This LA Times article has a poll going as well, so please vote to let people know that selling puppies & kittens from puppy mills, which is where pet store animals come from, is not ok! This is a small step towards making people aware of the issue, but hopefully if more people vote & comment it will help others become better informed.
Killing with Kindness
I saw this article yesterday and just and to write something about it since obese animals are one of my biggest pet peeves. This is a great article and covers a lot of things regarding obesity in pets, so please read it as well. Plus, the site in general has a ton of great articles. Killing With Kindness
About 20 years ago when I graduated from school my very first client had a huge German Shepherd. When I say huge, I mean *huge*. He weighed over 120#. When I’d take him out to train him people were impressed with his size & say “wow, how much does he weigh?”, as if it were a good thing. My response to them was always “thirty pounds more than he should.” He was an impressive looking dog named Magic, you can see his picture on my website at Animal Attraction Unlimited. Almost completely black, plush coat, large head & chest, great looking and scary as well. What I never understood about the people who asked how much he weighed was couldn’t they see he was having trouble walking? Couldn’t they see his back end giving out? The dog was only 6 years old and couldn’t walk 3 blocks without panting heavily and having difficulty. Yet people were impressed by his size? I just don’t get it.
There was also a person in a group dog training class I’ve attended. His first dog was a small sized, Golden Retriever that was at least 20# overweight. The training class was upstairs, which the dog had trouble negotiating. That dog died an early death due to complications from being so heavy. Despite all the comments from the class instructor regarding the dog’s weight the owner just wouldn’t listen. After that dog passed away he got another one. The second is also a smallish Golden Retriever. Within 10 months of owning this dog, she too, was carrying 15+# of extra weight. Some people never learn.
It is so sad to see animals like this. It’s not only dogs either as plenty of cats are heavy as well. And what also confuses me is that when I mention to clients their dog could stand to lose a few pounds they are shocked. Many of them were just at the vet a week before and the doctor didn’t say anything about it. The thing is vets think they will lose clients if they tell someone their pet is fat. But, if the animal stays heavy it will die early and they still lose a client. I don’t understand why they don’t tell people. Maybe they think the person will take it personally & think the doctor is actually talking about them. If someone has an answer for that please enlighten me. One time I took my first pitbull to the vet. She was a new vet at the clinic I go to and when she first saw him she said, “isn’t he a little thin?” Gee, they’ll say when an animal is thin but won’t mention when an animal is fat when being thin is much more healthy than fat? Anyway, my response to her was that no, actually, he is a few pounds heavier than I like and I was planning to take some weight off. She looked at me as if I was nuts and proceeded with the exam. When she finished she apologized to me. She said I was right and that he could stand to lose a pound or two. Then she told me that she is just so used to seeing heavy dogs that he was thin in comparison.
So, how do you know when your pet is fat? The general rule of thumb is to feel their ribs. Standing over your dog, place your thumbs together on their spine with your fingers draped down on either side. With very little pressure in your fingers, run your thumbs up & down their spine. You should be able to feel the bumps of the ribs. Now I don’t mean their ribs should be sticking out and there isn’t any fat or muscle on them at all. What I mean is you should feel the outline. Even if your dog has a heavy coat you will still be able to feel them, so don’t blame their coat if you can’t. In a dog with little coat, like a Doberman, or Rottweiler, I like to be able to see the very last rib. If you can see the outline of the last rib then you don’t need to run your thumbs along their spine. In addition, when looking down at your dog you should see a waist line. There should be an indentation from below the ribs to the hips. And from the side the abdomen should tuck up after the ribcage to in front of the hind legs. If you don’t see or feel these things, chances are high that your pet is overweight. This goes for cats also, except for the side view. Most indoor house cats don’t have an abdomen that tucks up, but everything else is the same.
What do you feed your pet? Don’t just take for granted that what you feed your pet every day is what he should get every day. And no matter what, don’t ever go by what’s on the back of the dog food package. Use that as a general guideline to start with, but then feel your dog each week to see where he is. Dog food manufacturers don’t care if your dog is fat. They also don’t care if you throw food away. Either way, they make more money so they tend to put higher amounts on the label. So, let’s say you usually feed 2 cups of food a day. Don’t just go along merrily feeding him 2 cups a day for the rest of his life. Feel your dog. Every week I feel my dogs to see if they are getting enough food or not and adjust it appropriately. During the Summer they don’t burn as many calories as they do in Winter when they need to stay warm. When it’s hot outside they don’t run around as much on their own, they don’t like the heat any more than we do. Generally my dogs need less food in hot weather, then, when it gets cold I up it a bit. I’ll also add more fat to their diet when it gets colder. If you train your dog with food during the day, or give your dog treats you need to take that into consideration before feeding them. If you only feed once a day in the morning but you know you will be training with food later then don’t give him the full amount. If you feed twice a day or just in the evening, subtract an amount equal to the treats they got during the day. It’s really not that difficult to do.
