With hundreds of dog foods on the market, many of them similar in terms of ingredients and nutritional value, the factor that determines which one gets bought is how well the manufacturer can convince the consumer that its food is superior to the others. Most of the time, the only place they can accomplish this is at the point of sale, where the only information available is on the label itself.
Lately, the label game has heated up. The claims being made range from the subtle to the ridiculous, and truth is sometimes stretched to its outermost limits – or beyond. The consumer must be wary and consider exactly what the claims actually mean, given the way they are worded. For instance, I’ve seen foods that claim to be “nutritional,” which is meaningless in this context, though possibly close enough to “nutritious” to fool a naïve consumer.
Abject adjectives and nonsense nouns
One of the most common ploys is to use words like “higher,” “better,” “best,” “superior,” and “more” without making a specific comparison. For instance, Science Diet Canine Maintenance claims it has “higher levels of Vitamins C & E,” but what they are higher than is not specified. Are they higher than other foods? Which other foods? Or are they higher than the last formulation of Science Diet Canine Maintenance?
Iams Chunks for adult dogs states, “Now more chicken per bowl.” More than what? (Because this statement includes the word “Now,” it probably means there is currently more chicken per bowl than Iams Chunks used to have. This claim is only allowed for six months, according to regulations on “new and improved” label claims.) Pedigree, you will be glad to know, is “now more nutritious.” Does this mean it wasn’t nutritious before?
Eukanuba wins hands-down for the best trademarked, registered (and made-up) catch phrases on their labels. Their “Eukanuba Vital Health System™” includes a “DigestiCare™” component as well as “OmegaCOAT® Nutritional Science,” resulting in “Results Oriented Nutrition®.” Throw in tinted windows and anti-lock brakes, and you’ve got yourself a deal!
I also like the ultra-sincere “letter to concerned dog owners” that Bil-Jac uses on its label, touting its “nutritional integrity.”
Bad science
Dog food companies are very scientific these days. VitaRX is “Scientifically engineered,” Nutro is “Scientifically balanced,” and Premium Edge says that its trademarked seals “mean that your pet is receiving the science of complete and balanced pet nutrition.”
Purina Dog Chow states that “each ingredient is selected for its role in delivering the 36 key nutrients dogs require.” This makes sense, because the standard nutrient profiles list 36 separate nutrients that must be present. In contrast, all Science Diet formulas contain “at least 50 nutrients from high quality ingredients.” What are the other 14 nutrients? Do dogs really need them? Who knows?
Authority Adult Chunks says that its New Zealand lamb is an “excellent source of high quality protein” and that it “supplies calcium and phosphorus for strong bones.” This is technically true – lamb contains all the essential amino acids for dogs, and it does contain both calcium and phosphorus. However, lamb is a poor source of taurine compared to poultry and fish; and like all meat, contains an extremely unbalanced ratio of calcium (less than 59 mg per pound) to phosphorus (762 mg per pound). Inferring that lamb is a significant source of calcium is a very big stretch.
Human appeal
Obviously, the pet food makers are well aware of the trends in human nutrition, and they are happy to work all the same angles as human food makers. For instance, the American consumer’s obsession with body image has not gone unnoticed. ProPlan illustrates body condition scoring, so you can tell if your Pug is too pudgy. Several foods emphasize that they do not contain “excess calories” that are evidently lurking in other brands.
Not surprisingly, many pet food manufacturers are suddenly making much ado about antioxidants, which have been big news in human nutrition. Many of Science Diet’s labels feature a banner with the words, “Superior* Antioxidant Formula;” the asterisk refers to a box directly below noting, “*Higher levels of vitamin C & E promotes (sic) healthy immune systems.”
What goes in…
The quantity and quality of stool is still a popular subject on dog food labels. Numerous foods pledge smaller, firmer stools, including Petsmart’s Authority, Eukanuba, and ProPlan. Nutro promises “guaranteed smallest stool volume.”
But my favorite is Nature’s Recipe, because (according to the label) if your dog eats that food, he will have “small, firm, easy to clean stools.”
When you eat fiber, do you produce “smaller, firmer stools”? Sorry to ask such a personal question, but according to the label of Premium Edge, that’s the result of including beet pulp – what they call “an excellent source of fiber for your pet” – in their foods. According to my medical texts, dietary fiber increases fecal weight, softness, and volume. It also results in an increased frequency of defecation.
What do choosy shoppers do?
Obviously, dog food makers didn’t invent the art of prevarication. Savvy consumers understand that most label claims must be considered no more than entertaining reading. When selecting a food, as always, your dog’s appearance, weight, energy level, coat quality, and appetite are the best indicators of a food’s true digestibility, quality, and compatibility with his individual needs.
Bailey, my Airedale, will be 15 years old this year. He doesnt look or even act that old; he has just the slightest trace of arthritis, but his skin and coat are healthy and lustrous. You would never know that he experienced terrible skin problems for the first nine years of his life.
Starting when he was not quite a year old, Baileys back would break out in sores, and he would chew the sores until they were raw. The veterinarian I took my dogs to at the time thought it was due to fleas; she recommended giving Bailey a flea bath. Within 24 hours of his first flea bath, Baileys entire body had broken out in sores, and it took months for them to heal.
This experience was just a hint of things to come. For nine years, I treated Bailey with conventional medicine. I tried every kind of premium commercial dog food there was and used at least 15 different brands of shampoo, each of them designed to relieve itching. Bailey had allergy shots bi-weekly, and was on oral Prednisone daily. Sometimes Bailey looked and felt better, showing small signs of improvement, but then suddenly he would get worse again, with no trigger that was apparent to either my husband or me. Wed try a new shampoo or food, and when it helped wed think, Okay, weve got it this time! But inevitably, Bailey would begin itching and scratching again.
As frustrating as this experience was, I was under the impression that these were fairly typical dog-owning occurrences. However, my entire viewpoint on the conventional treatment of Baileys allergies changed dramatically the day Bailey started having internal bleeding an allergic reaction to antibiotics that the specialist in veterinary dermatology had prescribed for an apparent bacterial skin infection. You can imagine my horror; Bailey bled from his eyes, nose, and from the sores on his back. When the veterinarian gave Bailey a vitamin K injection to stop the bleeding, Bailey even bled from the injection site for six hours. It took several days for Bailey to improve, and I was very scared we were going to lose him.
I didnt allow myself to feel aggravated about the course of treatment until it was clear that Bailey was out of the woods. Then I began to obsess on how ridiculous the whole situation was, for the medicine that was supposed to help Bailey nearly killed him! I decided at that point to look into alternative ways to help Bailey.
Researching alternatives I first started reading books and articles about how detrimental commercial foods for dogs can be, due to the pesticides and toxins that can be in the food. I also read that most of the nutrients are cooked out of the foods; dog food makers must add vitamins and minerals to the food so that it will sustain dogs at all! It started to occur to me that Baileys problems could be a result of poor nutrition, so I looked for a book that dealt with canine nutrition. I found Dr. Richard Pitcairns book, Natural Health for Dogs & Cats, which included lots of information about homemade diets for dogs and introduced me to the concept of holistic veterinary care.
What I read intrigued me so much that I decided to consult a holistic veterinarian about Baileys allergies. By contacting the American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association (AHVMA), I was able to obtain a list of holistic vets in my state and found one right in my home town of Minneapolis. I immediately called and scheduled an appointment.
I wasnt sure of what to expect from that appointment, and I certainly didnt realize the magnitude of how that appointment would change my life and my animals lives.
The first thing that the vet told me to do was to change Baileys diet to a raw, natural diet. The goal, he said, was to get close to the diet that a wolf might eat. He recommended using Sojourner Farms food as a base and adding raw organic meat and raw green vegetables, especially broccoli, parsley, zucchini, and cooked yams (which are a natural sources of cortisone). Sojourner Farms food is a mix of oatmeal, rye, cornmeal, wheat germ, ground pecans, dried kelp, and herbs; you add warm water to the mix, let it soak, and then add meat and vegetables. In addition to this food, the veterinarian recommended adding supplements of vitamins C and E and tons of garlic. These supplements act as powerful antioxidants and help detoxify the body, necessary for any animal living in our stressful and polluted environment.
Second, the veterinarian recommended I take Bailey off of the Prednisone he had taken for nine years. The Prednisone, he said, was only suppressing Baileys immune system and not allowing his body to deal with the allergies. We needed to build up Baileys immune system, not suppress it, he said. In his opinion, the allergy shots were just a waste of time and money, and he recommended that I stop those, too.
He also suggested that Bailey lose some weight he estimated that Bailey was about 10 pounds overweight. Obese dogs often display certain concomitant health problems, such as skin problems, behavioral problems, and arthritis; it puts undue strain on the body to have to digest extra food when the dog is fed too much, he said.
The last thing the veterinarian said to me was that it often takes an animal two months to detoxify for every year he or she was given steroids. I immediately calculated in my head two months times nine years would mean 18 months before I could expect Bailey to be free of the effects of Prednisone in his body? This was a profound and prophetic statement.
Life-altering plan This veterinarians plan made sense to my husband and me, and we decided to pursue it with enthusiasm. We started the natural diet, slowly stopped the Prednisone and allergy shots, and eventually got Baileys weight down to optimum. Slowly, I began to see small improvements in his condition. He didnt have as many sores, he wasnt as itchy all the time, and he needed fewer baths.
Baths! That was something else. The veterinarian had recommended a shampoo called Lightning Organic Dog Shampoo, which has a citronella base. It really cleanses the animals skin, not just the coat, getting all the debris off the skin so new sores wouldnt erupt and bacterial infections couldnt start. It cleanses so thoroughly that you actually have to put a small amount of baby oil in the rinse water to replenish the oils in the skin.
Baileys new health plan was not an overnight success; it did take the full 18 months that the veterinarian had predicted it would to thoroughly detoxify Bailey after his many years of Prednisone. But we were encouraged by the steady improvements we saw in Baileys skin, coat, and even his temperament. Bailey had always been an obedient, well-mannered dog, but for the first nine years of his life, while he was afflicted with allergies and the conventional allergy treatments, he was also a slightly tense, anxious dog. He was aggressive toward other dogs, and seemed very independent and standoffish to us.
