Posts in Category: Human-Animal Bond

By Jim Bell

Thirteen years ago, a young man gave a Golden Retriever puppy to his uncle, who was ill with a heart condition.

“My nephew Danny . . . thought this dog would be the best thing for my husband,” recalled Nellie Reyes of Ranch Cucamonga.  “It was true.  Comet was heaven sent. He was a miracle dog. He helped my husband so much. When he got angina attacks, Comet would bark and look for me. And he would run to him and he would point with his nose toward his heart for me to give him his medication.”

Her husband died seven years ago.  “When he died, Comet went into a depression.  I’ve never seen a dog like this before. He didn’t want to eat or anything. He was mourning a lot.”

Today, Mrs. Reyes lives with her daughter, Lucy, her son, Larry, and a grandson Robert. “He [Comet] follows my daughter around. He thinks she’s his mama.”

But at 13 Comet has had his own physical problems. When he was 10 years old, Mrs. Reyes noticed a growth on one of his hind legs. She took him to a veterinarian who told her that the growth should be removed and that it might be cancerous.

But with income only from a Social Security pension and government payments because her husband was a disabled veteran, she could not afford the fee. Desperate to help Comet, she consulted other veterinarians and several foundations, hoping that she might find someone who could help.  “They all said it’s going to take quite a bit of money [about $1,800] and, ‘No, we can’t help.’ I just said there has to be somebody out there. So one day I looked in the Yellow Pages and I called Western University [College of Veterinary Medicine] in Pomona and they gave me a phone number in San Diego. And I called them and they gave me a phone number for the Angel Fund. Meanwhile, the tumor was getting bigger and bigger.”

Nearly a year had gone by since Mrs. Reyes first was told that Comet needed surgery.  At Angel Fund, “they were very nice. They were so wonderful.  And they said you have to find out which veterinarian will take this because we would pay so much and the veterinarian would pay the other half. . . . And they sent me a sheet that told me which hospitals would be in this program.”

She chose Pomona Valley Veterinary Hospital.  “And the first time I took Comet there, they said, ‘Oh, yes, we can help.’” Dr. Tahir Khan performed the surgery. “He is exceptional. He is so great,” Mrs. Reyes said. Angel Fund and the hospital each contributed $500 to help pay her bill.

After the surgery, Mrs. Reyes learned that the growth was cancerous.  Today, Comet has arthritis in his rear legs and needs help getting up. He can no longer go for walks. “But he’s still going strong.  He is still eating well and is very alert when he goes outside.”

Mrs. Reyes knows that Comet is not likely to live much longer.  But she and her family are grateful for the additional time they will have with him.

“If it hadn’t been for the Angel Fund, I don’t know where I would have been. If it wasn’t for them, my dog wouldn’t be here with me,” she said.

Humans are highly capable of reading dogs’ facial cues, according to researchers from Walden University in Minneapolis, who tested a group of 50 volunteers using different pictures of the same dog. In some cases, volunteers who had limited experience with dogs did the best at categorizing facial expressions, suggesting the ability is innate.

By Adam Lusher

A study has shown that people are able to precisely identify a range of emotions in dogs from changes in their facial expressions.

Americans’ affection for their animals continues to fuel a booming pet products industry. Owners are on track to spend $55.5 billion on their furry friends this year. Growing spending on pets has its roots in the 1950s and ’60s, when baby boomers became the first generation to routinely grow up with animals kept in the home, experts say. Today, boomers are filling their empty nests with companion animals. The Columbus Dispatch (Ohio)

This year, Americans will spend an estimated $55.5 billion on their pets, a little more than the gross domestic product of Bulgaria.

And Americans probably will spend even more next year, just as they have every year for the past two decades.

Little wonder, then, that these are boom times in the pet industry. In one example, Petsmart reported it sold $1.9 million worth of goods and services in the fourth quarter alone.

“It’s an industry that continued to grow during the recession,” said retail analyst Chris Boring, principal at Boulevard Strategies. “In Ohio, the number of dog licenses issued is growing faster than the birth rate.”

The reason for such unstoppable growth can be traced to the baby-boom generation and its humanization of pets, Boring said.

“They grew up in the 1950s and ’60s, and one of the most-popular TV shows for families was Lassie,” Boring said. “Every little kid begged his folks to buy a dog.”

