My dog Nestle had pretty much given up on the world when I adopted him from a shelter. He quickly bloomed to appreciate the good things in life - walks, meals, treats, even training. But it took a full six months for us to establish a bond, and he still spent too much time with his ears pulled back and his mouth in a tight grimace. We cautiously saw new sights, met new people and dogs, practiced agility purely for the increased confidence, and he blossomed. People who see him out and about with me think he's a perfectly sound dog. But I know differently, and that was brought home to me recently.
I had some quite serious medical problems, and through November and December, we had several occasions when we all (dogs and humans) got in the car, drove to the emergency room, and I went in and didn't come back out. This has resulted in Nestle being very anxious when left in the car. He started out just hiding and trembling on the floor in the front (the dogs ride in the back and aren't supposed to come into the front. Then he tore up some Christmas presents that were on the floor in the front. Since then he has torn up other things on the floor.
So his confidence is, as I always knew, fragile. We are working on getting his comfort level back, taking car rides and leaving the car for only short periods at a time. He has had several good days where he remained in the back, and another episode of tearing up a bag of pastries in the front. It is especially bad if I have to go to the hospital for tests or the cancer treatment center for appointments. He obviously recognizes these places.
But we are working on it, and I'm sure he will settle down again in time. It just reminds me that living with dogs is a constant work in progress.
Mar 19, 2009
Mar 11, 2009
National Animal Identification System
Full Disclosure: This has nothing to do with dogs.
There is a proposed bill in DC right now, to have all farm animals chipped for identification purposes, so they can be tracked. Though this may sound like an excellent idea, given recent problems with disease outbreaks and contamination problems, as usual, there is a downside.
For big factory farms, the cost and additional time would be minimal. But for the small family farmer, it could be crippling. And I think we need to support and encourage the small family farm. With all the supposed focus on anti-terrorism, what do you think might be the most essential thing to have in the event of some really catastrophic event? I'm thinking a local food supply. Not depending on food items shipped from thousands of miles away.
If you're lucky enough to live where there still is local food being produced, I hope that you will make every effort to support it. The small farmer struggles constantly to keep it going. Here, we have two lively farmers' markets, and an online store where you can order local foods and pick them up at a central dispersal site. We have farm shares, and can even work on the farms to pay for part of them. People raise grass-fed beef and free-roaming chickens, organic vegetables, and even grains, which a local bakery is using to make its breads and pastries.
I hope Congress does not pass this proposed bill, at least not without a provision being made for small family farms.
There is a proposed bill in DC right now, to have all farm animals chipped for identification purposes, so they can be tracked. Though this may sound like an excellent idea, given recent problems with disease outbreaks and contamination problems, as usual, there is a downside.
For big factory farms, the cost and additional time would be minimal. But for the small family farmer, it could be crippling. And I think we need to support and encourage the small family farm. With all the supposed focus on anti-terrorism, what do you think might be the most essential thing to have in the event of some really catastrophic event? I'm thinking a local food supply. Not depending on food items shipped from thousands of miles away.
If you're lucky enough to live where there still is local food being produced, I hope that you will make every effort to support it. The small farmer struggles constantly to keep it going. Here, we have two lively farmers' markets, and an online store where you can order local foods and pick them up at a central dispersal site. We have farm shares, and can even work on the farms to pay for part of them. People raise grass-fed beef and free-roaming chickens, organic vegetables, and even grains, which a local bakery is using to make its breads and pastries.
I hope Congress does not pass this proposed bill, at least not without a provision being made for small family farms.
Mar 2, 2009
Censorship Is Not For Me
One of the television news magazines apparently recently ran a piece on AKC dog shows. I can't comment on it as I didn't see it, but I can comment on some of the fallout. I have it first-hand from people to whom it has happened that at least some AKC clubs are now trying to ban media from their shows. As most shows are held in public places, this seems like an illegal action. And besides, quite the overreaction. Yes, the press does sometimes overstep, especially in these days of "if it bleeds, it leads," but people also need to remember that the press has been responsible for uncovering things like Watergate and Love Canal.
As a long-time member of Dog Writers Association of America, I think we need to let the AKC know that trying to ban media is an excruciatingly bad idea. The people who have personally been told they will no longer be welcome at shows were also significant contributors of awards and financial support, so it's especially unfair.