After just a few months on his new diet, my husband and I noticed that Bailey was loosening up, gradually becoming more demonstrably loving and affectionate. Hes much more accepting of his environment and any animals who want to greet him. Whether his former edgy personality was due to the constant irritation he experienced from allergies, or effects of all the medication he was on, Ill never know, but his inner anxiety has definitely dissipated.
Starting out right To further emphasize how vitally important a nutritious, natural diet is for a dog, about two years ago I adopted a one-year-old Wire Haired Fox Terrier from a rescue group. When I got him, Christophers coat was dry and frizzy, and although you could sort of see color tones of tan, black, and white (these dogs are usually tri-colored), he basically looked like a muted gray; none of the colors was very distinct. Since I already had Bailey on a natural diet, I fed Christopher the same food and supplements. Within 10 days I couldnt believe it was only 10 days his coat started changing, almost in front of my eyes! Every day, the tan on his head would turn a more copper, tan color, the black turned a richer, darker black, and the white on his body turned brilliant white! Within two to three weeks, he looked like a completely different dog. The texture of his coat also went from dry and frizzy to soft, silky, and curly. It was truly a sight to see.
Feeding a dog fresh foods definitely costs a little more, especially when you have a multi-dog household like ours. But what we have saved in veterinary bills has more than made up for the money we spend on fresh meat and vegetables and the dogs are really, truly happy and healthy.
-By Veronica Thouin
Veronica Thouin is a WDJ reader from St. Paul, Minnesota.
Have you ever watched the impressive Open Obedience competition at a dog show? If so, you may have been impressed by the long Sits and Downs, where all of the dogs do a group Sit-Stay for three minutes with the owners out of sight behind a barrier or in another room. They also demonstrate a Down-Stay for a full five minutes with the owners nowhere to be seen.
If you struggle to make your dog stay in the car when you open the door, you may find those show ring achievements downright awe-inspiring. As you should! It is awesome to see a dozen or more dogs sitting shoulder to shoulder amidst all the distractions of a dog show, stoically awaiting their owners’ return, and it takes a serious commitment to training to accomplish this feat.
Fortunately, teaching your dog to stop leaping out of open car doors, running out the front door when visitors open it, or getting too far ahead of you on an off-leash trail, are attainable goals for any dog owner who is willing to make a commitment of a few minutes a day to the training project.
However, in each of the latter situations, where many people might ask their dogs to “Stay,” I would use the cue “Wait,” saving the “Stay” cue for different situations. To my dogs, “Wait” means “Pause,” and “Stay” means “Don’t move from the position you’re in until I tell you it’s time to get up.” If I’m getting out of my car, I use the “Wait” cue, since what I really mean is “Don’t jump out of the car,” not “Freeze and don’t move until I return.”
If I use the word “Stay” in this scenario, I damage my dog’s understanding of the Stay cue and behavior. Dogs can only learn one meaning for a particular cue. Humans can understand that the word “down” might mean lie down on the ground, get off the sofa, don’t jump on me, or go down the stairs. Dogs can’t make those distinctions.
Most owners actually mean “Wait” when they say “Stay.” Think about it. When you leave your dog home while you go to work, do you say “Stay!” as you walk out the door? You don’t really want him to sit frozen by the door all day, do you? You are really asking him to pause for a moment or two, not “Sit right there until I return.”
You can, of course, continue to use “Stay” to mean “Wait” and use a different word, like “Freeze,” for his formal Stay. Whichever cue you choose, remember to be consistent and use each cue for its specific intended behvavior. Otherwise you risk muddling both commands in the dog’s mind.
Teaching the “Wait”
I have my dogs Wait every time they go in and out a door to the outside world. This gives me a great opportunity to remind them to defer to me at least a half-dozen times a day, thereby reinforcing their good manners. It’s also a great safety reminder. An open door is not an open invitation to go charging out into the big wide world.
One of the easiest ways to teach the Wait behavior is by using a door, preferably a door that your dog wants to go through, and one that opens to a safe, enclosed yard, garage, or other room. Most dogs are eager to go outside. It usually means a romp in the yard, a walk on the leash, or a ride in the car. You can use this to your advantage by teaching your dog that it’s calm behavior – sitting at the door – not pushy behavior, that gets the door to open.
Put your dog on a leash, stash a healthy supply of treats in your pocket, and have your reward marker handy, such as a Click! or the word “Yes!” (For more information about using a reward marker in training, see “Tricks for Clicks,” May 2000.) Walk up to the door and ask your dog to sit. Click! and treat. Move your hand halfway to the doorknob. If he’s still sitting, Click!, treat, and tell him he’s a good boy.
If, however, he gets up when you move your hand halfway to the door, say “Oops!” and have him sit again, and reduce the challenge. Move your hand four inches toward the doorknob. If he’s still sitting, Click! and treat. If he gets up when you move, try moving just two inches. When you find the increment of motion that doesn’t cause him to get up, work at that distance for several repetitions, clicking and treating each time. Then try moving your hand a little farther. Do several repetitions at each increment until you can reach all the way to the door knob without your dog getting to his feet. Don’t forget to praise him in addition to the clicks and treats!
Don’t be tempted to jump too far ahead, even if your dog is holding the Sit; you never know when you’ll hit upon the part of the door opening process that will trigger a “Oh boy! I get to rush out!” response. Continue the incremental approach. Jiggle the knob. Click! and treat for sitting. If he gets up, say “Oops!” have him sit and repeat the step, but do a smaller jiggle. When you find the level of knob-jiggle where your dog can succeed (where he stays sitting), do several repetitions of that, clicking and treating for each repetition. Next you get to open the door – but only a crack. Click! and treat him for staying in the sit position. If he gets up, say “Oops!,” close the door and try again, with a smaller crack this time.
By closing the door when he makes a mistake and gets up, you are using negative punishment – making the good thing go away. The more eager he is to go out, the quicker he will realize that the way to get the door to open is to keep sitting. Once he has learned the Wait you can fade the use of the Click! and treat. Since what he really wants is to go through the door, you can sometimes give him a “life reward” by telling him to go out.
Some dogs will “get it” in just one session. Others will need to practice over a period of several days or more, depending on their energy level and attention span – and yours! Any time you feel you or your dog getting frustrated in a training session, take a break after doing one easy, fun behavior that you both like so you end the session on a happy note.
Adding the cue
In a positive training program, you add the verbal cue for a new behavior only after you know your dog will do the behavior, not before. This is because you want him to associate the word with the right response, not the wrong one. Once your dog will remain sitting as you open the door, you can add the Wait cue. In essence, you are telling him that the behavior he is now doing is called Wait.
Other applications for Wait
When your dog understands Wait in one situation, you can extend it to other situations. Practice in the car, so he also understands that an open car door is not an invitation to jump out. You’ll be amazed at how nice it is to have a moment or two to pocket your keys, or even tie your shoes before your dog jumps out of the car! You’ll also appreciate being able to use Wait to ask your dog to pause if he is wandering too far ahead of you when you are on an off-leash outing, or about to follow the wrong person out the gate of the dog park.
How “Stay” is different
I teach my dogs the formal Stay behavior for those instances when I absolutely need them to remain frozen in their places. For example, when I walk down my driveway in the morning to get the newspaper, my dogs all accompany me, but only to a point near the end of the driveway. I don’t want them going near the main road, so I tell them all “Down,” and then “Stay.” For their own safety, they must remain where they are, not follow me across the road.
Another useful application of Stay is when you are with your dog off-leash and you see something approaching that you absolutely do not want your dog to chase or go near. Say you are washing your car in your driveway, and your dog is lying on your front porch when you see a boy on a skateboard coming up the sidewalk. Having a dog that will Stay reliably on cue in this situation is a real blessing. I also use Stay when a delivery person comes to the door, so I can sign the forms and accept a package without having to worry about any of the dogs slipping out or scaring the bearer of gifts away!
I should mention that Stay is a much more challenging exercise than Wait. It takes more focus and concentration for both you and your dog. When teaching Stay, you have a greater responsibility; once you tell your dog to stay, you can’t forget and go off to start dinner or work on the car.
Consider this
Until the advent of positive dog training, Stay was taught by punishing the dog, sometimes severely, for moving out of position. While many dogs did learn reliable Stays by this method, they also often learned to associate the return of their owners with fear and pain. Fortunately, there are several ways to teach a positive Stay without the use of force and pain.
Before you begin, it’s important to recognize that Stay has three elements of difficulty: duration, distraction, and distance. Duration is the length of time the dog remains in place, distraction is the reliability of the dog’s Stay in the presence of distractions, and distance is the distance you can move away from the dog. It is critically important to work on the length of time and distractions before you work on distance. If your dog won’t do a reliable Stay with distractions when you are standing in front of him, it is wholly unreasonable to expect him to do it when you are across the room.
The most common mistake people make in teaching Stay is advancing too quickly. If you ask your dog for too much, he’s likely to make a mistake, and you may be sorely tempted to correct him for “breaking” the Stay. Remember: You want him to succeed so you can reward him for doing the right thing. You can use negative punishment here if necessary (dog’s behavior makes a good thing go away), but it’s more effective to create opportunities to Click! and treat.
Positive Stays
Start by asking your dog to Sit. Tell him he’s a good dog, then hold up a treat. After one second, feed him the treat (calmly, so he doesn’t jump up), then use a release word and encourage him to get up (I’ll talk about release words in just a moment). You can praise him for getting up, but don’t Click! the release, since it’s the Stay behavior that you want to reinforce and reward. When he is Staying for several seconds at a time you can add the verbal Stay cue in a pleasant tone of voice while he is staying. Owners tend to want to say “Stay!” harshly, as an order. Remember that you aren’t trying to intimidate your dog into Staying, you are using the word as a cue for a behavior.
Cue for release
The release word is a cue that means “Get up now, the Stay is over.” Lots of people use the word “Okay,” and the only problem is that it’s a word used frequently in conversation. I do use “Okay” as my release word, and this means that I have to be careful when I’m around my dogs. If my dogs are on a down-stay at the beach and I turn to my husband and say, “Okay, let’s eat the picnic lunch now,” whoops … there go our dogs!