As a result, “the baby boom generation was the first generation, really, that commonly had household pets,” Boring said. “Prior to that, most domestic animals were kept outside. Cats were kept in barns or on porches, and dogs had dog houses out back.

“Now that baby boomers have become empty nesters, they’re adopting pets in record numbers. I think it’s to fill an emotional need when the last child leaves home.”

They’re not only adopting pets in record numbers, but spending more on each pet, said Dave Bolen, CEO of Pet Supplies Plus, which just opened two more stores locally — one in Grove City and one in Delaware — bringing its Columbus total to seven. The 280-store chain has been doing business locally for about 25 years.

“The people who shop our stores don’t own pets. The pets own them,” Bolen said. “It’s true. The pets run the household. If you go to our stores, you’ll note that all of the signage is the pet talking to you. Our marketing is the same thing, it’s all in the voice of the pet. The pet’s the boss.”

As might be expected, food is the highest annual expense for most pet owners, according to the American Pet Products Association. Owners on average spend $239 on food for dogs and $203 on food for cats. Overall, pet owners will spend a total of $21.3 billion on food this year.

But it’s not just quantity of food. Pet owners — or “parents,” as they’re known in the industry — are going after high quality in their food, too. “That’s a really big deal, organic food,” Bolen said. “It very much follows the trend in natural food in the human space.” In response, his company offers 33 brands of pet foods that don’t contain synthetic additives, artificial preservatives, fillers or animal byproducts.

Pet Supplies Plus is hardly alone in the move toward organic pet food.

In the Short North, “a particularly pet friendly area,” Boring said, Three Dog Bakery touts that its “all-natural dog food” is something that owners “can feel good about sharing with their furry family members.”

Pet People, another national chain which has its divisional headquarters in Columbus, also touts its “high quality, natural, wholesome, and nutritious pet foods and treats.”

The big spending doesn’t end with food. Pet owners are also spending more on human-style fashion gear, grooming and boarding. The American Pet Products Association expects pet owners to spend $5.5 billion on grooming and boarding services this year.

At the prompting of one franchise owner who noticed the rising demand for grooming, Pet Supplies Plus began offering a self-service dog wash, Bolen said. “Sometimes trying to give a larger dog a wash in the home is hard. It’s much easier to do in the dog wash.”

Among the offerings at Posh Pets Boutique in the Short North, for instance, are “the newest organic cotton crocheted toys” and “new winter styles to keep your favorite pet toasty!”

“They’re at a point where they can afford to spoil their pets — and they do,” Boring said. “People are cooking special meals for their dogs, and then there are some of these places where, you call it boarding, but it’s more like plush hotels. It’s almost like anything you can apply to humans can apply to dogs. And it is usually dogs. Cats don’t really care. I say that as a cat owner.”

The pampering even extends to psychological considerations. One product, Neuticles, “allows your pet to retain his natural look, self-esteem and aids in the trauma associated with altering.” Pet owners have bought more than half a million of the prosthetic testicular implants, which sell for about $1,000 a pair.

“I saw a cat stroller the other day for some ridiculous price,” Boring said. “My first question is, what cat would let you put it in a stroller?”

Post-traumatic stress disorder among military dogs has gained some recognition, but strays also seem to suffer the effects of a difficult life in a war zone, writes Jessie Knadler, whose soldier husband rescued their dog Solha from Afghanistan. “Right away, I could tell there was something different about this dog,” Knadler writes, recounting months of destructive, difficult behavior that seemed to be best explained by the scrappy, dangerous life Solha led as a stray. “All we could give her was time, love, freedom, and lots of exercise and discipline. Is that how to treat canine PTSD? I don’t know. But Solha is a different, calmer dog today than she was a year ago.” The Daily Beast (3/13)

My husband seemed OK when he returned from Afghanistan. It was the dog he brought with him who appeared to have PTSD. By Jessie Knadler.   

Around this time last year, I got a new dog. Her name is Solha. Solha is from Kandahar, arguably the most dangerous place on earth. She was rescued by my husband, Army reservist Maj. Jake Wilson, during his deployment to Afghanistan in 2011–12. Solha arrived at our place in  Virginia four days before Jake himself was due to arrive home from his yearlong tour.

