Dog Facts

The following is a “pass along” newsletter from Just Labs magazine.

Pass Along JL
April 09

Dog Facts

Some interesting and entertaining things about canines from Spott’s Canine Miscellany by Mike Darton of the U.K. We make no endorsement of the veracity of any of this stuff, but it’s fun to read:

Tale of the Tail: A dog wags its tail as a form of communication — when a dog is alone, no matter its mood, it doesn’t wag. The communicative wagging is essentially because dogs don’t see immobile objects as well as they do movement. Wolves and some other wild Canids, for example, have bushy tails so movement and therefore communication can be seen at a distance. And how about this? Tail-wagging is a learned behavior — pups don’t start it until they’re about seven weeks old and have been hanging out with other pups that they need to communicate with. Some Italian research suggests that dogs wag their tails to the right when they see something familiar, like their owners, and to the left at things unfamiliar. Many victims of dog bites don’t understand why Fido gave them the big chomp, because he was wagging his tail — was he? If the thing is sticking straight up and only the tip is moving, he’s spooked and not in the friendliest of moods.

Did I say “bites”? Here’s some dog-bite facts: 90 percent of dog bites come from dogs the victim knows, most are kids bitten in the face or neck, and female dogs bite at a rate twice that of male dogs.

And that left-right thing? When dogs use their paws to manipulate something, they are right-or left-pawed, like humans are right- or left-handed. Studies suggest that males dog are more likely to be lefties. (Who researches this stuff, and is our tax money paying for it?)

All dogs do the dog paddle, but for at least one, it doesn’t do any good. Because of the heaviness of its bones, basset hounds can’t swim — sink like bricks, they do.

If you think the “Labradoodle” Lab x poodle cross is new, forget it. There are actually 60 known poodle x something else crosses. Maybe there’s something to those French lover legends after all. And the most popular breed in France? Poodles, of course. Second place, Labradors. In Spain? Labs again. In the U.S. — we know that one: Labs.

Again with the “speaking of,” speaking of lovers, we love our dogs. How much? Well, in a 2004 study, there were more dogs in households in the U.S. and Canada than there were human children. (Who researches this stuff?) But then, the dog doesn’t break curfew and wreck the car, either.

It’s no secret that domestic dogs were once wild canines — wolves — but have any dogs gone from domestic back to the wild? Yep: the Australian dingo came from domestic dogs introduced to the continent eons ago. No naturally occurring Canids Down Under. (One day long ago…There was a farmer had a dog and Dingo was his name-o. Sorry.) They aren’t just is Australia, either. And the “wild dog” of Africa is naturally occurring and not a domestic dog gone wild.
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Please do us a tremendous favor and forward this e-mail on to your Labrador retriever-owning friends.

Mistakes

The following is a “pass along” newsletter article from the Pointing Dog Journal.

Pass Along PDJ
April 2009

Mistakes

This is a little different issue, the likes of which we have not produced before and maybe no one else has, either.

If you are a novice golfer or, if like me, even after years of trying you still play like one, you likely think the best way to shoot a good score is to put together a series of hero-shots — wedges to within two feet of the flag; sinking 40-foot putts from the fringe; 280 yard drives that split the fairway.

But, the good, really good, and great golfers know that a good round comes to he who makes the fewest mistakes: Make sure that wedge shot doesn’t fly the green and end up in a sand trap; don’t run that 40-footer 15 feet past the hole; keep the drive out of the woods and the water.

Other sports are the same way; it’s axiomatic that an NFL team that turns the ball over a half-dozen times is probably going to lose, regardless of how good their running or passing game is. A baseball pitcher who could throw a strawberry through a brick wall will never make The Show if he can’t hit the wall. And a hockey team that can’t keep its players out of the penalty box is unlikely to hoist Lord Stanley’s Cup.

