Halo graduates!

Halo graduated from beginner level school on Tuesday night at PetSmart! The evening started off with an exam: Halo had to show off all that’s she’s learned, including sitting on command, coming when called, and walking nicely on a leash. I’m pleased to say she passed with flying colors!  Of course, the real students in this type of training class are the humans.  My boyfriend, Chris, took lead of taking Halo to training classes and learning how to work with her at home.  Of course I helped, but Chris led the charge and he did a wonderful job with her!
I am a huge advocate for training classes. Whether it be a puppy, newly adopted dog, or old dog you’ve had a long time, I believe that training classes are always beneficial.
For dogs you’ve already had a while, training classes are just a lot of fun. They’re a chance for your dog to get out of the house and do something interesting and new; its good mental stimulation, which will help your dog stay sharp and be happy.  It might also be a chance for you and your dog to work on some of the bad habits they might have developed over the years.
For new dog owners, taking your dog to training classes is a great way to bond with your new furry friend. Training classes are fun—for you and your dog, and are therefore a positive experience that will help form a positive relationship. Training classes will also give the dog owner some understanding of dog psychology and behavior, providing insight to how your dog’s mind works and why it’s doing the things it does. Understanding your dog and helping your dog to understand you is a great foundation on which to start a doggy-human relationship. Training classes may seem like they might just be a way to teach your dog “tricks”, but what you’re actually learning is how to communicate with your dog and how to teach your dog to communicate with you.

Halo receives her certificate of graduation!

Now, I’ve been through beginner classes with Leopold.  And not long ago I even started training to become a pet training instructor (before landing my job at the emergency vet clinic), so I feel confidant that I can teach a dog a thing or two on my own. However, I insisted that we take Halo to training classes despite. I insisted on classes because Halo needs socialization, and doggy school is a great way to help socialize a dog. Being in a class with other doggy students means a chance to interact with those dogs (and their owners!) in a positive setting. Better yet, taking classes in a busy store (we took Halo to PetSmart) means that there are also a lot of other people and dogs around besides those in the class.  When class is over, you can walk around and continue to meet new people and their pets.
Training classes may seem like a lot of money for some, but I find the money to be well spent.  Its a small price to pay for a happier, better-behaved dog!

Pet insurance. It exists! And can be a life saver for pet owners who can't afford emergency vet bills on their own.

I see a lot of very sad things working at an emergency vet clinic.  It's just a part of the job.  But I’ve managed to stifle my tears and carry on in the face of dead and dying animals and their mourning owners. That is….until recently.  Earlier this week presented a case that struck a cord with me in a way that required I go spend a little time by myself because I couldn’t help but cry. A puppy came in that was very sick. It was in and out of the clinic for a couple days before it came back one last time in such a state that the kindest thing to do was humanely euthanize. And while the puppy was in a physically terrible state, the real problem was that the owners didn’t have enough money to pay for the treatment needed to help the puppy get better.

This little puppy is not the first animal that I’ve seen put to sleep because the owners didn’t have money to pay for treatment. Surgeries can cost thousands of dollars, x-rays alone can cost hundreds. And while the doctors at the emergency clinic try to work with and help out those for whom money is an issue, there is only so much we can do while still staying in business. It breaks my heart to see animals for which the only financially viable option is humane euthanasia. Watching this happen to a puppy, which had barely begun to live its life, was very hard for me. All I could think was, life is just so unfair sometimes.

And so I’d like to talk a little bit about Pet Insurance.  Many people don’t know such a thing exits, but it does and there are many companies from which you can purchase policies.
When I first got Leopold, I knew that I could afford food, training classes, routine vet visits, and other doggy supplies. However, the idea of a trip to the emergency room scared me. Emergency bills add up quickly, something I know now more than ever as an employee at a vet emergency clinic. And while emergency vet bills do not always reach the thousands, they can—especially if surgery is needed. So to help ease my mind, I looked into and purchased a pet insurance plan for Leopold. It was incredibly affordable (less than $200 a year) and would provide up to $12,000 in treatment for an emergency situation. The premium goes up a little ever year because Leopold’s chances of needing emergency care for illness or injury increase as he gets older. However, it’s still affordable. And while Leopold has not yet needed to visit the emergency room, it’s nice to know that I’d be able to pay the bill if I had to.
If you’re interested in finding and purchasing a plan, here’s a website I found helpful: http://www.petinsurancereview.com/dog.asp
I, myself, got a policy with PetPlan, which is one of the higher user-ranked, but still affordable companies. The plan I got was good for emergency situations.  But there are many companies that have many different plan options. There are even companies that offer plans, for a higher premium of course, that help pay for routine vet visits and vaccines.
I recommend pet insurance to anyone who doesn’t have thousands of dollars that they could potentially drop on treatment for their animal. Paying a little bit now sure beats having to euthanize your fury little friend because you can’t pay for treatment when bad luck stumbles their way.

