Interview with a Specialist

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

July 09

Interview with a Specialist
by Jason Smith

If you haven’t already, you will be on the receiving end of a referral to a specialist from your regular veterinarian. Trust me, your first thought is going to be, ‘Oh boy, this is bad.’ That’s what mine was, when Josie’s vet couldn’t figure out what was wrong with her leg and set up an appointment for us with the orthopedic specialists at Iowa State University.

But it doesn’t have to be like that, and in many cases it isn’t. Rather, your Lab is getting the opportunity to be seen by a highly skilled veterinarian who has devoted his career to a very specific field of veterinary medicine. Dr. Kyle K. Kerstetter, a board-certified surgeon who works mostly in orthopedics – and this magazine’s consulting veterinarian – was kind enough to answer a few questions about his practice ( Michigan Veterinary Specialists), vet specialists, and what a person can expect if they must take their Lab to one.

How many specialists are there, and in what categories?
In veterinary surgery, which I’m the most familiar with, worldwide that are fewer than 1,500, and that covers both large animal and small animal. If you look at some of the subspecialties, like cardiology, I don’t even think there are a hundred worldwide yet. There are probably 100, 150 neurologists. It’s something that’s really just taking off. There are not enough training programs to turn out the number of specialists that the public’s demanding. Just in our practice alone, there are specialties in dermatology, ophthalmology, cardiology, internal medicine, oncology, radiology, and others [see sidebar]. There are also veterinary pathologists, veterinary clinical pathologists, parasitologists…there are as many -ologies- in veterinary medicine as there are in human medicine.

Are most specialists in private practice or a university setting?
They kind of work hand in hand at this point. The trend is toward private practice, and I think that just recently in veterinary surgery, specialists in private practice outpace the number in universities. And I’d say that’s probably universally true – off the top of my head, maybe sixty-five to seventy percent of specialists are in private practice now.

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Slumps, Streaks, and Head Games

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

Pass Along PDJ
July 2009

Slumps, Streaks, and Head Games
by Steve Smith

I don’t know for sure who it is I’m paraphrasing here – sounds like Yogi Berra – but I think if you think about it, you’ll agree that 90 percent of wingshooting is half mental.

If a skeet shooter can break 23 out of 25 every time out, and 25 of 25 now and then, why can’t he get those last two every time out? He knows the skeet field stays the same and that the station 6 low house is going to look almost identical to every other 6 low he’s ever seen. But some days he hits it and some days he misses it.

Or take a Texas quail hunter who’s been doing it for 40 years – do you think he hasn’t seen just about everything a quail can do in the air, and do you think he hasn’t figured out how to handle them? But some days he can’t hit the ground if he dropped his gun.

These sorts of things bother a lot of people, me included. I could stone 10 straight rooster pheasants in South Dakota, but if I missed four straight after that, I’d start feeling as though I’ll never hit another one, the streak of 10 all but forgotten. I used to hunt with a fellow who, if he missed a few birds in a row, would chuckle and remark that he’d killed more of them than they have of him. I wish I could be that way; most of us aren’t.

Any physical activity requiring eye-hand coordination – just about any sport you can think of and certainly any requiring you to use an imple­ment: golf, tennis, baseball, shooting – are subject to slumps, inexplicable failures to do easily what you’ve nearly always done easily in the past. In shoot­ing, like in the rest of these sports, those slumps are hard to figure out because nothing changes – same dog, same bird, same gun, same cover, but now we can’t hit ‘em.

Barring some physical change such as dimming eyesight or loss of strength and mobility due to age or illness, slumps are in our heads. And it’s in our heads that we have to solve them. Usually, a physical problem that affects our shooting manifests itself in a gradual, long-term decline, not in a sudden string of oh-fers this Saturday when last Saturday your left barrel came home clean.

If you’re a paid subscriber, you can read the rest of this article in the subscribers’ only section of our website at www.pointingdogjournal.com. Set up your own username and password by registering an account using your Customer Number 10000416, and then click on “Features” to read more.

If you’re not a subscriber, change that now! Once you become a paid subscriber, a whole new section of our website will open up to you once you register an account, and you’ll be able to read all of our stored content from previous web articles and video.

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Mia’s fist checkup

We took Mia into the vet today for a checkup, and she’s doing fine. She’s settling in well and sleeps through the night, but that’s understandable considering how she wears herself out playing with Elvis. Sophie and Dakota pretty much ignore her, and Squirt really hasn’t taken to her the way she did with Elvis.

As for Elvis, his appetite has really increased since we got Mia and he seems much happier with her around. She’s quite headstrong and adventurous, and we’ve found that she can throw quite a tantrum when she’s tired.

Welcome Home Mia

Darby Canyon Maude Mia Murphy 7-25-9

This week has been a little too hot to work much with the dogs but Wednesday night I spent a few minutes with them in the back yard practicing tracking. They all seem to be picking it up quite well, and I think that the work I’ve done with their blind retrieves has been very helpful. Tuesday night we traded the Jeep in on a Toyota Tundra – not only do we need a pickup for living out in the country, but it gives me a nice hunting vehicle.

Yesterday we picked up Mia (Maude) from the breeder and brought her to her new home. Elvis was the only dog we brought with us to meet Mia, since our breeder recently had a toe amputated. This presented somewhat of a hardship for her, so we spent a few hours helping her with the puppies while Elvis played with his brother; taking all our dogs would have been too much of a challenge.