I’ve heard people use a variety of other cues for the release, including “All done,” “You’re free,” “Break time,” “Release,” and “At ease.” Use just about any word or phrase you want; your words mean nothing to your dog until you give them meaning.
Gradually increase difficulty
When your dog is staying for one second in the Sit-Stay, extend the time to 2 seconds. Then increase the stay to 4, then 7 seconds. Then 10. If you’re not good at estimating time by counting in your head, you can use a stop-watch or have someone else count for you. Don’t use a timer – the dog will start releasing himself when he hears the “Ding!”
As the Stays get longer you can Click! and reward during the Stay, then remind him not to move, with another verbal cue, since he may think the Click! ends the Stay. Reward with treats several times during the Stay, then release him before he decides to get up on his own. Remember, you want him to succeed.
If your dog does get up before you release him, whisk the treat behind your back (This is the negative punishment part. His behavior – getting up – makes the good thing – the treat – go away.) When he sits again, the treat comes back out – and he gets it after he stays again, for at least a second at first, then longer as he gets better at Stay. (This is the positive reinforcement part: His behavior – sitting and staying – makes a good thing – the treat – happen.)
As the Stays get longer, you can also start “fading” the treat so you don’t have to hold it in front of his nose to get him to stay. Over a series of stay repetitions, gradually relax your arm until the treat-hand is at your side. During this process you can still whisk it away if he gets up. As he gets more confident about the Stay, you can start asking for the behavior without a treat in your hand at all. Click! when he stays for you, and get the treat out of your pocket or off a table or shelf. He will soon Stay without the visible treat as the incentive.
The process for Down-Stay is exactly the same, except your dog is in the Down position instead of the Sit position.
Adding distractions
Once your dog will Stay for 10-20 seconds you are ready to add small distractions. Ask him to Stay and take one small step to the side, then step in front of him again. Click!, reward, and release. Do another Stay and take a hop on one foot. Click!, reward, release. Gradually build the distractions until your dog will Stay as you hop up and down without stopping, do jumping jacks, clap your hands, sit or lie down on the ground in front of him, spin in circles, bounce a ball, have someone go by on a skateboard – or whatever other creative distractions you can invent.
Gradually is the keyword here. You want your dog to succeed. If you go directly from one hop to the skateboard you’ll probably lose him. Gradually is also subjective, depending on your dog. Bailey the Bloodhound may progress to a 20-second Stay in the first session, while excellence for Chili Pepper the Chihuahua may be 3 seconds. Some dogs will achieve a solid Stay at a distance, with distractions, within a few weeks; others will take longer.
Adding distance
When your dog is doing 20- to 30-second stays with distractions you are ready to start working on distance. Now you should lower your expectations for the other two elements: shorten the time and remove the distractions.
Ask your dog to Stay and take one step away. Click!, return, reward, and release. Gradually increase the distance, remembering that you want to add distance slowly so your dog will succeed.
It’s important to always return to your dog to reward and release him. You want the Stay to be rock-solid. If you start calling your dog to you from the Stay, he may start breaking the Stay in anticipation of the joy of running to you – and the reward that ends the Stay. If he thinks the Stay is never over until you return to him, the behavior will become reliable. Only in higher training levels do you occasionally call him from a Stay. Even then, you will want to return and release 10 times for every one time you call him to you.
Final step: combine elements
Once your dog will Stay at a distance, you can combine all of the elements. Again, lower the bar by adding distractions when you are one step, then three steps, then five steps away from your dog, always returning to him to reward and release.
At this point you can even start leaving the room while he is on a Stay, briefly at first. Take one step out, step back in, return, reward, and release. Gradually increase the length of time you stay out of sight. You can set up a mirror in the doorway if you want to keep an eye on your dog, always remembering that you want to return before he moves out of his Stay position. Again, you want him to succeed. If he makes several mistakes in a row and you return each time to try the stay again he is learning that the “mistake” of breaking the Stay makes you return to the room. Any time he starts making mistakes, return to an easier version of the exercise and get several successes in a row before you raise the bar again.
Whether your goal is to get your dog to park himself on a down-stay while you cross the street to fetch your paper, or you have visions of you and your dog earning a perfect 200 score together in the Obedience ring, you can get there with a positive stay – no harsh words, no collar corrections, and no damage to the relationship of trust and respect that you and your dog value so highly.
Read any good puppy contracts lately? Probably not. Health and placement guarantees, spay and neuter requirements, limited registration and other legal details are important, but they can (yawn) put you right to sleep. Well, that used to be true, but today some breeders are writing contracts that leave people rubbing their eyes in disbelief because they contradict everything mainstream veterinary medicine recommends. These contracts require puppy buyers to feed an all-raw diet, avoid routine vaccinations, and use holistic therapies instead of conventional veterinary care.
Although she no longer has time to breed the Basset Hounds that remain her first love, Marina Zacharias of Jacksonville, Oregon, is well-positioned to observe this growing trend. A disciple of Juliette de Bairacli Levy, one of the earliest advocates for an all-natural diet for dogs and cats, Zacharias’ Natural Rearing philosophy has shaped the lives of dogs, cats, and other animals around the world for half a century. She publishes a bi-monthly newsletter as well as an annual directory of breeders who rely on nutrition and natural therapies to prevent and treat health problems in dogs and cats.
“Every responsible breeder wants the best for every puppy,” she says. “We all want our dogs to be healthy, intelligent, happy, and loved. A good breeder wants to know what kind of person you are, where you live, what kind of lifestyle you have, and what kind of match you would make with different puppies. What has changed in the minds of many breeders is the realization that commercial pet food, routine vaccinations, flea chemicals and symptom-suppressing drugs cause more problems than they solve.”
A Healthy Diet is the Most Common Requirement of Holistic Breeders
Zacharias saw the difference a natural diet makes when she bought her first Basset 13 years ago. “He had been raised on a premium-quality food for the first five and a half months of his life,” she says. “I switched him over to a raw-food diet, which he had a much easier time digesting, and he grew very well. When he was 18 months old, I saw some of his littermates, and the contrast was amazing. He had been one of the smaller puppies in the litter, and now he was the largest. His coat, bone density, posture, eyes, disposition, and alertness were superior.
“It works the other way around, too,” she says. “I know breeders who raised their puppies on raw food and sent them to show homes where their diets were changed. When they saw the pups in show-handling class a few weeks later, their coat quality and bone density had deteriorated and they didn’t look as well as they used to. It’s not that a raw-food diet pushes growth, which would be unhealthy, but it meets the animal’s genetic potential by providing all the nutrients the body needs to grow properly.”
Breeders who feed a natural diet do more than strengthen individual dogs; they improve their entire lines. Barbara Werner, who raises Golden Retrievers in New Jersey, produced a second generation of raw-food puppies last spring. “This was my first litter from a dog who has been on raw food all her life, which is four years, and the difference was dramatic,” she says. “She showed none of the signs of nutritional stress that are common in pregnancy. Her coat stayed gorgeous, her labor was short, and she produced nine strong, lively pups that landed on their feet. This is a breed so prone to autoimmune disorders and cancer that one veterinarian told me a three-year-old Golden is now considered middle-aged. I find this attitude unacceptable. The puppies’ 11-year-old grandfather is still so vibrant, he wins show ribbons.”
Dog Ownership Contracts as Education Tools
Raw-food diets are intimidating to the uninitiated not because they are difficult to prepare but because they are unfamiliar. “Don’t forget that we have all been brainwashed to believe that dogs should eat processed dog food and that raw bones are bad,” says Christine Swingle, who raises West Highland White Terriers in Connecticut. “I have been feeding a raw-food diet for three years, and more recently, I gathered up the courage to feed raw chicken necks and wings. The Westies love them. Gee, it is amazing, but they do digest raw meaty bones despite what I was led to believe!”
To help her clients make the transition to raw foods, Swingle gives them books, articles and instructions weeks before the pups are ready to go. “I want my puppies’ guardians to appreciate the commitment they are making in sufficient time to get used to the idea of feeding raw bones and raw food,” she explains. “My health guarantee depends on feeding a ‘biologically appropriate raw food’ diet for life, the use of homeopathic nosodes, and the disuse of toxic chemicals such as found in flea and tick products.”
Kymythy Schultze, an animal health instructor, has raised Newfoundlands for 20 years and recently moved from Southern California to Washington State. “Natural health is today’s hot topic,” she says, “but I like to remind people that when we adopt a raw diet and use natural therapies, we’re not doing anything new. We’re doing something old-fashioned.
“When I made the transition 10 years ago, I met Newfie breeders who were still feeding their dogs the way everyone did before commercial pet foods were developed,” she continues. “These dogs ate the same raw meat, raw bones, and table scraps that people have been feeding their dogs for thousands of years, and they were strong and healthy, with calm dispositions, terrific coats, resistance to fleas, and a total absence of doggy odors.”
Kathy Herman realized the benefits of raw food when she visited Labrador Retriever breeders in England and met supremely healthy dogs – her first time seeing such healthy dogs, she later realized. On a diet of raw bones, raw meat, raw goat milk, vegetable peelings, other table scraps and cereal-based kibble, these minimally vaccinated dogs suffered from none of the problems common to American Labs. Herman adopted a similar regimen and gradually reduced the amount of kibble until her dogs were eating all raw food. Since she improved their diet 14 years ago, her dogs have been free of orthopedic problems, and the only puppies whose owners reported health problems were those who switched back to commercial food.
“My puppies go to people who are motivated and informed,” she says, “and I give them a three-day supply of raw food to help them get used to its preparation. I didn’t put raw foods into my contract until two years ago when the owners of an eight-month-old female called to say she was limping and the specialist recommended immediate surgery. When I asked if they were still feeding raw food, they said their veterinarian had frightened them into feeding one of the dog foods he sold at his clinic because raw meat is dangerous and raw chicken bones would make her sick.”
After Herman convinced the owners to forget about the surgery and resume her natural diet, the dog made a rapid recovery. “Most veterinarians know very little about nutrition,” she says, “and because they are authority figures, they can be intimidating. I suggest that when asked about their puppies’ food, my buyers simply say they’re feeding a home-prepared diet of meat, poultry, dairy products, vegetables, oatmeal and a few supplements. That sounds less frightening to most veterinarians than raw meat and raw bones.”