Keeping the peace: a lesson on dog body language.

There are a couple of miniature poodles in our neighborhood who we often see out walking (with their owner of course)—cute little things that are probably each the size of Leopold’s head. Well… maybe more like his head and neck.
In any case, Leopold and I saw the poodles on our walk this morning. At their approach, Leopold lowered his head, pulled back his ears, crouched his body, and then lay down on the path completely. The owner asked me if Leopold was stalking, as if his poodles were the prey. Not at all! I explained what was really going on, and afterwards it occurred to me that there are probably more people out there who don’t know what it means when a dog lowers his body or even lays down at the approach of another dog; so I thought I’d write a quick post about it.
What was really going on was that Leopold was trying to preemptively keep the peace. He lay down as a show of submission to let the approaching little poodles, which were clearly formidable forces, know that he meant no harm. He did this before they got close enough to start a scuffle so that he could greatly reduce the chance of a scuffle happening when they actually met on the path.
I have to admit, it’s a little annoying that Leopold does this sometimes. It’s awfully hard to be walking when my dog is lying down… And aside from trying to pick him back up, there’s not a lot I can do but wait for him to get up again. But at the same time, I’m glad Leopold is trying to keep the peace.

Bone chewing: Remembing why its important to supervise your dog.

While I was sitting in my room writing the previous post, something else happened that reminded me of another doggy lesson: it’s always a good idea to supervise your dog when they’re playing with and chewing on toys!
Halo was engaging in one of her favorite activities, chewing on a bone, when I heard a CRACK! I turned around to find that she had snapped a huge, sharp chip off her bone! I immediately took the bone pieces away, and seeing as the bone is now too sharp for her to safely chew on, it is now destined for the trash.

Bone chips can cause serious problems if swallowed. The pieces can get stuck in a dog’s throat or windpipe or anywhere along the digestive tract; if they don’t get stuck, they can scrape the linings of the digestive tract and/or be painful and hard to pass. Halo unfortunately had this happen to her not long ago after ingesting small bone chunks from a large, smoked knuckle bone. We learned too late that Halo had chewed the bone in half and had, unknowingly to us, consumed relatively large pieces of the bone. She got sick a day or so later and had to strain to pass the bone chunks. She was lucky that the bone bits didn’t cause more damage. From that experience, we learned that Halo is a little too good at chewing on bones and that closer supervision is needed when she’s enjoying a good chew. It’s also clear from both the knuckle bone incident and today’s cracked bone that Halo should only be allowed to chew very thick bones or antlers so that she can’t break off more than a tiny bit at a time.  Her jaws are just too powerful!

Cleaning Halo's ears for the first time.

Halo had her first ear cleaning not long ago. I was petting her when I got a whiff of a funky, yeasty smell. I’ve smelled such a scent before… on dogs with ear infections. Upon a closer sniff, I learned the smell was, indeed, coming from her ears. At that point the smell wasn't too bad, barely noticeable really, so I just kept an eye on it for the time being. If the smell got worse, it would have been time for Halo to go see a vet. The funky smell went away but reminded me of the importance of checking a dog’s ears every now and then, and the importance of cleaning them if they look (or smell) dirty!

I know that there are all sort of ear cleaning products out there and sometimes they’re necessary (especially for dogs that are prone to ear infections like cocker spaniels and golden retrievers), but I’ve found that just cleaning out the gunk and debris every now and then with dry cotton balls seems to work. I use cotton balls for two reasons: they’re large enough that there’s no way they’re going to go down the ear canal (never insert anything into the ear canal!), and they can be squished easily and gently into all the grooves of a dog’s ear without my finger being squished into the groove also (which I imagine might hurt or at least be uncomfortable for the dog).