“But he’s looking at me like he’s hungry” or “I feel guilty when I’m eating and he looks at me *that way*”. My answer to this is, so what? Guess what people, dogs know how to act. They are much more adept at training us and manipulating their environment than we are. They easily learn that adopting a particular facial expression or posture can get us to do a certain thing. If they put a particular look on their face which has worked before to get them food they will do it again. Dogs are scavengers. Most dogs eat whenever there is food available. They’ll eat even if they aren’t hungry just because it’s there (well, okay, that applies to me as well).
I know that many dogs that are used to getting a large amount of food start to steal things when you cut back. I think this happens because they are used to having that full feeling and when you feed them less food they think they need more. When I began taking weight off Magic he did this. He started getting into things looking to fulfill a need. The way I handled it was to feed him vegetables. The vegetables were mainly the frozen mixed kind that I just defrosted & put in his food. They filled up his stomach to give him that feeling, but didn’t add many calories. I’d also add shredded carrots to his food, those really took up a lot of space in his stomach. Shredding carrots seems like a lot of work, but it wasn’t. I just took a little food bucket to the nearest Jamba Juice, or smoothie place, and asked them to place it under the shoot of their carrot juicer. I’d return an hour or two later & have enough carrot shavings to last a week. They throw that pulp out anyway so they were happy to give it to me.
When you have a pet their health is your responsibility. Health doesn’t stop at feeding them and giving them water. They need exercise, they need to not eat junk food, which many of the dog foods out there are, and sometimes they need to be deprived of things they think they should have. That is all part of being a great pet parent. As the other article states, there are many forms of animal abuse and cruelty. Making your pet obese is both cruel and abusive. Please, feed your pet wisely.
Here is an article that talks about some of the physical causes of obesity and how to determine if your pet has one of these diseases.
I have a client from a few years ago who is a very nice woman and is now a friend. She hired me when she got a cocker spaniel/poodle mix from a local pet store. I refuse to call it a breed, because it isn’t, it’s a mix. I have absolutely no issue with mixed breeds as most of mine have been mixes. What I do have a problem with is people purposely breeding 2 different breeds to make mixes and then selling them for exorbitant amounts of money and calling them “designer” dogs. Especially when there are so many perfectly great mixes, and purebreds I might add, sitting in the shelters being euthanized every day. Sorry for the rant, I’ll get back to my story now.
So although I was disappointed in her choice of dog, and more so the store where she bought the dog, the dog needed training and she needed help doing so. After we became more friendly we talked about the “pet store” where she got the dog. I told her the dog came from a puppy mill & she said “noway, they said the dogs are well taken care of & come from a nice breeder in the Mid-West. And anyway, isnt’ she a great dog?” As if that made up for the horrible living conditions the dog’s parents are most likely living in.
After training was finished we remained friends and had coffee a time or two. A while later one of her other dogs died very suddenly. In her grief she contacted the “pet store” and told them. A couple of days later they called to say they had a very nice golden-doodle (their term not mine) that she’d just love. I told her the dog is from a puppy mill. Again she told me the girl swore to her the breeder is a very nice lady who raises her dogs in a clean and happy environment. I told her to ask if the girl had actually traveled to Missouri, Iowa, or Oklahoma, or wherever the place was to take a look for herself. Of course the girl had not. For some reason my client/friend decided to listen to me and chose not to get the dog and went to a rescue instead.
Within a couple of months the “pet store” was closed down for selling dogs from puppy mills and not informing the clientele. The case has gone to trial and yipee they have a judgment against them for a whopping $4.8 million!!! Many of the dogs they sold were sick and some even died. Many of the people who spent thousands, even $10k on vet bills and their pups still died. I truly feel for the people and especially the puppies who were innocent in all of this.
In this day and age, with so many news shows, and so many ways to keep up (hello, Internet??) it still amazes me that people are so naive, and I won’t say the other words I’m thinking, as to buy a dog from a pet store, or a even out of a newspaper, the Recycler, or the Pennysaver for that matter. Any reputable breeder should have a waiting list for their puppies and shouldn’t have to advertise for buyers. They also want to know where their pups are going to be living and with whom. They don’t want them shipped across the Country and being sold by a broker to someone they’ll never meet. A reputable breeder also makes you sign a contract which states that should anything happen at any time during that dog’s life which forces you to not be able to keep their puppy, they will unconditionally take the dog back. THAT is responsiblity. If you bring a life into this World you are responsible for it for the rest of it’s life.