Well, what we do when we train dogs and when we hunt birds is a lot the same. We make mistakes, and those mistakes cost us, the price being too often semi-trained dogs and empty game bags. That’s what this issue is about. Instead of our writers saying, “To be successful at this and that, you have to do thus-and-so,” this time around, they are writing about the mistakes that their vast experiences have shown them keep the average person from being a better hunter or dog trainer. Instead of saying, “Do it this way,” they’re saying, “Don’t do it that way.” It’s the stuff they’ve seen in the field for years; some of it’s a little tongue-in-cheek, some not. You’ll be able to scan a story and spot the mistakes pretty easily because they’ll either be subheadings, or we’ll put them in a bold-italic format.

Aside from some of us being able to juggle — one thing that separates humans from the other species is the ability, if not always the willingness, to learn from both our own and someone else’s mistakes. So even if you haven’t made a lot of these or haven’t had the opportunity yet to make them, we hope this issue will be a learning experience anyway.

Until next time,

Steve Smith
Editor

Please do us a tremendous favor and forward this e-mail on to your pointing dog friends!

Shotgun shopping and a car wreck

Our oldest daughter invited me to go to an art gallery with her in order to critique the artwork for a class assignment, and then do lunch. I stopped by a gun shop on the way and discussed options with my now sawed-off shotgun; they had a nice Remington 870 that’s in my price range, so hopefully it’ll still be available when I get my funds built up.

My return trip home turned out to be a bit exciting. Heading north on I-15 about halfway between Pocatello and Fort Hall, I saw a cloud of dust kick up about a quarter mile ahead of me. At first, I thought it was due to roadwork but when I saw the car lying on its top and a couple of people running towards it, I knew otherwise.

I pulled over to help, and several people were still trying to extricate the occupants when I got there. A little girl of about 4 or 5 was trying to crawl out the shattered back window; the child seat she had been in was half in and half out of the car, and more than likely had saved her life. A young woman was assisting her so I went back to her father, who had been driving.

He was hanging by his seatbelt, face down on the car’s ceiling and in a little pain; one man busted out the side window with a ball peen hammer, and another cut the seatbelt. We slowly pulled him out and rolled him over. In addition to some cuts and a bump on his head, he was suffering from what appeared to be a dislocated shoulder.

Several people on the other side of the car had begun pulling his wife out but stopped, leaving her half inside the car. She was cut up a bit more than her husband and seemed to be suffering from head or neck injuries. A man with apparently some first aid experience placed a rolled up jacket under her head and neck, and sat there holding her head to keep it stabilized.

Both the husband and wife asked several times if anyone had seen the semi that had run them off the road. The family was driving northbound and apparently, a semi cut in front of them. This forced them into the borrow pit where they rolled several times and ended upside down, partially in the southbound lane. I then remembered that when I approached the wreck, the driver of a cattle truck heading south was yelling something to me about the “other truck” and pointing north.

Several EMTs stopped to help and since they had both the training and medical supplies on hand, we were happy to let them take over. One checked out the little girl, wrapped her in a blanket and played Barbie dolls with her as a distraction, while another checked out the woman; yet another EMT wearing a high-viz vest was helping the husband. Apparently the EMT’s were on their way to some kind of conference or workshop.

The wife appeared to be going into shock, was shaking and becoming very cold. I’m not sure why I chose to wear my fleece jacket today, but it was a good thing I did because I took it off and covered her with it. By now her husband had come around the car to be with her and their daughter, his arm now in a makeshift sling.

It took about 10 minutes for the state police to arrive and probably 15 for the ambulance. On duty EMTs or Search and Rescue showed up ahead of the ambulance and brought wool blankets, which I took and wrapped both the husband and wife in.

I didn’t have anything to offer the police as a witness, so he released me to go. By now the ambulance had arrived and they were wheeling a stretcher up to the woman so I retrieved my coat and tucked the blanket around her to keep off the chilly breeze.

In their heavily accented English – they appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent – the couple thanked us and blessed us several times for helping them, and the woman told me that I’d probably need to wash her blood out of my jacket.

Two things struck me about both this accident and the one I was involved in a couple of years ago (see the post: A close call on I-15, August 2007).

