When Deanna Cuchiaro of Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, set out to adopt an Irish Setter, she had no idea the rescue would change her entire perspective on animal health care.
Cuchiaro already had one Irish Setter, Brandy, who had recently turned 10, and she wanted to get another so that Brandy could help pass his positive influence around the house to the newcomer. She considered getting a puppy, but decided to adopt a rescue dog from the Irish Setter Club of Central Connecticut rescue program. She met representatives of the rescue group at a local Irish Setter show who told her there was a large two-year-old male Setter available for adoption.
“I said, ‘Fine, we’ll take him’,” says Cuchiaro. That was February 1998.
Like many rescue dogs, this big-boned Setter was anything but a picture of health. He was infested with whipworms, his ears were infected, his anal glands bothered him, he had diarrhea and he threw up every time he ate. He licked and chewed himself nonstop, especially his paws, which were sore and raw from all the irritation.
His poor health was actually the reason he was available for adoption – again. He was previously adopted by a family who kept him for six months, but returned him to the shelter. The Irish Setter Club rescue program acquired the dog from the shelter.
“When we got him, he was 72 pounds,” says Cuchiaro, which is underweight for his frame – 29 inches at the shoulder.
Trying the traditional route
Cuchiaro didn’t blink an eye at the dog’s ill health; she simply took him to her regular allopathic veterinarian for treatment, with full faith that modern medicine would fix the dog up in a jiffy. She also renamed the dog “Rocky” after the top-winning dog at the prestigious Westminster dog show in New York. “I figured my dog is just as good as that Rocky,” says Cuchiaro. The veterinarian determined Rocky was allergic “to just about everything.” Cuchiaro didn’t have allergy tests performed, but over time, by food elimination, she figured out that the dog was allergic to corn, wheat, soy and beef. The vet prescribed prednisone, antibiotics and recommended a diet change.
For the next few months following Rock’s adoption, Cuchiaro worked at getting the big dog well. The veterinarian tried a variety of medications, and Cuchiaro tried several dog foods, including Iams, Eukanuba, Nutro’s Lamb and Rice, Innova, and Solid Gold. She also switched vets. “For six months, I remember him throwing up and having diarrhea,” says Cuchiaro. “I’d switch foods and wouldn’t see a change. It just wasn’t working.”
By October of that year, Cuchiaro was frustrated. Rocky was still throwing up, but “he was gaining weight, so we knew there was some hope,” she says.
A new avenue
At this point, Cuchiaro began looking on the Internet for information, and learned about feeding raw diets. She also learned about holistic oriented veterinarians. That’s when she made an appointment with Charles T. Schenck, DVM, a holistic practitioner with the Edgebrook Animal Hospital in East Brunswick, New Jersey.
The first visit was fateful. Dr. Schenck confirmed Rock’s allergy diagnosis. And, says Cuchiaro, “He told me not to give my dog dog food ever again.”
Cuchiaro took the leap of faith. She went home, collected all the dog food she had, and donated it to her local animal shelter.
She learned from Dr. Schenck that treating allergies usually begins with a diet trial – preferably featuring foods that the dog hasn’t eaten before – and keeping a food diary, recording every ingredient in the dog’s food as well as every single sign of good or poor health he displays. Changing from one pet food to another won’t generally work because many foods contain similar ingredients, and it’s hard to know exactly what’s in commercially prepared diets. Dietary restriction is the only way to truly determine what food(s) the dog is allergic to. Theoretically, once the offending agent is pinpointed, you can avoid feeding it to the dog.
Cuchiaro began feeding both of her Irish Setters, young Rocky and senior citizen Brandy, a diet of juiced raw vegetables and raw chicken. She followed the plan outlined in the book, Give Your Dog A Bone by Ian Billinghurst, B.V.Sc. “When that book arrived, I read it from cover to cover, I didn’t put it down and I don’t think I ever looked back,” says Cuchiaro.
Diet does it
Within a few months, Cuchiaro says she noticed that Rocky wasn’t having any more trouble with his anal glands. And Brandy, who was a senior dog, seemed more alert. In six months, Rock’s persistent ear problems were gone, with no treatment other than a raw diet and regular ear cleaning. Additionally, the dogs’ coats changed from a cottony, orange-red, to red, long and silky. “People who saw us couldn’t believe that amount of hair these dog’s had grown, and they act like puppies again,” says Cuchiaro.
With Rocky feeling and looking so well, Cuchiaro enrolled him in obedience classes. He graduated in August 1999 and went on to pass the American Kennel Club Canine Good Citizen test and pass the therapy dog test for the New Jersey Bright and Beautiful Therapy Dogs.
Rocky is now a sought-after therapy dog, and he and Cuchiaro regularly visit nursing homes and hospitals. “So, Rocky, who was once in a shelter, is now able to give his all and volunteer his time for others that are in need,” says Cuchiaro.
“There is no way that Rocky could have ever achieved these goals without this type of diet,” Cuchiaro asserts firmly. “It is a miracle. Before, you could never touch Rocky’s ears without a cry, or his feet without a growl, let alone allow an elderly person run into him with their walker. Now he plays like a puppy and jumps so high that the people in the nursing home call him ‘the kangaroo’.”
-By Virginia Parker Guidry
Virginia Parker Guidry is a freelance writer from San Diego, CA.
The elderly man shuffled through the front door of the Humane Society, his Wirehaired Dachshund waddling close to his heels. The man’s shoulders were hunched, his wrinkled cheeks streaked with tears. His eyes refused to meet mine. He held the red nylon leash in a death-grip in his wizened hands. Gently, I asked if I could help him.
He finally looked at me as he choked out the words. “I have to give up my dog, Rags. I’m moving into the Veteran’s Home, and they don’t allow dogs there.”
I looked down at Rags. Huddled on the floor next to her human companion, she looked as miserable as he did. Much of her misery no doubt stemmed from her sensitivity to her master’s emotional pain. But some of it was clearly attributable to the fact that she was so obese that she literally could not lie down comfortably. Her belly dragged on the ground as she walked – she could have lifted all four of her legs and not settled any farther onto the floor.
I tried to be reassuring, telling the man that we would do the very best we could for Rags. At this humane society, far more than most, we were able to use our resources to rehome difficult-to-place dogs. If Rags’ obesity was due to a medical problem, I cautioned, it might be an impossible task, and unfair to ask a new owner to take on the costs of care and treatment. If it were simply a matter of overfeeding, the prognosis for her future was far more positive. Crossing my fingers and hoping for the latter, I filled out the intake forms.
Tears filled my eyes as I took Rags’ leash and watched the old man shuffle disconsolately out the door. Trapped between impossible choices, he had just given away his best friend in life. I could do nothing for the pain of his loss, but hopefully I would be able to help Rags – even though the rotund Dachsund turned out to weigh an astonishing 60 pounds! (Normal adult weight for this breed is about 16-32 pounds.) I called a veterinarian who worked closely with our shelter, and arranged for the nearly immobile little dog to be transported to her for blood tests and a thorough examination and prognosis.
Leading health problem
Obesity has been defined as a body weight 10 to 20 percent above the ideal weight for that individual dog. The rule of thumb offered by most sources is that if you sweep your fingers lightly over your dog’s ribs and shoulders you should be able to feel the outline of the bones. If you must use pressure to find the ribs, your dog is overweight. Viewed from above, your dog should have a noticeable waist. If Bowser fails either of these two tests, it’s time for doggy dieting.
Veterinarians today consider obesity to be the leading health problem among our dogs and cats. According to the U.C. Davis School of Veterinary Medicine’s Book of Dogs, this manifestation of malnutrition affects an estimated 25-44 percent of our canine companions. Just like us, dogs get fat because they get too many calories and not enough exercise. And just like us, overweight dogs are prone to serious health problems, including diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, constipation, heat intolerance, increased risk under anesthesia, arthritis, skin, respiratory, liver and urinary tract malfunctions.
Some breeds of dogs appear more prone to obesity than others. These include Labradors, Dachshunds, Beagles, Shelties and Basset Hounds. Spayed and neutered animals are more likely to get fat as a result of the decreased level of activity common in sterilized pets, not because of the surgery itself. Older dogs may gain weight because, just like us, their metabolism slows as they age.
Free-feeding – leaving kibble available for munching at will – is another major contributing factor to canine obesity. The bottom line for the wide-bottomed Bowser is that, barring a medical problem, his weighty woes are caused by couch-potato syndrome: munching too much and not working out enough.
Since Bowser’s owner controls the food bowl and the leash, the finger of blame must point directly at the human element of Bowser’s weight equation. Spaying and neutering, advancing age, and pre-programmed genetic packages don’t make your dog fat – too much food and not enough exercise does. The simple answer to the fat dog problem is for the owner to add more vigorous play sessions to the daily schedule, control the amount of food that goes in the bowl, and never stray from the prescribed, measured amount.
Of course, it’s never that simple. We equate food with love. If we can’t toss treats to our canine pals throughout the day, how do we prove to them that we love them? And if you train with treats, as WDJ regularly urges you to, you can’t just feed at mealtimes, can you?
Consult with Doc, first
The first step in your dog’s weight-loss program is a thorough veterinary exam, including lab tests. While the overwhelming majority of fat dogs got their portly profiles by eating too much and exercising too little, a small percentage (less than five percent) are suffering from an endocrine disease such as hypothyroidism, insulin imbalance, or hyperadrenocorticism. For these dogs, simply reducing calories and increasing exercise could be seriously detrimental to their health. Do not undertake a weight loss program for your overweight dog without a veterinary exam!
Once your portly Portia has a clean bill of health, the two of you are ready to get serious about weight loss. This requires a two-pronged approach: reduction of caloric intake, and increase of caloric output.
Your veterinarian can also help you determine whether your weight-loss diet succeeds at a healthy rate – not too fast or slow. You want to be sure Bowser gets adequate nutrition, and that the weight loss doesn’t occur too rapidly; on the other hand, you should see a progressive loss of weight. Slow and steady loss is the goal.
