Today's Dog So Much Different Than Yesterday's

My sister and I hanging in our backyard with our dog Sandy

I grew up with a dog.  We got Sandy when I was five years old.  She died at the age of twelve and my Dad suspects she had heart worm. She was a regular visitor to the vet for her rabies vaccine but there was no monthly heart worm prevention like there is today.  Like so many other things, life has really changed for dogs in the past few decades.  We're so lucky she never had fleas!

We would let Sandy walk with us off leash, a lot.  In the winter she'd head off to the sledding hill with my sister and I where she'd chase us and our friends as we raced down the hills.  Except for a Mom one year who yelled at us while we stared at her in confusion, all of our friends knew our dog and were glad to see her.  Even kids we didn't know that well knew our dog. She was friendly and fun.  It was fairly typical though that on the way home Sandy would abandon us to chase squirrels through the woods.  It was almost as if she said "I'll catch you kids later!  Sledding was fun but I've got some squirrels to chase."  On entering the house our announcement would be "Sandy ran away again!" and the response from my Mom was, "Well, she'll come home eventually."  And she did! Usually within a half hour or so she was home.  I rarely if ever let my dog Alby off leash, especially not on the path where everyone is out and about.

As an adult I couldn't wait to get my first dog, and like many people I thought "I grew up with a dog and I know what to do."  Well, no, I really didn't!  I didn't know anything about crate training.  Or even training for that matter.  I never knew anyone who used a crate and my Mom had definitely not used one for Sandy.

When I adopted Maggy in 1998 from the Baltimore Humane Society when she was around eight months old, I had no idea what I was getting into.  The one thing we had going for us though was exercise - she and I went walking nearly every day and so by trial and error we did well.  Of course, a lot of our success was due to Maggy's personality.  She was a really easy dog to work with and she was eager to please.  We bonded almost immediately so even if she was off leash, she kept track of where I was and stayed by my side.

Maggy

Maggy ate a lot of my stuff though, including one time a couch cushion, and so I quickly learned that all dogs need a crate, at least in the beginning.  I wish I knew who told me about crates - it might have been someone at one of the pet supply stores or a friend, but whoever it was thank goodness for the crate!  Maggy was not a fan of the crate, but it was a nice safe place for her when I headed off to work each day.  I knew she wasn't destroying my house or ingesting anything that could do her harm. She only had to be in that crate when I wasn't home and each time she went in I'd reward her with a treat before I shut the door and after.  Years later as a volunteer with a rescue who screens potential adopters for our dogs I stress the use of the crate.  Even older dogs do well in a crate when getting used to a new environment.  The crate is their nice safe place to hang out.  It also provides them with a place to take a break from small children and other pets in the home while they get used to their new surroundings.  When I have a foster dog in the house they typically eat in their crate - they don't have to worry about protecting their food or gulping everything down before the other dog horns in.  When they eat in the crate little ones can't stick their hands in the dog dish.  It also helps reinforce house training to minimize accidents.

Alby, 5 months old,
sitting in front of his crate

When I adopted Alby as a puppy I used the crate from day one.  He loved his crate.  I'd leave the door open for him and he'd just hang out in there with a toy, or take a nap.  Like playpens for babies, the younger they are when you start using the crate the better they like it.  When he was in the crate with the door closed I'd sometimes walk by and drop a treat in to reinforce the fact that the crate was a great place to be.  I have never used the crate as a punishment for him or any other dog because I want them to want to get in there willingly when it's time.  Even if they're really driving me insane and I'm putting them in the crate for a time out, I'm never yelling and they always get a treat once they get in.

Maggy was a leash puller when I first got her.  She would drag me around Centennial Lake every morning and the pulling didn't stop until she got tired.  A work friend had started using something called a 'halti collar" for her dog and I remember thinking, "That's just horrible!"  I was very judgy about the whole thing.  Then my sister got one for her big dog, Molly.  Diane was quite pregnant with her first baby when Molly pulled so hard on the leash Diane landed hard on her knees.  Molly was much easier to handle on walks after Diane started using the halti collar.  Molly was dog reactive and without the halti collar she would lunge and pull hard, and then come up coughing.  Once on the halti though none of that happened!  Here was this nearly 80 lb lab/chow mix who had been a bit of a nightmare on walks and now she was a dream to walk!  I got Maggy a halti too.  She didn't like it when I put it on her, but it made our walks so much nicer.   She had never pulled the way Molly had for my sister, but even so she was constantly pulling and the halti put a stop to that.  After a few years Maggy walked so nicely on the leash that she didn't need the halti any longer.

