Stem Cell Breakthroughs Help Arthritic Pets

ABC News today hosts an article about Hunter the Golden Retriever. Hunter, who is 9 years old and suffering from hip dysplasia, has had great success with stem cell treatment.

I know the first reaction of many will be thoughts of embryo transplants, cloning, and other hot topics in the juicy world of modern medicine. But read on. There are a few pluses for those who may have moral issues with stem cell treatments:

1) The cells are not embryonic — they came from body fat.

2) There is no legal red tape with stem cell treatment in the veterinary field.

3) There are no donors involved. The cells are taken from Hunter himself.

A fourth advantage is that stem cell treatment is about 80% less costly than a hip replacement, which was Hunter’s alternative.

So far, veterinarians boast about a 70% success rate using this method. Two weeks after Hunter’s treatment, he is already moving better and seems happier.

Most exciting for me was the story of Be a Bono, a race horse with bone chips in his knee and a damaged fluid sac.

This is the same problem Clifford has. As I described in Return to Manitou, he whacked his knee during a trailering incident several years ago and broke off a bone chip. (He hates that trailer.) Since that time, the knee has swelled up, and the cartilage has disappeared. Clifford has about half the flexion he used to. He is only 16 years old — a young age for a Morgan — and is now only able to go on short rides.

Be a Bono’s career was over. In fact, quite possibly, so was his life. In an experimental effort, he was injected with stem cells in November 2005. The quarter horse has since returned to racing and gone on to win over a million dollars in prize money.

Wow!

You can look for stem cell treatment information in your area.

I’ll be calling my vet on Monday.

 

Police Dogs – Friends and Heroes

How about that Stryker? The six-and-a-half year old police dog, a Belgian Malinois in San Diego, made the ultimate sacrifice.

News reports yesterday said the dog’s handler chased down a suspect who was driving erratically. The driver had hit another vehicle, run a red light, and sped out onto the San Diego-Coronado Bridge. For whatever reason, the guy stopped and got out of his truck on the bridge, and the police officer sent Stryker.

The dog bit the man and took the suspect down, but then the man got up and jumped off the bridge — and took Stryker with him. The two fell into the cold ocean water 200 feet below.

Stryker did not survive the fall.

Earlier this year I received the sad news the passing of K9 Officer Cavar von der Zalens, who died in October due to an onset of cancer.

Cavar was Cajun’s littermate and lived with us until he was a year old. He learned basic tracking and obedience while he was here. He was donated to Detroit PD and was Officer Rob Huckestein’s first dog. The story of Cavar’s graduation and initiation into service is told in my book, CLIFFORD OF DRUMMOND ISLAND.

Despite being rookies together, the pair was unstoppable. Cavar won the Medal of Valor during his first year with the force. He was the department’s first dog to win this honor. He was Rob’s buddy and a constant companion to him and his eleven year old son.

For the next seven years, Cavar went on to earn a plethora of awards and accolades. He found countless amounts of narcotics and saved an untold number of lives.

Cavar was still working full time right up until the day before he died. On his last day of duty, he tracked down a murder suspect. He gave no indication that anything was wrong up until the next morning, when he was abnormally fatigued. Rob took him to the vet, and he was diagnosed with cancer throughout his body. He would not have even made it through the night, and was euthanized.

Cavar was a dog of great heart and courage and I am honored to have played a part in his life. He was greatly loved and will be dearly missed by all who knew him.

Right now Detroit PD has only two tracking dogs left on the team. And when it came to tracking, Cavar was always the dog requested. He was their best. I was told that Detroit PD has no budget to purchase blue-blooded dogs like Cavar. They take what they can get. Few police officers have time or knowledge to raise a puppy. They start with a dog who’s over ten months old. The dog then has to pass a rigorous health and fitness test, and must also have a strong work/retrieving drive. The police are less stringent on temperament, as most of the police K9s do not interact with the public.

After his fatal plummet to the icy water, Stryker’s body was retrieved. The suspect he was chasing was hospitalized. The man will be charged with a felony for causing the dog’s death and could be sentenced to up to four years in prison.

Four years? That’s it?

Isn’t it ironic that, in a court of law, the dog’s life would be valued less than the suspect’s? I wonder how much money it will cost the Oceanside Police Department to replace Stryker.

There is no way to put a value on these dogs. Who can say how much of a difference they have made? I suspect only their handlers have the vaguest of ideas.