Canine weight-loss program
There are commercial weight-loss diet foods available, some of which are so effective that they can be obtained only by prescription. According to Susan Wynn, DVM, a holistic veterinarian in Marietta, Georgia, although most dogs will lose weight with commercial diet foods if fed the proper amounts, she has significant concerns about some drawbacks with these diets. According to Dr. Wynn, most commercially prepared diet foods rely on an increase in grain protein and fiber to promote weight loss. Some dogs’ metabolisms don’t handle this increase well. A gradual degeneration in coat quality is a not uncommon side-effect. Some dogs stay overweight but develop dry, flaky skin. Dr. Wynn suggests that still other dogs seem to develop a propensity, months or years down the road, to pancreatitis, a potentially serious, sometimes fatal disease in dogs and humans that can lead to diabetes.
If you feed your dog kibble, use a measuring cup to determine exactly how much food you should be giving your dog, and then find a cup or container (plastic yogurt or cottage cheese containers, or cut-down plastic soft-drink cups work well) that holds exactly the correct amount of food for your dieting dog. Use this container as your regular feed scoop, levelling off each scoop before you pour the food into Bowser’s bowl. It’s hard to keep yourself from slightly overfeeding if your scoop holds more than your dog should receive at each meal. (This is actually a good tip for every dog owner, regardless of whether your dog needs to lose, or merely maintain, his weight.)
A better choice might be to prepare your dog a natural, homemade diet. Donald R. Strombeck, DVM, PhD, a veterinary nutrition expert and professor emeritus, University of California at Davis, offers several recipes for wholesome, palatable weight-reduction diets for dogs in his 1999 book Home-Prepared Dog & Cat Diets: The Healthful Alternative (Iowa State University Press, Ames, Iowa). According to Dr. Strombeck, home-prepared diets are far more likely to be successful in reducing the weight of the pet. Dr. Strombeck suggests adding vegetables to any home-prepared diet to help satisfy the appetite of a dog who is accustomed to heartier fare. If fed raw, he points out, vegetables do not add measurable calories to the meal.
Author and veterinarian Richard Pitcairn, DVM, PhD, author of Dr. Pitcairn’s Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats also recommends the addition of vegetables to a hefty dog’s diet. He especially recommends filling or cleansing vegetables such as zucchini, carrots, celery, broccoli, cabbage, onions, cauliflower, leafy greens, or parsley.
Adding commercial fiber preparations may help curb your porky dog’s appetite, but claims to that effect have not been proven. It might be worth a try if your dieting dog seems to have a voracious appetite, but if it doesn’t help there is no reason to continue.
Tricks and treats
By the way, don’t forget to count the calories in your training treats. In order to avoid sneaking in lots of extra goodies as snacks, use Bowser’s meals (individual pieces of kibble, or his raw meat cut up into little pieces), as training treats throughout the day. If you are one of the lucky owners whose dogs relish eating fresh or slightly cooked vegetables (steamed veggies work well), you can use pieces of carrot, broccoli, or zucchini for training treats.
If you are using a diet kibble and you find that Bowser is less than enthusiastic about working for it in his training session, fill a quart jar with kibbles and crumble a small piece of bacon in the jar. Close the lid, shake it up and let it sit overnight. The bacon will add flavor to the kibble without adding significant fat or calories. Still, remember that a quarter-cup of kibble used in training should equal a quarter-cup less in Bowser’s dinner bowl!
Rin-Tin-Tin workout tapes?
Of course, no such tapes exist (although there are treadmills for dogs . . .) and if they did, the couch potato owner wouldn’t benefit from the extra exercise and bonding he gets from taking Bowser out more often. Most owners greatly underestimate the amount of exercise their dogs need to stay physically and mentally healthy. A walk around the block is an exercise hors d’oeuvre for our dog’s mind and body.
When students arrive at my classes with their dogs leaping about, they often insist that they just took the dog for a two-mile walk on the leash. A two-mile walk on-leash does very little to deplete most dogs’ energy levels, and it’s not nearly enough to make a significant caloric expenditure. Try walking your dog off-leash (either with a reliably-trained recall or on safe, enclosed acreage) and count how many times your dog laps you as you stroll a casual two miles. Exercise needs to be long and intense enough to make your dog work up a pant.
If your dog is obese, you will need to start slowly and gradually work up to a more vigorous exercise program. Just like us, our dogs can strain body parts and suffer heart attacks if we ask their out-of-shape systems to go into overdrive right off the bat.
Again, check with your veterinarian for exercise program recommendations. She or he may suggest that you go slow on the exercise until most of the surplus pounds are off, then increase exercise to help maintain your dog’s ideal weight. This avoids excess wear and tear on your dog’s joints, muscles, and ligaments while he is still carrying the extra weight.
When you are ready to turn up the exercise dial, off-leash hikes, vigorous romps with Rover next door, and games of fetch, gradually increasing in intensity as Bowser gets fit, will do far more good than a sedate stroll around the block. Advanced training activities such as agility, Canine Freestyle, and Flyball can even turn exercise programs into ongoing, entertaining and stimulating social outlets for the both of you.
By the way, an added benefit of a successful weight-loss program is the positive effect on joint diseases like arthritis and hip dysplasia. A dog who is fit and trim is much more easily able to bear his weight on achy joints than one who is carrying extra pounds.
The scale doesn’t lie
Regular weigh-ins are a mandatory part of a good weight-management program. During the weight-loss phase you will need to monitor your dog’s progress so you know if the pounds are coming off too slow, too fast, or not at all. Your veterinarian will help you determine the appropriate loss-rate for your dog. Weigh him daily, and write the number down on your calendar. Once Bowser is at his ideal weight (congratulations!), a weekly weigh-in will help to ensure that you don’t let those extra pounds creep on again.
Keep committed. Weight loss is achievable for the owner who is truly committed to her dog’s well-being. Be prepared to use measuring cups and scales, and to turn your back on Bowser’s pleading eyes when you are eating popcorn in front of the tube. (Keep a jar of Bowser’s training treats by the sofa and toss those to him occasionally if you must, to ease your popcorn guilt.)
Believe me, if Rags (the 60-plus pound Dachshund) could lose weight, so can your dog. The vet’s report on Rags was very hopeful. Aside from the fact that she weighed at least twice as much as she should, she was a healthy dog. Her lab tests were negative for any disease or condition that contributed to her problem; she had simply been on the receiving end of too much prosperity.
Rags achieved remarkable weight loss simply by being kenneled at the veterinary hospital on a rigidly restricted diet (with as much daily exercise as her poundage allowed). After losing 15 pounds she was placed in a foster home, with strict instructions regarding her feeding. Her foster caretakers fell in love and, as the veterinarian had hoped all along, eventually adopted her. Rags’ elderly first owner, while still grieving the loss of his beloved canine pal, was delighted to hear that she was well and had found a new, loving home.
-By Janet Mcclay
Janet McClay is a freelance writer from Springfield, IL. This is her first article for WDJ.
In the February 2000 issue, WDJ reviewed products designed to make picking up dog poop easier. We also compared some commercial “poop bags,” and expressed a strong preference for the two products that are purportedly made of “biodegradable” plastic, which would ostensibly prevent the bags from contributing to overflowing landfills.
Unfortunately, there are no shallow solutions to the interrelated problems of overabundant plastics and landfill glut. As usual, our loyal readers have offered some comments (and solutions):
“A better option for people who need bags for this purpose is to reuse a bag that has been used for something else, such as a newspaper bag or a grocery/retail bag. These bags are free and most of them get tossed in the trash.”
“I was dismayed to note in your review of doggie poop bags that the idea of simply re-using plastic bags that are already in circulation was mentioned only in passing. Let’s use the billions of plastic bags already in circulation. Why encourage the manufacture and distribution of yet more bags?”
“I’m one of those people who bring our own cloth bags to the grocery store. I use plastic bags as little as possible. When walking my dog, I carry a rolled-up newspaper in my back pocket, and use sheets of the newspaper to clean up after my dog. I use (and re-use) a plastic bag only to carry the ‘package’ of paper and poop to a trash can. The paper and poop does go to a landfill, but it won’t ‘live’ as long as it would in plastic.”
And finally:
“When I first heard about ‘biodegradable’ plastic I was enthusiastic until I read further studies by environmental groups not associated with the plastics industry. ‘Biodegradable’ plastic breaks down only in the sunlight. Therefore virtually none of this plastic will degrade in our landfills where it will be covered by garbage. Second, if the “biodegradable” plastic does break down, it doesn’t decompose into natural components of the soil but rather into tiny synthetic particles. No one knows what the effect of such particles might be on our land, water, plants and animals.
“Personally, on my own property I use a canine septic system, placing poop in a hole and dousing it with water and enzymes until it biodegrades.”
One sensible solution: The Doggie Dooley
Actually, for the past year, we have been testing the very system the reader above mentioned: The Doggie Dooley. (We’ve been waiting for just the right time to mention it.) This is a bottomless plastic box that you bury in the ground, with a lid that opens to permit you to dump doo in daily.
The box itself doesn’t really do anything except hold the hole open, like a septic tank. The interesting part of the product is the small tub of “Super Dooley Digester Powder,” a few teaspoons of which you mix with a few gallons of water and pour into the tank from time to time. If you assiduously add the powder and some water to the system, the enzymes in the powder break down the poop; it literally melts into the ground, and it doesn’t smell bad until you open the lid (which is normally kept closed). We’re not sure whether we can get more environmentally sound than this.
Of course, you have to have a yard to employ this device, and it only makes sense that you wouldn’t want to install it near a well. But it’s been a big boon to this suburban dweller. Households with multiple dogs or gigantic dogs might need more than one.
The Doggie Dooley is available in pet stores and from a number of catalogs, and sells for about $30. The maker, Huron Products, also sells extra tubs of the “digester” enzymes.
I have two rescue Danes and I also assist with Great Dane rescue. Recently, I fostered a black, 2 1/2-year-old, neutered Dane. He had no biting history and is friendly with kids, people, and other dogs. The previous owner was honest and told me that the dog did not like the vet’s office, baths, or his feet to be handled.
I took the dog to a veterinary hospital and he did very well in the waiting room with the other dogs. I praised him and treated him for all his calm behavior. I explained to the veterinarian’s technician that the dog did not do well at the vet’s and that I had a soft muzzle that I would put on the dog. The dog clearly did not like it when the technician drew blood for a blood test, and he was clearly afraid:ears back and tail tucked under. I verbally corrected him when he growled, and when he was quiet I held a food treat in front of his muzzled face.
