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New to Positive Dog Training?

By
Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA
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Please bear with me for a moment while I brag on Dubhy, our two-year-old Scottish Terrier. From the time we found him as a stray puppy at age six months, we have trained him using methods and management tools consistent with my positive training philosophies. He is the first of our canine family members to be trained completely with modern, non-coercive methods.

Last weekend, we put up a brand-new set of agility equipment in our backyard. As my husband was tightening the last bolt, I dashed into the house to get Dubhy, who has never seen an agility course. To my delight – but not surprise – he happily and willingly traversed even the most daunting of the obstacles on the first go-round. Well, the closed tunnel gave him pause for a moment. When he couldn’t see his way through the collapsed chute, he jumped on top of the barrel instead, and perched there happily, sending me a cheerful “Is this what you wanted?” query from his sparkling eyes. When I invited him off the barrel and opened the chute to show him the way through, that obstacle, too, was quickly conquered.

I’ve had other dogs who were just as smart as Dubhy, but until the feisty Scottie came along, I had not yet owned a dog that I trained completely without compulsion: No “ear pinches,” yanks on the collar, knees in the chest, stepped-on toes, or any other physical “corrections” whatsoever. And, oh! What a difference it can make.

Don’t get me wrong; I have not used coercive training techniques for more than 12 years. I was totally and completely converted to “positive-only” training techniques following a moral, professional crisis with another one of my dogs a dozen years ago. Since then, I’ve used only “dog-friendly” training methods with thousands of dogs and seen ample proof that these effective methods encourage and foster a strong, trusting bond between dogs and their owners.

However, until Dubhy, I had never so clearly seen the difference between a “crossover” dog – one who was initially trained with force-based methods and then switched to positive-only training – and a dog who had never experienced scary, hurtful, or force-based training. They are, as the saying goes, completely different animals.

Crossover consequences
Take, for example, Josie, the canine love of my life. The Terrier mix was a joyful and willing worker, and we accomplished a lot together, including titles in competitive obedience and Rally. Josie was also my first “crossover” dog; until she was three years old, I had trained her with conventional force-based methods. Josie prompted my conversion one day when she hid under the deck and unhappily refused to come out when she saw me getting out a set of retrieving dumbbells in preparation for a training session. (I had been working to teach her to retrieve using a conventional coercive training method, the ear-pinch.)

After this incident, I took a two-year time-out from training to learn about modern, positive methods that are grounded in the science of behavior and learning. Only then did I begin training Josie again. This time, I used only dog-friendly training methods, and she responded beautifully. Our accomplishments continued apace.

But throughout the rest of her life, Josie’s response to new training situations or requests was very different from Dubhy’s eager and creative volunteerism. The best way I can describe this is that when faced with something new, she waited to be shown what to do – as do many crossover dogs. My guess is that her fear or anxiety about doing the wrong thing was stronger than any impulse she might have had to try to guess what I wanted – even though, for the last 12 years of her life, she was never punished for doing the wrong thing.

In other words, faced with a unique training request, crossover dogs like Josie tend to do nothing, or offer a safe behavior that they already know.

Why positive methods work
In contrast, Dubhy and other dogs who were encouraged since infancy to “offer” novel behaviors in response to new training requests, joyfully go to work trying to solve the puzzle. The modern methods of training teach, foster, and capitalize on this initiative; the dog’s volunteerism is what makes it works so well.

In positive training, the goal is to help the dog do the right thing and then reward him for it, rather than punishing him for doing the wrong thing. If he makes a mistake, the behavior is ignored, or excused with an “Oops, try again!” to encourage the dog to do something else. Using “Oops!” as a “no-reward marker” teaches the dog that the behavior he just offered didn’t earn a reward, but another one will. So he tries again, and learns to keep trying until he gets it right, without fear of punishment.

In early training, he only needs to get it a “little bit right” to earn a Click! and reward; the goal is always to help the dog succeed, to keep him confident and willing to play the training game. In the beginning, for example, the dog is rewarded for walking in the general area of “heel” position, in order to learn to walk politely on his leash. If competition heeling is desired, this can be “shaped” later for more precision by clicking closer and closer approximations to “perfect” heel position. He learns where he needs to be to make good stuff happen through repetition or rewards, and volunteers to be there because he likes good stuff.

In contrast, force-based training teaches the dog to heel by administering a sharp jerk (pop) on the leash any time the dog steps out of heel position. He learns where he needs to be in order to avoid bad stuff through repetition of punishment, and stays in heel position because he doesn’t want to get hurt.

Both methods can teach dogs to be well-behaved. The force-trained dog learns to watch and read people, in large part in order to avoid the negative consequences that occur when he makes a mistake. The praise and rewards that sometimes follow a correction are rarely enough to overcome the learned caution of trying some new behavior that might be punished. The positive dog also learns to watch and read the humans around him, so that he can take advantage of opportunities to offer good behaviors that are likely to result in good stuff. He has no fear of offering behaviors, because he has no anticipation of a painful consequence.

Obedient but inhibited

Despite 12 years of positive training and relationship-building, I know that Josie would not have addressed the agility course with the aplomb that Dubhy demonstrated. She surely would not have hopped on top of a slippery barrel to see if that might be an alternative rewardable behavior. This is due at least in part, I believe, to their different personalities. Dubhy is sturdy and stalwart, and possesses the typical terrier “no-fear” attitude. Josie was soft, sensitive, and cautious.

I am also sure that Josie’s lack of confidence about trying new things was equally due to her early training experiences, when she learned that unasked-for behaviors often got punished, and that the safest course of action was to wait to be told or shown what to do.

Dubhy, on the other hand, has consistently been encouraged and rewarded for offering behaviors. Give him a new object, and he immediately sets to work trying to figure out what he is supposed to do with it. Give him a whole agility course, and he immediately tries to figure out what he is supposed to do with each of the various pieces of equipment.

Crossover history
Of course, I’m not the only one who has witnessed the vast differences between crossover dogs and those started from scratch with positive training.

The phrase “crossover dog” was actually coined in the 1990s as a result of the large influx of trainers who found themselves switching over from old-fashioned methods to more positive training. In her landmark book, Don’t Shoot the Dog, former marine mammal trainer Karen Pryor introduced the dog-training world to the exquisite method of positive training known as clicker training. As dog trainers learned about the effectiveness of the techniques, many of them, too, “crossed over” to positive training methods. As Pryor has said, “In the early 90s, I could count the number of clicker trainers on one hand. Now there are thousands of us!”

Crossing with your dog
As trainers cross over – professional and average dog owners alike – they encounter the challenge of teaching their crossover dogs a whole new approach to training. The phenomenon that I observed with Josie – her reluctance to freely offer new behaviors – is often discussed among professional positive trainers. We asked several well-known trainers to share their thoughts on the challenges of working with crossover dogs – and humans. Here’s what they said.

DEBORAH A. JONES, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Psychology,
Kent State University, Ohio
Deb Jones is a college professor, author, producer of the excellent Click and Go video series, and a positive dog trainer. Her first performance dog was an adult rescue Labrador Retriever. Katie came to Dr. Jones with the pejorative label of “stubborn.” Fortunately for the dog, Jones understood that Katie had simply learned to tune out and withstand unpleasant training techniques by shutting down and doing nothing.

In Jones’ hands (and with clicker training), Katie’s whole attitude and demeanor changed; she competed happily and successfully in obedience, and became a fantastic therapy dog.

Jones agrees that the differences between crossover dogs and positive-trained dogs are easy to see. “Usually, crossover dogs have learned from their training that ‘when in doubt, it’s best to do nothing.’ If they have been punished for making mistakes in the past, they have learned the concept that trying new things gets them in trouble.

“Dogs who have been exposed only to positive methods, however, are willing and eager to try new things. They are active in the training process, rather than waiting for explicit instructions. They also tend to be creative, which is a great asset when trying to shape or capture new behaviors.”

Jones estimates that 95 percent of her human and canine clients are crossovers, and that people are eager to find ways to train that don’t involve force and compulsion. While Jones herself never used old-fashioned methods, she watches her human clients struggle with crossing over, in part because old habits are hard to break, but also because they had accepted the old myth that effective dog training requires the use of force, compulsion, and intimidation. “But as soon as they see that there is another way,” she says, “most are very willing to give it a try, and are happy with the results.”

JEAN DONALDSON
Founder/Instructor, The San Francisco
SPCA Academy for Dog Trainers
Jean Donaldson is the author of the highly regarded book, The Culture Clash, as well as Dogs Are From Neptune, and MINE!, A Guide to Resource Guarding in Dogs. She lectures extensively in the U.S., Canada, and abroad.

Donaldson agrees that crossover dogs are generally less willing to take risks, and suggests that they can even display “learned helplessness.” This is characterized by apathy, immobility, and nonresponse to stimuli in cases where the dog cannot avoid – or does not know how to avoid – the aversive (punishment) that is applied by the trainer. “So,” she says, “when the trainer crosses over, a training session has a great deal of baggage and it may take time for the dog to learn that aversives are no longer forthcoming.”

She sees fallout even in dogs trained with lots of luring and physical prompts (as opposed to free-shaping – waiting for the dog to perform a behavior and then click-rewarding it). Donaldson also suggests that these dogs may be less willing to offer behavior, as the lured and prompted dog has learned to wait for the trainer to show him what the answer is, rather than offering behaviors to figure it out himself.

Contemplating the crossover question, Donaldson muses, “Isn’t it hard to imagine how anyone in 2002 has not crossed over, given the track record of positive reinforcement training, and readily available information on it?”

LESLIE NELSON
Tails-U-Win! Canine Center,
Tolland, Connecticut
Leslie Nelson was one of the early icons in positive training, and continues to supervise more than 50 classes a week as director of her Tails-U-Win! training center. She feels that dogs adjust more easily to crossing over than many humans do, and recalls her own crossing-over struggle. “I can remember well, many years ago, when I made the decision to switch to all positive training,” she says. “In the beginning I had to work totally without a leash [in order to resist making leash corrections]. Old habits die hard.”

Nelson finds that most crossover dogs respond enthusiastically to positive training, although they can have some difficulty with pure clicker training and shaping, and may find the new approach stressful at first.

“They can be very reluctant to offer new behaviors for fear of being wrong,” says Nelson. “Fortunately,” she adds, “positive reinforcement training offers a variety of choices and can be adapted to meet the needs of each dog. Crossover dogs can be very successful when trained using a combination of luring (using a treat to get the dog to offer the behavior), targeting (teaching the dog to touch his nose to a designated target), and modeling (using gentle physical assistance to help the dog into the desired position).”

KAREN OVERALL, MA, VMD, Ph.D., ABS
Certified Animal Behaviorist,
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
Dr. Overall is an internationally renowned researcher, author, speaker, and behaviorist whose best-selling textbook, Clinical Behavioral Medicine for Small Animals, is a bible for trainers who do behavior work.

True to her academic background, Overall was reluctant to speculate without solid research to back up her opinions. She offered that because dogs learn so well from context, they probably cope better with crossing over than most humans do.

According to Overall, dogs rely so much on nonverbal signaling (body language) and olfactory communication (sense of smell) that we can’t lie to them easily. Thus, when we humans truly commit to positive training, our whole nonviolent message is clearly communicated to our dogs.

Because, however, as Nelson says, “Old habits die hard,” we sometimes send mixed messages, when we inadvertently or deliberately revert to using punishment-based methods that worked for us before.

Overall suggests that dogs closer to the edge – more uncertain, anxious, roughly-handled dogs – will have more difficulty with crossing over. She says, “It likely all comes down to how well the dog can read the rules, and how damaged they are. The longer I go on, the more I am convinced that ‘normal’ is defined by how well you recover.”

Patience begets progress
The trainers we interviewed all seemed to agree (as do we) that punishment-based training causes damage (mental if not always physical) and that crossover dogs must recover from that damage as part of the crossing-over process. The degree of success in that recovery varies depending on a number of factors including the dog’s personality, the amount of damage done, and the skill and consistency the owner/trainer demonstrates in her commitment to and application of positive methods.

Dr. Jones offers some final words of wisdom for humans who embark on the crossover journey.

“Be patient,” she counsels. “Your dog has to unlearn old information before he can completely participate in your new way of training. Progress should occur on the dog’s timetable, not yours. Let him discover that trying new things is reinforced, not punished. Let go of the idea that you control the training process, and let your dog be an active participant.”

A year ago, my husband and I said heart -wrenching goodbyes to my first crossover dog, Josie, when she let us know that her 15-year-old body was too tired to carry on in this world. I am eternally grateful to her for showing me the way to be a more compassionate trainer and human. And I will always regret the three years of measured punishment I inflicted on her, using the methods I had been taught before I learned a better way. If I could change just one thing in my life, I would take back those three years of collar corrections, verbal aversives, and ear pinches that I imposed on my beloved dog, before she taught me a better way. I can see Josie in my mind’s eye even now, running the agility course in our backyard next to Dubhy, sharing his joy, confidence, and faith in a positive world.

Symptoms of Addison’s Disease

By
Nancy Kerns
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by Shannon Wilkinson

In June 1999, Booker, our 10½- month-old Great Dane collapsed, again. Just four days previously, he was diagnosed with kidney disease. Hospitalization and fluids helped him immensely after that first collapse. He even had started eating again. What could be wrong now?

We took him back to the vet. This time, Booker was so weak he couldn’t get up from the waiting room floor. The vet examined him there, but had no immediate answers. He asked us to leave Booker overnight for more tests and IVs. Reluctantly, we did.

Later that day the vet called with good news and bad news. The good news was that in consultation with specialists, he identified the problem as Addison’s disease, an imminently treatable condition. And, the bad news? Addison’s disease is a chronic health problem that will require a lifetime of management, including expensive medication and regular blood tests.

Addison’s disease is the common name for hypoadrenocorticism, or adrenal insufficiency. The adrenal glands do not produce enough, if any, of a number of hormones, including aldosterone, which maintains sodium and potassium levels to regulate blood pressure (among other important functions), and cortisol, which helps the body metabolize glucose and deal effectively with physical and mental stresses of all kinds. It can occur with people as well as animals.

The two adrenal glands are located on top of each kidney, and are sometimes called the suprarenal glands. They are made up of two layers, the outer cortex and the inner medulla. The cortex secretes glucocorticoids, such as cortisol, and mineralocorticoids, such as aldosterone. The medulla area of the adrenal gland, part of the sympathetic nervous system, secretes epinephrine and is generally not affected by Addison’s.

There are three types of Addison’s disease: primary, secondary, and atypical. Primary and atypical Addison’s are usually the result of immune-mediated damage to the glands. Secondary hypoadrenocorticism is failure of the pituitary to stimulate the adrenals with adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH). It is most often a result of long-term corticosteroid therapy (i.e., prednisone), and also can be caused by tumors, trauma, or pituitary deformities.

