Miscellaneous:
“I think the sheer number of overweight and obese pets has made it seem like it’s normal for dogs to be fat so people aren’t worried when their canine packs on the pounds. Certain breeds in large kennel club dog shows are being shown grossly overweight or in poor condition. Vets are tentative about alerting patients to weight problems for fear of offending the humans. People are simply unaware how to tell if their dog is in the proper condition. So, today I’m going to talk a bit about how to determine the proper condition of your canine companions–okay maybe not just talk, but show some pictures.”
Wait. You can eat THAT? (about poop eating)
“Coprophagy is a normal dog behavior, exhibited by many healthy adult dogs, in different living situations that are fed a wide variety of foods...
What can you do? Pick up your yard frequently. Supervise your dog. Reduce or completely prevent access to feces. Train a solid “Leave it” response using reward-based methods. This means that your dog learns that you consistently have a yummy treat that is much more attractive to her than the poop she is considering consuming (com’on now, its not a high bar to clear).”
Is it harmful to attach a leash to your dog’s neck?
Pressure on the dog's neck can cause: neck/spinal injuries such as whiplash or fractured vertebrae, ear and eye problems, hypothyroidism, nerve damage, and behavioral problems.
“Every summer comes the heated debate about clipping so-called double-coated breeds… So what is right? Will they die from heatstroke if we clip them as we mess up their thermoregulation? Will they get burnt by the sun and get skin cancer? Are we causing them unnecessary suffering if we clip them? And will the coat be destroyed and never grow back again?… As a former vet nurse now grooming my world is ruled by scientific facts – not myths/old housewife tales – so I decided to dig into the subject from the scientific point of view – gathering facts produced by professionals”
What can be the cause for patchy regrowth/bald patches ?
“I think that most groomers have encountered dogs with bald spots or patchy hair loss in their salons. We sometimes also get accused by the client of causing it with our grooming techniques, and the question pops up on a regular basis in grooming groups on Facebook. I will try to address the most common issues that we see in this blog post- how they look, the cause of them, and what we can advise the owners. Remember that we are not vets – so we don’t diagnose. But we can tell the owners what it “looks like” and also adapt our grooming routine based on what we find.”
Helping Dogs in High-Rise Living Situations: Beyond Skills Training (Useful information for dogs living in busy apartment complexes, not just high-rises)
“A dog can only be responsive to owners’ cues for so long before the physiological effects of all that accumulated stress will take over, eventually (sometimes quite quickly) resulting in a dog who is unable to behave as trained. The stimuli that surround the dog are greater than the dog himself.
Troubled by this situation, I started to spend a tremendous amount of time devising ways to help urban dogs “shake off” the city (in addition to the usual skills training). I identified two important factors that need to be addressed and achieved in order for an apartment- or condo-dwelling dog and their owners to succeed with training: an overall calmer lifestyle, and getting the entire building on board. Having now spent many years experimenting with clients and my own dogs, I have learned that even a small change in these two factors can lead to a happier, better-grounded, more obedient dog”
Cars develop killer heat, even on cooler days
“On 16 cloud-free days in Northern California, the team measured a car's inside temperature at 5 minute intervals for one hour post-parking. Ambient temperatures on the study days ranged from 22°C to 35°C.
They found that, regardless of outside air temperature, the car heated up at a similar rate - gaining 80% of its final temperature within 30 minutes. Cars that started out comfortable 22°C, for example, rocketed to over 47°C after 60 minutes in the sun. And keeping the windows open a crack hardly slowed the rise at all.”
Heat Exposure in an Enclosed Automobile
“Within 20 minutes, readings in both cars exceeded 125°F and reached a maximum stabilized temperature in 40 minutes... As in other studies, we found that "cracking" the windows is an ineffective attempt to keep the car interior at an acceptable temperature.”
“None of us would ever dream of letting an infant or child ride in a car without appropriate safety restraints, but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen friends of mine carefully strap in their kids and then let Zippy the dog ride loose. Let me be blunt, here: If you have a thirty-mile-an-hour collision, your twenty-five-pound dog is going to turn into a projectile just the way your twenty-five-pound toddler would.”
“Instead of seeing the rainbow as violet, blue, blue-green, green, yellow, orange and red, dogs would see it as dark blue, light blue, gray, light yellow, darker yellow (sort of brown), and very dark gray. In other words, dogs see the colors of the world as basically yellow, blue and gray.”
An excellent resource for those Californians who like to travel with their dogs. Includes information on hiking, cafes, cultural attractions, hotels, and more.
“If the patient is extremely distressed and the exam is not medically urgent, it may be better to delay further evaluation and discuss anti-anxiety medications and behaviour modification with the client before the next visit. Working with the help of a legitimate trainer who uses “positive” training methods is likely to achieve the best outcomes.”
“When pets exhibit fear and anxiety, the response of the veterinary staff (and owner) can either further aggravate or lessen the pet's fear. It is important not to punish an animal that is fearful. Physical punishment or even a raised voice can increase fear and elicit aggression. Dogs that have been punished for growling, or rewarded by (the necessary) retreat of staff may learn to bite withoutwarning (i.e., through negative reinforcement). Management products such as head halters and muzzles, and pharmacological intervention may be required for the safety of people; medication mayalso enhance the pet’s emotional wellbeing (Landsberg, 2009 [31]). Knowing which body part to pet a dog and cat also matters. A study by Kuhne, Hößler, and Struwe (2014 [32]) showed that being petted around the head, neck and muzzle or being held at the collar was perceived as unpleasant by dogs. Thus, dogs manipulated in such regions may feel more entrapped, which may affect their behaviour choices.”
“It should be noted that the drug acepromazine (Ace, ACP) is contraindicated for treating anxious (Frank, Gauthier, and Bergeron, 2006 [35]) or aggressive animals as they are more reactive to noise and startle under its influence (Overall, 1997 [36]), and can produce marked sedation (Thompson, 1998 [37]). Acepromazine is a phenothiazine derivative tranquiliser that works by dissociative effects. This means that an animal might still perceive the fearful stimulus but be unable to make sense of it cognitively, resulting in increased fear and atypical reactions (Overall, 1997 [36]). Phenothiazines have also been shown not to be efficacious at reducing stress during transport in dogs (Bergeron et al., 2002 [38]; Frank et al. (2006 [35]). Frank et al. (2006 [35])”
“Addressing pain is often seen as an avenue of last resort, when nothing else resolves the primary problem. Mills argues that pain should be addressed first, not last. Moreover, if pain is a reasonable possibility but no cause is apparent on physical exam or testing, Mills typically recommends a trial course of analgesics. Many documented behavior cases have shown significant improvements or even resolution when treated with pain medication.
If the first analgesia trial does not provide results, it is appropriate to try another type of analgesic with a different mechanism of action, in case the first was not right for that dog’s particular issue. Mills argues that the risk of side effects can be minimized and that the benefits of using pain medication will normally outweigh the risks, but it is important that any trial is done under veterinary supervision as over-the-counter medications for humans can be quite toxic to dogs.”