As luck would have it he had an ear infection and needed his ears flushed and treated. In my opinion, the vet really muscled this dog around, slamming him into a sit and shaking him by the scruff of the neck when he growled. When the dog was quiet she would praise him. She did let the dog smell the ear medicine before she used it on him, and she also warmed the cleansing solution. The dog was muzzled the entire time, which I thought was appropriate.
The vet did praise the dog and removed his muzzle when she was done, and even offered him a treat (which he declined to take). Then the vet, who knows me fairly well, told me I had to be more firm with the dog. I have a lot of respect for my vet, however, since this dog was a rescue dog, had been through a lot and was scared to death, I felt this treatment was too rough. The technician also stated that Danes were also known biters – is this true?
When I placed the dog with a new owner I told her all about the experience at the vet’s. The new owner and I put medication in one of the dog’s ears while I gave him food treats and he did well with no muzzle and no growling!
We gave these questions to Pat Miller, WDJ’s regular gentle training expert. Miller, a member of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers, offers private and group dog training classes from her base in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
First of all, kudos to you for the good work you do, both in Dane rescue and in spreading the word about the effectiveness of positive training methods. How unfortunate for your latest Rescue Guy (let’s call him RG) that he had to undergo such forceful treatment at the hands of your veterinarian.
You clearly have a long-term relationship with this vet, and many of the things you describe indicate that she goes out of her way to make her patients comfortable – warming the cleansing solution, for example. However, it sounds like she subscribes to the force/intimidation school of dog handling. She is not alone. Most veterinarians receive(d) little or no comprehensive training in dog behavior during their years of higher education. Many of them read the same books that lots of dog trainers and owners have read – William Koehler and Monks of New Skete – that encourage owners to punish their dogs for any signs of aggression (or self-defense, from the dog’s point of view!), such as growling or snapping. These ill-advised responses include the scruff shake, alpha roll, jerks on the collar, hitting, muscling the dog around, and the extremes of hanging and helicoptering (which are just exactly what they sound like). Fortunately this is changing, as more and more vet schools realize the value of veterinarians being more familiar with behavioral science in their practices.
To be fair, veterinarians have to get the job done. They must be able to handle a dog in order to examine and treat him. They should be willing to take a reasonable amount of time to help a dog relax, but should not be expected to take undue risks with their own personal safety or that of their staff, nor should we expect them to spend hours helping us socialize a stressed dog. That means we, as the dog’s caretakers, bear the threefold responsibility of:
• Preparing the dog for the veterinary visit
• Taking whatever precautions are necessary to ensure the safety of clinic staff
• and making sure our veterinarian is on the same philosophical page we are in regards to dog training and handling.
Counter conditioning and desensitization
What RG needs is some counter conditioning to change the way his brain responds to veterinary hospitals, baths, and attention to his feet. It would be helpful to take him to the vet hospital numerous times before his next examination and just sit with him in the waiting room, feeding him treats. Let clinic staff greet him and feed him treats. Don’t ask RG to do anything, and don’t even verbally correct him for growling. Just feed him lots of his super-favorite treats. Corrections for growling only add to his stress, confirming his belief that the vet hospital is a bad place to be.
Besides, the growl is an important tool for us. Dogs who are corrected for growling often learn to launch right into a bite without giving us that very useful warning that we are on thin ice. You want the dog to growl to let you know that he is being pushed to his limits so you can back off and reduce his stress, in order to prevent the bite.
Help RG’s new family understand the importance of doing counter conditioning and desensitization in relation to vet visits, baths, and foot handling so that he learns to accept these three important procedures. With each ritual, find a level of interaction that doesn’t unduly stress him (such as sitting in the clinic waiting room, sitting on the floor next to the bathtub, touching his knee, elbow, or shoulder). Expose him to that level of stimulus, and let the treats rain from the heavens. Do it every day, several times a day if possible, until his reaction changes from suspicion as you run the bath water or walk through the clinic door to eager anticipation. You are working to change his involuntary reflex to each of these situations from negative to positive (this is the counter conditioning part).
When he looks forward to this level of interaction, very gradually increase the stimulus. Move your hand from his elbow toward his knee. Take him from the waiting room into the exam room. Splash around in the tub water (this is the desensitization part). Move forward gradually with each stimulus, and pause at each new level until “treats raining down from the heavens” convinces him that this, too, is a wonderful thing. Herbal and homeopathic remedies, massage and TTouch techniques may also help him relax and enjoy the experiences. If at any time you provoke an aggressive reaction, you have advanced too quickly.
This takes time and a real commitment. RG has had more than two years to learn the behavior – it’s only fair to take a significant amount of time to change it. And it is important to do so. Once incident where he is pushed too far could mean a serious bite and the end of his life.
Proper use of muzzles
You did an excellent job of this by muzzling RG prior to subjecting him to an experience you knew he would react badly to. The muzzle is a very useful safety tool. Here are some tips on using muzzles:
• Condition your dog to enjoy his muzzle (or at least, feel OK about it) prior to using it in a stressful situation. Do this by associating the muzzle with treats. Show him the muzzle, feed him a treat. Let him sniff it, feed him a treat. If your dog knows how to “target” (see “Tricks for Clicks,” May 2000), use the muzzle as a target object and reward him for touching it with his nose. Slip it over his nose, slip it off, feed him a treat. Slip it over his nose, buckle it, unbuckle it, slip it off, feed him a treat.
Repeat each of these steps numerous timesbefore moving on to the next. Slip his muzzle on, slip it off, feed him his dinner. Slip it on, take him for a walk. You want him to associate his muzzle with wonderful things so it doesn’t stress him further to be muzzled at the vet hospital.
• Be sure the muzzle is comfortable and properly fitted. It shouldn’t bind, rub, restrict his breathing or his vision. Soft muzzles and basket muzzles are both acceptable, although I find that it’s easier to feed a dog treats when he is wearing a soft fabric muzzle, the kind that is open on the end.
• Protect your dog when he is muzzled. He is defenseless. It is your job to protect him from other dogs and from humans who might take advantage of his helplessness.
• Don’t leave the muzzle on for more than 10-15 minutes at a time, even less if it is hot and humid, or if you have a flat-nosed breed of dog like the Bulldog or Boston Terrier, who already has breathing challenges.
• If a muzzle isn’t sufficient to restrain the dog for examination and treatment, it is my preference to have the veterinarian administer a sedative or tranquilizer rather than traumatize the dog further through rough handling.
Communicate with your vet
It is important that your vet support your dog training and handling philosophies. Talk with her in advance, especially when you have a problem child like RG, so she knows what handling techniques you will and won’t accept. Reassure her that you will take necessary precautions to ensure her safety. But don’t be intimidated by the letters after her name. You pay her to look after the health of your dog. As long as she can do that safely, she should not reprimand or train your dog for you.
RG’s encounter with your veterinarian reinforced his already strong belief that vet hospitals are bad places. Every time this happens, it becomes harder to convince him otherwise. His reaction tells us that most of his past visits to vets were probably not pleasant. His new family needs to start on a program to change his mind right now.
The good news is that he is tolerant and responsive in other environments. His bad experience at the vet’s didn’t translate into resistance to treatment at home. He gets along with dogs, kids, and other people. He sounds like a basically stable dog who has made a few unfortunate associations with a few necessary procedures. If that is true, his basically stable nature bodes well for his reprogramming potential.
As for Danes being biters: All dogs can and will bite under certain circumstances. Great Danes were bred to guard, so they have a genetically programmed protective nature. That doesn’t mean they are unpredictable biters who attack without provocation. It means that given the right circumstances, when they feel that there is a threat to themselves, their pack (you!) or their home, they will defend. It is our job to socialize them well and thereby teach them that the average human is not a threat.
Keep up the good work with your rescue furkids. And stick to your positive training guns!
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Maybe it’s partially our fault, but the word “natural” is getting a lot of exposure on dog food labels these days. The problem is, it doesn’t mean anything in particular; there is no official definition of the word. It just sounds good, and companies like Pet Products Plus, Inc., makers of Sensible Choice, like to use it a lot. A bright yellow banner on the front of the bag says, “100% All Natural.” And the back of the label explains, “Sensible Choice dog foods are all-natural products. . . In other words, if it’s not found in nature, you won’t find it in Sensible Choice.” But that just doesn’t explain something like “natural flavor,” the sixth ingredient listed on the label of the Sensible Choice Lamb and Rice food. Natural what flavor?
Simply omitting artificial preservatives, colors, and flavors is not enough to make a dry dog food “natural” or healthy.
This food has quite a few hallmarks of our “Not Recommended” list, including the extensive use of food “fragments,” where food makers buy inexpensive and heavily processed leftovers from human food manufacturing and recombine them to approximate a whole, healthy ingredient. Combining brewers rice, rice flour, and rice gluten doesn’t begin to present the benefits of nutritious whole rice.
By presenting fragments separately on the label, the maker obscures the fact that this food is mainly rice, even though lamb meal appears first on the label. By law, makers must list the ingredients on the label in descending order by weight. If you were to add up the second, third, and fourth ingredients – all fragments of rice – they would surely outweigh the lamb, pushing it far down the label.
This tactic makes the food look better than it really is, as does the pretty label, the repetitive use of “natural,” and the inexplicable but cute little splash of French under the name (“Nourriture pour chien” – “Food for dog” just doesn’t sound as good). Other than these things, this food doesn’t have much going for it.
Sensible Choice is made by Pet Products Plus, Inc., St. Peters, MO. (800) 592-6687.
There are innumerable individuals and organizations that promote their beliefs for various reasons that feeding dogs anything other than commercially manufactured dog food is deleterious to canine health. If this were true, dogs wouldn’t even be here today, since the commercial dog food industry itself is less than a century old, and dogs have been successfully fed by humans considerably longer than that.
Nevertheless, our readers tell us all SORTS of explanations that they have heard from their veterinarians, trainers, breeders, or friends as to why they should not feed their dogs a bones and raw food (a.k.a. biologically appropriate raw foods or BARF) diet. Some of these objections are completely nonsensical and easily dismissed, such as the claim that dogs cannot digest raw meat properly.