Like other holistic breeders, Herman encourages her clients to call her with questions and invites their veterinarians to do the same. “It’s difficult for most people to tell a conventionally trained veterinarian that they’re going to ignore his recommendations and continue feeding raw bones or that they won’t let him vaccinate their puppy,” she says, “but I have all the facts, figures, knowledge, and experience I need to discuss these requirements with anyone. I tell my clients not to debate these issues but to refer their veterinarians to me.”
It’s About Keeping the Puppy “Natural”
A contract requiring raw food and holistic health care typically states that the buyer agrees to feed the dog according to the breeder’s guidelines and that feeding commercial dog food in any form is unacceptable. If it mentions vaccinations, the contract may specify that no vaccines be used, that the buyer return the puppy to the breeder for minimal vaccinations or that the buyer locate a veterinarian who will follow the breeder’s vaccination schedule.
The contract’s language may be as gentle as the warning with which Jo Forsythe in Washington State concludes her Portuguese Water Dogs’ letter of sale (“Unless you follow my feeding and vaccination guidelines, I cannot guarantee the health of this puppy”) or it may stipulate financial penalties for feeding commercial food and giving conventional vaccinations. Fines are unusual, but some contracts reportedly include $5,000 or $10,000 penalties.
Are raw-diet, no-vaccination or limited-vaccination clauses in puppy contracts enforceable? Opinions vary, but Ohio German Shepherd breeder Joan Andreasen-Webb speaks for many when she says that isn’t what matters. “The best way to use a puppy contract is as a communication tool,” she explains. “The number-one priority for responsible breeders is finding good, stable, loving homes for our dogs. After we establish that someone is appropriate in that respect, we focus on education. Many puppy buyers have never had a dog, or they’re new to the breed or haven’t lived with a puppy before. A good breeder prepares new owners by showing and telling them what to expect.
“I know of breeders who have financial penalties in their contracts,” she continues, “and who require receipts documenting the purchase of ingredients for the raw-food diet, but this approach strikes me as unwieldy. In addition, a punitive attitude creates a relationship based on fear instead of trust. I would rather enforce my guarantee indirectly, by requiring puppy buyers to subscribe to Whole Dog Journal or the Natural Rearing Newsletter. That way they’ll get a ‘booster shot’ of important information every month, and they’re more likely to continue with natural methods and a raw diet. It’s confusing at first, which is why breeders have to provide patience, encouragement, and communication. There’s so much to learn when you’re starting out that an unfamiliar feeding plan on top of everything else can be overwhelming.”
Marina Zacharias agrees. “Many breeders who use an all-raw diet start by suggesting that the puppy get at least some fresh, raw food,” she says. “Soon these people see how much the puppy prefers it, how well she digests it and how healthy she is. Gradually they feed a little more fresh food until soon they’re off commercial food all together. The goal is to develop a good relationship with puppy buyers so they are continually learning and understanding why you want them to feed a natural diet and use holistic therapies. That’s much better than forcing it on them. A good long-term relationship between breeder and owner is always in the animal’s best interests.”
Some breeders put technology to good use as they collect information and share it with clients. Barbara Cicognani, a New York Akita breeder, produced her first raw-food litter in the spring of 1998. “My Internet website sets forth my philosophy with regard to the effect diet and vaccines have on health and structure,” she says, “and I make it plain that I expect my buyers to adhere to my guidelines when they buy a pup from me. My puppy contract includes a requirement that buyers continue feeding a raw diet and that they avoid vaccinations except for rabies, which is required by law. I encourage the use of natural therapies where appropriate, and I will not guarantee hips or other skeletal health unless the buyer adheres to a raw diet.”
Discussing diet, vaccinations and holistic therapies gives breeders an opportunity to evaluate prospective clients. “I am up front with people who come to be interviewed,” says Christine Swingle. “It keeps them informed and it gives me a chance to weed out individuals who are not willing to learn. Fortunately, many families are already health-conscious, and they grasp the logic right away.”
“Contracts are only as good as the people who sign them,” says Kymythy Schultze. “My pups’ quality of life is my responsibility, no matter where they live, forever. I would be undermining their future if I didn’t place them in homes that provide everything they need for optimum health and happiness. My puppy people want to live with a dog that won’t suffer from hip or elbow dysplasia, endocrine disorders, skin and coat problems, tooth and gum disease, fleas, parasites and a persistent doggy smell. By feeding a well-balanced raw diet, my puppy families and I work toward the same goal.”
Ownership Contracts for Naturally Reared Adult Dogs
Raw-food contracts are not unique to puppies. Breeders who insist that puppies receive a natural diet require the same for the adult dogs they place in new homes. Even some rescued dogs are covered by raw-food contracts.
Take, for instance, Darla Duffey of Jacksonville, Florida, who bred Shetland Sheepdogs for many years, and is active in Sheltie Rescue. “We try to place our rescued Shelties with people who have lost a dog to cancer, lupus, kidney disease or one of the other illnesses common in this breed,” she explains. “I tell them that if they don’t want the problem to happen again soon, they’ve got to keep the dog on a healthy diet. I go into the whys and wherefores, and in most cases, the light bulb goes on in their head as they make the connection. Most of the people who have adopted dogs or bought puppies from me in the past have had no problem with my contract or its feeding requirements.
“Here in Florida, we have a terrible flea problem,” she continues, “but as soon as they go on raw foods, our rescued Shelties stop itching, their skin heals, their coats improve and they’re less attractive to fleas. They look more alert, they’re less anxious, and their eyes are bright. This breed’s health has been going down the tubes for a long time and it’s going to take several generations to get it back on the right track. Fortunately, although it will take a long time to repair the breed, it doesn’t take long to improve the health of individual dogs.”
Thanks to holistic breeders, puppy contracts aren’t as dull as they used to be. In fact, the next one you read might be as exciting as a good book.
CJ Puotinen is the author of several books about medicinal herbs and The Encyclopedia of Natural Pet Care (1998 Keats Publishing). This is her second article for WDJ.
My husband and I just adopted a two-year-old Beagle from the Humane Society. He is a wonderful dog, but is still exhibiting some bad habits. He was neutered on Friday and is slowly adjusting to his new environment.
He does great at home (very calm, quiet, fun, doesn’t mark), but when my husband takes him to work with him he marks one to three times in a four-hour period and occasionally tries to escape from under the fenced-in alley. Do you feel this warrants obedience school or do we just need some consultation? One trainer told us that his behavior did not warrant school, but that we could use a product called “No Go” to stop his marking.
By the way, he’s great in the car, never tries to bite, and loves all people.
-Christy Thomason
via email
Pat Miller, WDJ’s Dog Training Editor, answers this question for us. Miller offers private and group dog training classes from her base in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Miller responds:
Wild applause to you for adopting a dog from your local shelter. I always love to hear about one more lucky no-longer-homeless dog! It’s great that his behavior at home, in the car and with people is so terrific many shelter dogs come with lots of behavior challenges. Your dog has only a couple, and they are relatively minor!
It’s interesting that your dog marks only at your husband’s work, not at home. You don’t describe your husband’s work environment, but the presence of other dogs there, either currently or in the past, is more likely to trigger an unneutered (or recently neutered) male dog’s territorial marking behavior. It may even be the presence of dogs outside your husband’s office that triggers the behavior. If your husband gets engrossed in his work, and pays less attention to your dog’s “I’m about to pee” signals than the two of you do at home, this could also be a contributing factor.
The good news is that the neutering is quite likely to reduce the marking behavior within a few weeks after surgery. Meanwhile, be sure to clean up any indoor urine spots with a good enzyme-based cleaner designed for that purpose, such as Nature’s Miracle, available at most pet supply stores. Also, try to get your husband to take the dog out more frequently when he takes him to work, if possible, or leave him at home for a couple of weeks until the male hormones have had a chance to subside.
The answer to the escape attempts is to simply make sure the fence is escape-proof, or not to leave the dog in the fenced area without immediate supervision. (This could be a clue as to how the little guy ended up at the shelter in the first place.) Beagles are bred to follow their noses, so if something is tempting your dog to follow his, he will be persistent in attempting to do so. If there is a female in season somewhere in the area, the behavior will be exceptionally persistent. If this is the case, the neutering will help this immensely. A nearby female in season may also contribute significantly to the marking behavior.
I do agree with your trainer that neither of these behaviors will be helped much by a training class they need to be managed and modified by changes to the dog’s environment. You’ve already made the most important change by having him neutered (more wild applause). I have not had any personal experience with the product you mention, so I can’t advise you there. Some people have success with eliminating male marking behavior until the neutering takes effect by using a belly band: a piece of cloth fastened securely around the dog’s abdomen with a Velcro strap, removed when the dog is taken outside for bathroom duty.
While I don’t think a training class will help with marking behavior, I do believe that every dog should go to a positive training class to encourage good manners, improve the dog/owner relationship and communication, and to provide an outlet for socialization with other dogs and humans.
We’ve noticed something interesting: Any time we mention a remedy for arthritis, we are almost immediately inundated with calls and letters and e-mail and faxes from dozens of readers, all of them desperate to procure the magic substance. Is arthritis becoming more prevalent in the canine world? Or are dogs (like humans) simply living longer than they used to – long enough to suffer the disease, which is more common in older animals.
We don’t have an answer to those questions, but fortunately, we do know of a fairly new type of supplement that is showing great promise for relieving – and, in some cases, reversing – the arthritic process. The supplements are known collectively as glycosaminoglycans, “GAGs” for short. The best-known GAGs are chondroitin sulfate and glucosamine.
Like so many other nutritional supplements, the substances we’re discussing have enjoyed a meteoric rise to fame in recent years. That’s both good news and bad news – good news, because great numbers of people (and dogs!) have been helped by the substances; and bad news, because the market is now rife with a confusing array of products containing the substances in any number of formulations and concentrations, some helpful, and some quite doubtful.
A Different Approach to Treating Arthritis in Older Dogs
Osteoarthritis occurs when the cartilage that cushions the ends of bone joints breaks down, causing joint pain, inflammation, pain, and deformity. Until development of the GAGs, most substances aimed at osteoarthritis relief have been some form of pain killer and/or anti-inflammatory.