Who gets Addison’s?
Research shows that some breeds are more likely to have Addison’s disease compared to other breeds. For instance, one study shows that West Highland White Terriers are six times and Great Danes seven times more likely to be affected by Addison’s compared to all other breeds.

Another study indicates that Standard Poodles are nearly nine times, Wheaton Terriers nearly seven times, and Portuguese Water Dogs over 46 times more likely to be affected than other breeds.

The same studies also determined that Dalmatians, Pit Bull Terriers, Golden Retrievers, and a handful of other breeds are less likely to develop Addison’s compared to all other breeds.

At the University of California, Davis, Professor Anita Oberbauer, Ph.D., is conducting research to determine if there is a genetic component to the disease, as indicated by the breed statistics. Information is being collected for Bearded Collies, Standard Poodles, Leonbergers, and Portuguese Water Dogs. According to Dr. Oberbauer, “The data we have for the Beardies suggest a polygenic mode of inheritance without a confirmed major gene present.” The data for the Standard Poodles also suggest a polygenic mode of inheritance but, “with a single locus/gene of large effect.” However, she qualifies that they aren’t aware of definitive breeding of affected Poodle to affected Poodle, as a result there are not yet any data to show that it is indeed a single gene.

Interestingly, some studies have found that 70 to 85 percent of dogs with Addison’s disease are female, and that the dogs affected are most often between four and seven years old. However, Addison’s disease should be suspected any time the classic symptoms are seen, regardless of the dog’s age or sex.

Symptoms
One of the difficulties of properly diagnosing Addison’s disease is the common waxing and waning of symptoms. Karen Ivin, DVM, says that she always considers testing for Addison’s disease with dogs who “have their ups and downs. When they aren’t quite right, but aren’t all the way sick either.”

Dr. Ivin has a small, housecall-oriented holistic practice in Gilbert, Arizona. Although Addison’s is often described as “rare,” she is treating several dogs with Addison’s disease, and has always had a couple among her clientele at any given time. She thinks that any vet who doesn’t have at least a couple of dogs with Addison’s in their practice just isn’t seeing it. According to the pharmaceutical company Novartis, “a typical practice with two veterinarians who each see 1,500 dogs per year should expect to diagnose one case of adrenal insufficiency each year on average.”

Symptoms can be subtle and often mimic those common to many other diseases. Typical symptoms include: depression or lethargy; anorexia; weight loss; vomiting; shaking or trembling; weakness; and diarrhea. Often the dog may experience episodes, such as vomiting or weakness, that resolve with fluids or perhaps even a dose of steroids. Unfortunately, the symptoms usually return.

This was our experience with Tyler, our second dog. We adopted Tyler, a Boxer, in June 2001, at eight months old. He was extremely thin and had regular bouts of diarrhea. After a stay with caregivers over Thanksgiving in 2001, he developed bloody diarrhea. Because of our experience with Booker we had Tyler tested for Addison’s disease. Good news, his results were negative. Three months later, though, after Tyler vomited four times in two days, we had him tested him again. This time, the results were positive for atypical Addison’s. Note that neither of our Addisonian dogs were female or between four and seven years old at the time of the onset of the disease!

Diagnosing Addison’s
Both dogs’ diagnoses of Addison’s disease were confirmed by the only definitive diagnostic tool, the ACTH response or stimulation test. In this test, blood is drawn to determine baseline cortisol levels. The animal is injected with ACTH. After approximately one hour, blood is drawn again to measure cortisol levels.

A dog with healthy, normal adrenal glands will have a baseline cortisol reading of between 1- 4 micrograms/deciliter. The cortisol level should be significantly higher, in the range of 6 – 20 micrograms/deciliter, post-stimulation. If resting cortisol is low and the dog has no or a low response to the stimulation, the diagnosis is Addison’s disease.

Certain values on blood test results also may indicate Addison’s as a possibility. This includes elevated potassium (hyperkalemia), low sodium (hyponatremia), low sodium to potassium ratio (Na/K), anemia, azotemia or uremia (high levels of nitrogen), eosinophilia (elevation in white blood cells called eosinophils), lymphocytosis (elevation in white blood cells called lymphocytes), elevated liver enzymes (ALT/AST), and urine specific gravity less than 1.030.

Conventional treatment
The conventional treatment for Addison’s, like hypothyroidism or diabetes, is to replace the missing hormones. With primary Addison’s disease, both mineralocorticoids and glucocorticoids must be replaced. Atypical and secondary Addison’s require replacing only the glucocorticoid.

There are two medications available for the replacement of the mineralocorticoid, aldosterone, and both of these medications help the body keep sodium and potassium at normal levels. The first, fludrocortisone acetate (brand name Florinef™), is given orally on a daily basis. The other option is desoxycorticosterone pivilate or DOCP (Percorten-V™), an injectable medication that is usually given every 25 – 28 days.

Fludrocortisone acetate or Florinef is the mineralocorticoid of choice for people with Addison’s disease. Most people take one-half to two 0.1 mg tablets per day. However dogs don’t metabolize the medication as efficiently and must start with doses of 0.05 – 0.1 mg of fludrocortisone per ten pounds of body weight. Some dogs require higher doses to regulate their electrolyte levels.

Florinef purchased from conventional pharmacies ranges in price from about 50 cents per 0.1 mg tablet to close to a dollar per tablet. A 50-pound dog would require approximately five of the 0.1 mg tablets at a cost of $75 to $150 per month. However, there are lower-cost alternatives for fludrocortisone.

Pet Pharm, an Internet veterinary pharmacy based in Ontario, charges about $35 Canadian for 100 tablets of Florinef. At the recent exchange rate, the cost in US dollars is less than $23 per 100 tablets. At this price, medication for a 50-pound dog would cost about $35 per month. While this makes Florinef much more affordable, if you have a large dog, you still contend with dosing multiple small tablets daily. (For more information about reducing the price of long-term medications, see “The Price of Prescriptions,” WDJ September 2002.)

An alternative to purchasing the name brand tablets is to have the prescription customized into capsules, liquids, or flavored chews by a compounding pharmacist. Besides convenience, compounded medication can be significantly less expensive than its brand name equivalent. One compounding pharmacy, Tiffany Natural Pharmacy in Westfield, New Jersey, charges about $45 for 100 0.5 mg capsules. That equates to just $13.50 a month to treat a 50-pound dog with just one capsule per day.

There are fewer purchasing options for Percorten-V, the injectable medication used only for animals with Addison’s. Many guardians take their dog in for his or her monthly Percorten injection, allowing the vet to test the dog’s electrolytes if necessary, check for any weight changes, and monitor the dog’s overall health and demeanor.

After time, though, the guardian may want to give the injection at home. This not only might save some expense, but may also decrease stress. Novartis, the maker of Percorten, recommends intramuscular injections because that was the method used during the FDA approval process. However, a subsequent study published in the Journal of American Animal Hospital Association found that easier to give subcutaneous injections are just as effective.

Like Florinef, the dosage of Percorten is weight-dependent. The standard dose is 1 mg per pound of body weight. The medication comes in 4 ml bottles and there are 25 mg of the medication in each ml. Therefore, a 50-pound dog would require 50 mg or 2 ml of Percorten.

Percorten is available only from veterinarians and veterinary pharmacies. Prices vary widely, depending on the clinic or pharmacy markup. When Booker was originally diagnosed, we were charged $60 for the first ml and $40 for each ml thereafter. That would make the monthly injection for the 50-pound dog cost about $100. However, I soon learned that the price included a greater than 100 percent markup.

We negotiated the price with our vet by pointing out that a dog with Addison’s requires regular bloodwork and office visits in addition to the medication. (Dog owners may be unable to purchase Percorten from Internet pharmacies, even with their veterinarian’s prescription, as they can with many other long-term medications. See sidebar, lower left.)

Amy Rogers’ Rottweiler, Venus, was diagnosed with Addison’s recently. Initially, her vet started Venus on Percorten injections and didn’t even discuss the option of oral medication. However, Amy has recently switched Venus, under the watchful eye of her vet, from the injections to compounded fludrocortisone. This change will save Rogers about $80 per month.

In addition to replacing the mineralocorticoids, dogs with Addison’s disease need the glucocorticoid, cortisol, replaced as well. About 50 percent of dogs require daily glucocorticoid supplementation, while all dogs with Addison’s require glucocorticoid supplementation in times of stress.

Stress is individual. It can come in many forms – physical or emotional, good or bad. For instance, some dogs may require extra glucocorticoids for a visit to the vet, while other dogs may need them because of an extra long play session. While it is important to observe all dogs with Addison’s closely, knowing each individual dog’s stressors is crucial.

There are a number of glucocorticoids available to replace the cortisol that the adrenals are no longer producing. Most vets recommend using prednisone, while most people with Addison’s take hydrocortisone. The other glucocorticoids used include prednisolone, methylprednisolone, and dexamethasone. These all tend to be inexpensive medications.

You many recognize prednisone as the steroid frequently prescribed for allergic reactions, skin problems, or autoimmune conditions. However, its use with the Addisonian patient is at far smaller physiological doses, rather than the therapeutic doses often used for anti-inflammatory and other situations. The typical recommended dosage of prednisone is 0.1 – 0.2 mg per pound per day. That is 5 – 10 mg per day for a 50-pound dog.

However, many people find that on these doses their dog with Addison’s shows undesirable symptoms such as excessive drinking and urination, increased appetite, infections, even behavioral changes. Because these dogs will be on medications for the rest of their lives, it is important to fine-tune the dosages to maximize benefits, while minimizing unwanted side effects.

If a dog suffers from side effects of prednisone, it might be worth trying hydrocortisone instead. That’s what I found with Booker. He was on 15 mg of prednisone every other day. Yet he was unable to go more than four hours without urinating, was having recurring skin infections, and was balding on his face, chest, legs, and abdomen. After switching to hydrocortisone under the care of our vet, his dose was reduced significantly and these problems went away.

Of course, any of these medications require a prescription from your primary veterinarian. It is important, particularly with Addison’s disease, that your dog is monitored closely through observation and blood tests. Always work with your vet when exploring changes in medications.

Complementary therapies
According to most experts, there is no replacement for the conventional medications required to treat Addison’s disease. However many believe that the quality of life can be improved and medications even reduced by using various supplements, improving the dog’s diet, and incorporating complementary modalities such as acupuncture and TTouch.

Booker is a perfect example of how complementary therapies can enhance conventional treatment. Months after diagnosis, Booker was clinically stable with excellent blood test results, but he was still experiencing a number of problems, such as digestion issues, skin problems, and low energy levels.

After incorporating a variety of complementary therapies including Western and Chinese herbs, TTouch, acupuncture, supplements, and a raw, whole food diet, his digestion is greatly improved and his energy level is higher than as a puppy. In addition, his medications have been reduced significantly. At the time of switching him to hydrocortisone, he was taking 30 mg per day. He now takes 7.5 mg per day. He also was receiving 6.4 ml of Percorten-V every four weeks. This has been reduced over 65 percent to 3.2 ml every six weeks.

Many vets agree that diet is the key to a foundation of health for any dog. Before focusing his efforts on diet, Ian Billinghurst, BVSc, studied acupuncture and met with herbalists and homeopaths trying to determine what has the greatest impact on the health of our dogs. He learned that without a good diet, therapies such as acupuncture and homeopathy won’t work properly.

Gloria Dodd, DVM, agrees. She believes that diet accounts for 70 percent of the treatment for an ill dog and this is the first change she encourages clients to make. Both Billinghurst and Dodd are proponents of a raw, fresh, whole foods diet designed for carnivores.

While Dr. Ivin recognizes the importance of diet in the overall health and treatment of an animal, she doesn’t believe it has to be raw, or even home-cooked. However, the commercial food must be of top quality.

One of the most frequently recommended complementary treatments for Addison’s is also one of its original treatments: glandular supplementation. Before the discovery of cortisol, and later its synthetic analogs cortisone and prednisone, patients with Addison’s disease were given ground-up or extract of adrenal gland. Now the process has evolved and a number of companies, such as Standard Process and Nutriwest, manufacture glandular products in tablet or capsule form.

“The addition of glandulars may sometimes help reduce the medication levels of my patients,” says Dr. Ivin, “but they nearly always improve how the dog feels on a day-to-day basis.” She says they help reduce fluctuations in the disease process, help keep the dogs stable, and decrease deterioration as they age.

Various herbs may be beneficial, including nutritive herbs that supply vitamins and minerals necessary for adrenal functions, such as dried nettle, dandelion, parsley, and spirulina; those that support adrenal function, like licorice and borage; those that help the liver, like milk thistle; and those that reduce the impact of stress, such as astragulus and ginseng.

The herb licorice has been reported to have a positive effect with Addison’s disease. Research has shown that licorice helps prolong the activity of natural and synthetic corticosteroids like hydrocortisone, which may enhance the activity of medications or even allow dosage reductions.

Dr. Ivin uses Chinese herbal formulas with great success. Because, as with homeopathy, Chinese herbal remedies are prescribed on an individual basis, she may use a variety of formulas depending on the particular symptoms of her patient. Most of the formulas that she chooses contain the key ingredient, ginseng. Ginseng is an adaptogenic herb that helps the body adapt to environmental and emotional stressors and supports all the major systems of the body rather than having strong affinities for any one system or organ.

Since Addison’s disease inhibits the body’s ability to effectively deal with stress, reducing stress and keeping your dog’s life stable is important. “Maintaining a low-stress, stable environment for your dog helps limit the necessary changes in medication,” says Dr. Ivins. She has found that flower essences are helpful in reducing stress and limiting the need for extra glucocorticoids.

Acupuncture and chiropractic care may also be beneficial. Dr. Dodd believes strongly that in addition to medications, supplements, and diet, it is necessary to treat the imbalances in the acupuncture energy flow meridians of the endocrine glands, digestive organs, immune system, and kidneys.

Post diagnosis follow-up
Immediately after diagnosis, and whenever any changes are made to medications or supplements, it is important to perform blood tests to ensure the dog is stabilized. The electrolyte levels offer the most specific information, particularly about the efficacy of the mineralocorticoids. However, thorough blood work including a full chemistry panel, complete blood count, and thyroid panel are helpful in determining the overall health of an animal.

Thorough management of an Addison’s patient, and fine-tuning his medications and treatments to maximum effect can be difficult, especially with so many variables. Dr. Ivin encourages owners to work closely with their veterinarians to understand the disease as much as possible. “There is no such thing as a dumb question,” she says. Dr. Ivin also recommends keeping track of everything, including the dog’s activity level. Without a written record, it is difficult to know the impact of changes made in medications, supplements, diet, or other therapies.

While managing Addison’s disease can be daunting, it is not impossible. The greatest motive for working at it is the day-to-day health and longevity of your dog. Research shows that when properly stabilized, Addison’s disease does not seem to impact the longevity of a dog.