 

New Year’s Dog Treats

With the current scares about processed pet foods, a lot of folks are turning over a new leaf and feeding all natural food and treats. In the spirit of the holidays, Todd Muchmore of Rover’s Recipes offers this delicious recipe sure to make your dog drool:

Apple Cinnamon Doggie Biscuits

·1 package apple, dried

·1 teaspoon Cinnamon –(I usually just shake some in)

·1 Tablespoon parsley, freeze-dried

·1 Tablespoon Garlic Powder

·1 cup ice water

·1/2 cup Corn Oil

·5 cups flour

·1/2 cup powdered milk

·2 large eggs

·1 tablespoon corn oil

Put the apples in a food processor so that pieces are small. Combine in a bowl all of the ingredients–can add oil or water if dough is too dry. Using a rolling pin roll out dough to about 3/16″ thick (can make thinner or thicker). Using a cookie cutter–cut into shapes -place on cookie sheets.

Bake at 350 degrees for approx 20 -25 minutes (until golden). NOTE: if you substitute corn meal just subtract about 3/4 cup from flour and add Corn meal .

Todd offers special treats for dogs with allergies and a host of other options. Check out his site at http://www.roversrecipes.com/

Also, if you are shopping for a new dog food, consider Life’s Abundance.

I have a personal testament to this food. My last foster puppy, Perry, was a parvo survivor. Perry was a half Australian shepherd whose mother had been abandoned while pregnant. She had the litter in a foster home. I had actually adopted Perry’s littermate before him, who broke with the terrible virus and I had to take him in to be euthanized.

The original foster mother, who lost most of the litter, was devastated. She offered me Perry to replace the other pup. Perry had been sick too, but he’d recovered. He was a very good-natured puppy, blue merle, mostly black, with a blue spot in one eye. I named him Perry, short for “Periwink.” I brought him home when he was about ten weeks old.

Perry had beaten the disease. However, it had ravaged his intestines. He had a loose stool that no matter what I did, just would not firm up. I tried giving him canned pumpkin and yogurt, and I tried several different foods, including cooking hamburger and rice.

Finally I tried Life’s Abundance. Perry’s recovery was nothing short of miraculous. He immediately started gaining weight, and his coat shone. In just a week’s time he was radiating good health.

Perry has since gone to a good home with a wonderful family. He enjoys playing with Buster, his Boston Bull buddy, and I am told he fetches the paper every day!

Life’s Abundance dog food is holistic, no preservatives, and shelf life is never over six weeks. You order it online and it’s delivered right to your door. They offer cat food too, AND horse treats!http://www.newnaturalpetfood.com/

Here’s wishing you and your pet “Bone Appetit!” and Happy New Year!

 

Border Collies (or Puppies as Gifts)

I was having lunch with my friend Beth the other day. She’s a biologist and very savvy dog trainer who is working with a few puppies on an in-home basis. She has a friend who lost an elderly dog and wanted a pup to replace it. The woman apparently was not an extreme “dog person”, although she liked dogs well enough. So Beth found some adult dogs in the pound that were gentle natured and desperately in need of homes.

But the friend went to a breeder and bought two puppies instead.

“Littermates?” I practically gagged on my sandwich.

“Yup.”

We both looked at each other and started laughing.

The friend had already broken at least one of the cardinal rules about the average person getting a puppy. Three of them are as follows:

1) Do not obtain more than one puppy at a time.

2) Do not acquire puppies, or give them, as Christmas gifts.

3) Do not acquire a border collie.

To us the reasons are obvious, but I’ll go over them briefly.

1) One puppy alone is enough of a handful. But when two littermates go together, they will tend to bond to each other, cleaving only unto themselves, and forget you! You are in for Dog Training Hell.

2) Bringing a puppy home in the midst of Christmas chaos is the worst thing you can do to it. There is no chance for establishing a schedule, no time for real bonding, and no full attention that takes for early good house training habits. On top of all this, there are unlimited “goodies” like tinsel and plastic and chocolate to chew up and destroy, and vomit up or create large vet bills. Besides this, no reputable breeder would recommend bringing a puppy home for Christmas. If you have already reserved your pup, consider asking the breeder to keep it until the hubbub dies down.

3) Border collies should go only to homes that will offer the high-energy dog a consistent job like agility, herding or flyball.

A puppy is not a toy; it’s a family member that will be around hopefully into its teens. Please be responsible enough to think about this when you’re being charmed by those happy eyes and wagging tails.

Besides, it will pee in your house.