First –there’s always a few people around who are instinctively willing to help, and God will use them to help others; in a crisis, the true nature of these people come out and nothing matters except helping those in need.

Second – the accident is a reminder that everyone should take advantage of first aid and CPR training, whether it’s offered by the Red Cross, community education courses, work, or whomever; I re-qualified on my CPR and first aid training several weeks ago, which was offered at work. You can’t avoid what life throws at you: you can only be prepared for it.

Illusion Collar product review

Overview
If you’ve read my blog for any length of time, you are aware that Dakota is our hyperactive Lab and we’ve been working with her since Day 1, particularly with walks. We believe that walking dogs is a critical exercise – not for the physical exercise that it provides, but for the discipline and mental exercise that dogs receive from walking on leash.

Unfortunately, Dakota would rather choke herself than walk at our side. We use both chain and nylon leashes when walking the dogs, and in order to keep Dakota at our side during the walk, we’ve shortened the leash by wrapping it around our hands. It’s not long until the leash has cut off the circulation, then frustration sets in, and the walk is not productive or enjoyable for any of us.

We purchased choke collars for the dogs, but then after doing some research, I don’t believe that they should be used in training dogs – only as reinforcement after the dog has learned to behave on leash. Especially Labs and Golden Retrievers – but any breed – are prone to suffering laryngeal paresis or paralysis that can be caused by trauma from collars; this can put the dog at risk especially during water retrieves, and is a primary concern with Dakota. In discussing choke collars, Dog Training Collars states:
Fit is very important with these collars. To size correctly, measure your dog’s neck with a string and ensure your choke collar is no more than 2-3 inches larger. Not only does too large a collar run the risk of slipping but the extra length of chain can result in far too strong a correction which may result in injury.
In addition, a choke collar must be put on correctly. Failure to place the collar correctly (by flipping the live and dead rings or allowing the rings to slip below the neck) can result in the collar not releasing pressure when positive results have been achieved. Training an animal requires both a negative (or undesirable) result followed by a positive reinforcing result. If the collar does not release pressure, no positive reinforcing signal is given for improved behavior.
As mentioned, incorrect use by the owner is another downside to choke collars. Owners may snap the lead too hard, not release quickly enough to provide positive reinforcement for good behavior or maintain pressure on the collar in a constant choke during the walk. Whatever positive benefits this type of dog training collar may impart are completely voided when used improperly.
And the Dog Owner’s Home Veterinary HandBook (James M. Giffin, MD and Liisa D. Carlson, DVM, Howell Book House, 3rd ed., 2000), choke chains can cause laryngeal trauma: Choke Chain injury can fracture the huoid bone and/or cause compression damage to the nerves of the pharynx and larynx… Dogs with laryngeal injuries often breathe normally at rest but show respiratory distress during exertion.

Criteria and Review
In an attempt to find a method of walking the dogs (ie. Dakota), we purchased Cesar Millan’s “Illusion Collar”. The following criteria were used in reviewing the Illusion Collar, based on manufacturer’s information.

1- The Illusion Collar Leash Set is designed to allow the owner to walk and train the dog using a slip collar correction, without having to stop and realign the collar to the proper position.
In the linked video clip, Dakota is wearing a slip collar during the first 50 seconds of the video, and an Illusion Collar during the remainder of the video. As the video clip shows, the Illusion Collar maintained its proper position on Dakota’s neck and although she continues to pull, there is little tension on the leash. Unless standard collars and choke chains are too tight, they will work their way down the dog’s neck to their shoulders.

2- It provides the ability to give a firm, yet quick and gentle, correction that eases up when the pressure is released. A normal slip collar falls to the base of the neck near the shoulders, which does not provide as much control.
The collar’s ability to provide a firm, quick and gentle correction is based on the handler. As with any product, it can be misused and abused. With proper use, the collar does provide firm, quick and gentle corrections – from personal experience, this is probably due more to the fact that the collar does provide more control and handler doesn’t become frustrated with the dog. The collar does ease up when pressure is released and as the videos show, maintains its proper position while the choke chain slips to the base of the neck.