Right away, I could tell there was something different about this dog. She was a mangy, wiry, desperate-looking thing, hopelessly underweight with bags under her eyes and fur that felt bristly and oily to the touch. But it was more than that. There was a hardness behind her eyes. Deprivation and exhaustion were etched upon her face. She was twitchy, feral, and cunning. She intimidated me, even though Jake assured me over email I had nothing to worry about.

I was raising our 1-year-old daughter by myself at the time, so my hands were somewhat full. The day after Solha arrived un-housebroken, I confined her to crate for an hour to introduce the concept of crate training while we went out to run an errand. When we came home, Solha had smashed out of the crate. The crate’s door and hinges were made of metal. As I picked up the mangled, bent prongs littering the perimeter, I pondered the super–canine strength she must possess in order to hurl herself out of a small metal enclosure.

I wasn’t dealing with Lassie.

Within three days, Solha had chewed through three leashes—one made of wire—and one harness. She got into two serious dogfights with much larger male dogs, and showed zero signs of playing the female submissive. The only way I could contain her in those first few crazy weeks was to confine her with a chain the size of a python (“the Michael Vick special,” my brother-in-law Mark called it). A couple of weeks after Jake got home, Solha scaled a 10-foot-high horse stall and perched atop a wooden divider like a chicken until she could be coaxed down. Then she meticulously chomped four more leashes and left them in a neat little pile like a toddler’s plate of broken spaghetti, as if to say, don’t f–k with me, I’m from Afghanistan.

Attention is being paid right now to military dogs coming home from combat exhibiting signs of post traumatic stress disorder. Four-legged PTSD is manifested in behavior like nervous exhaustion, distress, confusion, or forgetting routine commands. I don’t doubt that for a moment. Dogs absorb death, deprivation, and random gunfire as acutely as any soldier. Some 50 dogs have come home with symptoms of PTSD, according to researchers at Holland Military Working Dog Hospital at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland in Texas.

She chomped four more leashes and left them in a neat little pile like a toddler’s plate of broken spaghetti, as if to say, don’t f–k with me, I’m from Afghanistan. 

My experience with Solha has made me wonder if it’s not just dogs on the frontlines who suffer trauma, but the stray animals who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, forgotten casualties of war. Right now, there are hundreds of thousands of stray, nonmilitary animals—dogs like Solha, cats, donkeys—caught in the crossfire of war who live a waking nightmare every day of their lives in places like Afghanistan, Iraq, and Somalia. These are countries with little steady food or water supply or basic infrastructure, where land mines are only a paw print away, and, in the case of Iraq and Afghanistan, where dogs are typically reviled by the local population. Rocks are thrown at them. They’re beaten and starved. In a land where resources are scarce, and spay-neuter initiatives are only starting to make inroads, this is not surprising.

Day after day in Kandahar, Jake would see large packs of feral dogs roaming the countryside, as wild and dangerous as wolves. Some lacked tails and ears, a sign they’d been hacked off so they would last longer in a dogfight, still a popular sport among some Afghans in certain back-alley quarters. (The ears and tails are removed to prevent a superficial wound like a gnawed tail or mutilated ear from ending a fight too early; the aim is to kill or be killed.) A feral dog in this condition is likely to have either escaped or been deemed useless and released. Strays tend to loiter around U.S. and NATO military bases seeking handouts, even though U.S. soldiers are often instructed to shoot dogs on sight in the event the animal is carrying rabies (most normal soldiers, reminded of their own pets at home, prefer to look the other way).

Below is a list of suggested reading when you want to have a fabulous relationship with your dog:

1. The Other End of the Leash, Patricia McConnell; Ballantine Books
2. Don’t Shoot the Dog, Karen Pryor; Bantam Books
3. The Culture Clash, Jean Donaldson; James & Kenneth Publishers
4. The Power of Positive Dog Training, Pat Miller; Howell Book House
5. Positive Perspectives, Pat Miller; Howell Book House
6. The Cautious Canine, Patricia McConnell; Dog’s Best Friend, LTD
7. Feeling Outnumbered? Patricia McConnell, Karen London; Dog’s Best Friend, LTD
8. The Dog Whisperer, Paul Owen; Adams Media Corporation
9. Whole Dog Journal (800.424.7887) no ads just information
10. Your Dog, Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine atTuftsUniversity– no ads just information (800.829.5116)

VIDEOS

1                 Take a Bow Wow – Dog Tricks , Virginia Broitmann, Sherry Lippman

2                 Take a Bow Wow Take 2, Virginia Broitman

3                 Click & Go, Deb Jones, PhD

4                 Click & Fetch, Deb Jones, PhD

5                 Click & Fix, Deb Jones, PhD

All videos and books are available through www.dogwise.com.  [1]

If you think your veterinarian should be recognized by the AVMA at this year’s AVMA Annual Convention, nominate him or her for the American Veterinary Medical Foundation’s America’s Favorite Veterinarian contest by writing about him or her on the organization’s Facebook page. The winning veterinarian and the client each receive $250 cash, as well as travel and lodging for the award event in Chicago. The winning veterinarian also receives free registration to AVMA’s conference.