 

Saturday’s Ornament – Belgian Tervuren

A Belgian Tervuren expresses joie de vivre in this lively watercolor. I had a lot of fun with this commission. I met the big Terv, named Twister, at a dog show in Mason. I had my trusty digital camera along and Twister posed patiently while I photographed him.

Twister’s owner has artists in her family, so she was savvy enough to give me artistic license with the commission. I thought it would be neat to have him leaping through the air as his name suggested.

I didn’t have any pictures of him in midair, but I had a good representation of his markings and features, so guess who the “airborne” model was? That’s right! Good ol’ Cajun, my own happily flying friend!

Now Caje is a lot bigger boned than a Terv, so I had to take that into account. But it all worked out. Twister’s owner was thrilled with the original watercolor, and this resulting ornament is my best-selling Terv piece. Belgian shepherd fans tell me that it embodies the true spirit of the fun-loving Tervuren.

I never told them the model was a German shepherd!

 

Snow Day

Reminiscent of my days in Fairbanks, everything was covered in frost yesterday morning, with a soft low-lying fog that kept the weak winter sun from burning it off. The dogs love the cold weather! Rippy and Cajun had a great time romping in the snow.

A lot of people are surprised to find out that horses love winter! Trudy and Clifford are so happy right now. The only thing that bothers them is wind or freezing rain. Otherwise, there’s no heat to contend with, and no bugs. They stand out in the pasture foraging for whatever is hidden under the drifts, and at mealtime they come charging in, blowing and snorting, all a-shivery and ears forward. They purr happy snorts while waiting for their grain and then settle down contentedly.

Horses “burn hay” to stay warm. With plenty of hay and an escape from the wind, they do just fine. They do drink a lot of water. I am so grateful for their electric buckets, because I don’t have to break ice, but I have to fill them every day. As they consume more hay, they need to drink more, and that’s fine because it keeps things moving.

With that in mind, I have a strong opinion that horses need to be outdoors as much as possible. Mine have free access to the outdoors at all times. On the rare occasions when Clifford is shut in his stall, the first thing he will do is go to his Dutch door and open it so he can put his head through and see outside.

I think as long as horses can keep moving, and put their heads down to graze or forage, their digestive system is healthier and they are less prone to colic. Plus, they are happier too.

 

A "How-To": Teach Your Dog To Come When You Call Him — Every Time!

Of all the things dog owners ask me, how to get their dog to listen and come when called is usually at the forefront. I wrote a booklet, 25 Ways To Raise a Great Puppy which explains the process of coming when called. It’s currently with my agent being pitched as a full length training book, but in the interest of keeping your dog safe, I am going to post a preliminary lesson.

11) Be Simply Irresistible
Teaching a pup to come, or teaching the “recall” as dog trainers know it, is a process. I want my dogs to stop on a dime when I say their name, no matter what they are doing. Knowing that they will come when I call them has led to greater freedom for them and peace of mind for me.

Here’s how I do it.

First of all, I don’t say my puppy’s name. I want his name to be a magic word, so when I say it, it means something. Therefore, I only use it during formal training sessions.

I start out with small recalls, around the house. I have a clicker and piece of chicken ready. I wait until the pup isn’t looking at me, when he is distracted or sniffing around. I say his name. If he looks up, I click, hold the treat out, and let him come and get it. If he does not respond, I wait at least thirty seconds before calling again.

After a few repetitions of this, the puppy has learned his name. We are ready to graduate to a greater distance. I wait until he is across the room, and then say his name. He should react instantly. If he doesn’t, I start all over.

I never call his name more than once in the thirty second period. If I did, I would be teaching him to ignore me.

When the puppy is reliably coming to me from across the room, I call him from out of sight. It isn’t long before his feet are scrambling across the floor to get to me.

At this point, I begin taking him for short walks outside in the yard, where he can be off leash. I carry treats in my fanny pack. It’s helpful for the pup to be hungry, as the outdoors can be really stimulating and I want to make sure I’m more important than anything else. I wait until he is actively sniffing the ground, not watching me, and then I call his name. When he looks up, I click, squat down and hold out the treat.

If he doesn’t look up, he’s not hungry enough, or I haven’t practiced enough indoors.
I do these random recalls as the pup gets older, gradually increasing the amount of stimulus that the dog has to overcome in order to get the treat. I can practice recalls too, on my leash walks in the park. If I say the dog’s name and he looks up at me, I consider that a successful recall.