3- A harness fits over the dog’s chest, shoulders, and ribs. The Illusion collar fits the entire length of the neck to provide proper positioning for the corrective slip collar.
We purchased harnesses for the dogs some time ago as an alternative to collars, however the harnesses did appear to empower the dogs, and especially with Dakota, it encouraged her to pull. Sophie and Squirt who normally walk well with us, began pulling while on walks wearing harnesses. Since the Illusion Collar distributes pressure along the entire length of the neck, there are fewer pressure points than with collars, which reduce the chance of throat damage that could end their retrieving careers.

4- The strongest muscles in a dog’s neck are at the base and shoulder girdle. If you look at an Alaskan sled dog pulling a load, you will see that the harness fits around the base of the neck at the shoulder. All the pulling strength of the dog is concentrated in that area, which is why a slip collar in this position is ineffective for correcting a behavior.
As previously stated, standard harnesses seem to empower the dogs, and with Dakota being the obsessive, driven dog that she is, it seemed to encourage her to pull even more. Standard collars and choke chains did choke Dakota but did not deter her.

5- The leash attaches to the larger “O” ring on the slip collar. The collar will not work if the leash is attached to the smaller ring. The flat strap collars provide a comfortable framework to keep the slip collar in the proper position for instant correction.
The collar was not tested using the smaller ring, only the larger ring as instructed. The collar appeared to distribute the pressure and provide support along the entire length of the neck, via the flat strap.

6- The correction is performed by a quick pull on the leash which is attached to the larger “O” ring on the slip collar. Then the pressure is released, and the slip collar returns to the slack, loose position.
The collar was tested only on Dakota. While wearing the collar, a fewer number of corrections were needed and although she continued to pull, there was very little pressure on my hand from the leash. Prior to using the Illusion collar, pressure from the leash bit into our hands and cut off circulation.

7- As is standard dog training protocol, The Illusion collar is designed to be used when walking the dog on the left of the owner. If you walk your dog on the right side, the collar will not perform as well and may not release as quickly after a correction.
Since Dakota refuses to walk on the right and only on the left, the collar was not tested to fail if used on the right.

8- The slip collar does not open and must be able to slide over the dog’s head. You should measure at the base of the neck near the collar bone. This figure is roughly the same as the circumference of the dog’s head.
The slip collar slides over our Labs’ heads comfortably.

9- The collar will not fit most dogs weighing less than 18 lbs. If the base of your dog’s neck measures less than 13 inches, you should not use the collar. The materials, such as the width of the straps and the size of the “O” rings, are specifically designed for larger dogs.
The collar is used only on our Labs, which are larger dogs.

10- Dogs with a neck measurement of less than 13 inches; dogs with any breathing problems, such as “pushed-in faces” that restrict breathing; dogs with trachea or throat problems, such as Pomeranians; dogs with elongated, overly slender necks, such as Greyhounds.
Again, the collar is used only on our Labs, which are larger dogs with thick necks.

11- To maintain the Illusion Collar and Leash Set at peak performance, hand wash by swishing in a basin of cold water with a small amount of laundry detergent. We recommend using unscented detergent to ensure that your pet has no reaction to chemical fragrances. Then pat dry with a towel, re-shape, and hang to dry. Do not dry in dryer or use fabric softener! The use of fabric softener will likely result in loss of rigidity and poor performance, and repeated use of fabric softener will break down fibers prematurely.
Washing the collar as directed allows it to maintain its rigidity. As the linked video clip shows, I have found the Illusion collar to be very beneficial in Dakota’s training, which includes water retrieving (video is choppy when I move too fast for it to record). At times, the collar is wet for long periods of time and has not lost any of its rigidity.