Other concerns make sense, such as the possibility that a homemade diet may not provide a proper balance of nutrients. We feel that sensible concerns such as these are easily addressed; as we’ve said before, feeding dogs really isn’t rocket science.
Still other times, however, readers bring us questions about a BARF diets that would be best answered by a veterinarian preferably one who has a lot of experience with these diets. There may be no better candidate fitting this description than Dr. Ian Billinghurst, an Australian veterinarian who is also the author of two wonderfully detailed instructional books, Give Your Dog A Bone and Grow Your Pup With Bones. Though our readers could answer many of their own questions by an in-depth reading of either or both of Dr. Billinghurst’s books (which we heartily recommend), Dr. Billinghurst has agreed to answer questions about BARF diets for WDJ and our readers.
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Last month, after changing the diet of my seven-year old male dog, Hobo, from a grocery store dry food diet to a raw meat diet for two weeks, Hobo died of kidney failure. His BUN value was very high. My suspicion is that his kidneys could not process the high protein food. Although dogs descend from wolves, is it possible that some of them have lost the gene for eating either high protein foods or contaminated foods? We have now adopted another dog, Princessa, from the local pound and have our hands full getting her settled in.
-Sylvia Hall Bell, CA
Dr. Billinghurst responds:
Thank you very much for your letter. We are all very sad to hear of Hobo’s death. However, it is wonderful that his life can be used to help the owners of other animals who are afraid of the BARF diet because of the possibility that it might be a cause of kidney failure.
You see, the truth is, under the circumstances you describe, it cannot. Your letter has highlighted a number of misconceptions regarding kidney failure and high protein diets.
One of the first things I must point out is that an ALL-MEAT diet is not a BARF diet and is certainly not a biologically appropriate or a properly formulated evolutionary diet. Having made that point, let me now take you through the causes of kidney failure so we may set your mind at ease regarding those causes, and the safety of a properly formulated BARF diet with respect to kidney function, kidney health, and kidney failure.
What is kidney failure?
This is a condition where the kidneys fail to remove waste products of metabolism from the blood and they fail to regulate the balance in the body of fluids, electrolytes, and pH. The underlying cause can be a problem of the kidneys themselves, but it can also be due to other body systems malfunctioning or being diseased. In addition, when kidneys fail, the failure can be either acute or chronic.
Acute kidney failure is abrupt in onset and is often able to be reversed if recognized early and treated appropriately. By contrast, chronic kidney failure develops over a number of years and is the end result of long-term damage that cannot be repaired.
When kidneys stop working properly (either as an acute reversible episode or as a chronic irreversible state) they fail to remove nitrogenous wastes from the blood. These nitrogenous wastes include urea, creatinine, and other compounds. The compounds we normally look for in blood tests are urea and creatinine. When these are found in high concentrations in the blood, we know that the kidneys have not been working well enough to be able to remove them from the blood.
Acute kidney failure
The causes of acute kidney failure are divided into three groups. The first group of causes of acute kidney failure are those causes which decrease the flow of blood to and through the kidneys. This is the most common form of acute kidney failure and may be reversible if the cause of the reduced blood flow can be identified and corrected within 24 hours. Common causes of reduced blood flow would include shock, hemorrhage, and heart failure. At this time, urine output is greatly reduced or nil. The causes of shock are numerous and can range from acute trauma to some form of acute disease condition such as pancreatitis.
The second group of causes of acute kidney failure are related to damage to the kidneys themselves, although the primary problem may also be external to the kidneys as it was with the first group. For example, if there has been muscle trauma, the resulting myoglobin in the blood may block the tiny tubes within the kidneys causing kidney failure. Or, if there has been heart failure, there may be poor blood flow to the kidneys, which causes the cells of the kidneys to die. Alternatively, toxins (including drugs) may result in kidney cell death, and of course kidney infection may also result in acute kidney failure.
The third group of causes of acute kidney failure include some form of obstruction to urine flow after the urine leaves the kidneys. A common cause would be a blockage caused by crystals formed in the urinary tract or in the case of males it may relate to an enlarged prostate.
As you will appreciate, the symptoms seen with acute kidney failure reflect the underlying cause, whether it be signs of infection, heart failure, pancreatitis, urinary stones, enlarged prostate or whatever. On top of those signs relating to the underlying cause of the acute kidney failure will be a second set of signs which relate to the kidney failure itself. These acute kidney failure signs are generally recognized as being divisible into two phases.
The first phase of acute kidney failure is a period during which there is marked reduction in urinary output. The second stage of acute kidney failure is characterized by a marked increase in urinary output.
It is the first stage of acute kidney failure which is most critical. Fluid retention will cause edema which may result in fluid in the lungs, there will be a critical rise in blood pressure ,and the retention of wastes will result in severe acidosis/toxicosis. If untreated, this deadly combination may result in convulsions, coma, muscle weakness, heart failure, gastrointestinal bleeding, infection, and ultimately death. Infection is a major cause of death in dogs with acute kidney failure, although death may also be caused by any of the other underlying causes.
Assuming treatment of the underlying cause and the damage to the kidneys has been successful, the second stage of acute kidney failure will begin within days to weeks after the first stage. It marks the time when the kidneys have recovered sufficiently to allow the production of urine. During this period the BUN and the creatinine may well remain elevated for some time, but will return to normal as and if the kidneys recover.
Please note at this point that excessive protein in the diet is nowhere to be seen as a cause of acute kidney failure.
Chronic kidney failure
Chronic kidney failure represents progressive destruction of kidney structures over many years. The progression of this form of kidney failure usually occurs in three stages, as follows:
The First Stage Of Chronic Kidney Failure
This is called the renal impairment stage. When this stage is reached, it means that the kidneys have been damaged to the point that they have lost up to 50 percent of their function. Sometimes no signs of problems are seen at this stage, but the signs can also include slightly excessive drinking and urinating. At this stage, by limiting protein, calcium, and phosphorus in the diet of these patients, the progression of renal disease may be slowed dramatically, but unfortunately it cannot be completely halted.
The Second Stage Of Chronic Kidney Failure
This is called the stage of kidney insufficiency. This is the stage where the ongoing kidney damage is such that the kidneys have lost between 60 and 80 percent of their function. The symptoms seen include excessive drinking and urinating together with other signs such as anemia and nausea relating to the buildup of toxins. At this stage, by limiting protein, calcium, and phosphorus in the diet of these patients, the progression of renal disease may be slowed but it most certainly cannot be halted.
The Third Stage Of Chronic Kidney Failure
The third stage of chronic kidney failure is where the loss of kidney function is between 90 and 95 percent. By now the kidneys are so damaged they are almost unable to function. At this stage, treatment by dialysis or transplantation is necessary for survival.
The role of excessive protein in kidney failure
It is generally agreed amongst veterinary experts that high protein diets are not in themselves a cause of either acute or chronic kidney failure. It does appear, however, that where there is pre-existing kidney damage, a high protein diet will help to further that damage. That is why diets to treat kidney failure must be low in protein (and phosphorus and calcium and possibly sodium), but diets to prevent kidney disease do not have to be limited in protein.
Looking for clues
Let me now return to your letter. If we look at the lifetime diet of Hobo, we find that for seven years Hobo had consumed grocery store dry dog food. Sadly, according to lectures presented at Sydney University in 1998 by the experts at Hills Science diets, this is a well-known cause of chronic kidney failure.
Hobo’s new diet appeared to be raw meat, and this was fed for two weeks. Unfortunately we know little about this diet except that it was raw meat. We do not know what sort of meat, how clean or how contaminated it was, whether bones or supplements or anything else was fed. All we have been told is that it was a raw meat diet.
What we do know however is that, very sadly, Hobo passed away at the end of this two week period. The question is, what caused Hobo’s death? Was it kidney failure, and if so, what was the cause of the kidney failure? Is it possible that, as the letter said, his kidneys could not process the high protein food? In support of this, it was proposed that Although dogs descend from wolves, some of them may have lost the gene for eating either high protein foods or contaminated foods.
First, the ability to consume either high protein foods or contaminated foods is not controlled by a single gene. Both of these traits are multifactorial in origin. The ability to safely consume high protein foods and contaminated foods can, however, be compromised or even destroyed by feeding an inappropriate diet such as grocery store dry dog food over a long period of time. This is because, again, over time, grocery store dry dog food will via a variety of mechanisms involving malnutrition and periodontal disease cause kidney failure, which will leave the dog susceptible to a high protein diet. That is, under conditions of an already damaged set of kidneys, feeding a high protein diet will cause further kidney damage.
And with respect to contaminated foods the long-term effects of malnutrition are a depleted immune system. A poorly functioning immune system is the only reason a dog cannot safely eat contaminated food. The ability to safely consume contaminated food has been destroyed.
Note that when we do have a dog with kidney failure, a properly formulated BARF diet which is low in protein, calcium, phosphorus, etc., works absolute wonders.
Don’t blame meat
If we accept that Hobo did indeed die from kidney failure, the first question is was it acute or chronic?
If Hobo died from acute kidney failure, then it is clear from the above discussion that the cause was not due to a sudden increase in protein in the diet. That is not to say that we can rule out this particular raw meat diet as a cause of death. However, we would need a lot more information to make any further judgment on that. What we can say with certainty is that if there was acute kidney failure, it was not due to a high protein diet.
If Hobo died from chronic kidney failure, it means that Hobo’s kidneys were already in a perilous state of health when his diet was switched from store bought dry food to raw meat. That is, between 80 and 90 percent of his kidney function must already have been destroyed. That leaves the question open as to what might possibly have caused that kidney destruction.
If there was a dietary cause of that 80-90 percent kidney destruction, there is only one possible culprit here, and that is certainly not the new all-meat diet. It is possible however, although highly unlikely in such a short period of time, that the new all-meat diet could have pushed Hobo over the edge. In other words, on the available evidence, which is scant, there is no way that the new all-meat diet caused a death that was not about to happen anyway.