My Mom and Dad, both in their mid to late 70s, have walked their dog Mickey using the halti collar since she was full grown.  Mickey walks very nicely for both of them and they don't worry about being toppled over when she tries to chase a squirrel or a deer.  Mickey also doesn't always like other dogs and she likes to let some of them know, "Hey! I don't like the look of you!!" and my parents are able to safely keep their distance without her lunging and pulling.

When I tried to start running again I used the extension leash for Maggy.  When my Mom got Scooby Doo, a little Cock-a-poo, for my brother she used the extension leash all the time and we all thought it was just fine.  I know a lot of people use these leashes for their dogs and nothing bad has happened.  Nothing happened to Maggy or I either, but I would never again use an extension leash for my dogs.  Maggy liked to stop and sniff and the extension leash let her run way ahead of me, sniff, let me run past and then she would catch up.  Having never caught a squirrel or a bunny she had given up on chasing them.  She never tried to greet other dogs or their people.  Maggy only cared about one person - Me.   Once again thanks to her personality I got very lucky using the extension leash.  I have seen some really nasty injuries to humans and dogs though who have been on extension leashes.  Rope burns are not fun and it cuts through skin quickly.  I've seen people try to grab the extended rope with their hands leaving terrible injuries, not to mention what I've seen on legs.  A woman in my neighborhood walks two large Pit Bulls on extension leashes and she has no control over those dogs.  They are a bit dog reactive and part of it is her pulling on the extension leashes as hard as she can.  No more extension leashes for us!

Alby after a recent walk

With Alby the halti collar is not an option for us at all.  We tried it, but he's around 75 lbs of incredibly strong dog and he has figured out how to jerk himself backwards to get the halti off.  From the first time I walked him he has also been trying to catch cars and bikes.  If it's running or on wheels, motorized or otherwise, Alby wants to catch it.  Motorcycles are his dream catch and he has jerked himself out of the halti, slipped his regular collar (which the halti was attached to) and raced down the street chasing a motorcycle while I ran after him yelling his name.  He turns into a berserker when he sees a bike on the path or a motorcycle on the road and even with the halti fitted on snugly, he and I were having huge battles to keep him from chasing and it took a huge toll on my knee, hip and back. I figured he'd outgrow this urge or at least give up, but he hasn't, so last fall we went back to basic obedience to figure out how to solve this.  We signed up with Tecla's and were introduced to the prong collar.  For years I've been super judgy about people who used this on their dogs.  Mostly because I thought they were cruel and I believed that people were just throwing them on their dogs with no clue as to what they were doing.  Then, they'd leave the prong collar on the dog all the time.   Now here I am putting one on my dog every day, after learning how to use it properly with training, and it's the best thing I ever did.  It turns out the prong collar is a more humane option for dogs that lunge and pull like Alby does.  The idea of the prong collar is that Alby never hits the end of it - we practiced a lot so he knew it was there and unlike the halti or the flat collar he stops pulling almost immediately.  On the flat collar if Alby wants something he lunges and pulls and the more he does that the more he wants to lunge and pull - it feeds on itself and all I'm doing is pulling backwards against it trying to get him to stop making it worse.  It was a circle of madness with no end followed by a lot of coughing and hacking by Alby.  Every walk I take with him is a training opportunity so we are constantly working on and reinforcing the best behaviors.  Recently a biker stopped near us while we were out walking and commented he hardly recognized us since Alby wasn't leaping and lunging.  It was such a huge relief.  Still, so many people have negative attitudes about prong collars, and like I said I used to be one of them, that I'm embarrassed and feel like I need to provide everyone an explanation.  Our walks are so much nicer now though, for both of us.  Every dog does not need to use a prong collar, but Alby definitely does.