Disclaimer and Safety Information
The Illusion collar is designed as a training aid for walking your dog. For the dog’s safety, no slip collar of any kind should be left on an unsupervised dog. The Illusion Collar & Leash Set is a training device intended to aid the owner in mastering the walk. Cesar Millan, Inc. does not condone using the collar on a full-time basis.
Never leave the dog unattended while the Illusion collar is in use. As is true with slip collars, buckle collars, and bandanas, there is a risk of choking if the collar is left on an unsupervised dog.
As is standard dog training practice, the Illusion Collar and Leash Set is designed to be used while walking the dog on the left. We apologize to those of you who may have difficulty using your left hand.
We do not recommend attaching other items to the Illusion collar. Nothing but the leash should be attached to the “O “ring(s) or the “A” collar. If you must add a dog tag due to city ordinance, the best place to attach it is the “D” piece.
If your dog’s neck measures less than 13 inches around the base of the neck, you should not use the collar. The Illusion collar is not intended for puppies under one year of age. Consult your local professional or veterinarian for further advice. The materials, such as the width of the straps and the size of the “O” rings, are specifically designed for larger dogs. Please note that the two rectangular keepers are to keep excess strap from flapping. Cesar Millan, Inc. is not liable for any modifications made to the collar.
We thank you for your understanding and cooperation and wish you the best of luck training your dog. Stay calm and assertive!

Summary
We found that the Illusion collar is very beneficial in controlling Dakota, who I’ve said on a number of occasions, is an obsessive and hyperactive Lab. In using a standard collar or choke chain, Dakota constantly pulls to the point that circulation is cut off in our hands. The Illusion collar does not prevent her from pulling, but it does greatly lessen the extent to which she can pull – I can literally walk her with one finger through the leash eyelet.

The Illusion collar provides her support along her entire neck, eliminating the single pressure point caused by standard collars and choke chains and reducing the potential of damaging her throat. In addition, the Illusion collar has been beneficial in training Dakota; in several of my recent videos, it is evident that I use the Illusion collar in her training.

I highly recommend the Illusion collar for the effectiveness that it provides in walking dogs as well as its adaptability for training purposes.

Response from Cesar Millan, Inc.

Thank you for allowing us to look this over! It’s great.

We’d love it if you could explain in the YouTube video description that you are comparing a regular slip collar to the Illusion collar in the video. Just so people know that the first collar is not the Illusion collar. Also, it’d be great if you add a link to your review in the video description, just to provide a little context.

Again, thank you for sending this our way, and we thank you for your support!

Training 4-19-9

Last week was snow showers and this weekend was three hot sunny days in a row. After spending the better part of Friday and Saturday landscaping and rototilling our new garden – and getting my first sunburn of the season – I wasn’t up to spending a lot of time training.

Speaking of training, Dakota especially learned from our last training session on April 14. I didn’t want the dogs to think that training was only about ducks, so this afternoon I used two Pheasant wings off the one I shot last fall. My main goal is still to encourage them to extend their hunting range away from me, as well as honoring each other’s retrieves.

I planted both wings halfway across the pasture, around 200-250 feet away, then set Sophie and Dakota out after them. It took a little while for them to begin hunting out away from me, and the wind was in their favor this time. Dakota found and retrieved the first wing, which encouraged Sophie to hunt farther out. She caught scent of the second wing about 50 feet away and homed in on it. As with Dakota, she made a flawless retrieve. In all, it took them about 15 minutes and with less direction from me this time.

Living with EIC

The following is a “pass along” newsletter article from the Retriever Journal.

Pass Along RJ
March 09

Living with EIC
by Red Wilkinson

When my female Lab Dusty collapsed for the first time, I had never heard of Exercise Induced Collapse (EIC). What was planned for that particular autumn day was a walk with a friend and six Labs through a farm field spotted with ponds. The foliage was turning yellow and red, the dogs were enjoying their romp, and it felt great to be outdoors. Without any warning, the picture turned ugly. Dusty was about a year old at the time, slender and athletic, and packed with power from her field trial sire and dam breeding.

The first hint was her wobbly gait — especially her hindquarters — but she was still trying to keep up with the others. Dusty was glassy-eyed and appeared to look at me with a What’s going on? Finally her legs wouldn’t hold her body, and she fell in a heap. Stan and I splashed water on her and separated her from the other dogs by picking her up and placing her in a truck kennel. Fifteen minutes later she was fine, enthusiastically wanting to continue the pursuit in the field.