Ok, I’ll get off my soapbox now 
.
http://www.hsus.org/pets/issues_affecting_our_pets/get_the_facts_on_puppy_mills/
http://www.aspca.org/fight-animal-cruelty/puppy-mills/
Ok, I’m sure you’re envisioning a program where we trade dog biscuits to dogs in exchange for their AK-47s and the like. Well that’s not the case here. Canine disarming is about cutting down the canine teeth of a biting dog so he can’t do (as much) damage.
Now, you may think this is a great solution. The dog is not as much of a liability, which is always a concern when someone owns a dog that bites. However, it makes the owner more complacent about the dog’s behavior, allowing him to have access to situations he shouldn’t. This in actuality has been a big part of the ongoing problem. And although he may not be able to do damage, it still isn’t nice for the people being forced to endure this dog’s wrath, regardless of his size.
So, this is in regards to a story I read about a small dog that bites. The problem was supposedly “solved” by having his canine teeth cut down. Actually, the problem isn’t solved, he just can’t cause any puncture wounds when he does bite, which makes a lawsuit less likely. So the concern is about money and a lawsuit, not so much the well-being of the dog since his behavior is still there, and it is likely based upon some underlying anxiety which will now not be dealt with.
I do want to commend the dog’s owner for a couple of things. First, it’s nice she was able to find a way to mitigate any injuries the dog could cause, as well as for sticking with the dog instead of euthanizing him, though she admits at one point trying to find another home for him. Of course there are plenty of homes out there just dying to have a dog that bites! (that would be sarcasm) And she tried multiple methods to change the dog’s behavior, which may have made it worse. However, a resource that wasn’t mentioned was a visit to an actual behaviorist, not just someone passing themselves off as one. I am referring to a Veterinary Behaviorist who may have deemed the use of pharmacologic drugs to be in order for this dog. I am also surprised that the vet who did the “disarming” didn’t suggest that a visit to a Vet Behaviorist might be preferable to mutilating his teeth.
Using multiple different methods to change a dog’s behavior is not a great thing. When dealing with a behavior issue you can’t expect a change overnight, especially for a problem that has been ongoing for years. It could take a long time to undo the reinforcement history a dog has. Meaning, if a dog has been heavily reinforced for months or years doing a particular behavior, any training program needs to go on for months, if not years in order to change that behavior. We all know how difficult it is to break a bad habit; this is what it’s like for a dog as well.
Any training protocol, as long as it’s not making the problem worse, needs to be worked for quite a while before moving to the next training “fad”. It sounds to me like the training for this poor dog jumped all over the map. He’s only 6 years old, yet at least 5 different methods have been used. Imagine the dog’s confusion and frustration level. In addition, many of the methods used were designed to suppress his behavior, not retrain him. She was on the right track with desensitization/counter-conditioning, but if it wasn’t done correctly or done for long enough (remember the reinforcement history thing?) then nothing would change. Also, if during the DS/CC process he was allowed, even one time, to practice the bad behavior, the training is for naught. Pepper spray and cans filled with rocks only serve to give the dog more reason to hate strangers coming to visit. Strangers predict being sprayed with pepper spray and having cans with rocks shaken at him. At least the electronic shock collar idea was dumped.
Though she mentions they have an invisible fence, she doesn’t say how many, if any, trainers told her that is exacerbating the problem. When a dog is allowed to see outside where people are walking or moving around, then they bark and the person goes away, which they all do eventually, the dog is rewarded for chasing that person away. Dogs bark to increase distance; to tell someone “go away, go away”. Each time that dog was allowed to be in his yard and bark at someone who eventually went away, he was reinforced for chasing that person away. What is the definition of “to reinforce”? It means to make stronger, right? It means that the barking and driving away behavior became so strong that when someone *dared* ignore his warning of “go away” and actually stepped onto his property, he had enough confidence in his previously reinforced behavior to actually bite.
The story was very predictable in the progression of this dog’s problems, from the various training methods applied, to the lack of management, to the outcome. But what amazed me about it was the end. How even now, after all this time, the dog is being allowed to practice this bad behavior because he is “safe” and can’t harm anyone. The mixed messages this dog is getting are astonishing as well as saddening. I truly feel for this dog and the state of confusion he lives in.
My friend Kim also has a few great comments on her blog about this topic, but from another point of view. Take a look at it as well.
http://aintmisbehavink9.blogspot.com/