Conclusion
On the available evidence, it is clear that the underlying cause of Hobo’s untimely death was most likely to be related to a lifetime spent eating inappropriate food. It is possible that some aspect of the new food could have been the final straw in the process however. On that basis it would be very wise not to feed Princessa on the grocery store dry food. On the other hand, if she is to be fed properly, it is imperative that appropriate advice be sought regarding healthy sources and correct formulation of an evolutionary diet to ensure her maximum health into the future.
Dr. Ian Billinghurst is an Australian veterinarian and author of Give Your Dog A Bone and Grow Your Pup With Bones.
Opening the mail can make my day dreary – when people write in to point out a phone number is incorrect, say, or when they are just plain angry about something we’ve published. But the mail can also brighten my day considerably, like when someone drops me a line to say, “Good job!” Recently, a friend sent me the following bit of doggerel that I’m still smiling about. There was no author or source acknowledged, so my gratitude to whomever wrote the following:
If a dog were your teacher, you would learn stuff like . . .
When loved ones come home, always run to greet them. Never pass up the opportunity to go for a joyride. Allow the experience of fresh air and the wind in your face to be pure ecstasy. When it’s in your best interest, practice obedience. Let others know when they’ve invaded your territory. Take naps and stretch before rising. Run, romp and play daily. Thrive on attention and let people touch you. Avoid biting, when a simple growl will do. On warm days, stop to lie on your back on the grass. On hot days, drink lots of water and lay under a shady tree. When you’re happy, dance around and wag your entire body. No matter how often you’re scolded, don’t buy into the guilt thing and pout; run right back and make friends. Delight in the simple joy of a long walk. Eat with gusto and enthusiasm. Stop when you’ve had enough. Be loyal. Never pretend to be something you’re not. If what you want lies buried, dig until you find it. When someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close by and nuzzle them gently.
Indeed, happy dogs seem to have it all figured out. When my husband steps into my office and sees me slaving away at my computer, still in my pajamas at noon, dark circles under my eyes from a horrifically late work night – and Rupert lounging on a pile of plush dog beds, chewing on a juicy rawhide, he always jokes, “Just exactly who’s in charge here?” Rupert’s the smart one, according to Brian, and I’m starting to think he’s right.
The point of the verse goes beyond just taking it easy, however. It’s also suggesting that we humans would benefit from learning to live “in the moment,” being the person we really are, with basic good manners but without pretense. Wouldn’t it make life a lot easier if we could all do that more often?
The verse also suggests that we revel in the lusciousness of every enjoyable moment of our day – a patch of sun, a fragrant breeze, a tasty meal, a deep stretch, a kind word or even a pat on the head!
Any smart dog would also recommend that we simply walk away from the unpleasant moments of our days, shaking them off like a Lab coming out of a cold lake.
Sounds good to me. I’m walking out of my office today (a Friday) at noon, and I’m not going to go back in until Monday morning. I’m going to soak up some sun this weekend. And I’ll solve the problem of how to enjoy Monday when it gets here, not before.
In the April 2000 issue, we discussed a number of therapies that have brought relief to some thunder- and noise-phobic dogs, including homeopathy, flower essences, medicinal herbs, and aromatherapy. This article discusses even more therapies that can be helpful in reducing the symptoms of fear and panic that many dogs experience with loud noises or storms.
The melatonin miracle
As unlikely as it sounds, one of the most effective treatments for thunderstorm phobias may be an over-the-counter hormone used by humans to prevent insomnia. Melatonin, produced by the pineal gland, sets the body’s internal clock in response to exposure to light. The body creates melatonin only in total darkness, for the pineal gland stops production when any part of the body, even the back of the leg, is exposed to light. In people, melatonin has been shown to calm the nerves, reduce anxiety, relieve panic disorders, prevent migraine headaches, facilitate deep sleep, and, according to some researchers, help slow the effects of aging. In birds and other animals in the wild, melatonin levels trigger spring reproduction, fall migration, and winter hibernation.
In fact, hibernation is what brought melatonin to dogs with thunderstorm phobias. In the winter of 1995, a hyperactive black bear living at a wildlife rehabilitation center made life miserable for her keepers. Dr. Dodman, who runs the behavioral section at Tufts New England Veterinary Medical Center in Massachusetts, suggested giving the bear melatonin. “That decreased the bear’s activity,” says Dr. Aronson, “and she rested quite nicely.”
Aronson and Dodman found research papers describing the use of melatonin in other environments, such as large chicken farms, where it reduced the stress of overcrowding. “Someone had done research on flank licking in dogs,” says Aronson, “and melatonin reduced that as well. In human psychiatric medicine, melatonin has been used to treat seasonal affective disorder and jet lag in adults as well as depression and self-injurious behaviors in children. We had been looking for something that would help reduce canine thunderstorm phobias, and we wondered if melatonin might work.”
The first patient to receive the experimental therapy was Aronson’s own dog, a Bearded Collie then seven years old. “Lightning had hit very close to my house two years previously,” says Aronson, “and thunderstorms had frightened her ever since. We had tried other therapies, including some homeopathic remedies. Homeopathic Aconite seemed to help, but it didn’t solve the problem. So I tried melatonin, and the result was dramatic. Instead of tearing through the house, urinating, and digging at carpets with a wild look in her eye, she simply stopped being afraid. Melatonin isn’t a sedative. It didn’t put her to sleep; she stayed awake and alert. Thunder just didn’t bother her any more.”
Researchers reproduce positive results
Aronson and Dodman gave melatonin to other dogs and produced the same results. “It worked well for noises other than thunder,” Aronson says. “One dog was afraid of thunder but her major fear was of song birds, and it worked for both phobias. In another case, a woman took two dogs, one of which was extremely noise-phobic, and a bottle of melatonin on a Fourth of July agility match camping trip. Hers were the only dogs in the camp that weren’t severely stressed by the fireworks.”
Melatonin’s benefits may be cumulative. “The camping dogs were most relaxed on the third night,” Aronson says, “as though learning had taken place over the first two nights. After five years of treatment, my dog is less perturbed by thunder if she doesn’t get melatonin, but she is still far more comfortable when she does get it.”
Melatonin is sold in capsules and tablets in health food stores, pharmacies, and some supermarkets. At first marketed in doses of two to three milligrams (mg.), melatonin is now sold in doses as low as 200 micrograms (mcg.). For most dogs, Aronson prescribes 3 mg., which was the amount recommended for humans when she and Dodman began their research five years ago. “This dosage works very well for large dogs,” she says, “and we have seen no adverse side effects. In a few cases, very large dogs weighing well over a hundred pounds needed 6 mg., but that’s unusual. For dogs that weigh less than 30 pounds, we usually give 1.5 mg. We haven’t had any experience with tiny dogs, but if one did develop a noise phobia, we would reduce the dosage even further.”
To improve assimilation, pills can be crushed or capsules opened and their contents added to food. “It’s important to compare labels,” she adds, “because now that low-dose melatonin is widely sold, many owners seriously under-dose their dogs. They forget that there are 1,000 micrograms in a milligram. A 200-mcg. pill contains only 1/15 of the amount recommended for a large dog.”
Preparation is key
Whenever a thunderstorm is predicted, Aronson recommends giving the dog melatonin before the owner leaves for the day. The supplement remains effective for several hours. Otherwise, give it whenever thunder seems imminent. “If you notice the dog becoming agitated,” she says, “give melatonin immediately. I’ve had one report that it didn’t work on a dog that was already highly agitated before taking melatonin, so it may not be effective in a fully developed panic attack. Even then I think it is worth trying, as it may prevent the situation from getting worse.”
Do other stress reactions respond to melatonin? “We hoped it might cure separation anxiety,” says Aronson, “and when Nick Dodman and I tried it on a Great Dane with this condition, it worked for a while but then stopped working. I’ve also had good response from two dogs with lick granulomas. We have not found it to be effective in other stressful situations. It seems to be most effective when noise is a major factor.”
How melatonin works remains a mystery, but it has a profound effect on the central nervous system’s neurotransmitters, which are chemicals that transmit nerve impulses. “We know that melatonin increases serotonin production and that it is a major inhibitor of dopamine release,” says Aronson. “Dopamine and serotonin are the most important neurotransmitters involved in behavior. We tried other substances that enhance the production of serotonin, but they need three to four weeks to become effective, while melatonin works immediately. Maybe it has something to do with cortisol levels. We spend a lot of time speculating as to why and how melatonin works. In the meantime, people are happy because their dogs are calm.”
Safety issues
Are there any dogs that shouldn’t take melatonin? “They do say that you shouldn’t give it to humans with autoimmune disorders,” says Aronson, “but I have given it to dogs with autoimmune disease, and we haven’t seen any deleterious side effects. I’ve used it on very elderly dogs that had a number of diseases, dogs with heart problems, and dogs with other illnesses. Melatonin is not recommended for people taking corticosteroids or monoamine oxidase inhibitors. Some dogs with autoimmune disease are on steroids, and although melatonin therapy has worked well for them, they should be monitored carefully. I would probably lower the dose for a dog with a severe kidney or liver disease, but other than that I would give the standard dosage.” Physicians debate the long-term safety of melatonin supplementation, and many holistic health experts caution against taking melatonin for more than occasional, short-term use. Reports of its actions in dogs remain anecdotal, for no clinical trials have been conducted.
Over-the-counter melatonin is not recommended for children because any hormone supplement may disrupt the developing endocrine system. “Some people say it shouldn’t be given to puppies for the same reason,” says Aronson, “but if I were treating a very young dog or puppy for nose phobia, I would use it. You have to compare the risks, and when you measure the risk of a recurring thunderstorm phobia, you have to include the possibility that your dog will run away, be seriously injured, wreck your house, or suffer the cumulative effects of repeated psychological trauma. In that context, I think the risk posed by melatonin is relatively insignificant.”
Spreading the word
In addition to recommending melatonin in her behavioral practice, Aronson shared the news with fellow Bearded Collie owners. “We have received detailed reports on about a hundred dogs,” she says, “and so far everyone says that it’s working.”
It didn’t take long for stories about melatonin to spread across the country. One dog breeder who wasted no time to test the therapy was Judy Johnstone, who came into possession of an extremely thunder-phobic nine-year-old dog. During a thunderstorm the dog had escaped from her former owner’s apartment, jumped over a fence, and was found wandering near I-70 in downtown Denver.