I monitored her for a few days, but she performed flawlessly on some serious marking drills. Over the next week, I put the episode behind me. Until she collapsed again — this time more serious than the first.

My training partner, Wayne, and I had set up a hunt test triple in some brushy cover, along with a 150-yard blind to the top of a beaver house. The weather was somewhat chilly, and the nine Master-level dogs appeared to be handling the workload with ease.

When it was Dusty’s turn to come off the truck, she was, as usual, aggressive in the field. After the marks, but before the blind, she started coming unglued. All four of her legs started to wander this time, and she ended up thrashing/spinning on the ground. I picked her up and awkwardly carried her to the edge of a marsh. When I placed her into about three inches of water, thinking that some cool water might “snap her out of it,” she started to spin and worked herself into deeper water. Her head was submerged, and she was drowning.

I tried to take my boots off, but there wasn’t enough time. I was in up to my crotch before I could grab her.

The time had come to seek professional help. Dr. Susan Taylor, professor at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and a researcher/
collaborator into EIC, would be visiting shortly to attend our club’s annual field trial. After explaining Dusty’s symptoms, she was certain we were looking at EIC. A definitive commercial test was still not available, but it was suggested that I back off a strenuous training program.

The full article “Living with EIC ” by Red Wilkinson appears in the upcoming April/May 2009 issue of Retriever Journal. If you are a subscriber, stay tuned! That issue will soon mail! If you are not a subscriber and would like to read the rest of this article, request an issue right now! If you do so by April 25th, you’ll receive the issue with this article in it! You can request an issue by following the links below or by calling 1-800-447-7367. Make sure you tell our circulation representatives that you’d like the April/May 2009 issue!

Please do us a tremendous favor and forward this e-mail on to your retriever-owning friends!

Short training sessions

The general consensus is that training sessions should be short – around 20 minutes or so. And there are probably a lot of these 20-minute blocks of time that are wasted watching TV shows that you’re really not interested in, or other activities that you do simply out of boredom.

Spend that time with your family or dogs – after all, when the TV show is over, you have absolutely nothing to show for it. If this were a family blog, I’d be telling you how to spend time with your family, but since it’s a dog blog, I’ll suggest ways of spending it with your dogs.

Take tonight, for example. After dinner, with the dogs all wound up, I decided to play my Easter egg game with Sophie and Dakota. There are several areas that I want to work on, and one is expanding their range away from me – I’m trying to break them of hunting so close to me. So tonight, it was blind retrieves, casting them deep, and honoring each other’s retrieves.

Before letting them out of the house, I took a sack of 8 duck wings from the freezer and scattered them from one end of the pasture to the other. I then let Sophie and Dakota out, and while standing at one end of the pasture, sent them out after the wings. More and more I’m letting them work it out for themselves, figure things out on their own, and get away from the philosophy of directing their every move. So I sent them out and kept my mouth shut, other than to encourage them to range farther out when necessary. Sophie beat Dakota 7-1 on wings.

Dakota found the first wing but didn’t retrieve it, so Sophie brought it in. Sophie was then up 4-0 when Dakota found and brought in her only wing. One thing they had working against them was the wind. They were working with it rather than into it, which meant that they had to pass downwind of the wings and then work their way back: another good practice.

The last wing took some time, but this was the first time I had worked with them on these deeper retrieves (about 400-450 feet). They were reaching the point of giving up so I walked towards the wing. Sophie found it when I was about halfway to it.

In all, I spent about ½ hour with them, and there were a number of retrieving aspects they worked on in this one sesison. However the greatest benefit came in giving them the freedom to hunt and work things out on their own accord, with no interference from me.

Good Friday didn’t go well

Spring fever is hitting us all, so while my wife was working, I thought I’d do a morning with the dogs. Shoulda stayed home.