Is your veterinarian your hero? Would you like to see your veterinarian honored at the upcoming convention of the American Veterinary Medical Association by the American Veterinary Medical Foundation?

The story you tell may be dramatic, a veterinarian saving a pet’s life….or might be a story of compassion, how end of life was handled. Maybe your story is a bit off-beat, about a veterinarian helping a turtle to win a race.

You can enter your story in the contest, America’s Favorite Veterinarian, conducted by the American Veterinary Medical Foundation. Any story about any veterinarian, if the story touches you – it will likely touch the judges. Those judges will narrow the entries to a final 12 – then it’s up to you to vote.  So, appropriately, America will chose America’s Favorite Veterinarian.

Clients are encouraged to nominate their veterinarians through the Foundation’s Facebook page. Submit a photo of the animal alone, with themselves, or with the veterinarian, along with a short story—250 words or less—on why the veterinarian deserves to be America’s Favorite Veterinarian.

The winning veterinarian will be honored at the AVMF Impact and Partner Breakfast July 21 during the AVMA Annual Convention in Chicago. The winning veterinarian and the nominating client will each receive a $250 cash prize. In addition, each will receive a free night’s stay in Chicago, plus travel expenses for those outside the area. The veterinarian will also receive complimentary registration to the convention. Perhaps, best of all – you can thank, you can celebrate your veterinarian in a public way.

The contest runs through June 1.  Nominations will be presented to a panel of judges: Dr. Bernadine D. Cruz, a chair of the former AVMA Council on Communications; Ginger Brainard, chair of the America’s Favorite Veterinarian Task Force; Kimberly Topper, from the AVMF board of directors; Dr. Susan Giovengo, senior director of Central Garden & Pet Co. and myself, and this is a great honor for me. Tell your friends. Share this post. And write about your veterinarian.

Everything the non-profit American Veterinary Medical Foundation does is designed to benefit veterinary medicine, promote animal well being, and enhance research, so that we will be even better prepared to deal with difficult problems of animal health today and in the future. The AVMF also facilitates the rescuing of animals in times of disaster.

While most pets who fly the friendly skies arrive at their destination unscathed, there have been cases of injury and death in some, and this article provides some tips for owners to help ensure the safety of their animals during flight. Veterinarian Jay King suggests getting pets used to the crate they will fly in beforehand, and he says pets’ disposition and the weather should be taken into consideration before putting animals on a flight. The ASPCA recommends ensuring your animal is up to date on vaccinations and that the collar and crate are labeled appropriately. Freezing a dish of water ensures pets have water to drink when they’re ready for it. St. Louis Post-Dispatch/Along for the Ride blog

In November 2010, a French bulldog died sometime during a pair of Continental Airlines flights between St. Louis and Seattle.

During a necropsy of the 11/2-year-old dog at the Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory, a “small amount of shredded newspaper” was found partially obstructing the opening of the dog’s larynx. The dog’s death was determined to be unrelated to the airline’s handling of the pet.

The cursory account is one of dozens that airlines have filed with the U.S. Department of Transportation in recent years in response to federal reporting rules.

First, it should be noted that the overwhelming majority of pets and other animals that travel by air suffer no serious consequences. Continental shipped 6,725 animals in November 2010 with only one incident.

Still, there are enough reports of animal injuries and deaths to gain some insights into these worst cases. During 2012, for instance, 58 animals were lost, injured or died, during air transportation. In 2011, there were 46. In 2010, the number was 57.

Dr. Jay King of the Watson Road Veterinary Clinic said that “99.9 percent of the time, it is noneventful” to fly with your pet. But there are steps you can take to prevent harm from coming to your family pet during a flight.