“When the dog then came to live with me here in Michigan,” says Johnstone, “she was extremely fearful of loud noises, so as soon as I read the recommendation, which was from a trainer I respected, I was eager to try melatonin. Twenty minutes before the next thunderstorm arrived, I gave her one 3-mg. capsule, and she slept through the storm. Then I tried it on my two older dogs, the ones who became thunder-phobic when our house was hit by lightning.”
Johnstone personally knows 10 dogs, including her own three, whose thunderstorm phobia responded well to melatonin. One belongs to a friend who occasionally boards her dogs with Johnstone. “This dog,” she says, “had trashed just about every crate that I own while trying to escape from thunder. She was finally put on a veterinary tranquilizer that immobilized her so that even though she was still frightened, she couldn’t do anything about it. Like all the other dogs I know, she responded immediately to melatonin, and she’s been calm during storms ever since.”
Dr. Aronson continues to collect case studies for a report to the veterinary community. If you’d like participate in her melatonin research project, see “More Resources” below. Send a brief description of the dog (breed, sex, spayed/neutered, age, and weight), type of phobia (thunderstorms, fireworks, gunshot noise, airplanes, etc.), behavior triggered by the phobia, age at which the phobia began, event that triggered the phobia (if known), treatments that were tried prior to melatonin, melatonin dosage used, its effectiveness or ineffectiveness under different conditions (please describe), and your name, address, phone number, or e-mail address. “I would like to hear about dogs for whom melatonin doesn’t work,” says Aronson, “as well as success stories.”
TTouch for any stressor
One therapy that has helped dogs permanently overcome their fear of thunder and many other things is Tellington TTouch, the system of gentle circular massage motions developed by Linda Tellington-Jones. In the May 1999 issue of WDJ, certified TTouch practitioner Sabra Learned described a Great Dane who was so terrified of thunder that she pulled the sofa away from the wall in order to hide behind it whenever a storm hit, damaging both sofa and wall in the process. The dog had one session of TTouch, conducted when there was no thunder, and during the next storm she was found lying on (not behind) the sofa, fast asleep.
Because they move muscles in ways that are not already familiar to the body, the gentle manipulations of TTouch are said to disrupt habitual neural pathways, awaken previously unused brain cells, and create profound changes at the cellular level which generate new responses to familiar stimuli.
As exotic as this theory sounds, it is utilized by therapists who help people recover from terrifying traumas. In rapid eye movement desensitization, the patient thinks about an upsetting event while the therapist moves a hand or object back and forth, causing the patient’s eyes to move rapidly. In a popular phobia treatment, the patient taps different parts of the body, such as the top of one hand or under the eyes, while thinking about or looking at whatever normally triggers panic. In another, the patient mentally reconstructs traumatic events from a different perspective, such as from a distance or while looking down from the sky. What these unusual treatments have in common is that they often eliminate a phobia within minutes, so that someone who was terrified of elevators or airplanes now rides in them without a second thought.
Tellington TTouch is thought to do the same thing in dogs, so that the stimulus (thunder, loud noises) no longer produces the same effect (anxiety, panic). Sabra Learned’s WDJ article (May 1999) demonstrated ear slides and body wraps, both of which decrease anxiety and help prevent thunder phobias. In her book The Tellington TTouch, Linda Tellington-Jones recommends tail work as well, for using a gentle pull/hold/release movement while drawing circles around the base, underside, and top of the tail seems to release fear, especially in dogs that tuck the tail when frightened.
“We have found that altering the way the animal holds the tail changes his or her response to fearful situations,” Tellington-Jones explains. “For example, we have had impressive positive results in innumerable cases when we have used the tail work to alleviate such problems as fear of loud noises (backfire or thunder), fear-biting, aggression, or timidity.”
Another technique that improves these same conditions is a TTouch exercise called Journey of the Homing Pigeon, in which two handlers stand on opposite sides of the dog, each with a leash attached to the collar and holding a long wand. The handlers take turns stroking the dog’s chest with the wand, moving forward while holding the wand as a target stick in front of the dog’s nose, then stopping and stroking the chest again. No sharp commands are used, only soft intonations.
Helpful obstacles
In addition, the focus and concentration required in exercises that use long sticks or six-foot lengths of three-inch plastic plumbing pipe help calm thunder-phobic dogs. To create a simple obstacle course for your dog, lay several sticks or pipes across each other in a random arrangement, like pickup sticks, and slowly walk your dog through them. “He has to stop and think rather than rush,” says Tellington-Jones. “He is not able to sit down between them but rather must use his mind quietly to figure out how to get through.”
Another exercise, the labyrinth, involves slow walking in a simple maze pattern. Both require the animal to think and move in unfamiliar ways. “Working within the boundaries of the labyrinth seems to calm and focus dogs as well as horses,” she observes, “and animals that have a tendency to be hyperactive quiet almost immediately.”
The tiny circles that are the foundation of TTouch may reduce the effects of “tingle voltage” in dogs on days when thunder is predicted. As Tellington-Jones reports in her book, a Toronto farmer wrote that he successfully adapted TTouch to relieve the symptoms of electrical buildup in his dairy cattle by making small circles over their teats and udders at milking time. Instead of remaining paralyzed and unable to let down their milk, the cattle were ready for milking within five minutes. Making large and small circles from head to tail and from the spine down the legs to the floor may interrupt the charge-and-recharge cycle of stray electrical currents in dogs as well. For information about Tellington TTouch books and videos or referral to a TTouch instructor, see the “More Resources” box.
Canine acupressure
Another physical therapy that produces long-lasting changes in health and behavior is acupressure, the application of gentle to firm finger pressure to the acupuncture points of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). In dogs, humans, and other animals, acupressure points map the flow of Chi or life force energy. Blocked Chi interferes with health, but both acupuncture and acupressure correct imbalances in its flow, releasing energy blocks and restoring the body’s ability to heal.
Few people know more about the meridians (energy pathways) of dogs, cats, and horses than Nancy Zidonis. A founding board member of the International Alliance of Animal Therapy and Healing, Zidonis has co-authored three acupressure textbooks and developed canine, equine, and feline meridian charts. Her latest book, The Well-Connected Dog: A Guide to Canine Acupressure, co-written with Amy Snow, features detailed illustrations, photographs, and instructions for performing acupressure on dogs of every description.
Because the terminology, theory, classifications, and procedures of TCM are new to most Americans, long lists of acupressure points (called acupoints) and maps of a dog’s body dotted with abbreviations like Lu 1 (traditionally known as Central Resistance, an alarm point for the lung) and Ht 9 (Lesser Yin Rushing, a tonification point for the heart meridian) can seem overwhelming.
“That’s because they are unfamiliar,” says Snow. “Acupressure is really easy to learn; it just takes practice. Most dogs learn to love the treatment, and in addition to helping them feel better, it strengthens the bonds of affection and communication between dogs and their people.”
Help for a scared service dog
A Golden Retriever named Stella had recently graduated from Canine Companions for Independence (CCI) when lightning struck a rock outside her Colorado home. Her partner called the dog as she rolled her wheelchair into the house, but Stella frozen with fear and was unable to move for several minutes. For the next year, she cowered and shook whenever she heard thunder, fire engines, or Fourth of July fireworks. “As a CCI graduate, Stella must be highly reliable and able to perform whatever tasks her human requires,” says Snow. “Her inability to function when any loud noise occurred was a very serious problem.”
Snow and Zidonis met Stella at a CCI training session held at an amusement park. “She arrived in fine form,” says Snow, “wagging happily and greeting people when released to do so. Suddenly a train went by and Stella’s whole demeanor changed.”
Zidonis and Snow often combine acupuncture with other therapies, such as homeopathy, calming herbs, or essential oils. “We suggested that Stella take a homeopathic calming remedy and receive one acupressure treatment daily,” says Snow. “After two weeks, she was less distracted by loud noises, but a working Service Dog must be totally reliable, and Stella’s behavior still could not be trusted. We continued the acupressure treatments every three days for two more weeks, including point work for calming, fear reduction, and mental focus.”
The therapy worked. Now three years old and no longer frightened by loud noises, Stella performs her Service Dog duties with pride.
Good for fearful dogs
Seven-month-old Sheba, a gangly dark red Irish Setter, was so afraid of noise that even a loud voice would send her racing for the bath tub, where she would lie as flat as her angular body allowed. “Setters are known to be excitable,” says Zidonis, “but this was an unusually stressed and fearful puppy. We started her acupressure by focusing on calming points, and her caregivers performed maintenance sessions between the weekly treatments we administered.”
Within two weeks, Sheba’s behavior changed. During a thunderstorm she walked into the bathroom but did not hide in the tub. “She continued to relax,” says Zidonis, “even when people raised their voices or a truck went by. After two months of treatment, Sheba could tolerate thunder and other loud noises without running for cover, and she gained a lot of self-confidence.”
Zidonis and Snow offer the following five-minute first-aid treatment for thunder-phobic dogs – or any dog in a stressful situation. Their book, The Well-Connected Dog, contains detailed treatment plans for all types of canine conditions.
“The most important thing to do before beginning an acupressure treatment,” says Zidonis, “is relax. You want to convey a sense of calm and reassurance to your dog. You also want the dog’s cooperation and permission, so take a moment to stroke your dog and communicate. Breathe slowly and deeply. Take your time.”
Easy to experiment
Anyone can experiment with acupressure; it is relaxing for any dog. Start with the Yin-Tang point, located on the Governing Vessel meridian. Yin Tang is located in the center of the head at the base of the nose between the eyes.
“This is a powerful calming point,” explains Snow. “Work it by applying gentle but consistent pressure with your thumb. Slowly exhale as you press into the point, and inhale as you release out of it. Apply light pressure at first, then gently increase the amount of pressure as your dog permits. Keep both hands on your dog while giving the treatment. One hand does the point work, while the other feels reactions, such as twitches or muscle spasms and their release. Your free hand also soothes your dog and acts as an energy connection.”
Snow recommends working this point for 15-30 seconds, or until you feel your dog begin to calm and relax. Then move on to the next point. “Feel free to stroke your dog at any time during the acupressure session. This will help reinforce a feeling of calm and aid your dog’s comfort,” says Snow.