I’ve been handling Leopold’s ears since he was a pup; he’s very used to an occasional ear cleaning (and frequent ear checks!), so he’s very good about sitting still while I clean out all the gunk and dirt. But dogs don’t start out feeling comfortable with you squishing cotton balls into their ears. So how do you clean a dog’s ears for the first time? I’ve found that it’s important to always keep these types of things positive for the dog. To keep the experience fun and interesting, I let Halo sniff the cotton balls periodically throughout the process (for some reason dogs seem to really like to sniff the gunk that comes out of their ears!). I also gave her lots of praise and reassurance and used as little restraint as possible—it was more like holding her hear steady than restraint. I also kept the session short and gave her a small treat afterwards!

Halo sniffs at a cotton ball.

Having trouble clipping your dog’s nails? Try less, not more.

Leopold and the journey to peaceful nails trims.

When I first got Leopold, I had no trouble trimming his nails. His foster parents had been trimming his nails as soon as he had nails to trim—the idea was to get him used to the occasional, necessary trimming. I know a lot of dogs really hate to have their nails trimmed, so I was grateful that they started Leopold off early. And for a while, things were good on the nail trim front.

The problem:
And then I accidentally cut a little too far down on one of his nails—I clipped a quick! Leopold yelped, and that was the end of easy nail trims. As soon as Leo saw the clippers in my hand, he didn’t want me anywhere near his paws and would snatch them back every time I tried to pick them up. Nail trims became a two-person job. We tried having one person restrain him while the other trimmed. Eventually we got frustrated with this method because he struggled too much. We then came up with the idea of suspending him; one person would pick Leo up and hold him with all fours paws in the air while the other trimmed. The idea was that without purchase for his feet, it would be harder for him to try to push and get away from us. That worked for a while, but then he learned to wiggle his body around, and trimming again became too difficult. We tried trying to really hold him down on the floor, but by then clipping Leopold’s nails had become too much of a horrible experience for both human and dog. It got to the point where Leopold would bolt as soon as he saw the clippers at all. Because it was an arduous task, time between nail trims and the nails themselves started getting longer.

The solution:
Though it was tempting, I did not give up on trimming Leopold’s nails. I had to find some way of completing the task. Untrimmed nails can eventually cause a lot of problems—they push the toes in weird directions and can malform the feet. In really bad situations, toe nails can even curl around and then grow into the foot. Ouch! And by the number of dogs I’ve seen come into our vet clinic with nails that are curving and growing in funny directions because they’re so long, this dislike for having nails trimmed seems to be somewhat of an epidemic among dogs.
I decided to try a sneak attack: I waited until Leopold was sleeping and then I would creep over with my clippers and trim as many nails as I could before he woke up—usually just one or two nails. I tried to make this a daily practice, so that over time every nail got trimmed. Eventually, I tried to trim a few nails even after he woke up. I used no restraint and would stop if he started pulling his paws away. After a while, Leopold didn’t mind the nail trims any more. Nail trimming stopped being a horrible experience for him, so he stopped freaking out.
I haven’t restrained him since. He is no longer afraid of the clippers and seems indifferent to the task. Now our nail-trimming routine goes something like this:

Boring video, right? No crazed and upset dog to see here! (Just really loud cicadas apparently).
Getting to this relaxed nail clipping routine has been a journey. And in the end I’ve learned that I am much more successful using little or no restraint in order to trim a dog’s nails—I’ve tried a no-restraint method with other dogs as well with success.

Using positive reinforcement with Halo.
Halo hated having her nails trimmed when we first got her (surprise surprise, right?). So I’ve slowly been training Halo to tolerate nails trims as well. Because she’s so treat motivated, I’ve been using positive reinforcement methods to get her to tolerate nails trims. We’re still in the learning stage, so it goes something like this:

I have her sit. I show her a treat that she knows she’ll have to work for. I ask for a paw, I clip one nail, and then give her a treat and praise her as soon as the nail is trimmed. And then I repeat for another nail. And that’s it! We’re starting off slow—two nails at a time—so that she never has a bad nail trim experience again.
Like many dog-training situations, less is much, much more.