If your pet is flying in a crate, take the time for the animal to become familiar with it beforehand.

Drive the pet around town to get accustomed to the notion of travel. Tranquilizers may help your dog or cat handle the stress of air travel, King said, but they can also affect an animal’s ability to regulate its body temperature.

In one case, records show, an English bulldog died after its owner administered a dose of Xanax before a flight in late December from Orlando, Fla., to Seattle.

Recognize that some pets — just like some pet owners — are not comfortable with air travel. They can suffer panic attacks or separation anxiety, King said.

“They are in a weird situation,” King said. “They are put in a cargo hold. Their ears pop. Sometimes they will really freak out.”

Take weather into account, he said. If it is too hot or too cold, the airline may not let your pet fly if the animal is going to be shipped in the cargo hold.

Many of the reports filed during the last three years involved dogs that injured themselves while trying to chew their way out of transport crates. After one Alaska Airlines flight touched down in Seattle last December, ramp workers noticed that a dog’s mouth was stuck on the metal wires of the kennel door, according to one report. Workers had to cut a few of the wires to free the dog’s mouth.

The owners told the airline the dog suffers from “extreme separation anxiety,” and that they would be taking it to a veterinarian to check for any injuries to its mouth.

Many of the mishaps involved international flights, which King said can amount to “a nightmare” because of the extra steps required.

In June 2011, an 8-month-old chinchilla that was originally loaded onto a Delta Air Lines flight at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport was discovered dead at its ultimate destination, Moscow.

Delta officials reported that the chinchilla was “in good condition” at JFK International Airport in New York before it was loaded onto the final flight to Moscow. Once it got there, however, the chinchilla was dead. During a necropsy, the doctor determined that “to the best of our knowledge, cause of death was due to a septic gastroenteritis or acute heart failure from stress,” the report showed.

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals recommends against flying with your pet — unless it is going to fly with you in the cabin. If you must transport a pet as cargo on a commercial flight, here are some tips:

• Make sure all vaccinations are up to date and get a health certificate from your veterinarian within 10 days of the trip.
• Don’t forget to make sure your pet has a collar and an identification tag, and a microchip if possible. The collar should include information about your destination, in case the animal escapes.
• Choose a direct flight whenever possible.
• Pick a USDA-approved shipping crate, and write “live animal” in one-inch letters on the top and at least one side. Affix arrows to show the upright position of the crate.
• Freeze a small dish of water the night before the trip so it won’t spill while loading. It should be melted by the time your pet is thirsty. King says ice cubes work too.

Your pet is family, so take the extra time to ensure the flight ends happily.

SANTA CRUZ — An Iraq War veteran has received a slew of good fortune during the past few days — learning late Monday morning that the tumor removed from her four-legged, steadfast companion last week is benign.

A new online application helps owners gauge their dog’s intelligence with a series of scientific tests. Dognition, a tool created by Duke University evolutionary anthropologist Brian Hare, uses questions and simple games to measure a dog’s aspects of intelligence: communication, cunning, empathy, memory and reasoning. The release of the app coincides with the publication of “The Genius of Dogs: How Dogs Are Smarter Than You Think,” written by Hare and his wife, Duke research scientist Vanessa Woods. TechNewsDaily.com (2/4), The Wall Street Journal (2/3)

A dog scooting butt-down across the carpet may not seem like the clever animal that comes closest to human babies in communication skills. But a Web appaims to build on the discovery by enabling thousands of dog owners to record the results of playful experiments with their canine companions.

The “Dognition” project could revolutionize scientific understanding of dogs by gathering data from man’s best friends all over the world. Such an effort would help answer broad questions such as whether different dog breeds really have different levels of intelligence — even as dog owners gain new appreciation of their beloved pets’ individual personalities.

“In a weekend, we could have 10,000, maybe 50,000 people give data,” said Brian Hare, associate professor in evolutionary anthropology at Duke University and director of Duke’s Canine Cognition Center. “I can’t even say how big of a quantum leap this will be.”

Ninety-five percent of therapy animals with one group that oversees 11,000 teams in 14 countries are dogs, but not all dogs are right for the job. Animals that comfort people in times of illness or trauma must be calm amid sometimes chaotic situations. Desensitization, training and certification are important steps for the owner and animal in the process of becoming a therapy team

By Associated Press,

Feb 05, 2013 06:30 PM EST

APPublished: February 5