Gimpy Little Debbie

I had to take Little Debbie to the Vet today. She started limping really bad yesterday afternoon out of the blue. I tried to check her leg and paw out to see if there were any cuts or anything and there was nothing. She never likes her paws messed with, but she did snap at me when I was checking out her paw. "Yes, that hurts Mom!"

X-rays show no broken bones, but it looks like she has an old injury in her left front elbow. Maybe dislocated or something when she was in the puppy mill. The joint pops in and out when it's flexed. Got a pain killer/anti inflamatory for her for about a week. Hopefully that makes her feel better.

I also got a script for Duncan for a mild sedative that I can give him when a thunderstorm breaks out, and to try giving him before I brush him. I can't wait to try it. If I could brush him myself without him going bonkers it would be great. Maybe I could even get some toothbrushing in. We'll have to see.

Soon as I get my tax return, both kids are going in for dentals!

On Food...

Who knew it was so complicated? Certainly interesting anyway...

So one of the chapters in this book "Help For Your Fearful Dog" covers food and the impact it can have on your dog's behavior. Supposedly, fearful or nervous dogs can feel and behave even more so (or less so) based on their diet.

I guess dog food manufactures are legally required to list the content of the food in descending order by bulk weight. So the food has more of the ingredients listed first. The author says that the first two ingredients should be meat because dogs are primarily carnivores. But there are three grades to the quality of meat: whole meat, meal (ex. "chicken meal") and by-products, each in order of respective quality. By-products, in chicken for example can contain heads, feet, undeveloped eggs, and intestines.

With Thanksgiving coming up, I'm sure we all remember hearing that the post-turkey induced coma is caused by the amino acid in turkey called tryptophan (precursor to serotonin.) Ahh the calming and relaxing post-turkey bliss... So it makes sense that dogs, especially fearful dogs, are positively impacted by foods containing tryptophan.

Corn is high in the amino acid tyrosine. I guess this amino acid does just the opposite of the tryptophan in our friend the turkey. It blocks the amino acids required to produce serotonin from passing to the brain. "...it is not conducive to a calm state of mind."

"Other ingredients to avoid include artificial colors or flavors, and any that are not identified by source (for example, 'animal fat'.) Also, read the ingredient line that begins 'preserved with...' The desirable preservatives are vitamins E (sometimes listed as 'mixed tocopherols') and C (often called 'ascorbic acid'.) The unhealtful , potentially cancer-causing preservatives are BHA, BHT and ethoxyquin."

So after reading this chapter, I of course went straight to the label on the newly purchased 40 pound bag of dog food sitting in my kitchen. My dogs are currently fed Pedigree - adult complete nutrition, small crunchy bites.

So what are the first few ingredients in my dog's food? Sigh...

Ground whole corn, meat and bone meal, ground whole wheat, corn gluten meal, animal fat (preserved with BHA and citric acid), wheat mill run, chicken by-product meal...

Not only an I feeding my nervous dogs food of poor qulaity that is not conducive to helping them develop calm and less nervous characters, there's that "potentially cancer-causing" BHA. The first two ingredients are not meat. It's got almost all of the negative ingredients mentioned and none of recommended quality. So it looks like I'll be making a trip to the pet store to review food labels.

I'll check up on some common kibbles and report back. Seems a change in diet may be in order here. Does anyone feed their dog a Science Diet kibble? If so, could you post a comment with the ingredients for me?

Quote of a Quote

So I forgot in the last post to give you who wrote this book and stuff. Ok, so it's "Help for Your Fearful Dog A Step-by-Step Guide to Helping Your Dog Conquer His Fears" by Nicole Wilde CPDT.

I found an interesting quote in how it relates to puppy mill mothers and their pups in the first part of the book (although the author is not directly speaking about mill dogs.) It's actually a quote of a quote.

"As canine behavior consultant and author Steven R. Lindsay states. 'Emotional stressors affecting the mother during gestation, together with excessively stressful postnatal conditions, may exert a lifelong detrimental influence on the way dogs cope with fear and anger-provoking situations' and 'Together, heredity and adverse prenatal and postnatal stressors may destine many young dogs to express reactive traits and tendencies before they open their eyes...' In other words, breeders can have an effect on the pups' temperaments via careful management of the dam's environment and attention to her stress levels."

This makes perfect sense as to why puppy mill dogs, and particularly Shelties who do not usually respond well to such an environment to begin with, can often be so emotionally damaged and affected. In addition, if the pup is retained by the breeder (or transferred to another breeder's mill) to become stock for further breeding instead of sold, his character is further impacted by never receiving the world socialization needed to be come a healthy dog. (Unless rescued later in life once usefulness as a sire has been exhausted.)

