Absolutes

Dogs don't lie or cheat or hate or hold grudges.

People do all of the above all the time.

Who do you want as a best friend?

Are you raising a trashcan dog?

Anthropomorphism refers to the interpretation of animal behavior as looking like human behavior. How many times have you heard someone say something like "He got in the trash again. When I walked in the door he looked guilty, turned around and left the room." Guilty? Perhaps not. Here is the dog's perspective.

7:03 a.m. 
Zach is still a puppy at 10 months. He has had breakfast, a drink of water, a poo and a pee. His Mom left the house, bidding Zach a good day. Zach settles in for his morning nap.

8:45 a.m. 
Trash trucks coming. Zach wakes up, checks out the noise, woofs, gets a sip of water, goes back to sleep.

9:17 a.m.  Zach wakes up, stretches, cruises the house. Finds his tennis ball. What good is that without someone to throw it? Something moved in the corner of the bedroom. Spider. Check it out. Gone. Where'd it go? Oh well. Moves on to the kitchen. The squirrels are in the backyard. Can't get to them. Woof. Back and forth in front of the sliding glass door . SQUIRRELS! Woof woof woof. Ugh and oh well. Zach lays down, watching the backyard, falls asleep.

10:12 a.m.
Phone rings. Zach wakes up, stretches, gets a drink of water. Wait. What is that tantalizing smell? His people sometimes put yummy stuff  in that tall box in the kitchen. Fish from last night? Did they leave some in there for the dog? They are SO good to him. Zach knocks the trash can over and starts the most fun game of the day: a treasure hunt. Finds the fishy smelling paper towel, eats it; finds the potato peelings, eats them; finds the mostly empty chocolate pudding container, licks it clean and chews on the container. Not much else of interest. Another sip of water and a nap on the couch.

Fast forward to 5:48 p.m.
Mom gets home from work to find the contents of the trashcan all over the kitchen floor. Zach greets her as always, tail wagging. But wait. He takes one look at her body language and knows she is not happy. Why? Did she have a bad day? Why is she yelling at him? Her hands are all fisted and she's wearing her mad face. Zach tries to figure out what's going on when she yells "Bad dog" in her really mean voice. Zach gets the heck out of there as fast as he can. 

When telling a friend about the the latest trashcan incident, the dog owner will swear Zach knew he'd done something wrong because he looked guilty.

Zach lives in the now. He got into the trash hours ago. It was self-rewarding. He connects his owner's anger with her homecoming not with the scattered trash. Do you really want to teach your dog to stop joyously greeting you at the door? Of course not. You want him to stay out of the trash.

There are lots of training solutions for trash-eating dogs. But let's keep it simple. Remove the source of the problem. And the problem is not the dog. Put the trashcan somewhere Zach can't get to it. AND provide Zach with a richer daily life so he doesn't go looking for something to do. Consider a dog walker, doggy day care, interactive toys, and perhaps even another dog to keep him company.

Understand your dog's motivation, body language, and responses to his environment and you can successfully address any issues you may have with him. Can you think of times when you may have misunderstood your dog?

Medical emergencies

When your dog is bitten by a snake* on the Sunday after thanksgiving - that’s not the time to be frantically searching for an emergency vet. So put these numbers in your phone right now. Include the address so you can use your GPS to get there. If you’re leaving town with your dog, find yourself an emergency vet where you’ll be staying and add info that to your phone.

• Your veterinarian
• Local emergency vet (24/7)
• ASPCA poison hot line - 888.426.4435. There is a consultation fee that's worth every penny. 

While you're at it, go ahead and upload your dog’s vet records to the cloud for easy access when you’re seeing a vet other than your own. Learn about health insurance for your pup here.

*My writing is based on my own dogs and the dogs of friends and clients. So the snake bite thing ... that was Cody. She stuck her nose where it didn't belong and was bitten on the side of her muzzle. Her face and neck started swelling almost immediately, so I tossed her in the car and broke every speed limit getting her to the vet. They treated her, the swelling stopped and was completely gone in a few days. This is a really good example of when immediate treatment is required. 

UTIs in puppies

Have you been working diligently to potty train your new puppy and still she pees in the house? Often. Everywhere. My advice, gained from working with hundreds of puppies, is take her to the vet and have her urine tested. She may well have a UTI. Ever have one of those? They cause a lot of discomfort - the same kind your puppy has but she has no way of telling you.

