPP and the characteristics unique to Nature’s Variety raw materials and finished goods, we continue to challenge the current available research with new university-driven studies. The goal of these studies is finding ways to continue to use proven and possibly new technologies to provide the safest, highest quality raw diets in the industry.”
There are three ways that a pet food can earn the right to be labeled with an “AAFCO” statement that says the product is “complete and balanced.” AAFCO – the Association of American Feed Control Officials – does not test or regulate pet foods; it creates model regulations that may be adopted by states and acted on by state feed control officials. Nevertheless, the organization lends its name to the standards that are applied nationally. The three methods of substantiation are:
– Passing an AAFCO feeding trial
– Meeting the AAFCO Nutrient Profiles
– Resembling a product that passed an AAFCO feeding trial, also known as the “family rule”
Each of these methods has some merit and at least one deficiency in its ability to guarantee the nutritional adequacy of a pet food, so it’s good to know what standard your dog’s food met, and what it means!
Feeding Trial
Every aspect of an AAFCO feeding trial is meant to ensure that a food is capable of maintaining a population of a minimum number of dogs for a minimum period of time (26 weeks for a “maintenance” claim; 23 weeks for a “growth” claim). At a minimum, products that pass a feeding trial have at least demonstrated that they are palatable and digestible – its nutrients are adequately bioavailable – enough to keep a dog alive and well for the period of feeding trial.
However, these products are not required to be formulated to meet the Nutrient Profiles (the next standard), so it’s possible that they are deficient or excessive in some nutrients deemed essential.
Nutrient Profiles
AAFCO has developed a table of nutrients that dogs of different “life stages” need, in varying amounts. There is a table for “adult maintenance” and another for “growth and reproduction.” If a product is labeled as being for dogs of “all life stages,” it meets the standards for the life stage with higher nutritional requirements, the “growth and reproduction” standards.
Foods that have been labeled as complete and balanced by virtue of having nutrient levels within the parameters proscribed by the AAFCO Nutrient Profiles have demonstrated that they contain adequate but not excessive amounts of the nutrients that are essential to dogs of the life stage in question. But whether those nutrients are bioavailable, and the food is sufficiently palatable and digestible for the dogs who will be expected to eat it, is not addressed by this method.
Family Designation
The family designation indicates that the company subjected a “lead product” to an AAFCO feeding trial, and, once it passed, developed other products that are nutritionally similar to the one that passed the feeding trial.
There are a number of requirements for a product to be judged to adequately resemble the lead product:
– It must be of the same processing type as the lead product; its moisture content must fall within the same moisture content category (in the case of raw frozen diets, the category includes products with a moisture content of more than 65 percent).
– It must have within 7.5 percent of the lead product’s dry matter metabolizable energy (ME).
– It must meet the dry matter nutrient levels and ratios of the lead family product for crude protein, calcium, phosphorus, zinc, lysine, and thiamine.
– It must possess nutrient levels and ratios (for the nutrients in the AAFCO Nutrient Profiles) that meet or exceed the levels and ratios found in the lead product, and must not exceed the maximums established by the Nutrient Profiles.
Pet food companies strongly promote the idea that a “family member” product is every bit as good as the product that passed the feeding trial. But the fact is, since “feeding trial” products are not required to meet the AAFCO Nutrient Levels (and so, may have nutrient levels that do not meet the AAFCO Nutrient Levels), and “family” products (other than the lead product) have not themselves been tested in a feeding trial, we feel that the family designation is the weakest qualification of nutritional adequacy of all.
If a pet food company were to make a complete nutrient analysis of a typical batch of its product available to consumers, they could easily see whether a product labeled with a “family” designation would be able to meet the AAFCO Nutrient Levels qualifications, too. This would address at least that concern for educated consumers.
A couple of days ago, I received a text from a dog-training client, wondering about a video she had just watched—and which she linked in the text. “Is meat meal bad for dogs?” she asked. She followed that message with, “I get that she’s selling her own pet food, but is it (meat meal) that bad?”