There are two Bladder Meridians, one on each side of and very close to the spine. Each begins at the inside corner of the eye and flows over the top of the head, then down the neck to the shoulders, where it splits into two branches. Bladder Point 10 (Bl 10) is just behind the ear at the top of the neck; there is one just to the right of the spine and one just to the left. Bladder Point 15 (Bl 15) is in the muscle depression just behind the shoulder blade and about two finger widths from the top of the spine; again, there is one on either side of the spine. These four points have a calming effect and stimulate mental focus.
“To protect your thumbs and wrists and ensure smooth motion, use your body weight and lean gently into your dog,” suggests Zidonis. “Of course, you will use very gentle pressure on a Yorkie or Toy Poodle, but large breeds typically require one-half to three pounds of pressure. You can apply direct pressure without moving your thumb, or slowly pulsate your thumb, or alternate direct pressure with small counterclockwise circles on each acupoint.” Slow pulsation and counterclockwise motion have a calming effect. The Heart Meridian runs from the chest down the middle of the inner front leg to the elbow and the inside of the foreleg, crossing behind the wrist and continuing down the outside of the foreleg. Heart point 7 (He 7) is at the wrist joint on the back or outside of the wrist just beneath the depression formed between wrist bone and tendon. This calming point is so powerful that it helps relieve epileptic conditions.
Next to the Heart Meridian is the Pericardium Meridian. Pericardium point 6 (Pe 6), just above the wrist on the inside of the front leg, and Pericardium 7 (Pe7), directly on the wrist joint on the inside of the leg, are powerful anxiety reducers and calming points. If you activate the entire wrist “bracelet,” just above and directly on the wrist joint on the inner forearm and just below it on the outer forearm, you will activate both Pericardium points and He 7, described above.
Last, Governing Vessel 11 is on the top of the spine between the shoulder blades. “There are several Governing Vessel points close together in this area,” says Zidonis. “Apply gentle pressure on the vertebrae between the shoulder blades and you will find GV 11.” GV 11 is at about the fifth thoracic vertebra or fifth rib, counting from the base of the neck toward the tail.
There is far more to canine acupressure than this brief description provides, but for those who need help now, this five-minute treatment can help a dog say good-bye to panic and hysteria.
In human health circles, some researchers are finding that combining acupuncture with the topical application of therapeutic-quality essential oils produces more dramatic results than either therapy by itself. In the treatment of thunderstorm phobia and other anxieties, you may obtain faster and more lasting results by administering flower essences, essential oil blends, hydrosols, or herbal tinctures before and during the acupressure treatment.
I am extremely pleased that you chose to not only highlight the sport of agility (my chosen dog sport passion) in the August 2000 issue, but that you chose to only give reference to those agility organizations that welcome ALL dogs, regardless of pedigree!
An estimated 60 percent of dogs in this country are mixed breeds. My mission is to teach people to NOT think of getting a purebred, but to go to the shelters. Very often, the type of dogs that are too much for your average family adopting a dog are perfect for performance sport homes.
I have two top performing shelter rescue dogs. They are both USDAA Master Agility dogs and only a couple of legs away from being Agility Dog Champions. They have each qualified and competed at the USDAA and NADAC National Agility Championships numerous times and have dabbled in herding and obedience as well. The only reason that people might consider getting a purebred is because, A) they like a certain breed (that’s okay) or, B) they want to compete in AKC agility and cannot with a mix (that’s NOT okay in my opinion).
Three Cheers for Whole Dog Journal’s all-inclusive approach! You’ve certainly won me over forever!
-Elise Paffrath
Guilford, VT
I have enjoyed your recent articles on raw meat-based diets (Rractice Safe Steaks, August, and Bones of Contention, September). When my dog was a pup, I stumbled across Dr. Ian Billinghurst’s Give Your Dog A Bone and have never looked back.
I consider raw meat and bones the backbone (no pun intended) of my dog’s diet. She is three and a half years old, lean, energetic, with a wonderful coat and beautiful teeth. In all that time, she has never, ever had a problem with either the meat or the bones and Im not particularly careful with the choice or the method of preparation, except to say that they are always given raw.
Because I’m a busy mom, my method of feeding has evolved into something very simple. First, I look for the most economical meat I can buy (super fresh and organic would be nice but too expensive for my mindset). This is usually chicken quarters in a big bag and/or turkey backs. I try to buy these in large quantities so I have plenty on hand. Then I buy a cheap box of plastic bags. I take the time to bag the meat in single meal portions. For my dog this is usually one chicken quarter. Then I freeze it all at once. Kelly eats frozen meat nearly all the time. She loves it. This way I don’t worry about or have to deal with spoilage or dripping juices.
I also have a plastic drop cloth that I put in the back corner of the house. This is where she gets her meat. She needs room to crunch and rip the meat apart. I fold up the cloth when shes done and it gets cleaned periodically.
Meticulous, no. Feasible, yes. For me and my lifestyle, it makes raw feeding workable, and all types of dog food, which I find unacceptable, avoidable. Kelly’s diet is supplemented other nutritious table foods, all of which she tolerates and enjoys. I also pay attention to Dr. Billinghurst’s recommendations for balanced feeding. Perhaps my experience will benefit others.
-Lisa McDougal
Madison, Wisconsin
I just received the new issue (September 2000) and wanted to make a comment about the Toy Story. In your rankings, the Fetch & Flash ball got a much lower score than the Zap ball, mostly because it only lights up instead of making noises. I just wanted to comment that if you have a deaf dog, the flashing ball is the best thing going (especially if she is a ball-obsessed Aussie).
You may not realize it, but you have a fair number of subscribers who have deaf dogs. You got glowing recommendations on the deafdog list at eGroups recently. Just thought you’d like to know!
-Jennifer Laus
via email
Thanks for reminding us about special needs dogs! We’ll have to research an article about training deaf dogs soon.
Last month, in this space, I spilled the beans: My own dogs health is precipitous. Im doing what I feel is best for him, but life with Rupert these days is a bit of a roller coaster. Last week, he looked awful, with red, inflamed skin and tender, goopy ears. This week his skin seems more quiescent, paler. Next week, who knows?
Steps weve taken: Ive found a food that he seems to be digesting well his poop looks perfect and hes holding his weight well. Im giving him herbs on and off slippery elm to soothe his skin and digestive tract and a echinacea/goldenseal combination that is supposed to boost his resistance to infection. I think they make a difference; his skin is less red.
Hes had allergy tests, so we know what hes oversensitive to. But Im holding off on allergy shots little doses of the antigens that sort of overwhelm the bodys misguided defenders, which are attacking the body itself. I want to give the homeopathy a chance to work without interference before I throw one more thing into the mix. (Oh yeah, homeopathy, too.)
I know that stress definitely plays a part in his response to his itching/scratching cycle; hes a highly sensitive soul who hates chaos. Send a few kids running through the house yelling, and hell dive into a scratching fit, chewing like mad on his forearm, or a patch on his side. So I try to keep him with me every minute, so I can stroke him when he gets nervous.
We hadnt seen Paws, our wiggly two-days-a-week daycare puppy for a while; he matured and graduated from our care. But he spent a week with us recently when his family was on vacation, and that was apparently enough stress to set Rupie off again. I should say, the stress of having Paws here and the flea or two that Paws brought with him set Rupe off again. Feeling a little guilty, I put some Advantage on Paws, making him the designated flea-killer, and that seemed to take care of that.
Im painfully aware that there is also a lot that I havent done for Rupert. In the past month, my phone messages (and email, and snail mail) has been voluminous, as many of you have responded with suggestions for treatment. Many of you have found yourselves in similar straits with one of your dogs, and here is how you fixed it:
Tellington TTouch, acupuncture, chiropractic, massage, energy work
Adding raw foods; eliminating grains; eliminating any foods that contain pesticides, hormones, or antibiotics
Commercial food, brand X, Y, or Z
Supplements, including: fatty acids, fresh garlic, colostrum, cider vinegar, more herbs, and quercitin (an antiviral herb extract)
Shampoo X, Y, and Z, vinegar baths
Medication and medicated shampoo to combat a potential yeast overgrowth on the skin
And many more . . .
I am grateful for your suggestions; Im learning a lot, and I plan, over time, to give a few of these things a try. Ill also assign some articles on some of these subjects; we might be calling you for more detail on how they worked for you!
But Ill admit that sometimes, knowing that more alternatives are available is frustrating. The more you know, the more you think you ought to be doing. And there is only so much that you can subject a little body to at once.
At this point, I totally sympathize with people who have something like cancer, where everyone knows about some treatment that saved somebody once. Frustrating as this is, Rupert and I have to find our own path, and take it one step at a time. Well keep you posted . . . and thanks for your support.
Did you ever watch someone showing off his dog’s tricks? Sit up. Roll over. Jump through a hoop. Catch the ball. Balance a treat on Buddy’s nose. Shake paw. High five. Wave. And take a bow!
Did you happen to notice that it looked like human and canine were both having tremendous fun? No choke chains, no prong collars, no electric shock boxes. But lots of treats, toys, and lots of praise, smiles, and high-wagging tails.
Yet if you were to see that same dog and owner combination in a traditional compulsion-based training class you might well see frowns, a stern, commanding tone of voice, intimidating human body language, heavy metal around the dog’s neck, and a lot of appeasing body language signals from the dog – ears back, tail down, head lowered, averted glances, yawning, and nose licking. Why the difference?
We tend to think of basic behaviors such as sit, lie down, come and stay, as serious obedience. They are important, and Buddy has to do them in order to be a well-behaved dog. Tricks, on the other hand, are frivolous. It doesn’t really matter if Buddy rolls over when we ask him to. After all, it’s just for fun . . .
It’s all tricks!
Positive trainers have a saying that I love. We like to remind our clients that “It’s all tricks!” Teaching Buddy to sit when we ask him to is just as much a “trick” as teaching him to crawl on his belly across the living room rug. They are both simply behaviors that Buddy is physically capable of doing, that we teach him to offer us in response to a verbal cue or hand signal. If we can change our attitude and remember to have fun teaching the basics as well as the tricks, we can have a dog who performs the serious behaviors with just as much enthusiasm as he does when he rolls over or catches a treat off the end of his nose.