Dr. Ivin recently lost a canine patient with Addison’s this summer. The Australian Shepard was diagnosed at about eight years old and died at 16. Now that is worth working toward.

Also With This Article
Click here to view “Addison’s Disease in Dogs”
Click here to view “Addison’s Disease in Dogs: Detections and Treatment”

———-

Shannon Wilkinson is a TTouch practitioner and freelance writer who lives with her husband and two Addisonian dogs in Portland, Oregon. This is her first article for WDJ.

Electric Dog Fences: Are They Safe?

By
Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA
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[Updated December 14, 2018]

Rufus is a typical adolescent Labrador Retriever: Large, full of energy, and eager to explore beyond the boundaries of his Richmond, Utah, yard when released from the confinement of his pen. The Ashbys, his owners, are a typical Lab family: Dad, mom, and several kids, all of whom possess an interest in being responsible pet owners.

As often happens, Rufus’ energy was a bit too much for the younger children. Despite several attempts to train him not to jump, he was still knocking the little Ashbys flat. And despite the family’s best efforts, Rufus kept escaping beyond the limits of his own unfenced yard.

electric shock collar for dogs

Imagine the Ashbys’ delight when, shopping at a “big box” pet supply store, they came across a product that promised to solve both problems with the push of a button. The product combines an “electronic containment system” with an additional remote control unit for use with supervised training. In other words, a shock collar. The family bought the unit, took it home, and started training Rufus.

They used the product for a few days and were quite pleased. Rufus was quickly learning not to jump on the kids, and life was already becoming easier. The Ashbys made plans to lay the underground wire for the containment system over the upcoming weekend. Meanwhile, Rufus was confined to his pen, wearing his collar, while the family was gone all day.

One rainy day afternoon that week, upon arriving home, Darren Ashby, an electronic engineer, sent his oldest son out to the pen to take Rufus for a walk. The boy came back in and said Rufus wouldn’t let the boy get near him. Dad went out to help, and was horrified by what he found.

“What I saw made me sick,” says Ashby. “Rufus had this sickly green color around his neck, under the training collar. There was this nasty wet/burnt hair and flesh smell. Something was obviously wrong. I carefully removed the collar to find a huge gaping hole in Rufus’ neck, right under one of the training collar prongs.”

Dr. Susan Benson, of the Animal Medical Center in Preston, Idaho, treated Rufus’ injuries. “This was one of the worst electrical burns I have seen,” Dr. Benson reports, “other than dogs who have had contact with high power lines.”

Dr. Benson says the incident has made her much more wary of the fence systems. She feels the collars should never be left on dogs who are unsupervised – which, of course, defeats the purpose for most dog owners, who want to use the systems to give the dogs free access to their yards while the owners are away at work all day.

Why People Choose Shock Collars

There is no question that underground electronic containment systems are immensely popular. They are readily available in pet stores, online, and from most pet-supply catalogs. They have become as common as fleas, and no wonder – for as little as $125, the responsible pet owner can let Fido play on up to five acres, an area that would cost thousands of dollars to fence otherwise. For just another $100, an owner can purchase a system that promises to fence up to 25 acres; extension kits cost $50 per half-acre, for a total of $1,500 for the full 25-acre capacity. Other options include a solar-powered system, or a collar that also promises to shock the dog for barking while it keeps him in the invisibly fenced area.

In addition, the electronic containment systems can be used in communities that prohibit visible fences, a growing and unfortunate trend. They can be installed in terrain where a physical fence would be difficult or impossible to erect. From the average dog owner’s perspective, what’s not to like?

Unfortunately, from Fido’s point of view, plenty, including but not limited to the potential for electrical burns around the neck. And unfortunately for the Fidos of the world who are living with one of the electronic collars around their necks, none of the companies that produce the fences are very forthcoming about the negative aspects of electronic containment systems. And there are many.

As a professional trainer and behavior consultant, I have had ample opportunities to deal with the fallout from shock fences that have caused problems with clients’ dogs. I also regularly hear electronic fence horror stories from my peers within the professional dog training community. I am admittedly biased against using shock collars, so I undoubtedly seize upon every new report of an e-collar-related problem to support my position.

My philosophy of training is firmly grounded in gentle methods that encourage a relationship between dog and human based on mutual trust and respect. The idea of deliberately shocking a beloved family member around the neck (or anywhere else, for that matter) is so repugnant to me that I cannot conceive of a training situation in which I would be willing to use a shock collar for my dogs, or for anyone else’s. But malfunctioning units and emotional argument aside, there are many other reasons why I vehemently steer clients far away from non-visible fences.

Electric Fencing Leaves Your Dog Vulnerable

One of those reasons has been hanging around our house for three days now. A black Labrador with an e-collar on visits us from time to time – mute testimony to the fact that the collars don’t always work.

Shelter workers from around the country tell of the numbers of stray dogs who are brought in wearing them. When their owners retrieve them, some will nonchalantly admit that they neglected to replace the batteries. Others admit that their dogs will run through the fence to chase a squirrel, or to follow another dog, or to visit an alluring female in season.

When for the umpteenth time I return our visiting Lab to his home a half-mile away, the owner tells me that the fence is out (again!) because of a recent electrical storm. He asks me how he is supposed to keep his dog home in the meantime – as if there is no other rational alternative but to let him run loose. Bring him in the house, I answer, but I know my suggestion falls on deaf ears.

Electronic containment systems not only give dog owners a false sense of security about the reliability of the containment, but also fail to protect the dog from intruders. Marauding canines, dog thiefs, neighborhood bullies, angry service persons, rabid skunks or raccoons – all have easy access to a dog who lives inside a fenceless fence.

Electric Fences Stimulate Barrier Aggression

In addition to leaving the dog vulnerable to attacks, electronic containment systems fail to provide any physical barrier to protect unwary passers-by from the dog. The list of documented cases of electronic fence-related aggression grows longer by the day.

The stimulus of passing cars, kids on bikes, people walking their dogs, squirrels climbing in and around street trees, etc., tends to goad some dogs into a state of angry arousal. If the dog is aroused enough to test the limits of the fence, he gets shocked – which conditions him to associate the pain of the shock with whatever he was focused on when he got shocked.

Further, any unsuspecting visitor who crosses the invisible barrier into the dog’s reach can be the unwitting victim of the dog’s pent-up frustration. Worse, if the dog’s arousal reaches a high enough peak that he runs through the fence, the immediacy of that shock is likely to add to the intensity of the dog’s aggressive behavior in that attack.

I just got off the phone an hour ago with a family that is looking for a new home for their eight-year-old Schnauzer, Max, who has lived in his backyard within a nonvisible shock fence since he was a youngster. But about two years ago, he began displaying some disturbing aggressive behavior.

His owners believe that a serviceperson who was intolerant of dogs may have kicked Max, setting off an escalating spiral of aggression that just recently resulted in a Level 3 bite to the leg of a visiting child (see “Ian Dunbar’s Bite Level Classifications” below). Without a physical fence, they were neither able to protect Max from the serviceperson, nor, more recently, protect the child from Max.

Compounding the problem, their homeowner’s association has rules prohibiting physical fences, so, even recognizing the drawbacks, they continue to use the electronic fence to keep Max contained. In addition to the continued danger this presents both to the dog and to anyone who crosses the fence line, any additional shocks to Max’s neck – even the triggering of the warning tone – are likely to add to his level of stress, arousal, and aggression, increasing the risk of more bites.

The first critical step to modifying aggression requires eliminating the conditions that contribute to it; in this case, the totality of environmental circumstances created by the fence.

Max has always been a backyard dog and the parents are reluctant to try to bring him in the house. They realize that putting Max in a small, chain-link pen for the rest of his life is not a reasonable solution. The children are devastated at the thought of losing their canine pal, and I had to deliver the bad news that finding a lifelong loving home – or any good home – for an eight-year-old dog who bites is not a very realistic option. Their choices are to significantly alter Max’s (and their own) lifestyle to better protect him and manage his behavior, or euthanasia.

Three months ago, I did a private consultation with a woman whose Airedale had started running through the electronic fence and biting. When Andy was a pup, he was allowed to run loose in his laid-back mountain community just outside Chattanooga. As more families moved into the neighborhood, Andy’s wandering started to draw complaints, so his owner had an electronic fence installed. This particular system included training as part of the installation package, so a man came out to the house to teach Andy that if he ignored the tone that warned him he was approaching the fence boundary, he would get a shock. The system had appeared to work well for several years. But recently, for no reason that his owner could discern, Andy had started going through his fence.

The first incident involved a Golden Retriever passing by outside the fence on a leash. Andy rolled the dog, but no injuries resulted. The owner wrote the incident off as a one-time thing, and life went on as usual. A couple of months later, Andy ran through the fence again – this time, after a small dog. This time the canine victim suffered injuries serious enough to require veterinary attention, and Andy’s owner realized something needed to be done. She called the fence company, which sent someone out to “retrain” Andy to the fence.

The “trainer” put a shock collar around Andy’s neck and one around his groin. He led Andy to the fence and shocked him repeatedly. According to his owner, Andy screamed and bit at his flanks; the sight was so gruesome that his owner couldn’t watch – she went inside and the torture continued without her. When the trainer was done he came in and told her that Andy had bitten him in the leg – but there was no harm done – he announced somewhat proudly that he was protected by the leather chaps he had begun wearing because so many dogs tried to bite him during the training.

Two weeks later Andy charged through the fence again, knocked a young girl into a ditch and inflicted Level 4 bites. Andy was ultimately euthanized.

Other negative reactions, while not as extreme, give us clues to how very traumatic the shock collars can be. Some dogs refuse to go into their yards after being introduced to the system. Others must be loaded into the family car and driven across the fence line – even when not wearing the collar – just to be taken for a walk around the block.

You Are Responsible for the Risks

One of the leading electronic fence companies proudly states: “Our mission is to keep your pets safe. We believe in Safe Pets and Happy People.” You might think that companies whose ads emphasize the advantages of keeping your dog safely confined in your yard would be sure to provide consumer warnings about the potential hazards related to their use, and would bend over backward to make amends for any inadvertent malfunction of the product.

Not so, according to Darren Ashby, the owner of Rufus, the burned Labrador I mentioned at the beginning of this article. Ashby sent the company a letter of complaint – complete with graphic photographs of his dog’s wounds – and after a delay, got a response. The company offered to pay the vet bill, but only if Ashby signed a document stating that the company was not at fault. The letter stated that Ashby had two days to decide whether he would sign the statement.

When Ashby called the company to complain about this response, the contact person told him that the company’s lawyers said it was Ashby’s fault for leaving the collar on his dog in the rain. She told him his only alternative to signing the document was to sue. Ashby read the product manual from front to back, and is adamant that there were no warnings about using the collar in inclement weather. He is undecided about whether to pursue legal action against the company.

Rufus was lucky – he survived the trauma of his collar experience. Andy was not so lucky. The jury is still out on Max. There are countless other dogs out there struggling with the sometimes lethal uncertainties of the electronic shock collar fence. Some of those dogs will lose the struggle. Don’t even take the chance that your dog might be one of them.

AVOID NEEDING ELECTRIC CONTAINMENT: TIPS

1. Avoid the “necessity” to use an electronic containment system by checking homeowners’ association rules regarding fences before you buy a home.

2. If you have only a small yard and/or a sedentary life-style, don’t get a breed that requires lots of exercise to stay happy and well-adjusted.

Pat Miller, WDJ’s Training Editor, is also a freelance author and Certified Pet Dog Trainer in Fairplay, Maryland. She is the author of many books on positive training, including, The Power of Positive Dog Training.

Herbal Medicines and Nutritive Herbs

By
Gregory L. Tilford
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by Gregory L. Tilford Wild dogs, researchers have observed, browse a broad variety of berries, grasses, flower blossoms, seeds, and even a few roots in their continuous search for food. Many of the plants they eat are quite tasty, even to us humans, while others are not palatable at all. In fact, some of the plants wild animals nibble upon may even be regarded by humans as potentially toxic. So why do they consume such plants? Because maybe they are not looking for food. Perhaps they are seeking medicine.

 