As you have read here, the biggest impact to Duncan's recovery after he arrived in my home was socialization. We of course started out slowly so as not to create negative experiences, but we went for walks in my quiet neighborhood, went for car rides, started visiting parks when there were few people and dogs, and visited the homes of my family members. This allowed him to experience and learn how to interact in these different environments. As he became more comfortable we progressed to more difficult things like visiting Petco late in the evening when not too many people were there and moved on to attending the bustling Petco adoption events with the Rescue Group that he came from. Where Duncan once laid down in the middle of the street on our first walk when he saw a person going into their house up ahead of us and would not move until they were inside, he now actually enjoys being at dog events where there are crowds of people. He was so excited when we went to the recent Paws in the Park event. We got there and he was pulling me from the parking lot to get to where the crowds of people and dogs were so he could see what was going on.

It makes me wonder what kind of dog Duncan would have been had he received the socialization he needed when he was a pup.

Help for Your Fearful Dog

So I got a copy of this in the mail today from Amazon. I'll let you know what I think after reading it!

Agile Little Debbie

So last weekend Debbie and I went to an Agility Clinic at Dogtoberfest. She did so great! As is to be expected, the first few times she went over this ladder she was a little nervous. But going over a few more times she learned quick quick quick! After that, it really only took her one time on a new obstacle before she was fairly confident. Even going over the raised board she quickly just walked next to me and didn't jump off!



After having gone over jumps and through the weave pols and tunnel at our Sheltie Play Day recently, those were pretty easy for her too! I don't have a picture of the tunnel, but she went through it all the way extended!







Debbie didn't want any treats when we did this (too much activity going on!) But she seemed to soak up the praise from me. She did so well that we may see about taking an agility class later this winter sometime.






This last one is from the Sheltie Play Day. She just wants to please her Momma. She's so cute!

Duncan has discovered...

...The butt scratch. You will never believe this. Ok, so I haven't written in awhile. It's been a little difficult to write new material because Duncan has plateaued in his improvement mostly. But I have something now! So, remember how I told you that Duncan had started to ask to be petted? He would walk up and look at you intently until you pet his head. And if you stopped, he would follow your hand with his head as if to say, "No, don't stop!" I love that he asks to be petted now, but I think we're on the verge of even more. Now, remember how Duncan did not really care to be touched on the rest of his body? If you went back to far behind his neck or towards his rear end(slow or fast)he would startle and jump away. Well he's starting to get much better about that. I can pet from his head to his tail (not including down the length of his tail) and he very rarely jumps away anymore. The other day I was sitting out on the deck while the dogs were out and Duncan walked by my chair. I reached out and petted him, and when he was still standing there I gave him a few scratches on the rump. I completely expected him to jump away and move out of reach but he didn't. He stood there for a few scratches and then quietly went about his business. I thought maybe that was just a fluke, but there's more. Last night Duncan passed me in one of the doorways in the house here. I reached down to run my hand over him as he went by and he stopped when my hand was over his rump. So I gave him some scratches. And when he didn't shy away I gave him a few more scratches. And then a few more... He let me stand there and scratch him for at least a minute or two! And this is the dog who would turn his back on me when I tried to pet him during his first few weeks with me!

I still can't pick him up without muzzling him, and he doesn't snuggle on my lap or anything, but he sure is getting to be ok about me touching him! And here I was thinking that we had made as much progress as we were going to make, and I was ok with that. But Duncan Hines seems to have more in store for me!

Ms. Josie

Rodney and Beth, Blue Springs, MO

Ms Josie started life as a puppy mill baby. She was going to breed at 1 year old but at 6 months old she has a skin condition on her nose. She lost fur on her nose. Her littler mate Rex also lost fur on her face. The breeder turn both Josie and Rex into LL Dog Rescue. Glenn Jones Sheltie foster did research on the spots on there nose and found out that they both Had DM (Sheltie Skin). Rex and Josie were treated and both are fine now. Josie came to live with us and she never wanted to leave. She was a failed foster. She was real outgoing and active at my home(playing, being crazy). She would go to a family and she would hide. I had to get her out from under a deck and behind a TV. I would bring her home and she would be normal. So Ms Josie adopted us. We call her the crazy lady. She is a super active lady who has wore out 3 Aussies. She is 18 lbs and took on 35 lbs Aussies. She is super fast and loves to go in her back yard. She is all ways looking out the window when I come home and will herd me to the treats. Ms Josie is daddy's little girl.

Sometimes they pick us Rodney!