And the AKC needs to remember that they aren't the only game in town - there is the UKC, which welcomes mixed breeds as well as purebreds.
Censorship is not an option. Maybe clubs need to engage in more education, as that was always stated as one of the prime objectives of the AKC regarding dog shows.
As a long-time member of Dog Writers Association of America, I think we need to let the AKC know that trying to ban media is an excruciatingly bad idea. The people who have personally been told they will no longer be welcome at shows were also significant contributors of awards and financial support, so it's especially unfair.
And the AKC needs to remember that they aren't the only game in town - there is the UKC, which welcomes mixed breeds as well as purebreds.
Censorship is not an option. Maybe clubs need to engage in more education, as that was always stated as one of the prime objectives of the AKC regarding dog shows.
Feb 20, 2009
Friends Are Everything
I received a surprise in my email this past week - a message from someone who reads my blog asking where I'd been! I didn't know I had any readers who cared enough to ask. But now here I am, back from fighting the latest round of cancer. And I have to tell you, it was borne home to me through this battle just how important good friends are.
My dog Nestle is part border collie, so even though he is now 10, he still requires a good bout of regular daily exercise. My most excellent friend and roommate Judy saw to his exercise while I was in and out of various hospitals. When I was home, she not only saw to my care, she continued to exercise Nestle. I don't think any of us would have made it through this with any shred of sanity intact without her.
So that led me to think about people who don't have such an immediate dependable support system. What happens to their pets if they are whisked off to the emergency room in the middle of the night?
I am lucky enough to also have a brother living nearby, and had it been necessary, he would have taken my dog into his home. But have you thought about this? The single individuals among you out there might want to have a plan for such an eventuality, one you keep up to date. In my case, Judy even brought Nestle to visit me in a Seattle hospital (they have regulations in place to accept canine visitors), which helped cheer my day. The whole experience has set back Nestle's tenuous self-confidence. . . now, if we visit a medical establishment, which I still have to do with some frequency, and he is left in the car, he gets a little wild with the need to tear things up to calm his nerves. He's obviously concerned that I will be disappearing again, so it's going to take some understanding and desensitizing till he can once again be calm in the car.
I know I'm sort of wandering from subject to subject here, but the overall message is that Nestle had someone who loved him to look after him when I couldn't. Please make sure that your own dog has the same support system. . . just in case.
I will try to post more regularly now that I am back working at my desk. And if any of you out there have any questions about anything I write here, please feel free to contact me. Out of necessity, I have a lot of fairly unique experience with dealing with dogs and the medical establishment simultaneously.
My dog Nestle is part border collie, so even though he is now 10, he still requires a good bout of regular daily exercise. My most excellent friend and roommate Judy saw to his exercise while I was in and out of various hospitals. When I was home, she not only saw to my care, she continued to exercise Nestle. I don't think any of us would have made it through this with any shred of sanity intact without her.
So that led me to think about people who don't have such an immediate dependable support system. What happens to their pets if they are whisked off to the emergency room in the middle of the night?
I am lucky enough to also have a brother living nearby, and had it been necessary, he would have taken my dog into his home. But have you thought about this? The single individuals among you out there might want to have a plan for such an eventuality, one you keep up to date. In my case, Judy even brought Nestle to visit me in a Seattle hospital (they have regulations in place to accept canine visitors), which helped cheer my day. The whole experience has set back Nestle's tenuous self-confidence. . . now, if we visit a medical establishment, which I still have to do with some frequency, and he is left in the car, he gets a little wild with the need to tear things up to calm his nerves. He's obviously concerned that I will be disappearing again, so it's going to take some understanding and desensitizing till he can once again be calm in the car.
I know I'm sort of wandering from subject to subject here, but the overall message is that Nestle had someone who loved him to look after him when I couldn't. Please make sure that your own dog has the same support system. . . just in case.
I will try to post more regularly now that I am back working at my desk. And if any of you out there have any questions about anything I write here, please feel free to contact me. Out of necessity, I have a lot of fairly unique experience with dealing with dogs and the medical establishment simultaneously.
Jul 30, 2008
Chemotherapy and Dogs
For anyone who missed me (is anyone actually out there?), this post will explain the absence. I am facing a new cancer, and have been in a whirlwind of visits to a variety of medical specialties, eating up huge chunks of time. Now I have started ongoing treatment, and the new-to-me addition is IV chemotherapy. And something dog-related cropped up almost immediately.