Unlike human herbalists, wild dogs do not need a stack of herb books and years of study to effectively utilize herbal medicines. Instead they rely on a much more time-honored system of herbal wisdom – one that is based from an intuitive sense of knowing what, when, and how much plant medicine is needed to fulfill a specific need or to correct an imbalance. However, domestic dogs have lost much of their intuitive abilities to seek and select the herbal medicines they need, and this problem is further exacerbated during winter months or in urban environments – where access to fresh, clean grass and other weedy medicine may be limited or out of their reach. Unlike his wild ancestors, the family dog relies on you – his caregiver – to provide him with the herbal diversity he needs. The need for nutritive herbs Although the canine appetite is generally focused on fresh meat and vegetables, dogs sometimes will have a craving for plants that are not part of their usual diet. From the perspective of a holistic veterinary herbalist, this urge comes from an instinctive drive to fulfill special requirements that cannot be addressed by diet alone. For example, in winter and early spring, dogs may be particularly attracted to sprigs of common quackgrass (Elytrigia repens), a persistent weed that has earned an alternate common name of “Dog Grass.” Why the craving for dog grass? Because in winter months, when wild greens are less abundant, dogs have an increased need for things that help support digestion, hair growth, and digestion. Each blade of dog grass contains silicon for strong joints and connective tissues, essential fatty acids for vibrant skin and coat, enzymes for good digestion, chlorophyll for antioxidant support, and soap-like saponin constituents that combine with stringy fibers to help cleanse the digestive tract and keep parasites in check. The roots of this persistent weed are medicinal too, with anti-inflammatory and tonic properties that help strengthen mucous membranes, maintain urine pH, and safely reduce inflammation in the urinary tract – a condition that is sometimes unseen but nevertheless present as a result of low-grade infection or poor waste elimination. Likewise, dogs will occasionally chew on berries, seeds, nuts, leaves, flowers, even tree and shrub bark, all of which may contain healing properties that their bodies need to stave off illness. The red or purple fruits of raspberry, rose bushes, and hawthorn (Crataegus oxycantha), for instance, all contain flavonoid constituents that are beneficial to the cardiovascular system. The oils contained in the raw seeds of flax, currants, wheat and other grains, pumpkins, and squashes may be relished on certain occasions, when extra measures of essential fatty acids, vitamins, and minerals are needed for hair growth health. Garlic bulbs, the green tops of onions, and all other edible members of the Allium family might also be the target of selective nibbling, as they possess antioxidant and immunostimulant activities that help boost the body’s resistance against bacterial, viral, or parasitic infection during periods of increased susceptibility or exposure. Even certain types of algae (the stuff we often refer to as “pond scum”) contains a cornucopia of nutrients and disease-fighting chemicals that wild dogs may seek in times of need. But how do we choose these things for the “mighty wolves” that live amongst us? When do they need these things, and in what amounts? Just add green foods Fortunately, these questions are easily answered. By providing a daily helping of nutritive herbs and “green foods” at mealtime, your dog will be provided with added measures of nutritional and systemic support that his body can freely access and utilize. Several high quality choices are available in the marketplace, and although their ingredients may vary, they all share a similar purpose – to fill in the edges of a balanced, natural diet. Products such as Ark Natural’s “Nu-Pet Granular Greens,” Animal Essentials’ “All-Organic Green Alternatives” (which I had a hand in formulating), and others will help bridge the gap between what your best friend receives from his diet and what his body needs from time to time for special systemic support. In other words, green food supplements put extra building blocks of health maintenance into place for your dog, in a way that replicates much of the botanical diversity that is used by dogs in the wild. Similarly, you can provide a green food supplement simply by providing your dog with a planter of fresh, live wheat or barley grass, a tablespoon or two of alfalfa sprouts, a sprinkling of spirulina, or a variety of dried herbs mixed with his food. However, before you “go for the green” on behalf of your companion, it is important to realize that green food supplements can only serve to round out a good diet; they cannot be expected to replace the nutritional elements that may be missing from poor quality food. Therefore, if you insist on feeding bargain basement kibble, don’t waste your money on a green food supplement. With that said, the following is a descriptive list of some safe and nutritious green foods that may serve as healthful additions to your dog’s diet. Many of them are used as ingredients in widely available, premium quality green food supplements. • Flaxseed contains Omega-3 essential fatty acids (EFAs), which are very important in the development and maintenance of a healthy brain, liver, heart, and immune system. In fact, these acids are so important, an animal (or human, for that matter) cannot survive without them. Several studies have confirmed that Omega-3 fatty acids are essential factors in the brain development of young animals, and may even help protect the brain against certain types of neurotoxins. Numerous studies have also shown that daily supplementation with EFAs may dramatically improve the skin, coat, and nails in animals who receive them as a supplement to a good diet. Flaxseed also contains fiber and various other constituents that play important roles in maintaining a healthy digestive tract. • Spirulina is one of nature’s greatest super foods. This blue-green micro algae is a rich source of vitamins, including beta-carotene (vitamin A), niacin, biotin, pantothenic acid, choline, inositol, folic acid, vitamins C, B1, B2, B6, and a huge amount of vitamin B12. Just as impressive is spirulina’s array of minerals and trace minerals. Up to 15 percent of its chemical structure includes calcium, iron, potassium, magnesium, phosphorous, iodine, zinc, titanium, copper, cobalt, and manganese, to name just a few! Spirulina is also a very rich source of chlorophyll, a substance that is believed to possess powerful antioxidant qualities. To top all of this off, spirulina contains up to 70 percent bioavailable protein. Perhaps the best feature of spirulina is the way it offers its nutrients in a concentrated yet fully bioavailable form. Have you ever wondered why your urine is dark-colored after taking a B-complex capsule? This is because the body (whether it is animal or human) can assimilate only a limited amount of the vitamins at one time. Whatever the body cannot use must be eliminated via the liver and urinary system. Unlike many nutritional supplements that contain unnatural megadoses of vitamins and minerals that cannot be fully absorbed by the body, spirulina offers its nutritional wealth to the body as a food that the body can use without added strain upon the liver and kidneys. In fact, instead of causing added strain to body systems, spirulina supports liver function by helping with the elimination of waste and protecting liver cells against damage from various toxins and pathogens. Spirulina also helps feed the intestinal flora, thus aiding in digestion and boosting the bioavailability of nutrients contained in an animal’s diet. People who feed spirulina to their pets typically report increased energy levels, healthier coat, stronger disease resistance, and even improved behavior. • Garlic is well known for its qualities as an immune-stimulant, antioxidant, antiparasitic, and blood tonic. Scientific studies have shown that various compounds in garlic stimulate immune functions in the bloodstream at levels of activity that are unparalleled by any other herb – yes, even echinacea! Perhaps the most intriguing of these actions is garlic’s effect on the body’s natural killer cells – those that seek out and destroy cancer cells and invading microbes. In a study conducted with human subjects who had AIDS, garlic was found to increase killer cell activity three-fold. Similar animal studies have been conducted with similar results. A 1988 study found that diallyl sulfide, a garlic constituent, prevented tumor formation in rats, and several other studies have shown that garlic inhibits various forms of cancer growth in the body. This may be attributable to the liver-strengthening actions of at least six garlic constituents. In this capacity, garlic gently enhances overall liver function, and triggers enzyme responses to help break down waste materials before they go into the bloodstream. In other words, garlic helps the liver cleanse the body, and thus helps prevent toxic accumulations that may lead to cancerous growths. • Dandelion root gently strengthens liver and gallbladder function, thus improving digestion and serving as a functional aid in the systemic elimination of toxins and waste products from the body. This in turn helps prevent chronic disorders such as arthritis, eczema, and psoriasis. The liver is the primary filtering organ of the body, responsible for removing toxins and excesses from the blood for elimination via the kidneys. The liver also plays critical roles in digestion through its production of bile, bilirubin, and various enzymes. If bile ducts in the liver or gall bladder become congested, blocked, or otherwise diseased to the point of dysfunction, the body will invariably suffer one or more toxicity related imbalances. Such imbalances may be characterized by symptoms such as jaundice, rheumatoid conditions, or chronic constipation. Dandelion root has a well-validated ability to stimulate bile production and circulation throughout the liver. In one study involving dogs, researchers observed a three to four times increase in bile production after administration of dandelion root. The gallbladder (which stores bile from the liver) is also stimulated, causing this small, hollow organ to contract and release bile into the digestive tract, thus aiding in digestion and acting as a gentle laxative to promote the elimination of solid waste. • Pumpkin seeds taste good and provide Omega-6 fatty acids and vitamin E for healthy muscles, nervous system, and strong skin and coat. Fresh ground pumpkin seeds also contain cucurbitin, a compound that is believed to combat and prevent overpopulation of intestinal parasites, especially tapeworms. • Kelp is a great source of iron, iodine, zinc, boron, chromium, selenium, and several other trace minerals. It is especially rich with vitamin B12, and is often used by herbalists to help strengthen thyroid function in animals that suffer hypothyroidism but do not exhibit symptoms of thyroid tumor. • Nettle is a nutritive herb that lends mild astringent and antihistamine qualities to its long list of nutritional attributes. It is considered a tonic to the reproductive system, kidneys, and urinary tract. Nettle is a perfect example of a food-medicine. One hundred grams of dried, pre-flowering nettle plant contain up to 30.4g (30 percent by weight) of crude protein, 2,970 mg of calcium, 680 mg of phosphorus, 32.2 mg of iron, 650 mg of magnesium, 20.2 mg of beta-carotene, and 3,450 mg of potassium; along with vitamins A, C, D, and B-complex. All of this is contained in a highly palatable form that can be effectively assimilated into the body without adding excess stress upon the liver, kidneys, or digestive tract. This makes nettle an excellent food additive for animals who need extra trace minerals and vitamins in their diet, but not necessarily in huge, multi-vitamin doses. • Alfalfa contains a broad spectrum of nutrients, including considerable quantities of protein (up to 50 percent), trace minerals, dietary fiber, and vitamins A, B1, B12, C, D, E, and K. It is also very high in chlorophyll, which serves as an antioxidant. In addition to being highly nutritive, alfalfa is traditionally known as one of the best herbal treatments for arthritis, rheumatism, and gout. Clinical research of the aforementioned diseases have shown that at least 10 to 20 percent of human subjects will experience dramatic reduction of painful symptoms with the use of this herb. Traditional uses in animals have commonly led to similar results. This is likely attributable to alfalfa’s impressive chemical array of saponins, beta-sitosterol, stigmasterol, alpha-spinasterol, flavonoids, coumarin, alkaloids, beta-carotene, chlorophyll, octacosanol, and amino acids. For arthritis and other inflammatory diseases of the joints, alfalfa can bring long- term relief to dogs, cats, rodents, horses, and various other herbivores who receive it as a daily food supplement. In the urinary tract, alfalfa has an alkalizing effect, thus it may help to balance urine pH and prevent overly acidic urine. Alfalfa also possesses cancer preventative qualities. It is believed that alfalfa induces complex cellular activities, and its considerable vitamin K content has been shown to be beneficial in remedying bleeding disorders that may result from long-term antibiotic therapies, anticoagulants, aspirin, and anticonvulsant drugs. This nutritional plant also helps to stimulate appetite and is useful in helping an animal adjust to a new diet. • Yucca is known for its ability to stimulate appetite and increase absorption of vital nutrients in the small intestine. It has been shown to stimulate weight gain and increase metabolic efficiency in virtually every type of animal. Yucca contains saponin compounds known as sarsasapogenin and smilagenin. These phytosterol constituents are believed to be useful for relieving inflamed joints in animals with arthritis and other rheumatoid diseases. More importantly, these and other compounds are thought to aid in the assimilation of important minerals and vitamins by promoting increased passage of critical nutrients through the intestinal walls. This optimizes the nutritional value of the food to which it is added. It is important to note, however, that only a very small amount of the powdered root (perhaps a pinch or two) is needed to achieve the result of improved nutrient absorption. Too much of this herb, fed continuously, may actually have a reverse effect, causing nausea and irritation of mild intestinal mucosa, which in turn can actually block absorption of nutrients. With this in mind, I feel that it is not necessary – and may be counter-productive – to feed supplements that contain any more than 10 percent yucca root on a long-term basis, at least if your only goal is to provide nutritional support. How to feed green foods Regardless of whether you choose to provide your companion with dried herbs from the bulk bins at your local herb retailer or opt to buy a commercial formula like Granular Greens or Green Alternative, daily feeding is easy, economical, and safe. If you are the do-it-yourself type, nettle leaf, dandelion leaf, ground flaxseed, ground pumpkin seed, and spirulina all represent good, easy to find choices. In fact, all can be combined to make an excellent home-prepared formula that can be fed once per day at a rate of teaspoon per 20 pounds of your dog’s body weight. Simply mix the formula into wet food. Likewise, a tray of fresh green wheat grass or barley grass can be left by the water dish at all times for occasional nibbling. However, if you intend to leave live grass in the kitchen for your dog, expect that sometimes he may want to eat it ravenously – for the purpose of digestive cleansing and/or regurgitation (yes, that means vomiting and then eating it again). This is normal behavior that has been passed down through hundreds of canine generations, from the mighty wolf of the wild north, to the homes of modern urbania. Just beware – if the occasional nibble turns into full-fledged grazing, it’s time for a walk! Also With This Article Click here to view “Herbal Remedies For Common Canine Ailments” ———- Greg Tilford is a well-known veterinary herbalist, lecturer, and author. He serves as a consultant and formulator to hundreds of holistic veterinarians throughout the world, and is CEO of Animal’s Apawthecary, a company that develops herbal products specifically for use in animals. He is author of four books on herbs, including All You Ever Wanted to Know About Herbs for Pets (Bowtie, 1999), which he co-authored with his wife, Mary.

Gone, But Not Forgotten

By
Nancy Kerns
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Rupert is away on special assignment this month, and I sure could use him. But he’s needed elsewhere, and he’s doing one of the things that he likes best: serving as therapy dog to someone he loves.

My mother passed away in December after a long illness. She was a very special person and is already terribly missed, but those of us who loved her are comforted by the fact that she was not in pain at the end, and that she passed away at home, where she wanted to be.

We’re still worried about my father, however. He, too, wants to stay in the Northern California home where he and my mom retired a dozen years ago. But, gosh, that home is way out in the sticks, half an hour away from a rural small town and hours of driving from all of us.

My brother, two sisters, and I stayed at my parents’ house for several days after my mom passed. Storms raged outside, and the power shut off momentarily a few times, but it was cozy in the wood-heated home, and it felt good to be together, talk, laugh, and cry. We cooked, ate, cleaned house, and helped my dad remove from the house the many accoutrements of caring for a disabled person. Rupert gravely paced from one person to the next, nudging our hands and elbows with his nose, his tail waving slowly. “Pet me, you’ll feel better,” he seemed to say.

He also followed my dad outside to the wood pile several times a day. Rupert enjoys everything about going to get firewood with my dad, who cuts oaks and pines on his 13 acres, and neatly stacks each kind of wood separately. When Dad jokingly says he’s “going to the gym,” he means he’s going to either cut down a tree, split logs, stack firewood, or haul brush. It’s been exercise and therapy for him during the last three hard years that he’s been caring for my mom. And, of course, all of these activities are fun for Rupe, a lifelong chewer and fetcher of sticks. He’s stayed with my parents for extended vacations before, and he loves to gnaw thick branches while my dad works.

My siblings and I left in stages over a couple of days, all of us fretting over the idea of leaving my dad alone after 47 years of living with my mom. Despite my best efforts (and my older sister’s stern warning not to), I broke down in tears as I hugged my dad good-bye. I’m the youngest in the family – the baby – so I guess that’s my role. I couldn’t help it.

I miss Rupert, but I felt so much better driving down the hill on that muddy dirt road away from my parents’ house, seeing him in the rearview mirror, his tail waving gently as he stood close to my dad. And it comforts me to hear Dad use the word “we” in our telephone calls, as in, “It stopped raining today, so we walked to the top of the hill . . .”

Thanks, Rupie.


-Nancy Kerns

Whole Dog Journal’s 2003 Dry Dog Food Review

By
Nancy Kerns
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A few months ago, the owner of a small, premium pet food company remarked to me, “If the giant food companies ever started using top-quality ingredients – the kinds of things that are in your ‘Top Dry Foods’ selections – all of us ‘little guys’ are going to be out of business.”

Actually, it has begun; the big dogs of the pet food industry are starting to develop products that contain the sorts of ingredients that Whole Dog Journal has celebrated for the past five years – things like fresh, whole meats, vegetables, fruits, and grains; organically raised meat and poultry; healthful herbs; and natural colloidal trace minerals.

Fortunately for all the small makers of premium foods, the ones who have been committed to achieving truly excellent products for years, the giant food conglomerates have not really put all the pieces together – yet.

Take Hill’s Pet Nutrition’s latest launch, for example. Hill’s has identified a fast-growing niche within the $12.4 billion pet food market in the US: discriminating pet owners who want “natural” foods for their beloved animal companions. Hill’s cites some statistics on its Web site that explain its interest in the “natural” niche: The number of “natural” products increased by 38 percent in 2001; the largest natural food supermarket chain is growing at a 20 percent clip; sales of natural and organic foods are growing at an 18 percent annual rate and are projected to surpass $17 billion this year.