Chances are good that if you enroll in a positive training class, your instructor will incorporate tricks into each week’s lessons in order to keep the training process fun for everybody. You don’t have to wait for a training class to have more fun with Buddy – you can start anytime. All you need is your dog, a hefty supply of treats, a clicker, a few props, a quiet place to train without distractions, and a commitment to having fun. (Although you can use other reward markers besides the clicker – such as the verbal marker, “Yes!” – the clicker makes a constant, sharp, attention-catching sound that in most cases works better in the early learning stages than a verbal marker does. For best results, we suggest you try the clicker.) While you are teaching your dog tricks, take note of how much fun it is. Then remember to have just as much fun when you are teaching him those other, “serious” tricks like sit, down, stay, and come.
“Charging” the clicker
Although it helps if your dog already knows basic good manners, it’s not necessary for him to be fully obedience-trained in order to teach him tricks. If Buddy has not already been introduced to the clicker, we need to begin there. Start with the clicker in your pocket. The sharp Click! of the clicker startles some dogs. If you put it in your pocket at first it will muffle the sound until Buddy has a chance to associate it with the positive reinforcement of the treat. Once you are sure he is comfortable with the sound, you can hold it behind your back for a few clicks, then hold it in front of you to Click! and treat as you continue training. (If your dog seems unduly frightened of the clicker you can use the softer Click! of a ball-point pen, or just use a verbal “Yes!” as your reward marker.)
“Charging” the clicker, also known “conditioning the dog to the reward marker,” simply means teaching him that the Click! sound always means that a treat is coming. In order to charge the clicker, all you need to do is Click! the clicker, pause for a half-second, then feed Buddy a treat. He doesn’t have to do anything at all to get the Click! at this point, as long as he isn’t doing something you don’t want to encourage (such as jumping up on you). After six to 12 repetitions, most dogs begin to make the connection between the Click! sound and the treat. Now if you consistently Click! and treat every time he does a particular behavior, he will learn that he can make the Click! happen, just by sitting, which is exactly what we want. This part of the process generally takes less than 15 minutes. Once Buddy learns that he controls the Click!, he will offer behaviors in order to make the Click! happen, and you are ready to have fun with it.
Shake paw
There are several different ways to teach your dog to “Shake paw.” Some dogs are naturally “pawsy.” With these you can simply “capture” the behavior. Click! and treat when Buddy lifts his paw. Keep repeating the Click! and rewarding for a paw lift. When you see him deliberately offering a paw in order to win the reward, add the verbal cue “Shake!”, then Click! and treat. Hold out your own hand, palm up, as the hand signal for “Shake.” When you have repeated the verbal cue often enough that you think he has made the association, try asking for the behavior with just the word, without moving your hand. Give him a couple of seconds, and if he doesn’t offer his paw, offer your own hand to elicit the shake. If you keep repeating this sequence, Buddy will quickly learn to offer his paw for just the verbal cue.
If your dog is not a natural shaker you can “shape” the behavior by repeatedly clicking and rewarding any tiny lift of a paw off the ground. When Buddy is regularly lifting the paw slightly, start clicking only the more noticeable lifts. Gradually raise the criteria until he lifts the paw high enough for it to be considered a “Shake.” Then add the verbal cue as described above.
You may want to “lure” the paw lift. Some dogs will paw at your hand if you hold a treat in front of them in your closed fist; then you can Click! and treat. Others need still more help. Try holding a treat just over your dog’s head, then move it off to one side. Many dogs will lift a paw as they lean to follow the movement of the treat. Click! and reward. And repeat. If “capturing,” “shaping,” and “luring” don’t work, try “molding.” Touch the back of Buddy’s leg. If he lifts, Click! and treat. If a touch doesn’t work, you can actually lift the paw, Click! and reward. Just be aware that molding may teach Buddy to wait for you to touch him before he will shake. The other methods encourage him to think for himself and offer the behavior voluntarily, which is what we really want.
Once Buddy knows “Shake!” you can progress to “High Five” or “Wave” by clicking and rewarding simple variations on the theme. For example, for a “High Five,” offer your hand for a “Shake” but move it at the last minute into a High Five sign – palm toward Buddy, fingers pointed skyward.
Spin and twirl
This is a fun and easy trick than can be incorporated into your heeling for a flashy dance step. You can try shaping Buddy’s spin if you want (Click! and reward for a head turn, then gradually for greater and greater head and body turns, until he turns all the way around), but it’s usually easier and faster to lure it. I use the cue “Spin” for a counter-clockwise circle, and “Twirl” to mean clockwise. You can make them mean whatever direction you want or you can use entirely different words; just be consistent. One of my students does Musical Freestyle with her Great Dane. She uses “Donut” and “Cheerio” because you can say those words without moving your lips, and ideally, in Freestyle, you don’t want the judges to see your mouth move.
Have Buddy stand in front of you. If he wants to sit, back up while you ask him to spin. Let him see the treat in your right hand. Lure him in a circle to your right (his left) by moving the treat, at his nose level, in an arc toward his tail, then continue the circle with the treat until he is facing you again. When he has completed the circle, Click! and give him the treat. Repeat. When he is doing the circle easily, start saying “Spin,” first while he is turning, then just before. Gradually minimize the hand motion and eventually eliminate the lure, until he will spin on just the verbal cue, or with a tiny motion of your hand or finger. For “Twirl,” do the same thing, only start with the treat in your left hand and go the opposite direction. If Buddy is reluctant to do a complete circle at first, shape it. Click! and reward for partial turns, gradually increasing the arc until he will do a full circle.
Roll over
This one is a little more complicated. If your dog is already trained to “down” on cue, ask him to lie down. (Remember to Click! and reward him for that!) If he doesn’t already know how to “Down!”, wait until he lies down on his own, or lure him into a down by holding a treat in front of his nose when he is sitting, and then moving it slowly toward the floor. Keep clicking and rewarding him as he follows the treat toward the floor until he is all the way down.
Once your dog can lie down easily, encourage him to roll onto one side by moving the treat in an arc from his nose to a point just above his shoulder. Some dogs will do this easily the first trial, others need a little more encouragement through shaping – clicking and rewarding when the dog makes small moves in the right direction until he finally rolls onto one side. When he will roll onto one side for you smoothly, just keep going! Continue the arc of the treat lure so that he follows it with his nose and rolls his body all the way over. Where Buddy’s nose goes the rest of him must follow! Once your dog is doing one roll easily, try two in a row. Then more, until you can get him to do a whole series of roll overs.
Many dogs are one-sided, meaning they’ll roll easily in one direction but not the other. If your dog is having trouble with this trick, try rolling the opposite way. Then, once he has the easy direction figured out, make him ambi-pawstrous and shape the roll the other way as well.
Say your prayers
This is a fun trick that rates high on the cuteness scale. Have Buddy sit in front of a chair or stool that comes to about his mid-chest level. Lure him into lifting one or two front feet off the ground by raising the treat over his head, and then encourage him to rest his feet on the chair seat. You may need to Click! and reward for very short paw-rests at first, until he leaves his paws on the chair for longer and longer periods of time.
When he is sitting confidently with his paws resting on the chair for extended periods, lure his nose with a treat so he is looking down between his paws at the floor. Click! and treat. Once you know he will look between his legs without taking his paws off the chair, start using your verbal cue, “Say your prayers,” or “Meditate!” or whatever word or phrase you want to use. Gradually fade your use of obvious cues until he will run over to a chair, prop up his feet and “say his prayers” with just a verbal cue or hand signal.
Crawl
Buddy already knows “Down” from your Roll Over trick, so the crawl is easy to teach. It works best if you do it on carpet or grass – lots of dogs won’t crawl on a hard or rough surface. Ask Buddy to lie down facing you, and hold a treat in front of his nose. Keeping the treat just an inch or two above the ground, back up a step and very slowly move the treat toward you. As Buddy strains to follow the treat he should drag himself forward a tiny bit. Click! and reward. Keep repeating the sequence until he creeps farther and farther forward.
If the dog jumps up to follow the treat you may have moved it too far, or too fast. Slow down, and remember to Click! and reward tiny bits of the Crawl so Buddy can figure out how to do the right thing. The most common mistake most people make when training their dogs is trying to go too fast – asking for too much too soon. Ask for small behaviors so Buddy can win. As long as he keeps winning he will be more willing to keep trying.
Once Buddy is confidently crawling longer distances you can fade the lure and minimize the hand motion, and put the behavior on a verbal cue or a barely noticeable hand signal, as you did with the previous tricks.
Take a bow
You can end your routine with a flourish when you and Buddy take a bow together. Have Buddy standing in front of you or at your side. Put a treat in front of his nose, and move it toward his chest and down toward the floor. Here’s the tricky part. If you have taught him to lie down by moving a treat toward the ground, he may try to lie down here. Watch him closely. When he has a slight bend in his elbows, Click! and raise the treat so he stands up again, then reward. If you are slow, he will probably lie down; don’t Click! the Down. The quicker he lies down for you, the quicker you will need to be at clicking for his elbow bend and raising the treat up before he goes down. Gradually encourage Buddy to dip lower and lower until he can bow with his elbows touching the ground and his rear end high in the air.
When you are sure you can get a half-bow or better without having Buddy go all the way into a Down, you can start using the verbal cue. I suggest using something other than the word “Bow,” since “Bow” sounds a lot like “Down” and we are already risking confusion because of the similarity of the luring motion. One of my students uses the word “Bravo!”, which I like a lot. Others use “Take a bow,” with the emphasis on the word “Take” rather than “bow.”
Taking the show on the road
Now you have a repertoire of six tricks with which to dazzle your friends and neighbors. You can add an almost infinite number of new tricks simply by picturing the behavior in your mind that you want Buddy to perform, and then figuring out how to use your treats to lure, shape, capture or mold the behavior so you can Click! and reward it. Remember to break the behavior down into small pieces so Buddy can win at each step along the way to the final desired behavior.
Try it; you might like it! And once you are convinced that “It’s all tricks” you can toss those choke chains in the garbage and you and Buddy can get on with the serious business of having fun training together.
Pat Miller is a freelance author and a professional dog trainer in Fairplay, Maryland. She is author of many books on dog training.
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.