In the treatment center, chemo patients are advised to flush twice to protect themselves and family members from the potent chemo drugs being excreted in their urine and feces. And the staff even had the foresight to mention that dogs should most definitely be kept from drinking from the toilet bowl. I was impressed that they had thought this far!
As you probably know if you think about it, sooner or later, almost any drug you take winds up in at least trace amounts in that toilet bowl. Hence part of the source of prescription drugs detectable in streams and rivers (other sources are unwisely dumping unwanted drugs down the toilet). So although dogs drinking out of toilets has long been fodder for the humor mill, it's actually not so funny. Don't let your dog ingest potentially harmful drugs. . . or, at the very least, those products so many people hang in their toilet tanks to help keep the bowl clean.
The extremely simple solution is to keep the lid down. In conjunction with that, always provide plenty of clean fresh water for your dogs. And there will be no need to lap out of that bowl.
In the treatment center, chemo patients are advised to flush twice to protect themselves and family members from the potent chemo drugs being excreted in their urine and feces. And the staff even had the foresight to mention that dogs should most definitely be kept from drinking from the toilet bowl. I was impressed that they had thought this far!
As you probably know if you think about it, sooner or later, almost any drug you take winds up in at least trace amounts in that toilet bowl. Hence part of the source of prescription drugs detectable in streams and rivers (other sources are unwisely dumping unwanted drugs down the toilet). So although dogs drinking out of toilets has long been fodder for the humor mill, it's actually not so funny. Don't let your dog ingest potentially harmful drugs. . . or, at the very least, those products so many people hang in their toilet tanks to help keep the bowl clean.
The extremely simple solution is to keep the lid down. In conjunction with that, always provide plenty of clean fresh water for your dogs. And there will be no need to lap out of that bowl.
Jun 18, 2008
Take Your Dog to Work Day
In case you didn't already know, this Friday, June 20th, is National Take Your Dog to Work Day.
When this national day of celebrating doggieness was first initiated, a lot of people thought it would just go away. Instead, it's gotten bigger every year, and some companies now actually make every day Take Your Dog to Work Day, in acknowledgment of the general calming effect of having well-behaved dogs in the office. A few studies have even been done, showing that offices with canines in the cubicles have higher productivity and lower stress than dogless offices.
I'm fortunate, in that as I work at home, I don't have to take myself or my dog to an office, other than the one on my ground floor. And I'm glad he's here, especially when it's a day full of rejection notices from publishers ("It's a really terrific idea, but it's not right for us"), demands for faster turnarounds, or lack of return calls in response to queries about overdue payments.
Nestle is an extremely good office dog. He knows that I will be here working at my desk until 2 pm. That is the magical doggie hour, when we go out for a walk, or to run errands and a walk, or sometimes, joy of joy, for a canine social hour with friends. He only asks for an occasional scratch until that magic hour, or perhaps some human help with a problem such as what to do about the raccoon on the roof of the lawnmower shed.
I don't have to worry much about being the only human here, because Nestle and his housemate Diamond alert any approaching strangers that there are canines on duty, ready to protect and defend. There have been a rash of daylight burglaries in the area, but I doubt that anyone greeted by a cacophony of barking would proceed with breaking in. . . there are lots of other houses without dogs, so why risk a confrontation.
But more than security, he is a warm fuzzy always eager to listen presence in what would otherwise be a quiet, lonely house.
So I celebrate Take Your Dog to Work Day, and feel a twinge of sorrow for those for whom this really is a once-a-year event.
When this national day of celebrating doggieness was first initiated, a lot of people thought it would just go away. Instead, it's gotten bigger every year, and some companies now actually make every day Take Your Dog to Work Day, in acknowledgment of the general calming effect of having well-behaved dogs in the office. A few studies have even been done, showing that offices with canines in the cubicles have higher productivity and lower stress than dogless offices.
I'm fortunate, in that as I work at home, I don't have to take myself or my dog to an office, other than the one on my ground floor. And I'm glad he's here, especially when it's a day full of rejection notices from publishers ("It's a really terrific idea, but it's not right for us"), demands for faster turnarounds, or lack of return calls in response to queries about overdue payments.