Given these facts, Hill’s came up with this: Science Diet Nature’s BestTM, a line of “all-natural” dog (and cat) foods with “high quality, naturally preserved ingredients.” Nature’s Best does contain whole beef, peas, and carrots. That’s a huge step in the right direction for a conglomerate food maker – even if these ingredients are way down in the 7th, 9th, and 10th places, respectively, on the list of ingredients.

Small companies still the best
As I hinted above, WDJ’s “Top Dry Food” makers needn’t be too worried about efforts like Hill’s – yet. Nature’s Best is a better product than Purina’s effort (the execrable “Beneful”) to appeal to the “granola and tofu” segment of the pet-owning population, but it’s not “top-quality” (see comparison charts, end of story).

Nevertheless, the wheels are turning. The pet food industry leaders have finally realized there are millions of people who are willing to pay a lot for foods that can help keep their animal companions as healthy as possible for as long as possible. The savvy marketers among them have already taken aim on us free-spending health nuts; witness the plethora of new products with the words “holistic” and “natural” in their names, or at least in giant letters on the front of the bags.

Small pet food companies that are committed to producing top-quality foods have one big advantage over the corporate giants: Their production runs are small enough that they can formulate foods using ingredients of amazing quality, and the consumers most committed to their dogs’ health will pay whatever these foods cost. For the present, these are the companies who are making the healthiest foods. (The small companies may not make the most consistent products, however; see “Made in a Secret Location,” WDJ January 2003.)

But (as the pet food company owner I quoted earlier suggested), if some of the bigger companies applied their ingredient purchasing power, self-owned and -operated manufacturing plants, and giant advertising budgets to work on products that contained even just good-quality ingredients, they could pose a real danger to the roughly 13 percent of the pet food market collectively served by all the little companies. Currently, that’s what’s left of the US pet food market-share pie after Nestlé Purina takes its 30 percent; Iams takes its 14 percent; Hill’s, MasterFoods USA, and Ol’ Roy take 10 percent each; and Nutro takes its 5 percent.

It’s worth it
Because virtually all the foods that are on our “Top Dry Foods” lists, past and present, are represented among that tiny 13 percent market share, you can expect them to be more difficult to find. Recently I was amused by an honest counterperson – obviously a new hire – at a really great independent pet supply store, where I was asking about an obscure new food. She said, “Is that a dog food you’ve seen on TV? Because if you’ve seen it on TV, we don’t have it. I’ve never heard of any of the foods we have here,” she finished ruefully. Let me just say, “That’s our kind of pet store!”

By and large, the giant chain pet supply stores carry few foods we consider to be really good. (I got in trouble last year when I said none of the giant chain stores carry any of our selections. A few carry a few.) In general, you have to look for independent pet supply stores owned by really knowledgeable dog people. Many of the makers of the foods we highlight will sell directly to pet owners, sometimes splitting shipping costs. In other cases, I’ve heard of people approaching their local groomer, breeder, or even health food store, and asking the store owner to carry one or two of the foods they like best. If the buyer can tell the store owner that he or she will buy a certain amount of the food monthly, and convince X number of their friends to buy that food, too, the store owner may be able to expand his inventory to include that food.

Expect to pay more for top-quality foods – maybe two or three times more than you may have paid for lesser-quality products. Top-quality foods are necessarily expensive because top-quality ingredients cost more than food fragments cast off from the human food industry.

What we did and didn’t do
We did something new this year. Instead of essentially re-reviewing many of our past selections, we concentrated on finding products that we’ve never listed before. All of our past picks (listed below left) still meet our selection criteria (which is listed directly below). As you’ll see, we’ve “deselected” only one of our past picks: Best In Show, whose maker has gone out of business.

In every case, all the different varieties or “flavors” of a given dog food line are also approved. For example, we like the entire “Prairie” line of foods made by Nature’s Variety, not just the lamb-based food. However, some manufacturers (such as Royal Canin) make several different lines or “families” of foods, targeted to very different price points and formulated accordingly. Unless we indicated an additional line or family was approved, assume it is not.

• The following are things we did NOT do when we selected our past and new “Top Dry Foods.”

• We DID NOT reject any of our past selections. All of our past selections (listed at end of story) still meet our selection criteria.

• We DID NOT conduct lab tests to make sure the “Guaranteed Analysis” printed on the label accurately reflects the contents; that’s the job of state feed control officials.

• We DID NOT inspect manufacturing plants or verify ingredient claims. For example, some companies say they use organically grown foods, or human-grade ingredients. At some point in the future, we’ll be asking manufacturers to show us proof that these ingredients are what they say they are. We’ll keep you posted.

• We DID NOT select foods on the basis of protein or fat content; more is not always better. Some dogs need more; some dogs need less. It’s a good idea to note the protein and fat content of any food that seems to suit your dog, as well as the levels in foods that distress him. This information can help you make future selections.

• We DID NOT examine every food on the market. That would be impossible! You may find a food that looks as good or better than ours. Good for you! Send us some information about it; we’d love to share.

• We dID NOt rank-order the foods. They are presented in alphabetical order.

Choose three or four
We can’t say it enough, so we’ll say it in capital letters: THERE IS NO SINGLE “BEST” FOOD. We still like all the foods we’ve chosen in past years, and we like all these newer foods, too.

To determine which ones might be most appropriate for your dog, you will have to try a few. All dogs are different; some do better on higher-protein foods, some do better on lower-protein foods. Some can’t digest chicken. Some break out if they eat wheat. Try a likely candidate for a month or two. If your dog has problems, it doesn’t mean it’s a “bad” food; it just disagrees with your dog. Give the food away and try another one!

If, on the other hand, your dog has had chronic health problems, such as infected ears, itchy paws, or runny eyes, and these symptoms clear up, you’re on the right track. A good dog food will contribute to a healthy coat, good energy level, balanced temperament, and flawless health.

Don’t feed only one food for the rest of your dog’s life, either. That’s a surefire way to help him develop food allergies or intolerances. Any nutrient deficiency, excess, or imbalance expressed in a food can become entrenched in your dog’s body if that’s all he’s fed for years on end. (See “Variety Is the Spice of Life,” WDJ June 2001, for more information about the importance of occasionally switching foods.)

Also With This Article
Click here to view “Additional Whole Dog Journal 2008 Approved Dry Foods”
Click here to view “Focusing in On The Main Ingredients in Commercial Dog Foods”
Click here to view “20 Dry Dog Food Shopping Tips”

———-

Nancy Kerns is editor of WDJ. Dry food reviews have appeared in each February issue since 1998.

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A Two-Dog Household

By
Nancy Kerns
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0

About four years ago, when my 10-year-old son, Eli, first started asking for a dog of his own, I told him that we couldn’t possibly get another dog until Rupert died. Rupe has never been all that interested in other dogs, preferring by far to spend time with humans. Today I understand that this is due to my failure to do all I should have done to socialize him. Nevertheless, he doesn’t like it when other dogs come over to our house, or worse, stay a few days. And I’ve always thought that, as a senior citizen, Rupe deserved to live as the undisputed canine king of his own home in his final years.

The problem (at least, as my son has seen it) is that Rupert has lived a lot longer than I originally thought he would! Four years ago, when I told Eli that he would have to wait for Rupert to pass before he could get a dog, I didn’t think Rupe would last more than another year or so. He’s 13 now, and frankly, looking better now than he did four years ago.

Anyway, as I’ve mentioned before, my sister’s family dog came to stay with us for a few months last summer, as the family was cruising up the East Coast on a sailboat, and the long-haired Chihuahua was judged to be an unfit sailor. At the time, Mokie was just over a year old, and too full of energy (and too apt to chew on ropes and wires) to bring onto the boat. So they shipped him out here, and he got put to work testing training methods and products, modeling for photos, and, of course, winning my son’s heart. Oh yeah; mine, too.

So, that explains why sharp-eyed readers have seen a certain cute Chihuahua face in the pages of the most recent WDJ issues. Mokie never went home. As it turns out, only my sister (not her husband nor her two teenaged daughters) missed him, and even she didn’t miss him a lot. Really, they are all too busy for such a busy little dog.

Fortunately, the engaging little scrap doesn’t seem to register on Rupe’s anti-dog radar. Could he be just too small (six pounds) for Rupert to really regard him as another dog? I don’t know. For some reason, Mokie just doesn’t set off Rupe’s jealousy or need to assert himself as the dominant dog. The two of them mostly pretend not to see each other.

Happily, the two kids (Mokie and my son) get along famously. Eli enjoys teaching the quick little dog to do tricks, and Mokie loves sleeping under Eli’s covers and wrestling over Beanie Babies. And, since Mokie is still apt to chew on things he finds on the floor, I no longer have to nag my son to keep his room picked up; I just say, “Hey Eli, Mokie just got something out of your room!”

Presto! The room gets cleaned.


-Nancy Kerns

Dogs Communicate Well Both Verbally and With Body Language

By
Nancy Kerns
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0

As I scooped horse manure in my barnyard this morning, I heard a cacophony of dog noise over a nearby hill. My “dog radar” alerted immediately as I listened for canine distress sounds. Upon concluding that it was a pack of hounds that some hunter had let loose, joyfully giving voice to their pursuit of quarry, I returned to my rural exercise program.

My manure meditation was next interrupted by Tucker, our 75-pound Cattle Dog mix, whose guttural barks warned away the Australian Shepherd who routinely wanders over from three houses away and fights through the fence with Tucker. The ugly sounds ceased before I could intervene, and I made yet another mental note to go plead with the Aussie’s owners to keep him at home where he belongs.

Barn chores completed, I walked back to the house, and was welcomed by the staccato greeting barks of Katie, our Australian Kelpie. Her cheerful “Hello” always ends in a most endearing series of “woo-woo” sounds that brings a smile to my face. Entering the house, I could hear the irritating and persistent, high-pitched demand barking of Dusty, our Pomeranian, who knew that his breakfast was next on the morning agenda. As I let him in to stop his chatter, Dubhy, the Scottie, issued several gruff “alert” barks, announcing the arrival of the neighbor cat who gratuitously does rodent patrol in our barn.

Who says dogs can’t talk? In less than 30 minutes, I had been treated to five audible canine communications, each with a clear and distinct meaning and purpose. While dogs are, indeed, exquisite body language communicators, they are no slouch in the vocal communication department. It behooves us to pay attention to what they have to say, and to use it to our advantage to enhance our relationships with them.

When we discuss barking in a dog-training context we tend to focus on canine vocalization as a problem. However, like so many other dog behaviors that may be considered unacceptable or inappropriate in our society, barking serves a useful purpose to the dog. To him, it’s all appropriate bark-ing! Only when human and canine cultures clash does it become a problem.

Let’s look at some of the types of barking that dogs engage in, the reasons for the barking, and what we should do about them.

Territorial / Protective Barking
These utterances may start as low growls or barks that become sharper and more rapid as the intruder approaches. The dog’s posture is usually threatening – tail high, ears up and forward. While territorial barking may be diminished to some degree by spaying or neutering, surgery won’t stop it completely. Tucker and Dubhy, both neutered, were doing territorial barking this morning; one at a canine intruder, one at a feline trespasser. They also do protective barking at cars or delivery trucks that venture up our long driveway, and when visitors knock at the door.

A limited amount of protective barking may be a good thing. Backyard protective/territorial barking can be reduced by minimizing the visual stimuli – making the fence a solid privacy fence rather than chain-link see-through (or worse, electronic, non-visible.) Living in the country, I like to have a little audible deterrent for any trespassers who may have evil intentions. I suspect those living in the city do, too. However, whether city or country, indoors or out, it’s nice to be able to turn off the deterrent after two or three barks.

Don’t make the mistake of yelling at your dog for barking. He may well think you’re joining his attempts to ward off the intruder, and redouble his efforts. There’s no point in getting angry – it just gets your adrenaline pumping as well as his! Besides, he has no way of knowing who he should bark at and who he shouldn’t – it’s simply his job to alert you to the presence of a non-family member. The best way to turn off his bark is by teaching him a “quiet” cue. It’s easier than you might think.

I start by teaching a “positive interrupt” independent of the barking behavior. When your dog is calm and relaxed, say “Over here!” in a cheerful tone of voice, make a kissy noise if necessary to get his attention, and feed him a tasty treat when he looks at you, or comes to you. Repeat this exercise until your “Over here!” elicits a prompt and happy response every time. Now you are ready to try it out with the barking.

Ask a friend to help you. Have her come to your house and knock on the door to elicit the barking. Let your your dog bark three times, then tell him “Over here!” (remember to keep it cheerful). If he doesn’t respond, put a bit of delectably high-value treat (such as canned chicken) under his nose to turn his attention to you. When he stops barking, tell him he’s a good boy, and feed him a few more chicken tidbits. Then have your friend knock again. Repeat the exercise until he will respond to your “Over here!” cue as soon as you give it. Then take a break and invite your friend in for coffee and cookies. Remember to let your dog bark three times each time before you give the cue, or he may learn to not bark at all!

You might need to invite your friend back for a few more visits to get your dog reliably responding on the first knock each time. When he seems to have the idea, you can start calmly adding the word “Quiet!” or “Quiet, please” after the “Over here!” cue. Eventually you will be able to just say, “Quiet, please,” without the “Over here!” to stop the barking. I personally love the “Quiet, please” cue, and always follow it with a “Thank you!” You can easily generalize this to other protective barking situations, and over time, you can gradually randomize the treat reward, replacing it with praise and petting (if those are rewarding to your dog), with only an occasional treat.

Attention-Seeking / Demand Barking
This is the kind of barking that dear little Dusty does when he wants his breakfast. While we generally consider demand barking to be “bad,” it is also what Dubhy does when he makes a sweet little grumbling noise in his throat to tell me he has to go outside.

Many of our dogs use attention-seeking sounds and behaviors to let us know they have a need that they would like taken care of. Whining is another common manifestation of demand behavior, often with an anxiety component. If we are in the habit of meeting our dogs every demand, then yes, it can become oppressive. Properly managed, it can be a charming communication tool to help us understand our canine companions.

Dusty’s breakfast barking is the epitome of annoying little-dog yapping. If I wanted to fix it, I would need to very consistently ignore the behavior I don’t want (breakfast barking) and reward the behavior I do want (waiting calmly outside for me to open the door to let him in for breakfast). I know this, and I will confess that I have deliberately chosen simply to let him in to eat to stop his barking. It is the only time he does it, and the time and effort it would take to change the behavior just isn’t worth it to me.

Making a behavior go away by removing the reward that the dog enjoys for it is called “extinction.” It can be a very effective behavior modification technique, and I use it often with clients whose dogs liberally engage in demand barking. We see it most frequently in class, when the dog knows his human is in training mode and has treats at hand. (Since I almost always carry treats, my dogs don’t see this as a reliable predictor that they will necessarily get a steady flow of treats, hence, no demand barking.)

