What We’ll Do For Dogs…
Viagra or sildenafil is a treatment for the conditions known as megaesophagus, a condition that causes dogs to regurgitate their food. It is a bit awkward picking it up at the pharmacy.
Access to Information About Drugs for Dogs is Complex
On April 3, 2019, the FDA issued a press release, announcing that it is making the adverse event reports related to animal drugs and medical devices used in animals available online - including all the reports going back some 30 years. The reports will be available electronically on openFDA.gov, an agency-run digital platform used by researchers, statisticians and other academics to access large, valuable public health datasets collected by the FDA.
Are Dogs Good With Chickens?
When I was about five years old, my parents moved our family from the San Francisco Bay area to a rural farming area about...
Fostering Puppies Who Are Just Too Young
Yes, puppies again. My local shelter called yesterday to ask if I could foster a litter of 10 pit/German Shepherd/who-knows-what-mix puppies. Well, sure, of course; I will always say yes if I am not on my way out of town or something. But this group is seriously challenging. Why? They are too young to be separated from their mom.
The Grossest Thing a Dog Has Ever Done in my Presence
My stepson and daughter-in-law have a son, who will be three years old in May. Their whole family moved to my town a year ago, so I've been spending a lot of time in my new role as Nana. When my own son was about the same age as my grandson, my mother accomplished the lion's share of his potty-training over the course of a single weekend, using M&Ms as rewards for going in the potty." So I feel a certain amount of responsibility to "pay it forward" to my stepson and his wife
When Your Dog Is On The Same Meds as You
Somehow I know only peripherally posted this meme on social media post recently:
“Raise your hand if you and your dog take the same anxiety...
Puppy Love
As you may know, I've been fostering a litter of nine puppies for about seven weeks. From day 1, there was one puppy who stood out to me as a potentially great dog. One of just two males in the litter, he was the first to learn to offer a sit" when I was getting their food or medicine ready
More on the “Bidding” War – Should Dogs Be Biddable?
In the April issue of WDJ, I wrote an editorial about an exchange I had with a trainer friend regarding the word "biddable," which a breeder had used in conversation with her about dogs from the breeder's kennel. Both my trainer friend and I were not used to hearing that word used to describe dogs, but apparently, we are in the minority.
I received a number of very thoughtful responses to the editorial, and have learned something from each. Because they would take up a lot of space in the magazine itself if I ran them as "letters to the editor," I'm going to post a few of them here, with the writers' permission.
I received a number of very thoughtful responses to the editorial, and have learned something from each. Because they would take up a lot of space in the magazine itself if I ran them as "letters to the editor," I'm going to post a few of them here, with the writers' permission.
Dogs and Chickens Can Get Along Fine
When I first saw the adolescent canine who was to become my darling dog Otto, in my local shelter in June 2008, his cage card warned Kills chicken" – an endearing typo that evidently meant he had either killed a chicken
Plan ahead to socialize your puppy early!
Recently, I witnessed an older couple struggling to carry a
crate into a puppy kindergarten class. Once inside, they opened the crate and a
large and...
What Might be Causing Your Dog to Vomit?
In the September issue, we published an article about gastritis - stomach inflammation that causes vomiting. I was glad that the article was fresh in my mind when my son texted me about his dog, Cole, an almost-four-year-old American Black and Tan Coonhound-mix, who had vomited bile first thing in the morning, three mornings in a row. My absolute first thought was, "That sounds just like the dogs in the article in this month's issue!"I grabbed the issue, and sure enough: The author, CJ Puotinen, had described two cases in which dogs had unexplained vomiting in the early morning hours, and the vomit contained only bile. Radiographs (Xrays) and ultrasound showed nothing amiss...but then, after weeks of this recurrent vomiting, the dog in each case vomited up a foreign object - one that in either case couldn't have been detected with either Xrays or an ultrasound exam. In one case, it was an entire sock, and in the other, a small plastic decoration from a cupcake that the dog had pilfered off a kitchen counter!
One of My Proudest Accomplishments
If I had to pick which training accomplishment I am most proud of with my dog Otto, I’d have to consider a few. He’s got a rock-solid, enthusiastic recall that I love. When we’re out on the trail and he sees a duck and ducklings on the shore of the river, say, or hears a deer crashing through the brush away from us, this recall -- combined with a strong “Off!” (a.k.a. “Leave it!”) – never fails to bring admiration from my walking partners. (And because I reward him so richly for this, with a veritable avalanche of tasty treats, it stays nice and strong.)