Nestle is an extremely good office dog. He knows that I will be here working at my desk until 2 pm. That is the magical doggie hour, when we go out for a walk, or to run errands and a walk, or sometimes, joy of joy, for a canine social hour with friends. He only asks for an occasional scratch until that magic hour, or perhaps some human help with a problem such as what to do about the raccoon on the roof of the lawnmower shed.
I don't have to worry much about being the only human here, because Nestle and his housemate Diamond alert any approaching strangers that there are canines on duty, ready to protect and defend. There have been a rash of daylight burglaries in the area, but I doubt that anyone greeted by a cacophony of barking would proceed with breaking in. . . there are lots of other houses without dogs, so why risk a confrontation.
But more than security, he is a warm fuzzy always eager to listen presence in what would otherwise be a quiet, lonely house.
So I celebrate Take Your Dog to Work Day, and feel a twinge of sorrow for those for whom this really is a once-a-year event.
Jun 5, 2008
The News Needs an Expert Filter for Stories on Dogs
When you have expertise in a specific topic, reading newspapers or listening to the radio can be a cringe-inducing event. I can chuckle and shake my head when my local paper misidentifies agility obstacles or reports on the "prettiest" dog being chosen in the conformation ring. But other missteps in news coverage are more serious.
There was a recent report of a "mauling" by dogs in a paper. For those converse in dog behavior, the report made no sense. The dogs were reported to be "scratching and biting" the victim, and immediately stopped when called away by others. A serious attack doesn't involve scratching, and a dog in attack mode isn't called off unless very highly trained. This read far more like rough play gone awry.
But the report that really got me steaming was on Paul Harvey. With no sign of disbelief, and in fact, what sounded like awed acceptance, it was reported that a dog in South Korea was so phenomenally good at sniffing out cancer than the Koreans were cloning the dog to repeat such excellence. And yet there are so many things wrong with that short report!
First, a variety of dogs have been trained to sniff out various cancers, and they seem uniformly good at the task. But more importantly, the idea that cloning will result in dogs of precisely equal ability is ludicrous. Cloned animals in general have not proven to be healthy or to enjoy normal lifespans. But the main problem here is that cloning merely produces an animal with the same genetic structure. So the dogs will look like the cloned dog. But as far as their actions, there's far more involved than their genetics.
This should be obvious to anyone who has known a set of human twins. They carry the same DNA, but hardly ever exhibit the same personality. It's no different with dogs or any other animal. It's that old nature versus nurture effect. You may start with the same blank slate, but experiences write on each slate differently.
I know news agencies aren't going to be employing canine specialists any time soon, but what really bothers me is that they fall down so badly on this subject I know so well, so why should I believe that they do a lot better on other subjects? I'm sure there are experts out there in photovoltaics or forestry or whatever who cringe just as much when their subject hits the news.
At least with the subject I know and love -- dogs -- please take news reports with a healthy grain of salt.
There was a recent report of a "mauling" by dogs in a paper. For those converse in dog behavior, the report made no sense. The dogs were reported to be "scratching and biting" the victim, and immediately stopped when called away by others. A serious attack doesn't involve scratching, and a dog in attack mode isn't called off unless very highly trained. This read far more like rough play gone awry.
But the report that really got me steaming was on Paul Harvey. With no sign of disbelief, and in fact, what sounded like awed acceptance, it was reported that a dog in South Korea was so phenomenally good at sniffing out cancer than the Koreans were cloning the dog to repeat such excellence. And yet there are so many things wrong with that short report!
First, a variety of dogs have been trained to sniff out various cancers, and they seem uniformly good at the task. But more importantly, the idea that cloning will result in dogs of precisely equal ability is ludicrous. Cloned animals in general have not proven to be healthy or to enjoy normal lifespans. But the main problem here is that cloning merely produces an animal with the same genetic structure. So the dogs will look like the cloned dog. But as far as their actions, there's far more involved than their genetics.
This should be obvious to anyone who has known a set of human twins. They carry the same DNA, but hardly ever exhibit the same personality. It's no different with dogs or any other animal. It's that old nature versus nurture effect. You may start with the same blank slate, but experiences write on each slate differently.
I know news agencies aren't going to be employing canine specialists any time soon, but what really bothers me is that they fall down so badly on this subject I know so well, so why should I believe that they do a lot better on other subjects? I'm sure there are experts out there in photovoltaics or forestry or whatever who cringe just as much when their subject hits the news.
At least with the subject I know and love -- dogs -- please take news reports with a healthy grain of salt.
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