In class, I tell my students that they must consistently turn their backs on their dogs as soon as the demand barking starts, and then, when the dog is silent, say “Yes, quiet!” and turn around to give the dog attention and/or a treat. The dog must learn that it is “quiet” that earns attention and treats, not barking or whining.

When the human is consistent, the method works beautifully – especially if the person is savvy enough to recognize the behavior in its early stages, before it is deeply ingrained. However, dog owners have varying degrees of success with this, for several reasons.

A lack of promptness and/or consistency will decrease the effectiveness of this method. The quicker and more consistent you are in ignoring the dog, the faster the dog gets the message. Behaviors that are occasionally rewarded become very durable, so if you sometimes give in to the dog’s demand barking, even inadvertently, the dog will keep trying, and it becomes even harder to extinguish. Eye contact is attention, so if you just look at the dog before turning away, you have rewarded the barking behavior.

Another reason for varying degrees of success is something called an “extinction burst.” When you try to extinguish a behavior that has been very successful for your dog in the past, he is likely to engage in an extinction burst, which is akin to the temper tantrum of a spoiled child. He may bark louder, longer, and more insistently in order to try to get the behavior to work that has worked so well in the past. If you give in during the extinction burst, you have taught him to offer a much more intense level of behavior, and your life becomes even harder.

The degree to which you reward your dog’s quiet behavior will also affect your rate of training success. If your dog demand-barks for your attention, it is important to give him attention before he barks. Otherwise he will learn a behavior chain of: bark, get ignored, be quiet, then get attention.

I put up with Dusty’s demand barking because I don’t want to go through the headache of his extinction burst. I treasure Dubhy’s “potty grumbles,” but I make sure he’s not using it because he wants to go out, but because (I think) he really has to go out. He gets to communicate, but not control.

Play / Excitement / Greeting Barks
This can be a fun kind of barking, as long as it doesn’t get carried away. It’s sort of nice to have someone who is “woo-woo” happy to see you even if you’ve only been out of the room for a minute or two. It can, however, get out of hand, and it’s nice to have a turn-off switch. You can use the same “Quiet, please” cue that we discussed under the “Protective Barking” section.

This is also an ideal place to use the “Ask for an Incompatible Behavior” technique. Simply teach your dog to greet you (or others) with a toy in her mouth. Have a basket of toys next to the door, and when someone comes in, pick up a toy and toss it for your dog to chase and bring back. With her mouth full of toy, the best she can do is a muffled bark. She’s more likely to be focused on “toy” than “bark” anyway! Before long, she’ll be seeking out the toy to greet people with, and you won’t even have to throw one.

Play barking can be a tad more difficult. Some dogs – especially the herding breeds, seem to have a genetic predisposition to bark when playing with other dogs, and with rowdy humans. Actually, I suspect they aren’t really playing – with their workaholic personalities I am sure they are actually hard at work, trying to round up their uncooperative playmates. Your best recourse with these barkers might be to come to an understanding with neighbors about appropriate barky play-times, and perhaps passing out earplugs to the entire neighborhood. Seriously though, when excited play leads to over-aroused barking, time-outs are an appropriate remedy. I suggest using an “Oops” as a “punishment marker” when removing the vocal offender from the play group in order to mark the behavior that earned the time-out. In time, the barker may learn to control her own voice in order to enjoy uninterrupted play privileges.

For the hunter whose dogs I heard baying over the hill, the “chase” barking of his hounds is beautiful music, and he wouldn’t dream of trying to modify that behavior!

Fear / Startle Barking
Dogs who bark out of fear can generally be identified by their body language. Unlike the protective barker who leans forward with ears pricked and tail high, the fear-barker is likely to hold her tail low, flatten her ears, and back away from the fearful object. The best approach to modifying fear-barking behavior is to desensitize and counter-condition the dog to the things that frighten her. A puppy who is well-socialized during the first four weeks to four months of her life is unlikely to become a fear barker if her humans continue to provide her with positive social experiences throughout her lifetime. (See “Canine Social Misfits,” February 2000.)

Desensitization and counter-conditioning are modification techniques that help a dog learn to have positive associations with things that she previously viewed as negative and scary. The process involves presenting a scary stimulus at a safe distance, and associating its presence with something wonderful, such as canned chicken. As the dog learns to tolerate the scary thing – even look forward to it because it means something wonderful – the intensity of the stimulus is gradually increased. You may need professional help with this process in order to successfully desensitize your dog. Meanwhile, you want to try very hard to avoid putting your dog in situations that cause her to bark out of fear.

Health / Age-Related Barking
As our faithful friends age, they sometimes succumb to a condition only recently identified as Canine Cognitive Disorder (CCD), where they become disoriented easily and can get lost in their own backyards, trapped behind furniture, forget that they are housetrained, pace, stare into space, and not always recognize friends or family members.

According to Pfizer Pharmaceutical, 62 percent of dogs age 10 years and older experience at least some of the symptoms related to CCD. Along with this syndrome, or unrelated but also linked to age and its accompanying impaired hearing and vision, may come an increase in barking, whining, or howling, as the dog expresses frustration with the mysterious changes in her ability to function.

In either case, it can help to keep your dog’s world as simple as possible, and avoid making major changes in her environment. Understanding why the barking has increased can help you be sympathetic rather than angry with her, and give you the patience to simply extricate her when she barks because she’s stuck in the corner again. If you think your dog may be suffering from CCD, you can consult with your veterinarian about a new drug, Anipryl, which has been shown to alleviate some of the symptoms of aging.

Perhaps also related to some environmental frustration, or their own inability to hear themselves, deaf dogs are sometimes reported to be barkier than normal hearing dogs. A positive interrupt, using a light beam or vibrating collar as the interrupt signal, can also be effective in teaching deaf dogs a non-verbal “Quiet, please” cue.

Social Isolation / Boredom / Frustration Barking
This is by far the saddest category of barking behavior, and probably the least normal. It is the incessant barking of the dog who is removed from the normal social interaction of the rest of his family, be it canine or human. It’s the dog who barks all day and all night in the backyard, bored and lonely. It’s the puppy who is crated in the basement, miserable, crying to be back with her littermates. It’s the dog who suffers from separation anxiety, who screams for hours, voicing his panic at being left alone.

In his normal, natural world, a canine lives with other members of his pack virtually 24 hours a day. It speaks volumes for the adaptability of the domestic dog that he can learn to tolerate being left alone. But if you have a dog whose barking falls into this category, then it’s time to examine your lifestyle and make some changes to better meet his needs for social interaction and stimulation.

If he’s a backyard dog, bring him in. If he’s a neighbor’s backyard dog, talk to them about bringing the dog indoors, or at least enriching the dog’s environment with interactive toys and other activities that will improve the quality of his life and reduce the need for barking. You can use crates, tethers, and pens to prevent chaos while the backyard dog learns house manners.

If the barking dog must be left alone all day, search out a daycare situation – perhaps a commercial doggie daycare, or a friend or neighbor who would like company, or whose home-alone dog might also like a pal. Take him to a training class – or several. Have him go jogging or hiking with you. Discover a dog sport that can showcase his natural talents. Join a dog club. Find a dog park in your community – or start one.

If your dog has separation anxiety, seek the help of a qualified trainer/behaviorist who can help you overcome his panic attacks. (See “Learning to Be Alone,” July 2001, and “Relieving Anxiety,” August 2001.) Make him a full-fledged member of your family, and he will no longer be bored, lonely, and frustrated.

The next time you hear a dog bark, rather than being angry or irritated, stop and try to figure out what the dog is saying. Enjoy the fact that dogs can communicate with us vocally as well as with body language, and decide if it’s a communication that merits reflection, a response, or just a smile.

Also With This Article
Click here to view “Modifying Your Dog’s Barking Behavior.”

-by Pat Miller

Pat Miller, WDJ’s Training Editor, is also a freelance author and Certified Pet Dog Trainer in Fairplay, Maryland. She is the president of the Board of Directors of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers, and recently published her first book, The Power of Positive Dog Training.

Licorice Root for Dogs: Soothing and Healing

By
Gregory L. Tilford
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2
Licorice root for dogs offers many potential benefits.

[Updated November 13, 2017]

LICORICE FOR DOGS: OVERVIEW

1. Look for glycerine-based tinctures made from organically grown licorice, or make your own topical licorice oil.

2. Check the contraindications for licorice listed at the end of this article.

3. Let your veterinarian know you are adding licorice to your dog’s healthcare regimen so that she can help you monitor its effects – and possibly reduce your dog’s other medications.

As in nature itself, there are no absolutes in natural medicine. The “silver bullet remedy” and “miracle cure” are only myths. A dermatological shampoo does not cure chronic eczema that stems from liver dysfunction; nor does an herb that contains aspirin-like compounds (i.e., salicylates) cure the underlying cause of a headache – they only suppress the uncomfortable symptoms of what may be a deeper problem.

Such “miracle remedies” allow us to temporarily push disease from consciousness during times when complete healing seems out of practical or philosophical reach. However, when opting to alleviate your dog’s pain and suffering, it is important to realize that suppression of symptoms will seldom constitute a complete cure – especially when the effectiveness of an anti-inflammatory or analgesic drug prompts us to forget the real problems. Of course, our decisions to use such remedies are based largely on personal freedom of choice.

licorice plant

But what about our animals? They don’t enjoy such freedom of choice. Instead they must rely upon us to make weighty decisions on their behalf, and as caring guardians who are tormented by the sight of a suffering companion, we sometimes find ourselves with the difficult choice of providing comfort over cure.

Of course we wish for our companion animals to have a long, healthy life, without the liver-damaging effects of anti-inflammatory drug therapies or the immunosuppressive results of corticosteroid drugs – but we also wish for them to be comfortable.

Fortunately, there are a few herbs that stand out from all others in their ability to address both sides of this difficult issue. Some herbs can provide not only a holistic therapeutic approach, but also a measure of comfort and relief during periods of crisis. In fact, one of the best of these “near-miracle herbs” is easy to find, grows like a weed, and tastes like candy.

I am referring to the Glycyrrhizza species, licorice, an ancient medicine with a multitude of modern applications.

Licorice’s Healing History

The ethnobotanical use of licorice dates back thousands of years, and its history in veterinary applications is probably just as ancient. In Europe it has been considered a valued medicine and trade commodity for at least a thousand years. By the 13th century licorice was already being cultivated for international trade. And in China, licorice is still used in more applications than any other herb – even more than ginseng.

Licorice root is useful for maladies ranging from stomach upset and ulcers to the treatment of cancer. And unlike many botanical medicines that are seen by science as anecdotal curiosities, contemporary herbalists and modern researchers continue to validate the effectiveness of licorice with modern science. Literal libraries of information have been compiled on the attributes of Glycyrrhizza – and it appears that we have only begun to scratch the surface of what this wonderful herb has to offer.

Licorice’s Anti-Inflammatory Action

Most people who have taken their animals to a conventional veterinarian for treatment of a chronic inflammatory disorder have witnessed the bittersweet use of hydrocortisone and other corticosteroid drugs (such as prednisone). In many ways these drugs are close to “miracle medicines” in their ability to relieve inflammation, itchiness, and even the symptoms of cancer and nervous diseases.

But almost as quickly as we embrace the wonders of steroid therapies we are forced to recognize that they are seldom a “cure” for anything. The side effects associated with steroid drugs may be worse that the disease we wish to combat; almost immediately we can expect to see acute water retention and weight gain, and as time passes (often within two weeks), side effects may also include hypertension, altered mood and personality, heart attack, osteoporosis, and chronic illness due to depressed immune function. In many cases, antibiotics, strong diuretics, and mineral supplements become necessary just to antidote the corticosteroids.

To illustrate the implications of corticosteroid therapies all we need to do is look at how cortisone-like drugs actually work: they suppress the immune system functions and inflammatory responses that are responsible for an animal’s discomfort. By decreasing natural production of lymphocytes and antibodies, and by altering normal defensive functions of the body, corticosteroids can often make disease symptoms disappear very quickly. However, continued use of corticosteroids will eventually induce a serious state of immune deficiency that can be very difficult to reverse, and can even be fatal.

lick granuloma

Fortunately, licorice root may provide us with some safer options. Several studies have confirmed its usefulness as an effective, fast-acting, anti-inflammatory agent. In fact, many holistic practitioners use licorice as a substitute for anti-inflammatory drugs or to reduce an animal’s need for corticosteroids.

The anti-inflammatory activity of licorice root is primarily attributable to a chemical called “glycyrrhizin” present in the plant. Glycyrrhizin is similar to the natural cortisone that is released by the body’s adrenal glands. Glycyrrhizin effectively stimulates the adrenals into action, while introducing its own anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, immune-supporting corticosteroid-like actions to the body. As a result, licorice helps relieve pain, itching, and inflammation without completely bypassing normal anti-inflammatory functions, and without seriously compromising the immune system.

All of this makes licorice useful against a wide variety of inflammatory diseases. In a study where arthritis was induced into rats through injections of formaldehyde (I know this is terrible!), a by-product of glycyrrhizin called glycyrretic acid was produced in the body and was shown to have obvious anti-arthritic actions that are comparable to those of hydrocortisone.

Glycyrrhizin has also been shown to potentiate the effects of cortisone-like drugs in the body. This makes the herb a useful adjunct in corticosteroid therapies, as the drug-strengthening effect of licorice will allow for lower drug dosages without comprising therapeutic effectiveness. When used in this capacity licorice may help reduce the debilitating side effects of steroid drugs in long term therapies, and may also be useful in assuring safe withdrawal when the patient is weaned off of the steroids.

Licorice’s Skin Benefits for Dogs

The anti-inflammatory properties of licorice root are also useful when topically applied. Licorice tea, salve, or oil infusion can be used to relieve the uncomfortable symptoms of various skin disorders, such as psoriasis, eczema, contact dermatitis, and flea-bite allergies.

In this capacity, licorice provides a degree of relief while long-term holistic therapies are under way. For example, licorice may help alleviate a dog’s itching while a detox/allergy therapy consisting of internal doses of burdock, dandelion, alfalfa, or other alterative (blood-cleansing) herbs address the underlying metabolic causes through tonification of the involved body systems.

To make a simple oil infusion all you need is some chopped, dried licorice root (available at any good herb retailer) and some olive oil. Put the root into a glass jar and cover it with enough oil to leave a half-inch layer of liquid above the herb. Cover the jar tightly, put it a warm place (55° – 75°F), away from sunlight, and forget about it for one month. After a month, strain the oil through a sieve, and then squeeze what you can from the herb by wrapping it in unbleached muslin or cheesecloth. You now have sweet-tasting licorice oil that will keep for several months if refrigerated. Apply it topically to his skin as needed, but expect your companion to lick it off; it tastes like candy!