Remember my last hunt in January when I went through a box of shells and got one duck (and that one I had to shoot twice)? Well, I took the dogs out into the desert, found an old dump, and set up several targets to get a pattern on my gun. I didn’t brace or rest it on anything, but I don’t think that I flinch, either. Two of the shots were at about 20 yards and were grouped well, but hit the target high left. One shot was about 40 yards and the pattern wasn’t grouped well, and again hit high left on the target.

While I was at it, I decided to touch off a few rounds with my black powder rifle, which I haven’t shot in a couple of years. I loaded it up and it misfired; the cap didn’t ignite the powder. I tried two more caps and none of them touched off the powder. So much for shooting.

Next on the agenda was some retrieving time with the dogs. There’s a local pond that’s filled each summer for swimming, and boating –and one day of snowmobile competition each summer. Sophie had a real tough time retrieving, since she confused the orange buoys with the orange bumper and I had to send Dakota to get the bumpers she couldn’t find. Then Dakota lost her collar, and finally the police chased me out because the dogs were not on leashes.

As for my shotgun, I took it to the only gunsmith that I know and trust and it took him about 5 seconds to find the problem. There is a slight bulge in the barrel several inches from the bead, and it is slightly more bulged on the left side which is pulling my shot up and left. The good news is that I can blame my misses on the gun and not my shooting; the bad..? news is that I need another shotgun.

I left him both guns and he will unload my black powder rifle and cut down the barrel of my shotgun by about 4 inches. The shorter barrel will make it unusable for anything but grouse, but then I’ve been looking for a grouse gun for several years now.

Maybe the day didn’t turn out too bad after all.

Getting involved and more training

After speaking to one of the local humane societies, it became evident that I wouldn’t be able to make much of an impact on improving the quality of our local animal shelter by fighting the system, so I attended a meeting last Thursday, with plans on officially joining. In my opinion, the biggest challenges, not just locally but nationally, are ignorance and apathy and getting involved is the best way to educate and change attitudes.

The weather finally improved after a couple of weeks of snow showers, and the dogs have been occasionally exercising on the treadmill; the treadmill is a more strenuous workout than walking or running outside, and does a good job of burning off their energy. I select a program and then continuously monitor them so that I can immediately decrease the speed when the program ramps it up too high. Dakota can now jog on the treadmill and loves it, knowing that she will get a treat both before and after. Squirt and Sophie haven’t gotten up to speed yet and Sophie is still nervous on it.

Sunday was a nice day as well and the ground has dried out enough that I was able to work with the dogs a little on breaking and honoring retrieves. Ricky, our neighbor’s dog came over to watch and ran a little interference but it was nonetheless a good training session. Using the Illusion collar is a big help in controlling Dakota.

Spring Tune-up

The following is a “pass along” article from Just Labs magazine.

Spring Tune-up
by Jason Smith

It’s spring cleaning time, and while you may be taking your car in for a 100-point inspection to see how it came through the winter, you should be doing the same with your Lab. Most dogs have their annual checkups at this time of year, and Dr. Ben Character, our magazine’s vet columnist, says there are a few things you should make sure your Lab has checked.

“The biggest danger that spring brings is the reoccurrence of fleas and ticks, so being sure that the dog is back on — if it was taken off in the winter — a regular flea and tick control is a good idea,” Dr. Character says. “Ticks pose dangers such as carrying Lyme disease, so if you lived in a Lyme disease endemic area — typically the Northeast — then a booster of your dog’s Lyme disease vaccination would be good to consider in the spring.

“A good physical exam by your veterinarian can help you see things that may not be obvious to you as you live with your dog daily. Since you and your dog will want to be outside more as the spring days become nicer, an evaluation of your dog’s body condition score can tell you if your dog needs to lose a few pounds in preparation of more activity — and the more activity may help the weight loss also.”

And one more thing to consider when going into the active season: “If your dog is on medications for degenerative joint disease, you may have been able to give them less in the winter if they were less active. But now that spring has arrived and your dog is more active, you may want to be sure you have plenty on hand and give them a bit more regularly.”

Toss in the regular heartworm check, tooth check, and any other yearly “checks” your vet recommends, and your Lab should be good for another 3,000 miles!