This method has led to my dogs putting on the brakes when chasing squirrels. If I call them, they will actually stop and come back to me. I can’t reiterate how important it is to not say the dog’s name at other times. If you constantly bombard him with his name, it will become meaningless to him. If you can’t help saying it, then think of another word to use as your recall word.

It’s very important to note that there is no force or punishment in teaching the recall this way. Many times I have watched an owner call the dog over, and then slap it for some perceived misbehavior. This can effectively ruin the chance of the dog ever coming when called again.
Also, if you need to do something unpleasant like give the dog medicine, don’t call him to you. Go to him instead.

The reliable recall is a process that takes days and weeks to teach, but once it is instilled in your dog’s mind, you will have it forever. It’s great to have a dog that comes, happily and at top speed, when you call him!

***
I hope this helps! If you have any questions, feel free to email me. And BTW, a healthy dog is a happy one. Check out Life’s Abundance Dog Food.

 

Movie Review – I Am Legend

First of all, I am going to tell you right now that they kill the dog.

That being said, the dog (whose real name is Abbey) is a great actor. It is almost worth seeing this movie just to watch the dog work. I may be biased, since the German shepherd is my breed of choice.

I’ve long had this fantasy of being a movie dog trainer. To this point, the best movie actor dog I’ve ever seen is probably the Brussels Griffon from “As Good As It Gets”. Other favs are the corgi from “The Accidental Tourist”, Toto from, “The Wizard of Oz” and of course “Ol Yeller” — both of the latter were trained by Rudd Weatherwax, the guy of Lassie fame.

The Cuteness Award goes to the “Bruce Almighty” dog, but he wasn’t quite as plausible as the others.

Am I digressing? Sorry, I always get a little distracted when there’s a dog in the movie. On to the review, proper:

This film is a heart-thumper almost straight from the beginning. Plenty of zombies, yucky scary-looking veiny hairless guys, and a little of Will Smith’s schtick. New York is overgrown with weeds, and to make things even more desolate, the remnants of a Christmas season. It should be noted that the disaster’s setting is I think the year 2009, and gasoline is over $6.00 a gallon!

There is a helicoptor explosion, but the filmmakers’ credit, they don’t actually show it. They do, however, show the bridges getting blown up. (As if zombies weren’t enough to attract the male viewers?!) Also, although the city of New York is AGAIN the target for disaster, the Statue of Liberty is for once left alone.

The zombies can’t come out in the daylight, but after dark, watch out. It’s an invasion of the Undead ala “The Omega Man”. I use the term Zombie loosely, as these never were actually dead, but getting there. The virus which has mutated them seems to have added amazing athletic ability. They can jump like monkeys and run like deer. They feed on (what else?) blood.

I may be waxing glib because this film made me uncomfortable. The scraps of information that are fed to me throughout the beginning, the piecing together of what has happened, and why, all come with a sense of, “There, but for the grace of God…” There are newspaper articles tacked up here and there. There are snatches torn away about the virus, initally a cure for cancer, gone haywire. I watch Will Smith’s character make mistakes, and I really care about him. He’s funny, compassionate and heartbreakingly isolated. And I especially don’t want anything to happen to the dog. This was all good stuff early during the movie.

I like the premise, but felt “I Am Legend” never really filled its potential. It caved to sensationalism, but that was probably the intent. After all, it DID sell a lot of tickets. I didn’t understand why religion suddenly showed up in the last ten minutes, like a slap on the side of the head with a hymnal. And this without any Charleton Heston!

Overall though, I had a heart-slammin’ good time. And that, after all, is what it’s all about.

 

Christmas All Over the World

The Bernese Mountain dog, or Berner as he is better known, is one of my favorite subjects although I have never owned one. My friend Nancy Jean has a couple. They are huge, sloppy, happy guys who always seem to be smiling.

I recently did this pastel painting, and adapted it to a Christmas card. Apparently the charm of the Berner is not lost on the world. The original painting was sold to someone in England. Since then I have shipped these cards to Washington state, Belgium, Australia, and Idaho, respectively.

Most interesting was the Washington lady who turned out to be a theatre buff, like me. She was appearing in a stage performance of “Meet Me in St. Louis”. The cards were a gift for the lead singer who, besides singing the lyrics on the card, “Faithful friends who are dear to us…”, also owns a Berner!

It’s pretty neat how the Internet brings an influx of these types of stories, and that someone is giving/getting the perfect gift this year. I love Christmas for the spirit of generosity that prevails, all over the world.