Canine Liver Benefits of Licorice

In addition to its powerful anti-inflammatory actions, licorice root is also useful in the treatment and prevention of many forms of liver disease. Over the past two decades, medical researchers in China and Japan have found (through animal studies) that extracts of licorice root are useful in the treatment of chronic and chemically induced hepatitis, and that the herb has liver-protectant qualities that are no less significant than those offered by the popular liver herb, milk thistle (Silybum marianum).

However, the mechanisms by which licorice root works in the liver are quite different from those of milk thistle. While milk thistle has been shown to resist liver cell destruction largely through protection of the cell walls and by antioxidant actions, licorice works through a broader diversity of effects.

In addition to a protectant action that glycyrrhizin has upon the liver cells, licorice also enhances interferon and T-cell production, two natural actions that are critical to liver repair and general resistance to disease.

In Chinese medicine, licorice is commonly used as a “liver detoxifier” in the treatment of obstructive jaundice. And in several studies licorice has been shown to benefit animals who are suffering from liver damage due to absorbed or ingested toxins, such as carbon tetrachloride.

Licorice’s for Dogs: Immune System Benefits

In a very recent study, the root of Glycyrrhizza uralensis (an Asian species of licorice) was found to have a potentiating effect on the reticuloendothelial system; the body’s first line of defense against infection. In essence, the reticulo-endothelial system is comprised of specialized cells whose jobs are to seek out and eliminate invading microbes and dead blood cells, and licorice helps to stimulate these little bloodstream warriors into action.

Using Licorice on Your Dog

Like all herbal medicines, a major problem with the use of licorice in animals is getting it into them, or keeping it on them. Here licorice affords us another comfort; it’s naturally sweet! In fact the sweet flavor of licorice is often used to mask the unpleasant flavor of other herbs.

Animals' Apawthecary's licorice tincture

The next time you give your dog an herb she hates, try adding a small percentage of low-alcohol licorice root extract (say 5 – 10 percent) to the total volume of the dose. You may find that the sweet flavor makes the administration experience more pleasant for both of you, and even if the “taste test” fails, you have potentiated your other herbs with the healing benefits of licorice!

In therapeutic applications involving animals, you are likely to find the best results when using liquid extracts (tinctures). Feeding dried, chopped roots to herbivores is fine if tolerated, but dogs and cats have very short digestive tracts that may not absorb the active constituents quickly and completely.

Herb tinctures are free-form medicines, with active constituents that are readily available and quickly assimilated early in the digestive process. This means that less active material will be lost during digestion, and more will end up in your dog instead of her waste.

Dosage is entirely dependent upon individual needs and circumstances and should be determined by a trained practitioner, but 12-20 drops per 20 lbs. of body weight, two times daily, of low-alcohol licorice extract is a conservative starting point for those who insist on proceeding without professional advice. You can double this amount if you are using a cooled tea (1 tsp. of the root to a cup of water).

Potential Licorice Side Effects on Dogs

Like all herbal medicines, the primary rule is moderation and insight when using licorice. Most herbalists and practitioners will agree that the risks of adverse side effects from licorice are limited to those who recklessly abuse it.

I have never seen a case of licorice-induced toxicity – but if used in large, highly concentrated doses (especially over long periods of time), it is conceivable that corticosteroid-like side effects could occur, including water retention, hypertension, and loss of potassium, sodium retention and other symptoms of adrenal hyperactivity. In human studies, the large majority of these side effects have been observed following the excessive consumption of European licorice candy, which is made from a very concentrated, pressed extract of the root. (Most licorice candy produced in America contains absolutely no real licorice, but instead an artificial flavoring or the extracts of other plants that taste similar). Nevertheless, licorice should not be used with reckless abandon or in normal doses for periods exceeding two weeks without the instructions of a qualified practitioner.

If a licorice therapy does exceed two weeks, then diet should be adjusted to accommodate increased needs for potassium, and to eliminate excess sodium. Dandelion would be well indicated here, as it works as an effective diuretic to prevent water retention while providing an excellent source of supplemental potassium. Animals with pre-existing cardiovascular conditions should not be given licorice without professional guidance.

Licorice has also been shown to have estrogenic properties that may affect uterine functions. Therefore, licorice should not be used in pregnant or nursing animals.

Dog Training Camp Programs

By
Nancy Kerns
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0

[Updated December 26, 2018]

Camping means different things to different people, but to dogs, camping means fun!

Like most things with the word “camp” in them, dog camps generally take place in the country and involve sleeping away from home. The camps come in two main types: intensive training-oriented seminars and “fun camps,” where dog-oriented socializing and entertainment are the order of the day.

hiking camp for dogs

Camp Gone to the Dogs, the oldest and most famous “fun camp,” has offered week-long vacations for people and their dogs at Vermont school campuses and country inns since 1990. “When we feature sports like agility and obedience,” says camp founder and director Honey Loring, “the emphasis is never on competition. Our goal is to have fun.”

In training-oriented camps, the focus is on in-depth education in canine sports and occupations, including competition obedience, Schutzhund, agility, flyball, tracking, field training (hunting), search and rescue, water sports, sheep herding, mushing, backpacking, clicker training, disc dog (Frisbee), and more.

Whether your concept of a vacation with your dog is relaxing or intense, and your idea of “camping” is electricity-free or just free of cable TV, there is a camp for you.

Picking the Right Camp for Your Dog

In fact, the selection is so bewildering that we consulted veteran camp enthusiast Dana Crevling for guidance. Crevling has attended and worked at more dog camps than she can remember, starting with Jack and Wendy Volhard’s Instructor School/Training Camp in the mid-1980s. Her own Competitive Edge Sports Camp is now in its fourth year.

Finding the right camp for you and your dog, says Crevling, involves many considerations. For example, would you and your dog be more comfortable in a large, active camp, or a quiet, more intimate program?

“Large camps offer things that small camps can’t,” Crevling says, “like a wide variety of staffing and activities, while small camps provide a more personal atmosphere and individual attention. People who haven’t thought this through often choose camps that aren’t good matches for their personality or learning style. Camps can be overwhelming. How do you and your dog cope with stress, distractions, busy schedules, crowds, and other dogs? Will the camp’s activity level be comfortable for both of you?”

Next, consider your interests and experience. Do you and your dog enjoy obedience? Agility? Flyball? Would you like to try herding? Lure coursing? Tracking? Are you interested in canine behavior, clicker training, or training in general? Do you want to take a qualifying test for a sport or activity?

“If all you want is an informal introduction to something you haven’t tried,” says Crevling, “most camps that offer it will be fine. But if you’re already working at an intermediate or advanced level, or if you want specialized training or individual attention, you’ll want to be more selective.”

In order to do this, be clear about your goals. Do you want to relax and play with your dog? Shave two seconds off your agility time? Earn a credential? Work with a specific trainer?

“Defining your goals,” says Crevling, “helps prevent the nightmare of finding yourself at the wrong camp, in a class that’s too elementary or too advanced, in sessions taught by someone other than the person you wanted to work with, or in classes that are too large or too small for comfort.”

Once you’ve zeroed in on the type of camp you want to attend, you have to consider the possible locations. Many of us won’t fly our dogs, which makes distance a deciding factor. However you get there, consider the effect that the trip will have on you and your dog. For best results, plan your travel so as to arrive with enough time to begin camp feeling relaxed, not frazzled.

Considerations for Choosing a Dog Camp

Once you know what you want, it’s time to research camp programs. “To make a good investment of time, money, and energy, start with basic research,” says Crevling. Many camps have websites that describe activities, staff, and accommodations. Contact the camps’ directors for more information, including referrals to campers who attended the previous year.”

As you research, ask the following:

How large is the camp? Some camps accommodate more than 250 participants and auditors (observers). That’s big! And some are so small, they limit attendance to 6 or 10. What size best suits you and your dog?

How is the camp organized? What is the camp’s layout? Are classes indoors or outdoors? Nothing beats fresh air and beautiful scenery, but what if it rains all week?

Is the camp a day camp or sleep-over camp? Day camps provide classes, lunch, and in some cases evening events, but campers are otherwise on their own. Sleep-over camps offer a total package with more camaraderie but less privacy.

Accommodations range from tents to dorm rooms, cabins, motels, and RV hookups. “If you’re a real comfort person,” warns Crevling, “you won’t enjoy a camp where you need a flashlight to find the bathroom.” Day camps provide a list of nearby dog-friendly motels and bed and breakfast inns, and many sleep-over camps do the same for those who prefer a more comfortable or more private room.

How are classes structured? “In a tightly structured camp,” says Crevling, “you know what time each class starts and ends and who’s teaching it. In a loosely structured camp, you’re given general topics for the day, and people rotate through stations, working on each concept or project until they complete it. To someone who likes a specific schedule, the relaxed approach seems unfocused and vague, and to someone who likes the relaxed approach, a fixed schedule is too rigid and arbitrary. Check previous schedules, contact the director, and talk to campers who have been there to be sure a camp’s classes will be a good fit for you and your dog.”

How large are the classes? Class size will help you compare prices, especially in sports where one person works with the instructor and everyone else waits. The importance of class size depends on your sport, how the camp is organized, and how much individual attention you want.

What is the camp’s philosophy? At one camp the focus might be on deepening your relationship with your dog, with instructors who are skilled people trainers as well as dog trainers. At another the focus might be on performance, with instructors taking a more businesslike approach. Training methods differ, too.

CAMPS FOR DOGS

Contact camps for session information and dates. Abbreviations for various training offerings are listed below.

A = Agility
B = Backpacking
C = Carting
CT = Clicker Training
D = Disc (Frisbee)
F = Flyball
H = Herding 
L = Lure Coursing
M = Musical Freestyle
O = Obedience
R = Rally Obedience
S = Search & Rescue
T = Tracking
TT = Tellington TTouch
W = Water Sports
+ = More
++ = Much More

Sleepover Camps for Dogs

The Getaway at Glen Highland Farm (A, CT, H, O, TT, ++)

Highland Vue, Morris, NY. (607) 263-5415

Camp Dogwood (A, B, C, D, F, H, L, O, R, T, ++, Fun camp)

Chicago, IL. (312) 458-9549

Camp Gone to the Dogs (A, CT, F, H, L, M, O, R, T, ++, Fun camp)

Putney, VT 05346. (802) 387-4673

Dogs Of Course (A, +)

Upton, MA. (508) 529-3568

Dog Scout Camp (A, B, CT, F, O, W, +)

Dog Scouts of America, St. Helen, MI. (989) 389- 2000

4-H “Fun with Your Dog” Camp (+)

Dana Palmer, 4-H Youth Programs, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853

Old Dominion K9 Search and Rescue Camp (S)

olddominionsar@hotmail.com, Appomattox, VA

Sheep Camp (H, CT)

Raspberry Ridge Sheep Farm, Bangor, PA. (610) 588-5262

Day Camps for Dogs

Agility Camp (A)

Orlando Dog Training Club, K. Clark. (407) 856- 4114

Agility Camp (A)

Shake-a-Paw Dog Training, (613) 258-1366

Camp “Waggin’ Train” (O)

Paws-Abilities, Tukwila, WA, (425) 277-3794

Clicker Agility Camp (A, CT, +)

Say Yes Dog Training, (610) 222-3645

Pawsitive Steps Agility Camp (A)

Kim Collins, (250) 964-1250

Power Paws Agility Camp (A)

Livermore, CA. (925) 294-8965

Volhard Training Camp & Instructor School (A, O, +)

Top Dog, FAX (540) 829-8153

Insider Tips from Veteran Campers

■ Policies vary from camp to camp, but sports and fun camps depend on campers to bring well-socialized dogs. Anyone with an extremely shy, fearful, or occasionally aggressive dog should consult with camp directors before registering. Dogs should not bark excessively.

■ Some camps require certain titles, training, or experience as prerequisites. Read contracts and waivers carefully before signing.

■ Bring appropriate equipment and food for your dog. Campers are expected to clean up after their dogs immediately and thoroughly. In most camps, dogs must be leashed unless specifically allowed off-leash. Dogs left in rooms must be crated and stay quiet. In most camps, state health regulations do not permit dogs in dining rooms, and some states prohibit smoking in all rooms.

■ In most cases, campers must be 18 or over, although some camps allow children age 13 to 17 if accompanied by an adult, and 4-H dog camps are specifically for children.

■ Most camps allow campers to bring two dogs, with an additional fee for the second dog. Some camps have special classes and play groups for puppies.

■ Females should not be in season. Vaccination requirements vary, but most camps require proof of rabies vaccination.

■ The more rustic or specialized the camp, the more campers are expected to be physically active.

■ Things you may want to bring: flashlight, alarm clock, lawn chair, camera, fan, tape recorder, sheet for placing under kennel, and cell phone (but keep it turned off during classes). Required at some camps: sleeping bag or sheets and blanket, pillow, and towels (for you and your dog!).

Other Considerations

“To compare camps fairly,” says Crevling, “you have to put them on an even playing field. How long does the camp last? Does the fee include your room and meals? Is there anything special about the food? Are classes limited in size, or is there open enrollment? Who are the instructors? What extras are included? What are your travel expenses? Will you need special equipment? Consider all the variables as you determine which camp offers the best value.”

ENROLL YOUR DOG IN CAMP: OVERVIEW

1. Make camp reservations as early as possible. Many summer camps are booked by the end of January, and most offer discounts for early enrollment.

2. If you and your dog are new to camping, look for a laidback program for your first experience. Camp can be overwhelming!

Liver Health in Dogs

By
Lorie Long
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4

LIVER HEALTH IN DOGS: OVERVIEW

1. Be alert to physical signs of liver problems: allergies, inflamed eyes, seizures, chronic anal sac problems, and digestive difficulties.

2. Consider a liver disorder as a possible contributor to the sudden onset of behavioral problems such as fearful aggression and separation anxiety.

3. Consult with a holistic veterinarian. She can diagnose liver problems, direct treatment, and assist you in planning changes in your dog’s diet.

Maryann, guardian of a young female terrier named Salsa, made an appointment for her veterinarian to spay her dog in the winter of last year. A couple of weeks after Maryann brought Salsa home from the veterinary clinic, Salsa began to vomit up her evening meal occasionally. Because Salsa exhibited her digestive upsets only once every two or three weeks, Maryann chalked the episodes up to an occasionally unsettled stomach. However, over the next few months, Salsa vomited her evening meal consistently, once every couple of weeks.

Later, Salsa began to show a growing sensitivity to loud noises, although the bangs and crashes that punctuate everyday life in a busy household were never an issue for Salsa in the past. Now she jumped and cowered when doors slammed or when Maryann dropped a pot lid on the kitchen floor. When spring arrived, Salsa became frightened of thunderstorms and hid in the clothes closet whenever a storm approached. Although Maryann’s veterinarian prescribed a mild sedative to help Salsa stay calm during a storm, Salsa remained agitated until the storm passed.