Buckle up, Fido

How can you keep your dog safe when you hit the road? The simplest thing is a harness on your dog in the back seat attached to the vehicle's existing seat belt system. Another good solution is a crate secured in the back of an SUV or van or in your back seat if it fits. 

Why is this a thing? If you're in an accident, your dog can be badly injured getting ricochetted all over the inside of your car. And think on this: when first responders arrive at the scene of an accident, their job is to tend to humans. They open a door to get to said humans and your scared-shitless dog hauls ass out of your car as fast as she can. Her safe space has suddenly become a very scary place. A dog on the loose after a traumatic event is unpredictable. She'll likely run blindly until she wears out or finds a place to hide. If that running takes her into traffic she may well not make it back home. The following appeared in our local paper.

Family seeks help finding dog ejected from overturned vehicle 

Family members are asking for help in finding a dog that went missing after it was ejected from a vehicle on the the interstate. The driver suffered a broken clavicle and a dislocated shoulder when her car overturned yesterday morning, said the woman’s sister. The family is seeking help locating the dog, a 6-year-old golden retriever mix named Chloe. “The dog is absolutely everything to her,” her sister said. “The whole family is just devastated.”

Lily, service dog in training

I'm retired now, so I have time to look back at the amazing dogs and people I've worked with over the years. This is Kim and Lily. This adorable Lab grew up to be a diabetic alert dog. These two were part of a loving family who provided an incredible amount of support as Lily was trained. 

A medical misdiagnosis for Cody

In 2012 I was a guest blogger for "Dawg Business" where this post originally appeared.

Cody was 11 months old. A yellow Lab in training to be my wilderness search and rescue dog, she had all the right stuff for the job: high drive, intelligence, tenacity, and an amazing nose.

Cody’s energy level required daily play sessions – most often involving a tennis ball or Frisbee. On a day I will never forget, it was my bad throw that sent her running full tilt toward the shed. She slammed into it (depth perception came later in her life), coming up with the tennis ball in her mouth and … a limp. 

I went to her and realized there was a sizable hole in the ground right where she had hit the building, so not only did she slam into an immovable object, her right front leg jammed into that hole with her full weight behind it.

I loaded her into the car and took her to the vet’s office for a physical examination, x-rays and a diagnosis. Ninety minutes later I drove home with Cody. I was stunned and in tears. My amazing dog, my beautiful girl, my athlete, would never be a SAR dog. Diagnosis: she'd injured her cervical (neck) spine. And if she re-injured it she could well become paralyzed. No more training. No more strenuous workouts. Nothing. I was devastated.

A day passed. What to do? A second opinion was all I could think of, so I called ahead to a local vet clinic known for its specialists. Cody and I headed out that afternoon for an appointment with a veterinary orthopedist.

This vet looked at the existing x-rays, took Cody for a walk to observe her gait, and gave her a thorough hands-on physical examination. Sixty minutes after we arrived, we drove away with a very different opinion from that of “my” vet. Cody’s new diagnosis: tendinitis in her right shoulder. Wow. This time I was speechless.

Instructions from the vet: Keep my young Lab quiet (seriously?) for a month to let her shoulder heal and she should be fine. He said that although chronic in nature, the tendinitis should not cause her any significant problems in the foreseeable future. He did warn that symptoms might return in Cody’s older years.

Outcome: Cody was as quiet as Cody could be for that month, at the end of which her symptoms were gone and life got back to normal

We proceeded with her SAR training and never looked back. She has remained fit and trim over the years – her weight never varying more than two pounds from her young adult weight of 72 pounds, something I believe is a contributing factor to her continued good health.

At the age of nine, in the middle of a cold winter, I saw that limp return. 

My current vet suggested a supplement (one that she gives her own senior Labs) specifically targeted to older dogs. I started her on S3 Soft Chews for Dogs the next day. Two years later, at the age of 11, Cody is happy, healthy, limp-free, and can still outrun the four other Labs in the house. Especially when there is a squirrel alert in the backyard.

Lesson: Always, if there is ANY question in your mind about a diagnosis, seek a second opinion and even a third.