A dog’s instinct to chase can be used to your advantage.

We all learn, in one way or another, that dog's like to chase things.  They often enjoy chasing cars, squirrels, other dogs, tennis balls, people, and basically anything else that moves.  My first experience with a dog's chasing behavior happened when I was very young.

It might surprise you to know that I have not always loved dogs as much as I do now.  In fact, I was afraid of dogs when I was very little.  In theory I liked dogs and begged my parents to let me have a puppy of my own.  I collected pictures of puppies and kittens (and other baby animals) and even started a small savings account (my allowance in an envelope) entitled “money for a puppy”.  However, in practice I was petrified of those four-legged creatures and would dash to the safety of my house whenever an actual flesh and blood dog would wander within sight.  Our neighbors at the time had dogs that would often meander into our yard for a little exploration.  Every time I saw them, I would implore my parents to make the dogs go away.

When I was about five, my parents decided to adopt a dog of their own.  I was excited and bragged to all my friends at school about the arriving puppy.  My excitement was instantly dashed upon returning home from school the day the puppy came to live with us:  I was first unsettled by the small, brown, wiggly thing I saw in the window as I walked to the front door, and then I was immediately terrified when the brown, wiggly thing jumped on me as soon as I set foot in the house.  Though I remember trying to act brave around our new dog, Max, it was a while before I felt comfortable with him being close to me.  I have memories of standing on my chair during dinner screaming for my parents to get Max out of the room.

my childhood dog, Max

One sunny day my sister and I decided to sit outside on the front lawn to eat our lunch.  We had just settled in when somehow Max slipped past my mom and bolted out the front door towards us.  Being that I was scared of Max, my response was to get up and run for my life.  Of course Max then chased me.  I’m sure Max thought that we were playing, while I, on the other hand, was absolutely terrified.  I ran across the yard and up and down my dad’s blueberry bushes trying to outrun the small puppy.  My sister eventually caught Max and all was well—though she didn’t catch him before he had had a chance to stop and gulp down half her sandwich.  This was the first time I learned that dogs will chase after you when you run from them.  I also learned that dogs are opportunists when it comes to food availability, but that’s a lesson for another blog.

You’ll be happy to know that Max and I eventually developed a friendship and he became very dear to my heart.  I am very happy that I got to grow up with him in my life.

As an adult, I’ve tried to use my knowledge of a dog’s chasing instinct to my advantage.  Before I trusted Leopold off leash completely, I would entice him to stay near me by running away from him; he would dash after me in great fun.  I’ve used this technique many times when he’s off leash and has wandered what I consider to be too far away.  It works to varying degrees depending on what other interesting things (ie, dogs) are in the area, but it almost always ends up working.

Chris has also had success with this method.  He once came to the rescue at a party when a dog had stolen a woman’s shoe.  Everyone was chasing after the dog in the back yard trying to get close enough to get the shoe out of its mouth.  I’m sure the dog thought this was a great game.  Chris, with whom I had shared my dog behavior knowledge, approached the situation by waving his arms and running away.  The dog chased after him, and he was able to catch the dog and get the shoe.

I think the most grateful I’ve been of this dog behavior knowledge was just a couple months ago on the day I brought Halo home from the shelter.   I hadn’t bought her a collar prior to going to the pick her up because I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to bring her home with me (she still needed to meet Leopold), and I didn’t want to jinx the situation.  Fortunately, the dogs seemed to get along, so I bought one of the used, $1 collars they sell at the shelter as a temporary solution. 
This turned out to be a bad idea. As soon as Halo jumped out of the car, the collar snapped open, and she started running free all over the yard in excitement.  Halo didn’t know which house was hers, hadn’t yet bonded with her new people, and knew no commands; I had visions of her running away and being lost or running out into the street and being hit by a car before I could even get her in the house!  My very first instinct was to try and catch her, but I very quickly remembered that chasing a dog will only make it run away from its pursuer.  So I changed tactics and ran like a crazy person, waving my arms and whooping, towards the front door.  It worked; she chased after me to join in my fun game, and I was able to get her inside.  Crisis averted.

I know it seems counter-intuitive and is against all human instinct, but these experiences have proven to me that one of the best ways to catch a dog is to run away from it.