Unnerved by Salsa’s digestive problems and newly acquired sound sensitivity, Maryann decided to consult with a holistic veterinarian about these conditions. The doctor talked with Maryann about Salsa’s medical history, observed Salsa’s general demeanor in her office, and checked Salsa’s pulse and tongue. To Maryann’s surprise, the doctor advised her that she would be treating Salsa, using acupuncture and Chinese herbal combinations, for a liver disharmony.

Liver Health and Chinese Medicine

One of the main tenets of Traditional Chinese Medicine is that qi (also known as chi, and understood as life-force energy) courses throughout the body in pathways known as meridians. Each meridian follows and affects aspects of the physical systems of the body. For example, the liver meridian runs across and affects the actual liver, and travels throughout the body affecting related functions.

So, when a physical organ such as the liver is discussed, it’s implied that the organ’s associated “energy meridian” is also involved.

For this reason, a veterinarian who studies and uses Oriental Medicine may describe symptoms of different sorts of liver disease in terms of the organ’s physiological function (or dysfunction) and in terms of problems with the liver meridian’s energy flow. These problems may include an energy excess, deficiency, or imbalance.

Assaults or “insults” to any of the energetic meridians can cause a disharmony or imbalance in the organ and its associated system, which can manifest itself as a particular health problem in the dog.

Maryann’s holistic veterinarian explained that the anesthesia administered during the operation to spay Salsa probably caused an imbalance in the state of health of Salsa’s liver, the organ responsible for processing the anesthesia and eliminating it from her dog’s body. Most dogs can “right” themselves after they have experienced an assault of this kind to one of their organs, like the liver, but not always. If the imbalance is not treated, a dog may begin to display symptoms associated with a liver imbalance, such as digestive problems or certain inappropriate behavioral responses to her environment.

So, according to Maryann’s veterinarian, the disruption of the energy in Salsa’s liver, which governs certain bodily systems like her digestion, resulted in several physical and behavioral manifestations, most commonly referred to as “symptoms.” Although Salsa had received treatment to relieve her symptoms, in the form of a tranquilizer for her fearfulness, the root cause of her health condition remained unidentified and untreated.

Chinese Herbs for Liver Imbalances

Visit Dr. Chris Bessent’s website for information about Chinese herbal remedies. Holistic veterinarians prefer to meet their patients in person, but, if you do not have access to a local veterinary herbalist, you can order Chinese herbs with the guidance of an herbalist. After your dog has taken the recommended herbal combinations for several weeks, the herbalist will check on your dog’s progress and evaluate any changes in your dog’s condition. The herbalist will modify the recommended herbal remedy based upon this feedback.

Herbs that harmonize the liver generally decrease heat in the body, and are described as cooling herbs. Some herbal combinations contain minerals that calm the spirit, and some concentrate on moving fluids smoothly through the dog’s body. The following are some of the Chinese herbal combinations Dr. Bessent uses to rebalance a disharmonious liver:

LIVER SYMPTOM CHINESE HERBAL COMBINATION
Aggression Bupleurum and Dragon Bone decoction
Separation anxiety Zizyphus decoctions
Allergies Coptis Relieve Toxicity decoction
Inflamed eyes Gentian Drain the Fire decoction
Anal sac problems Gentian Drain the Fire decoction
Vomiting Rambling Powder
Seizures Gastrodia and Uncaria decoction
Diarrhea Coptis Relieve Toxicity decoction

Liver Disease in Dogs Indicates Systemic Illness

Dr. Chris Bessent, a veterinarian and a certified veterinary acupuncturist and Chinese herbalist, states that a majority of the cases she sees in her Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, practice have some liver involvement at some stage in the progression of symptoms. According to Dr. Bessent, our modern world introduces many stress factors into our dogs’ lives, such as the presence of toxins in the environment, treatment with repeated vaccinations or pesticides, emotional distress from lack of attention or training, and poor quality food or water.

Although conventional western medicine is slow to recognize that an excess of stress and extremes in emotions can translate into physical problems, holistic medical professionals have acknowledged this connection for a long time. It’s clear to holistic practitioners that there is a link between toxins or stress factors experienced by a dog to disharmony in the dog’s vital organs, which, in turn, may manifest in a seemingly unrelated symptom. At issue is the fact that conventional veterinarians may treat each individual symptom by suppressing it, such as prescribing a tranquilizer for a fearful dog, but they may not address the real, root cause of the problem.

Allopathic medicine offers few solutions to heal a diseased or malfunctioning canine liver. However, holistic medicine is very effective at treating the canine liver as the root cause of disease.

The Liver’s Role in Canine Health

The liver, located centrally in the dog’s body as the link between the breathing and circulatory activities of the chest and the digestive functions of the abdomen, works hard at its many tasks. The liver manufactures blood proteins and fat, and stores energy, fat-soluble vitamins, and iron. It removes drugs, chemicals, and other unusable substances from a dog’s body, and secretes the bile needed to digest food. The liver filters the blood to keep harmful bacteria from entering other parts of the body and prepares toxic waste materials for elimination by the kidneys. The liver operates as both a storage facility and a functional organ.

When Dr. Bessent sees a dog with health or behavioral problems for the first time, she diagnoses the dog using three resources or techniques:

• The owner’s account of the behavioral or physical abnormalities experienced by the dog, along with a physical examination of the dog in her office.

• Her own observation of the dog’s behavior in her office. A “disharmony of the liver” may cause an excess of heat in a dog’s body. An animal with a liver imbalance is always moving and does not sit in one place for very long. The dog may pant, drink more than usual, and/or exhibit thickened saliva.

• A tongue and pulse diagnosis. Taking the dog’s pulse on the inside of the dog’s rear legs, the doctor may feel that the pulse is taut, like a wire, sometimes called a “liver pulse.” The dog’s tongue may be purple or red, especially at the edges, indicating an imbalance in the liver.

When a dog’s liver is in a state of imbalance, she may present one or several behavioral and/or physical abnormalities. Although, at first glance, these abnormalities appear diverse and unrelated, their root cause can be found in the liver. Once Dr. Bessent has determined that a liver imbalance is the basis of the dog’s problem, she can treat the dog to rebalance the liver and relieve the root cause of the symptoms.

Liver Disease in Dogs

Behavioral manifestations of liver problems include both angry or aggressive responses as well as fearfulness. The emotions associated with the liver are anger, irritability, aggression, and frustration. A dog may display these emotions by excessively protecting her possessions, environment, or “space,” or by snapping or nipping. She may also display fearful aggression, like suddenly attacking a harmless visitor, separation anxiety, or a fear of loud noises and storms.

In essence, the dog is not settled in her world, and her actions are not responsive to normal behavior modification techniques. Dr. Bessent explains that harmonizing the dog’s liver, the source of these behavioral manifestations, can help normalize the dog’s reactions to its environment.

The physical manifestations of a liver imbalance include allergies, inflamed eyes, seizures, chronic anal sac problems, and digestive difficulties.

A dog with liver-related allergies experiences itching, especially in her paws, abdomen, head, and face. She may be hot to the touch, have red skin, and have weeping pustules. The dog’s coat may have a heavy, or phlegmy smell. Some dogs develop “stinky” ears not caused by a bacterial infection. These allergic reactions are the result of the dog’s hypersensitive response to toxins in her environment, which disrupts the energy flow in the dog’s liver and entire body, and increases the incidence and severity of future hypersensitive reactions.

Most allergic conditions are complicated because, if the root cause of the allergic reaction is not relieved, the dog’s body develops a general tendency to overreact to environmental allergens, and the effect becomes cumulative over time. As the allergic reactions continue to cascade and escalate, they become more difficult to treat.

Frequently, conventional veterinarians prescribe antihistamines and corticosteroids (prednisone, for example) to relieve the symptoms of allergies in dogs. However, steroids have a profoundly negative effect on the liver, and may eventually cause more harm than good, as higher doses are needed as time passes to control the increasingly severe allergic reactions from the dog.

Dr. Bessent recommends addressing allergies early, as soon as they begin to emerge in a dog, especially in young dogs. She finds that it takes only a few acupuncture treatments to rebalance a dog’s liver and reverse the allergic cascade, if managed right away.

A disharmony in the liver will likely cause inflamed eyes in the dog, either alone or in combination with other symptoms, and includes the development of a chronic discharge.

Seizures often result from a liver disharmony. Epilepsy, a diagnosis often arrived at by the process of elimination, may have its root cause in a liver imbalance. Traditionally, after examining the dog’s blood tests, doctors label a seizure condition for which the cause is unknown as epilepsy.

Dogs experiencing seizures from a liver disharmony are usually older, docile, slow-moving dogs. Their coats may be dull and they may have arthritis. Often, when these dogs are vaccinated, the insult from the vaccine imbalances their liver and they demonstrate a dramatic reaction, or seizure, to the change in their health equilibrium.

Although phenobarbital may stop the seizures, it does not balance any underlying disharmony of the liver. In many cases, this condition progresses to activate other problems, such as allergies and inflammatory bowel disease. Phenobarbital will not affect the evaluation of a pulse and tongue diagnosis, so a liver imbalance can be recognized even if the dog receives the drug. And, if the dog requires phenobarbital to control her seizures after receiving acupuncture treatments and herbal remedies, the holistic treatment may enable the dog to avoid seizures with a reduced dosage of the drug, or stop the advance of the condition into other symptoms.

The liver controls the perineum, or pelvic and anal regions of the dog’s body. Chronic anal sac problems, chronic diarrhea, and bowel problems all indicate an overreaction of the liver due to an imbalanced state.

Holistic practitioners attribute many digestive problems to liver disharmony. Chronic vomiting, especially in the late evening, when the liver is most active, indicates the involvement of the liver. Dogs suffering from a liver imbalance often vomit bile, and develop a pattern of vomiting that persists for a long time. Though vomiting may not occur very often, a dog may vomit once a week or once a month, but does so consistently.

Treating Liver Disorders in Dogs

Be aware that seemingly unrelated patterns of behavior and health problems can come from the same root source, such as a liver imbalance, and the root source can be effectively treated holistically.

Provide good general health maintenance for your dog, including feeding the highest quality food possible and offering the purest water.

Provide moderate exercise for your dog on a regular basis. The liver maintains the smooth flow of blood and qi in a dog’s body, and exercise keeps the liver efficient.

Minimize the sources of frustration and emotional upset in your dog’s life.

Address health problems with a holistic veterinarian when they first occur. That’s when they are easiest to fix.

Learn acupressure techniques for use at home in preparation for a visit to a healthcare professional. Holistic support can help tip the scales in your dog’s favor at the very start of a problem.

Recognize and Minimize the Toxic Insults Sustained By Your Dog’s Liver:

Avoid elective surgical procedures that require anesthesia, or group them together. For instance, have a radiograph of your dog’s hips taken at the same time your dog receives anesthesia for a dental procedure.

Don’t overvaccinate your dog. Consider testing your dog’s titer levels to check her existing antibody levels before vaccinating her.

Minimize the use of environmental toxins, such as lawn chemicals, carpet cleaners, carpet and fabric deodorizers, and insect sprays in or near your home. Use nontoxic alternatives whenever possible.

Minimize the use of pharmaceuticals known to have a significant, negative impact on the liver, including Rimadyl and prednisone. Consider using alternative treatments, especially on young dogs, like acupuncture, Chinese herbs, and nutritional supplements like MSM (methylsulfonylmethane) or glucosamine. Use the pharmaceuticals, if needed, in your dog’s later years.

Feed Your Dog’s Liver:

Use good nutrition to help keep your dog’s liver healthy, or to help mend an imbalanced liver. Avoid feeding fatty dry foods that are difficult to digest. Generally, veterinarians suggest that a dog with liver involvement in his health problems should receive a low-fat, low-protein diet.

Feed more than once a day, preferably two (or three times for sick dogs) to manage and balance the load placed on the liver.

Choose easily digestible foods that nourish the liver and blood, such as non-oily fish, rabbit, chicken, beets, spinach, chard, kale, squash, broccoli, and cabbage.

Consult with your veterinarian about adding B-vitamins and lecithin to your dog’s diet. These nutritional substances support the liver by helping to digest fat and assisting in circulation.

The Holistic Approach to Healthy Livers in Dogs

A conventional western veterinarian will likely prescribe a pharmaceutical to suppress a dog’s symptoms, like a drug to coat and soothe an upset stomach. A holistic veterinarian like Dr. Bessent will treat a dog with acupuncture, and send the dog home with a recommended Chinese herbal remedy to rebalance the dog’s liver.

Holistic practitioners look for the root cause of a dog’s symptoms, although imbalances in one organ or system can throw off a related organ or system and create additional health problems. An imbalance of the liver manifests itself in certain ways that are distinct from the conditions manifested by imbalances of other organs and systems. For instance, swelling would most likely develop from an imbalance of the spleen, which is responsible for moving fluids through the body.

Dog owners can add adjunct measures, like nutritional support and acupressure, to the acupuncture and Chinese herbal combinations provided by holistic veterinarians to help heal or rebalance their dog’s liver.

Dr. Bessent cautions that liver imbalances are particularly difficult to harmonize in certain dogs. If a dog has what she describes as a “liver constitution,” then the dog may have a lifelong tendency to develop a liver condition as the result of any “insult” or problem elsewhere in her body. Throughout her life, her owner must work to strengthen the dog’s liver and quickly respond to an imbalanced state with proper treatment.

Older dogs, especially those with long-standing cases of liver-related problems, and who have been medicated for years with strong drugs that assault the liver, may not rebalance easily. The ultimate target for treatment success may be stabilization and the satisfactory management of liver-related conditions.

With the help of your holistic veterinarian, consider the role an imbalance of the liver may play in your dog’s health problems, and review the holistic care options available to help your dog rebalance her liver. Treatment is highly successful, and your dog’s liver will receive the support it needs to do its job for your dog.

Acupressure for Liver Problems in Dogs

The acupressure points for the liver are located on the dog’s back and inside the dog’s hind legs, with five points on the right side of the dog’s body, and five points on the left side.

Place the dog on her side in a quiet, comfortable place in your house. Get away from high traffic areas, the television, telephone, and other potential disturbances.

Using the photo below as a guide, feel for the deepest depression under your dog’s skin and press lightly on the depression, or massage the point in a circular, counter-clockwise motion.

Continue the treatment at each point for 30 seconds to two minutes. Treat each side of your dog’s body one time.

Acupressure is easy to learn and very effective. If done correctly, your dog will fall sound asleep, signaling the arrival of qi (or life force) in her body. Even if you miss the exact acupressure point, your dog will get a wonderful massage that will relieve stress, settle her mind, and make you both feel great!

Visit your holistic veterinarian for a thorough evaluation of your dog’s health condition and potential treatments.

Lorie Long is a freelance writer living in Oriental, North Carolina with two Border Terriers, Dash and Chase. All three are addicted to agility.

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