Alby has received more formal training than any other dog I've ever had.  We went to puppy school when he was just a few months old.  These days a lot of rescues insist on people taking their newly adopted puppies to training.  Like me when I adopted Maggy, many people think "I grew up with a dog, how hard can it be?". It really depends on the dog.  As I said with Maggy, she had a very easy personality, but not all dogs are like this.  Puppies especially can drive you crazy and if you don't know what you're doing it can end badly for the puppy.  I've now been fostering dogs for more than two years, and several of the dogs that have been to my house are clearly victims of no training.  Someone saw a super cute puppy and then he grew into a dog and all the cute stuff wasn't so cute anymore and the owner was in over their head.  People ask me a lot of questions about dogs since they know I volunteer with a rescue and one of the first things I say is "You know dogs don't come trained, right?"  When I'm talking to a potential adopter on the phone I ask them "How do you see the new dog fitting in to your life?"  because I want to know if they're going to walk their dog, take their dog to training and if they've considered all of this.  Especially for first time dog owners this is hugely important.  We all see the happy dog walking nicely with their pet parent, what so many people don't realize is that walk is a daily deal - rain, cold, hot, snow.....we're out in it.  The younger the dog the more important the walk is.  Just like kids who don't get enough exercise, dogs bounce off walls too.  Alby is nearly five now, so if he misses a walk once in a while it's not a big deal, but that wasn't true a year or so ago.  For his health and mine, we try to never miss a daily walk.

We're also a lot more interested in our dog's overall health these days than we have been in the past.  When Scooby Doo was adopted back in 1988 she had fleas and she shared them with the two cats that lived in our house.  If you have fleas in your house they are a nightmare to get rid of.  When we went on the family beach vacation the pets would go off to the vet to be treated for fleas and my Dad would bomb the house.  We'd all be in the car and he'd set the bombs off just before we left.  It still didn't get rid of the fleas.  Then Scooby and the cats started using something called Frontline and we never saw another flea.  When I got Maggy she used Frontline during the summer months.  Alby gets it applied every month, even in the winter because it's not just a flea preventative, it's also a tick preventative.  Nobody wants lyme disease.

The other monthly preventative Alby gets is for Heartworm.  It wasn't available for Sandy but there's no reason these days for any dog to have Heartworm when preventatives are readily available and work so well.  Of course, the rescue I work with has had to treat numerous dogs, especially stray mother dogs with a litter of puppies.  One of the things we'll check on for potential adopters is whether or not they keep up with monthly preventatives for their previous and existing pets.

I keep Alby up to date on all his vaccinations, not just rabies.  Sandy got a rabies shot and that was pretty much it.  The kennel where Sandy stayed while we were out of town didn't insist on dogs having up to date vaccinations.  Nowadays I don't know where you could board your dog if they weren't up to date.  I print out Alby's vaccination record before we go to boarding, doggy day care and even before group training.

How many people have a dog with food allergies?  Sandy ate Kal-Kan brand dog food that my Mom bought at the grocery store, table scraps, and Halloween candy.  Other than an upset stomach from too much candy, she was fine. Maggy had food allergies that caused chronic ear infections that were itchy and messy.  Several times a week Maggy had to get her ears cleaned and she was on special, expensive, dog food that I had to buy at the vet.  In the last year Alby has developed some minor allergies so he's now on a special diet too and his food is only available with a prescription.  He doesn't get bad ear infections and his allergies are easily controlled.   Poor Maggy though, she never knew life without itchy ears.

Alby also has health insurance!  When he was a puppy I purchased a Petplan policy for him.  It came in very handy when he swallowed one of his toys.  When he wouldn't throw it up and it wasn't coming out the other way, we ended up at the Emergency Vet where the doctor scoped it out.  The total bill was $3,000 and the insurance policy covered $2000.  The puppy of a friend of mine got a horrible flesh eating disease that cost around $13,000 to cure, and her policy covered nearly the entire thing.  Of course Alby's rates went up the next year from $25 a month to $32.

The vet we use offers a "Care Club" package that you pay a monthly fee for as well - kind of like an HMO for pets.  Alby needed his teeth cleaned last year and when I looked at the cost the Care Club, $90 a month, and it was worth it.  It covers those things not covered by his health insurance.  At this point though I feel like I should be able to claim his as a dependent on my taxes!

We know a lot more about dog behavior and dog health these days than when my Mom and Dad brought Sandy home to our house back in 1971, and I think everyone benefits from the knowledge.   The financial commitment is bigger, but so are the rewards.  Like people, all dogs are not wonderful, but most of them are and they're doing amazing things - finding survivors in rubble after earthquakes and other disasters, sniffing out bombs, helping the blind and the autistic and soldiers with PTSD, enriching the lives of senior citizens,  and helping kids testify in court.   There was a recent article about a German Shepherd who took on a poisonous snake to defend his seven year old girl - he's on anti venom treatment right now.  When dogs are willing to do so much for us, it seems fair that with all the things we know now, we should return the favor.