The GAGs tackle the problem from an entirely different angle. Rather than simply dulling the pain that results from the arthritis, or reducing the fluid buildup (inflammation) that follows joint trauma, GAGs are chemical reproductions of substances found in the body. These substances are not yet fully understood, but because they are present in cartilage, researchers speculated that supplemental doses of the substances might help slow or stop destruction of cartilage caused by arthritis.
The hunch has paid off; the substances do seem to help the body repair cartilage damage, and lessen pain from osteoarthritis, though scientists are still unclear on the exact chemical mechanism responsible for the benefits. Glucosamine is thought to stimulate the formation of new cartilage and help repair damaged cartilage. Chondroitin seems to draw beneficial fluid into cartilage, restoring lost resistance and elasticity, and slowing cartilage breakdown by protecting it from destructive enzymes.
The substances are most often extracted from animal sources; glucosamine usually comes from crab, lobster, or shrimp shells, and chondroitin is most often made from cartilage (usually cattle tracheas, but sometimes shark cartilage is used).
Ordering GAGs for Your Dog
As with all supplements, it pays to learn as much about all the permutations of a product as possible. Smart consumers read the product labels carefully, to determine how much they are paying for what amount of the active ingredients. Careful comparisons yield all sorts of devious (or, at the very least, enigmatic) descriptions of bottle contents.
Take, for instance, the well-known product called “InflamAway,” which contains glucosamine, as well as yucca and garlic. Several dog-product catalogs suggest feeding a dog “one 1500 mg. wafer per 40 pounds of body weight.” Does this mean the dog will be receiving 1500 milligrams of beneficial glucosamine? Well, no. A call to the sellers of the product reveals that one wafer of the “Regular strength” version contains 100 milligrams of glucosamine; the “Super strength” contains 500 mg.
Another product, “Joint Jolt,” is described by its maker as an “all-in-one combination that supplements and supports the joint capsules, ligaments, and tendons,” and contains herbs, chondroitin sulfate, antioxidants, enzymes, amino acids, and “a number of other nutrients.” How much chondroitin sulfate will a dog receive from one dose of Joint Jolt? We don’t know! The catalog didn’t say, and when we called the maker, we were told they couldn’t tell us! Only 200 mg. of chondroitin sulfate are present in one “2,000 mg. tablet” of “Fresh Factors,” a multi-nutrient supplement sold by Springtime, Inc. The catalog does not say the tablets contain 2,000 mg. of chondroitin but then why do they list the weight of a multiple-ingredient tablet at all, if not to lead a consumer to think that the number of milligrams listed is the number of milligrams of active ingredient?
We just can’t help but be suspicious of a company that makes you work hard to figure out what you’re getting for your money. Our warning bells go off when we see products like “GP Flex,” sold by KV Vet Supply Co., a catalog retailer located in David City, Nebraska. The catalog says one 12-ounce bottle of the stuff sells for $10.90. It also says that each ounce in the bottle contains 2,500 mg. of chondroitin sulfate powder. So what the heck are you supposed to do if you want to give your dog 500 mg. of chondroitin sulfate?
What to Look for in a GAG
Our suggestions are simple: First, if you want to try giving your arthritic dog a GAG supplement, look for products that contain nothing but the substance you want. A shotgun-approach to supplementation might work in some cases, but you’ll never know what substance it was that proved to be helpful. Better to try a single-substance product (or a combination of the two high-profiles GAGs, glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate).
Second, choose a supplement that comes in a package that clearly states exactly how much of each substance is present in each dose. We’ll guarantee you that these products won’t have cute names, but you’ll know what you’re getting. For instance, a product called “Glucosamine Sulfate 500” will contain 500 milligrams of glucosamine sulfate per capsule. Yahoo! Something labeled “Glucosamine 500 & Chondroitin 400” contains, you guessed it, 500 mg. of glucosamine and 400 mg. of chondroitin sulfate per tablet.
Other good sources for pure, clearly described GAG products? We also like Drs. Foster & Smith’s “Joint Care,” which adds vitamin C (but nothing else!) to its formula of glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate. The “Regular” capsules contain 500 mg. glucosamine HCI, 400 mg. chondroitin sulfate, and 50 mg. Vitamin C. “Mini” capsules contain 500 mg. glucosamine HCI, 100 mg. chondroitin sulfate, and 1.5 mg. Vitamin C.
Health food stores and natural remedy catalogs can also be good sources. We appreciated the straightforward approach taken by Bronson Vitamins and Herbals, a catalog retailer located in American Fork, Utah. They, too, sell pure chondroitin sulfate capsules (500 mg.), glucosamine sulfate tablets (600 mg.), and a combination product containing 10 mg. glucosamine sulfate, 665 mg. glucosamine HCI, and 100 mg. chondroitin.
More on GAGs
Because these supplements are sold as “dietary supplements,” rather than as medicines, they are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. According to an article published in the September/October 1998 issue of Arthritis Today (published by the nonprofit Arthritis Foundation), lab analysis found far lower levels of the active ingredients in some GAG products than were alleged on the labels. Natalie Eddington, Ph.D., a pharmacist and researcher who has analyzed dozens of GAG products, suggests that consumers buy products made by larger, reputable companies that can be held accountable for any discrepancies that might be discovered.
Glucosamine is commonly offered in one of two forms: hydrocloride (HCI) and as a sulfate. Experts say both forms seem to be performing equally well. But some forms of chondroitin seem to be far better than others. Eddington and other experts suggest avoiding the chondroitin products made from shark cartilage, as these products tend to be less consistent in quality.
Cautions for Use
In the last few years, far more humans than dogs have been serving as “guinea pigs” for testing the efficacy of these substances, so far more human doctors than veterinarians are familiar with them. That’s why people who are considering giving GAGs to their dogs would be well-advised to observe cautions suggested by the Arthritis Foundation for human use.
The Foundation’s first suggestion is to discuss the planned administration of these products with the patient’s doctor, especially if the patient takes regular medications.
Because glucosamine is an amino sugar, and can raise a subject’s blood sugar levels, people (and dogs) with diabetes ought to avoid this supplement. Subjects who take any blood-thinning medications or daily aspirin (and many people give their dogs aspirin to ease arthritis pain) should not take chondroitin, which can thin the blood further.
While no long-term studies have yet been conducted on these substances, the anecdotal evidence is quickly amassing. As we continue to tabulate our readers’ responses to our request for firsthand experiences with GAGs, we’ll select some of their comments to be published in an upcoming issue. For now, suffice to say that every one of the testimonials sent in by WDJ readers have praised the ability of some GAG supplement to ease their dogs’ arthritic symptoms.
We have four dogs and two cats. Pet hair is omnipresent in our lives, especially since housecleaning never seems to get very high on our list of priorities.
However, we know enough other dog owners to know that we are not alone. With the possible exceptions of the short list of “non-shedding” breeds, anyone who allows dogs in the house (which is where, in our opinion, dogs belong!) has to deal with dog hair. We vacuum. We sweep. We brush. We cringe in embarrassment when we glance at our clothes in public and see the plethora of hairs that our clothes brushes missed.
If you’re anything like us, you’ve gazed at the variety of dog hair removal products displayed in catalogs and in pet supply stores, idly wondering if any of them work. WDJ decided to find out. We ordered every hair removal product we could find in a towering stack of catalogs and set out to test them. Our home was the perfect test lab.
We found three types of hair-removal products: products that use some sort of tape as an adhesive; tapeless adhesives; and products that use friction and/or static cling to remove hair. We were surprised to discover that, in most applications, the friction products were vastly more effective than the adhesive products. However, to be well-armed for pet hair removal, we suggest including several different products in your arsenal, since each of our top picks excels in a different area.
We’ve listed the manufacturers’ numbers with their products; they can tell you where to find the products locally.
ACL Injury and Surgery
A friend’s 3-1/2 year-old purebred black Lab just had knee surgery at MSU for a bilateral rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). After reading about the benefits of St. John’s Wort on surface wounds, my question is, can St John’s Wort help in healing her internally? She is scheduled to have the same procedure on the other knee soon. Any information you can give to us would be appreciated.
-Samantha M. Cahoon
Waterford, MI
We directed this question to Carolyn Blakey, DVM, of the Westside Animal Clinic in Richmond, Indiana. Dr. Blakey has been practicing veterinary medicine for 32 years, the last four in an all-holistic practice. She especially enjoys serving as a holistic veterinary consultant to clients all over the country.
St. John’s Wort (Hypericum perforatum) IS often used in topical wound healing creams and ointments, as it demonstrates broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity. Taken internally, however, it has not demonstrated any ability to heal injuries, but has well-documented abilities to lift depression and lessen anxiety.
I would encourage you, however, to take a step back from looking at this dog’s injury as something that a single thing might fix. How has such a young dog of such a sturdy breed come to require such a serious repair for a such a serious injury in the first place? A black Lab should be able to take a lot of stress on his joints; these dogs are meant to be very active and play rough. If this dog has blown out two ACLs, it makes me wonder what she’s done to the other ligaments and tendons in her body. There is more to this story than meets the eye. I can’t second-guess MSU regarding the dog’s whole health work-up, but I can’t help but think there is something wrong with the dog’s overall metabolism. Has the dog ever suffered a major accident or illness?
Right off the bat, I would start the dog on a supplement that can nourish the ligament structure of the body. In fact, in light of her two ligament failures, she should probably be on a ligament support for the rest of her life.
The surgery will repair or replace the ACL ligaments in the dog’s knees. To nourish what’s left of the old ligament, any new implants, and the surrounding tissues, I’d get this dog on a ligament supplement right away. As a matter of fact, if the dog wasn’t too lame, I’d try this approach before I did the surgery on the other leg!
My favorite ligament support, Ligaplex II, is made by Standard Process, of Palmyra, Wisconsin. Standard Process only sells their products through doctors and veterinarians; you can’t buy them at a health food store. See if you can find a holistic veterinarian who can get you some of this supplement, or something very similar. (To find holistic veterinarians, try contacting the American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association.) Your veterinarian can reach Standard Process at (800) 848-5061 or (414) 495-2122.
Ligaplex II contains a number of nutrients and micro-nutrients which are needed for the creation and health of ligaments and tendons, including manganese, vitamins E, A, C, and B12. I’ve seen it work wonders.
Glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate are two other supplements that can be beneficial in these cases, even though they are more helpful for joint problems. But this Labrador’s knee joints are probably going to be very traumatized by the surgeries.
Sometimes calcium supplements can help with ligament problems, though you always have to be careful when supplementing with calcium because too much can get the dog’s chemistry out of balance. You might just try to find a food that is high in calcium.
Speaking of food, if the dog is not already on a wholesome, fresh-food diet (and with such troubles at her tender age, I suspect she’s not) she ought to be. Her diet should be superior – no cheap foods. I’d make sure she was getting fresh raw foods, including fresh meat – foods that really feed the joints, and ligaments, and tendons.
There are a couple of other modalities that could help this dog. Acupuncture would help move some energy into and through that joint, particularly through the healing process. And chiropractic could be of particular value; this dog may well suffer a back injury by doing some compensatory movements because of pain from her ACL problems. Chiropractic could help resolve all the lameness problems, helping her body coordinate a total recovery.
False Motherhood
I have a problem with one of my dogs that my veterinarian has never encountered. Cleo, my four-year-old Lab/Husky mix, thinks she had puppies – but she hasn’t!
Cleo was spayed at six months (by a different vet) but has been having what I call pseudo heat every six months ever since. It was never a big deal – no dogs calling at our door, and only a few drops of blood.
Last September I adopted a Shih Tzu couple who were on their way to the pound. I was led to believe the female was spayed. The male I had neutered a week after they got here. Sixty-four days after they moved in, I awoke to a shock; the female had two puppies. Cleo went into heat right after the puppies were born. Nine weeks later she acted like SHE had given birth to puppies. Hers were in the form of three balls of varying sizes and colors that she found around the house. She lays on her bed (where she never used to go during the day ) and whines for me to come see her; understand that she is not a whiner by nature. And she growls at anyone else who attempts to come near her “puppies.”
My vet checked her literature and said I would just have to wait it out. I have since had the Shih Tzu spayed but Cleo is still having her pseudo heats, and recently she went through the whole “I’ve had puppies!” thing again. Her heats involve a little more blood since the other dogs moved in.
-Patty Spear
Waterford, MI
We gave this question to Dr. Mark Newkirk of Margate Animal Hospital and Alternative Care Center in Margate, New Jersey. Dr. Newkirk uses a number of complementary therapies, including herbs, homeopathy, NAET (allergy elimination), nutritional therapy, and alternative cancer therapies.
Pseudo heat with blood dripping can be a sign of an ovarian remnant, or ectopic (not in the normal place) ovarian tissue. Both of these conditions could be the result of a birth defect, or caused if a piece of the ovary was left in place when the dog was spayed. If there is an ovarian remnant, holistic treatment is NOT the answer. Surgery is.
It’s also possible that the behavior results from an adrenal gland that is making too much sex hormone. This is rare, but at least it’s easier to diagnose. You can have your veterinarian do a blood test to determine whether her estrogen and progesterone levels are abnormally high. High estrogen levels can make a spayed female act like she’s in heat, but this is not usually accompanied by vaginal bleeding.
Homeopathy could be very helpful, but a classical homeopathic approach would be necessary to effect a cure (as opposed to simply choosing one remedy that addresses one troublesome symptom). A very detailed and involved history would be required.
Bach Flower Essence therapy might help ease Cleo’s protectiveness and mothering behaviors. I would suggest chicory, for possessiveness, mustard, for depression, and/or scleranthus, for indecision.
First and foremost, however, I would suggest having her examined by another veterinarian. I would try to make an appointment to see the veterinarian when she is exhibiting her mothering behavior (even if you have to bring her tennis balls with her to the vet’s office!) so that her blood can be tested while she is at the peak of her unusual behavior.
Our mailbox has been full lately; I like to think that means we’re doing a good job, whether the letters we are getting are full of praise or criticism. Of course, it would be great to get nothing but glowing notes from happy readers, but it’s unrealistic for one reason: Not everything we write about it going to work for ALL of our readers!
Our job, as we see it, is to provide you with the latest information about holistic dog care and training, from the widest variety of credible sources. We actively seek out the latest studies, as well as the people with the most experience and expertise in their fields, in an effort to present you with information about beneficial treatments you can go right out and use on your dog.
Does this mean that we always give you the one right answer to your dog care and training questions?
That’s a trick question. There is no single correct answer to any dog care and training question!
Health and well-being is a science AND an art, for us and for our dogs. Science can tell us that “Substance X” causes this effect in this population of this kind of dog, but only art can tell us whether our dog might enjoy the same results as the Substance X dogs.
We’ve all heard stories – heck, we’ve published some of these stories – about dogs that were cured of their ills in curious ways. But what cures one dog may well kill the next one.
Not for a second am I trying to suggest we have publicized any approach that could kill your dog, but I am trying to make a point: Perfectly good treatments, used at the wrong time, on the wrong dog, can actually do harm. However, if you are armed with good, solid, well-researched information about a given problem, you can combine this with your intimate knowledge of your own individual dog, to make an informed decision about his diet, training, or medical treatment plan. You might make a mistake; we hope not, but it’s a possibility. Nobody’s perfect.
Along the way, we hope to expand the range of information you have at your disposal, because thinking that you have to decide whether to employ Solution A and Solution B to solve your dog’s problem is the best way to overlook Solutions X, Y, and Z!
To this end, we occasionally publish letters, rebuttals, and other “evidence to the contrary” regarding some of the articles that have appeared in WDJ. This doesn’t mean we did something wrong; it just means that for some dog and some person, a different approach was more effective than the one we wrote about! We publish these letters because we realize that the writers’ solutions might also work for someone else; the unique set of circumstances they describe might more closely resemble another reader’s experiences than our article did.
One of my father’s favorite aphorisms is, “You ALWAYS have options.” But even though I’ve heard him say this a thousand times, it’s a hard thing to remember when you feel like you are up against the hard, cold wall of a decision that needs to be made immediately. It might be a veterinarian saying, “We need to start chemotherapy right away if we are going to try to save him.” It might be a trainer saying, “If I were you, I would knock that dog on his butt right here and now.” And you are thinking, “I can do this, or I can walk away . . .” while you should be thinking, “There must be more options than these two . . .”
Our advice? Keep your mind and heart open as you read through this and every other issue. This month, we’re trying to help you decide about electronic fencing, the best diet for dogs, how to help noise-phobic dogs, how to treat lick granuloma, and much more.
(Nail) Cutting Comments The Product News and Reviews article in the February 1999 issue compelled me to write. As a groomer of both dogs and cats, I was alarmed at your choices and limited selection of nail trimming devices. I wouldn’t recommend nor use any of the ones you featured.
If one is used for too long, a nail grinder will heat up the nail and send shooting pain through the nerve up the animal’s leg. And like you so clearly said, it may be difficult to even get the grinder near a dog, much less his nails. So I am confused why you’d recommend the grinder. In my opinion it should only be used by professionals. A simple nail file would be much safer, and for that matter, much less expensive.
I totally agree that the Vista Dog Nail Clippers are junk.
The guillotine kind is yet another poorly designed nail clipper. Like you say, it’s difficult to control how much of the nail is inserted. When it cuts, it actually only cuts from one side, thereby pulling the nail and making the clip painful, while failing to make a clean cut.
Miller Forge makes a better version of the “White” nail scissors. The ones I use look much like the ones you pictured, but the tips do not cross over each other. These are the best cat and small dog nail clippers I know of. Miller Forge calls them “Small Dog Nail Clippers.”
Miller Forge also makes my favorite large dog nail clippers. But beware! There are numerous imitations out there that don’t work half as well as the Miller Forge clippers. I use Miller Forge large dog nail clippers with great success. First, I make one straight-across cut where I’m sure not to cut the blood vessel. Then I make small cuts on alternating sides. That way I know how close to the “quick” I am. When it becomes dark in the center I know I’m near the quick.
This technique takes a little longer, but it’s preferable to “quicking” the blood vessel by mistake. Nail clipping takes a lot of practice and many groomers don’t know this technique. Doing it this way also eliminates the use of a grinder since I’m cutting off the sharp side edges.
When it concerns my animal friends, I choose quality over something cheaper. I try to gain the dogs’ trust in order to trim the nails. And I can relate to the dogs’ fear. I don’t like my toenails clipped either!
J-B Wholesale (800-526-0388) has both large dog nail clippers and files. New England Serum Company (800-637-3786) has all three. I am not saying Miller Forge makes the only clippers one should use, but their clippers work well, at least for me.
-Toni Amelung San Francisco, CA
As a groomer, I use the Miller Forge “Small Nail Clipper” almost exclusively, and their “Nail Scissors” for cats. I love the electric buffer, but I’ve burned up two in five years. I switched to the “Dremmel” brand nail grinder. It costs less than the Oster, and so far, it runs better, too.
-Bonnye Ruttenbur Dillon, MT
Carpet Cleaners Regarding your recent article about carpet cleaners (“Pees on Earth,” January 1999): Several months ago one of our four dogs vomited in several places on our new carpet and the carpet cleaners pretty much gave up trying to get the stain out. I tried everything on the market with no luck. (Mind you, this is oatmeal-colored carpet which was stained in at least 10 places with dark brown vomit.) I called the manufacturer and they gave me the following suggestion that worked (and has continued to work) miracles.
Mix 1/2 cup of 3% hydrogen peroxide with one teaspoon non-sudsy ammonia. Using a paper towel, blot this mixture on the stain until the stain is saturated. Cover the spot with clear plastic wrap and place a heavy object on top (I cover it with a book or something and place something heavy on top of that). After two to three hours remove the plastic wrap. If the spot is not gone, repeat the procedure after the carpet has dried.
Now, they did not ask what color carpet I have so I am assuming this can be used on carpets of other colors, but a hidden spot check would be safest.
-Sue Kane Holland, MI
Learning From Mistakes In all journalist endeavors or personal retellings, stories are edited. The source may choose to omit details in order to fulfill the purpose of the story, to fit the physical space or time available, and/or to meet the needs and interests of the readers or listeners. Because of this, it is impossible to accurately judge the people involved in an article’s content or in any other type of second-hand “telling” of information. We need to be aware that, without discussion, many details can be missing or misstated and this can innocently obscure the total picture, whether the story is from printed material or anther type of second-hand source.
When reading, watching or listening, many find that the best learning is achieved when keeping the focus on the purpose of the story. The purpose of my sharing Dusty’s story with WDJ (“Case History: One Lucky Puppy,” WDJ February 1999) was to advise people that alternative support is available and can be successful in helping with kidney compromise. It is my hope that by further sharing some additional pieces of Dusty’s story, my folly will give others a chance to make more informed choices.
Karma was two weeks short of her third birthday when she whelped (bred at her fifth season). This is a common age for the first breeding of a finished Champion female in the basset world. She was in excellent condition and health when bred, and to all outward appearances throughout her pregnancy even though she was carrying a large litter for this breed. She had no history of illness or signs of immune deficiency. Karma was a multiple specialty and breed winner. Having made the cut for group several times in her short show career, she showed the quality and attitude that many breeders strive for.
Dusty and his littermates did/does NOT have a hereditary kidney disease, but a low functional level due to damage, which was triggered by a minor uterine bacterial infection in the mother before birth. This is Dr. Franklin’s (an internal specialist) opinion, based on sequence of events, physical evidence, the testing done, as well as the dogs’ autopsies.
Dr. Franklin surmised that Karma contracted this infection late in the third trimester of pregnancy, most likely during the last two weeks of gestation. This infection caused the perfectly formed adrenal glands in the puppies to simply not “start up” at birth. The autopsy of Karma did not show that any infection was still present, so it is most likely that she died of toxic shock from anesthesia. As the puppies grew, they did not have the necessary adrenal function to give their kidneys the ability to clear toxins, thus they were going into renal failure and succumbing to toxin build up. Unfortunately, this is difficult to diagnosis in puppies this young, though not an uncommon occurrence in other animals or humans.
As the WDJ article clearly showed, the effect can be devastating to mother and the unborn. I have often wondered how many people have lost partial or whole litters to what they were led to believe was “fading puppy syndrome,” when it may have actually been this problem. It took a lot of determination, a willingness to travel long distance to the “best vet in the northwest,” and a lot of money to get around to appropriate testing for a diagnosis and treatment. If I had been aware that this can (and does) happen, I would have been able to better guide my local vet or get the dogs to a specialist sooner.
Many lives were lost and the damage done to the survivors was greater, because I initially accepted my cherished local veterinarian’s diagnosis of fading puppy syndrome. (A term often used by vets for “I don’t know what’s going on.”) He did what he was trained to do very well, but an internal specialist’s knowledge was needed to make a diagnosis. My vet made the referral when he realized how determined I was to learn what was going on. Whether using holistic and/or conventional methods, you can not be sure of what treatment can be successful without an accurate diagnosis.
I would strongly urge anyone with a pregnant dog to run a full blood panel prior to breeding. (I did this.) This gives you an overall picture of the mother’s health, and a baseline to refer to. Then run another panel in the third trimester to assure continued good health. The type of bacterial infection Karma contracted in her third trimester was not symptomatic, but could have been treated if it had been detected by a second testing. I learned the hard way that this should be done as a precaution. I know this is an extra whelping expense but now that I am aware of this potential problem, I will not omit the second testing again.
Karma’s son Dusty is of the same conformation quality and has also led a very healthy life, despite his adrenal/kidney compromise. If the survivor had instead been female, she would never have been bred regardless of her positive qualities and show career. The stress and physical challenge of pregnancy would certainly have caused further compromise to her kidneys and would likely result in further kidney damage or shutdown. There is no equivalent problem with a male.
I consulted many veterinarians (both general practitioners and specialists) as to whether or not breeding could be a problem for Dusty or his get. They unanimously stated that this was not an inheritable problem, nor harmful to Dusty. Dusty was not bred until he was three years old and will have his fourth birthday on May 29.
Both Dusty and Karma had passed the health certifications that are common in this breed (Eye Cert., VW, BHT, etc.) prior to being bred. There was no known history of kidney disease or compromise in either pedigree. Karma’s mother and both grandmothers free whelped, though c-sections are not uncommon in Bassets. The horror of Karma’s whelping and litter was an event, not a hereditary factor.
All well-studied breeders have a continued quest to gather as much information as is available to assist in each step of their breeding program. We are all striving to consistently contribute to the betterment of our respective breeds. Breeders, please continue sharing both the positive and the negative experiences you have had. I realize that this means you will be taking the risk of someone being critical or judgmental; indeed, you can get bitten clear to the heart. But we all know that more openness is needed in the dog world.
The opportunity to review real case studies and experiences is one of the best ways that we can learn from one another. If we stay focused on the purpose of sharing, and accept this precious gift, we can extend our personal growth from having shared or acquired knowledge. This may be of great benefit to future generations of all animals and breeders.
-Gretchen Shelby, M.Ed. Logo Bassets
Not All Dogs Go To Heaven Regarding your editorial in the March issue: I guess the reader who thought you were criticizing Rotties was a Rottie owner, eh?
For some reason, Rottie owners get REALLY offended when anything bad is written about that breed. They can’t accept that the Rottie is a dominant breed that tends to have aggressive tendencies – especially when the owners can’t handle their dominance and subsequently can’t control or are afraid of their dog. We see this time and time again in our vet clinic.
I own a Jack Russell and I’ve heard bad things about them also, but if you prepare and train them properly, they won’t be like that. If you had used a Jack Russell as an example of an aggressive dog, instead of a Rottie, I wouldn’t have been offended because terriers can be terrors too!
At the first rumble of thunder, some noise-phobic dogs run for you, some run and hide under your bed, and some frantically try to run away. Without some intervention, this sort of blind panic can endanger the dog.
[Updated Dec 20, 2022]
When I was younger and much more foolish than I am today, I did a very stupid thing. I took my 12-week-old Australian Kelpie puppy to help me staff a humane society booth at the county fair, and stayed to the very end to watch the evening’s fireworks display.
With the onset of the first deafening pyrotechnic boom and ensuing panoply of brilliant lights, Keli urinated in my lap and struggled frantically to escape. I tried to comfort her as the show continued, but she was in a total, unmitigated panic. I couldn’t have engineered a more perfect way to create a noise-phobic dog if I had tried. For the rest of her 14 years, Keli trembled violently in fear and crawled under the bed during thunderstorms (fortunately a rare occurrence in California) and whenever 4th of July and New Year firecrackers rocked the tranquillity of the neighborhood.
Preventing Noise Phobias in Dogs
Many behaviorists and dog trainers believe that puppies go through a so-called “fear imprinting” period sometime between the ages of eight to 20 weeks, when they learn what is safe in the big wide world, and what is not. Exposure to traumatic stimuli during this period can have long-lasting effects, as the fireworks did with Keli.
The same exposure outside this critical period might temporarily frighten a dog, but is much less likely to do permanent damage to her psyche. Obviously then, the first step in dealing with noise phobias is prevention. During this “fear imprinting” period of a young pup’s life, it is imperative to take extra precautions to see that she isn’t traumatized by unusually loud or sudden noises.
Even later on in a dog’s life, it is important to avoid experiences, such as confining the dog near a noise-producing object, that might trigger an unhealthy fear of loud noises. There may actually be a genetic predisposition for the development of fearful behaviors, which would help to explain why one dog can tolerate repeated noisy stimuli with impunity, while another needs only one exposure to the same stimulus to develop a severe behavior problem. But what do we do about the thousands of noise-phobic dogs for whom prevention is no longer an option? The damage has already been done. Are they doomed, like Keli, to spend the rest of their lives hiding under the bed whenever storm clouds gather?
It is a serious concern. Animal shelters universally report that July 5th and January 1st are the two busiest days of the year in their kennels, caring for dogs who escaped the night before. Fear-induced adrenaline causes dogs to scale fences that would normally be more than adequate to keep them safely confined. Some even go through plate-glass windows and dig through doors in their frantic attempts to escape the torment of the noise.
Fortunately, there are ways to desensitize noise-phobic dogs. It takes time and a real commitment on the part of the dog owner to follow through on a noise desensitization program, but such programs, if followed faithfully, do have a good chance of succeeding.
Dogs and Thunderstorms
Noise-phobic dogs, often labeled “gun shy,” may react to firecrackers, gunshots, cars backfiring, cap guns, wood chopping, falling pots and pans and any other loud noise. But by far the most common stimulus that triggers noise phobia in dogs is the thunderstorm.
Thunderstorms offer a number of potential fear-producing stimuli, including the noise of thunder, wind and rain, flashes of lightning, changes in atmospheric pressure, ionization and storm-related odors. While they may all play a role in thunderstorm phobias, the most overpowering and easiest of the thunderstorm stimuli to replicate for modification work is the noise component.
The two most common approaches to behavior modification involve either desensitization and counter-conditioning, or flooding and habituation (see “Behavioral Definitions,” below). Medications have been used in noise phobia treatment with mixed success. While they may help to calm and control a dog during a storm and prevent self-inflicted injury, they seem to have little long-term effect on the dog’s fear. Also, drugs may actually inhibit a dog’s ability to learn that the storm is not frightening.
Desensitization/counter-conditioning and flooding/habituation are opposite approaches; one can’t do both at the same time. Flooding can be extremely traumatic, and once embarked upon must be followed to its conclusion in order to be successful. This can take many hours, and if the session is stopped before the dog relaxes and accepts the noise, it is likely to just make the problem worse – the dog may think that it was the fearful behavior that finally succeeded in making the noise stop. Flooding is commonly used in the treatment of human fears and phobias, but much less so in dogs.
Desensitization and counter-conditioning, on the other hand, are used together frequently and successfully to overcome canine fears. We can’t use real storms in a desensitization program. Real storms happen too quickly to allow for the gradual increase in intensity that is necessary for desensitization to succeed. However, we can create artificial, controllable thunderstorms through the creative use of stereo equipment, recordings of thunder, strobe lights (to simulate lightning) and sprinklers or hoses to create the sound of rain on the window or roof.
Behavioral Definitions
Phobia: A non-useful, counter-productive fear response that is out of proportion to the real level of threat posed by the stimulus.
Counter-conditioning: A technique by which an animal is conditioned to respond in ways that are incompatible with an undesirable response, by gradually presenting the feared stimulus while the animal is engaged in a pleasurable activity (such as eating food). Ideally the stimulus is presented at a level that does not evoke a fear reaction at any time. (Usually performed simultaneously with desensitization.)
Desensitization: A technique used to reduce fear responses in a step-by-step process by exposing the animal initially to non-fearful stimuli and gradually increasing the intensity of the stimuli without evoking a fear response.
Flooding: A fear-removal technique whereby an animal is continuously exposed to a full-strength fear-causing stimulus until the animal stops exhibiting the fearful behavior. The stimulus is not removed until some time after the animal has completely relaxed. At the end of the session the animal is experiencing the full-strength stimulus in a non-fearful state of mind. We do not recommend using this technique.
Habituation: The decrease or loss of response to a fear-inducing stimulus solely as the result of repeated exposure to that stimulus without the use of pleasant or aversive associations (rewards or punishments).
Desensitizing Your Dog to Noise
Begin your behavior modification program by finding a recording (or combination of recording and other stimuli) that causes your dog to react fearfully. Thunderstorm recordings on tape or CD are available at most music outlets. As soon as the dog begins to show fear of the stimuli, turn them off. You don’t want to evoke a full fear response; you just want to find the level at which your dog begins to respond.
Some dogs are so frightened of thunder that even the noise of an airplane overhead commands their immediate attention and apprehension. Desensitizing such a dog to storm sounds can help him learn to keep calm when there are ANY loud noises.
Once the dog is totally relaxed again you can begin the training program. Start by playing the recording below the level that would evoke a fearful response. This may be at a level that you cannot even hear. Remember that your dog’s hearing is infinitely better than yours. After five minutes or so, increase the sound slightly. (This is the desensitization part.) While your dog is still calm, feed him absolutely wonderful treats – roast beef or steak, fried chicken skins, or anything else that your dog would normally do backflips for. (This is the counter-conditioning part.) You want him to think that absolutely wonderful things happen when thunderstorm noises occur.
Be generous with totally terrific treats, petting, and praise, and keep the sound at each level for several minutes before gradually increasing the volume again. At some point, your dog will start to exhibit a mild, fearful reaction. (If it is not mild, you have increased the volume too quickly.) Watch for panting, pacing, clinging to you, and other signs of tension. When this happens you have two choices. You can either immediately turn the volume back down, or wait and see if the dog habituates to that level of intensity. If the reaction is truly mild and you have been very gradually increasing the volume, it is preferable to wait for habituation.
Keep the volume at this level for a considerable period of time before increasing the volume again (the exact definition of “considerable period of time” depends on the individual dog). As soon as the dog relaxes – when the signs of stress go away – resume treat-feeding and petting.
Try Never to Invoke a Fear Response
It is important not to play the recording too loudly or to increase the volume too quickly. This is the most common mistake made in desensitization programs – increasing the stimuli level too rapidly. It is very important not to evoke a fear response that does not habituate during the session; this would be a major step backward. Be patient. While the first few sessions may proceed slowly, typically subsequent sessions will go much faster. It often takes only three to five sessions to move past the initial volume level at which the dog first reacted fearfully. This can be accomplished in less than a week.
Once your dog accepts loud thunderstorm noises, reduce the volume and add the other stimuli, one at a time, until he is comfortable with the entire package. Each time you add a new stimulus, reduce the intensity of the others and gradually increase them again, one at a time.
You will also want to change locations from time to time, so the dog accepts the stimuli package in any room of the house. Later on, the onset of the artificial storm should occur outside of formal training sessions – at first perhaps while the dog is playing with a favorite toy, or eating dinner, then at other random times.
When your dog is comfortable with storm noises in all of these situations, you can set your storm on a timer to play at very low levels for very short intervals (at first) when you are not home. Don’t forget: Every time you change an aspect of the exercise you must reduce the intensity of each element of the stimulus package.
Your Dog May Take a While
Studies indicate that frequent, long desensitization/counter-conditioning sessions (30-45 minutes) are more effective than multiple short ones. Mild to moderate phobias may be successfully treated in just a few weeks. Severe cases can take longer – a month or more is not unusual; sometimes they never come around.
Pet, praise, and treat your dog any time she remains calm in the face of her most feared noise. If the dog, like the one above, is tentative about eating when she is nervous, use some especially tasty treats, such as pieces of bacon or bits of canned chicken.
The prognosis for severely affected dogs may not be rosy – studies of desensitization programs for extremely noise-phobic dogs are not very encouraging. Many of these dogs don’t respond. However, this may be because the dogs weren’t being desensitized to the right stimulus. It is important to mimic as many of the elements of the package of thunderstorm stimuli as possible for the greatest chance of success.
It is beneficial to accomplish the desensitization program as quickly as possible. If a real storm occurs during the training process and traumatizes the dog it can set the training back. Where storms are seasonal, it makes sense to start and complete the program during the “off” season. Because the desensitization can apparently fade with time, it is also a good idea to refresh the training once or twice a month.
The Dog-Static-Electricity Theory
Some people believe that it is the build-up of static electricity (and resultant static shocks to the dog) that occurs during a thunderstorm that makes many dogs develop an extreme fear of storms.
This would explain why some dogs hide in bathtubs or wedge themselves behind toilets when a storm hits. Their contact with the porcelain plumbing fixtures is thought to ground them and protect them from shocks. Many storm-phobic dogs are much more calm if they are allowed to “ride out” the storm in a car – maybe because the car protects them from the storm sounds as well as from static shocks.
Some owners report success with laundry no-cling strips. Rubbing these sheets over the dog can also prevent static shocks. It is not an unreasonable theory. The intensity of many dogs’ reactions to storms is comparable to the extreme reaction often seen by dogs who are subjected to shocks from electronic training collars. Driving your dog around in a car during a storm, or rubbing him with laundry no-cling sheets are easy and inexpensive solutions to try.
For noises other than storms, it is a matter of finding an adequate artificial replication of the offending noise and any other relevant stimuli that can be incorporated into a similar program.
While not every noise-phobic dog can be successfully desensitized, behaviorists report a fair degree of success with desensitization programs like the one described above. This is good news to the owners of the thousands of noise-phobic dogs that suffer through thunderstorms and other fear-inducing sounds.
I will never deliberately expose another dog of mine to the fireworks experience that caused Keli’s extreme fear of loud noises. I will always regret that I didn’t know how to better help her recover from the trauma of that exposure. But it’s good to know that I now have the tools to help clients’ dogs break through the barrier of debilitating fear so that they can lead normal canine lives, even on the 4th of July.
The Whole Dog Journal is the best thing that has happened to Duke and I since Superman. Duke is my Golden Retriever buddy. Since Duke has been a puppy I have been feeding him commercial dog food. I have always felt that it wasn’t the best of foods, what with its by-products and preservatives.
About eight months ago I subscribed to WDJ and you ran an article on the top dry dog foods. I switched Duke’s food to one of your top picks, and in just the few months that he has been on this food I have noticed a much healthier dog.
I can’t purchase the food locally, or any of the brands that you recommend in your article, for that matter. I have to order it through Pet Warehouse to be shipped to me. But that’s okay. I now understand why there are so many veterinarians in this area; the only foods there are to buy around here are the junk foods that are killing our dogs. For that matter, the veterinarian that I started Duke out with even sells and recommends Science Diet’s dog foods.
I have switched veterinarians.
-Jerry A. Schweitzer
Williamstown, WV
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Thank you so much for the food reviews. Putting my dog on a high quality food has made a ton of difference for her. She was constantly licking her feet. The vet gave me powder to relieve the pain and help the rawness go away, but she was not at all helpful at getting to the cause of my dog’s licking. I suspected it was a food allergy, but didn’t know how to choose a good food. Your February 2000 issue came just at the right time. I started Roxy on a new food, and stopped giving her “grocery store” treats. The licking has all but stopped. Every so often, she gets licky, and I can always trace it to an unauthorized treat.
-Linda Lavolette
via email
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I always enjoy reading WDJ and find I constantly learn from the articles you present each month. Concerning “Canned or Dry?” (January 2001): I would like to share some things that I learned over more than 40 years of small animal practice.
First and foremost, whether or not the veterinary profession recognizes it or not, there is a vast difference in the overall long-term effects of dry vs. canned (or fresh) pet diets. Most dry food is calorie-dense, and has a far greater tendency to produce overweight pets. This, in turn, leads to the “too numerous to mention” problems caused by excess weight.
Also, most dry foods cause the dog to produce an alkaline urine, not as acidic as it should be. Alkaline media, as any home canner will tell you, supports bacterial growth. So the incidence of renal disease, cystitis, vaginitis, vulvitis, and even bladder stones increases. I could give you endless examples from my practice experience. When dogs urinate on grass, a brown spot should not develop, but will, if the dog is on a dry food diet.
Any competent physical exam on the dog should always include palpation in the area of the kidneys. Most dogs having systemic infections will exhibit a pain reaction in this area, so vets look for it. I found it quite interesting that through decades of exams, most pets on dry food will exhibit discomfort. Those on canned do not. Sometimes the pain was quite dramatic, sometimes even to the point of being unwilling to walk. Or they might manifest an inability to easily go upstairs or jump in the car.
Every case of gastric dilatation or torsion I ever saw, with one exception, were on dry food diets. It was a problem, like many others, we did not have in my practice in suburban Virginia. I am not saying there is no place for dry food in a good nutritional plan, especially for large dogs. But to ignore the differences between these diets is to tread on very shaky supposition.
I took my two dogs—Woody, age 9, and Boone, age 3—to see their vet a week ago. I wasn’t looking forward to being chided for allowing him—nay, facilitating him—to gain a few extra pounds this winter. But I wasn’t at all expecting the health problems that my vet found.