Mia was the first littermate to go, so we were able to see all her brothers and sisters. It was great to take care of Mia and all her brothers and sisters from the “sitcom” litter.

Mia watching her big brother, Elvis 7-25-9

Everyone accepted Mia and she slept through the night. She’s got quite a personality and has become Elvis’ playmate, Squirt has already taken the role of mother, while Sophie and Dakota pretty much ignore her. After just one day she tries using the doggie door with the big dogs, and her favorite toys are the heaviest ones.

Mia, Sophie and Elvis 7-25-9

I took Sophie and Dakota swimming this afternoon and Dakota has improved after her 1-on-1 training the past several weeks. After that I took Elvis for some solo training and found that he prefers retrieving sticks to bumpers. But whatever it takes to get him swimming experience is all good.

After some swimming time with Elvis, I took him with me to introduce him to the shotgun as well as test some HeviShot. I rolled down the windows in the truck and left him inside while I shot a couple of rounds and he didn’t flinch a bit – just sat there watching me through the open window of the truck.

I think that this will be the last time I take the dogs down to the gravel pit for swimming. As more people use it, their trash is growing and near where I was working with Elvis I found a number of dirty diapers that people had thrown out. People may swim in that kind of water but I’m not going to all my dogs to.

Ammo shortage?

Other than a couple boxes of shotgun shells, I haven’t purchased any ammo since I was a kid – dad always made sure we were well stocked, and we never shot much to begin with. But an email from an acquaintance in Oregon got me wondering whether there was a shortage of ammo or if he was running into some local restrictions. An excerpt from his email reads:

Going to do any hunting this fall?
Ammo is really hard to find, I have some, but buying
Anything is really difficult. I did find some .22
Shells at Wal-Mart, but they would only sell me 6
Boxes, so I bought Six, and my wife bought Six!!!
No one else here has .22 shells, I can hardly find
.38 or .357, and brass or primers are no where to
Be found.

A little obedience training

Summer heat has finally arrived and this weekend is predicted to hit the upper 90’s and possibly 100, which pushes my evening training sessions back a little later. It also means that yard work consumes our time as things dry out, and with 4 acres and a 40×60 foot garden, training is very limited.

I resumed obedience training Tuesday night with Elvis, working on “heel”. It’s been several weeks – maybe even a month – since I actually devoted time to it. Elvis took a few minutes to catch on after the layoff, but Dakota helped a great deal by following us around the yard heeling herself.

Thursday night I worked with Elvis again, and after about 10 minutes of doing well with the “power bar” method, I unleashed him and he did quite well heeling.

Yesterday morning was more swimming. The river has dropped about 6 feet over the past several weeks and that’s where I took Dakota -having to swim in the river’s current gives her a more intense workout. After half-an-hour of swimming, I took her home and returned to the gravel pit ponds with Elvis and Sophie. Elvis still needs encouragement but once he begins swimming, does well. He began losing interest after a while and may have been getting chilled, so we called it a day.

The dark side of dog breeding

I think the average person believes that with the exception of puppy mills, dog breeders are loving and nurturing caretakers of these animals who only want what’s best for them. At least that was my impression, not having been associated with the breeding industry. I’ll do a future post on good dog breeders, but there have been several circumstances that prompted me to first discuss what’s wrong with the breeding industry.

I do know several breeders whose primary concern is for their dogs’ welfare and they are very successful, having a reputation as ethical, moral and caring breeders. But as the Bible says, you can’t serve both God and Mammon – essentially, you really can’t be ethical, moral and do what’s right if your master is money, riches, and power.

1- Culling litters – The breeder we bought Elvis from told us the story of a Spinoni that weighed only 8 ounces at birth. As she told us, “most breeders would have thrown him in the trash” (literally). This newborn was too weak to even nurse, but the breeder didn’t give up on him and with assistance from the vet, fed him through a dropper until he was strong enough to nurse on his own. Eventually he gained his strength and, as he was the runt of the litter, given to a wealthy individual. After a couple of years the pup had grown to average size, and now lives a life of luxury and is taken to the park on a daily basis. The point is, many newborns are never given a chance at life, as there are breeders who destroy those deemed not worth their time and money.
2- Dog dumping – a local breeder was seen dumping one of her puppies off in the parking lot of an animal shelter. She was reported and when investigated by the police, admitted to being in the parking lot at the time of the dumping, but denied that the puppy was hers. Even though she is the only breeder in the area and the dumped dog was a purebred of the type she breeds, she was not charged or fined for the dumping and to the best of my knowledge, end of story.
3- Backyard breeders – Not all “backyard breeders” are bad, and we got Sophie from acquaintances who would be classified as backyard breeders; however Sophie does have hip dysplasia and her brother was unable to keep any food down, and was euthanized soon after we got Sophie.
However a lady in our humane society related an incident that occurred at a rabies clinic the society was participating in. A “backyard breeder” of Labs approached and confronted her because of the “please spay and neuter” sticker on her car. He told her that he had a right to breed dogs all he wanted and nobody was going to tell him he couldn’t. She explained that there are a number of Labs euthanized every year at the animal shelter, whereupon he demanded to know exactly how many that was. The animal shelter is currently collecting that information.
4- Inoculations – The breeder that we purchased our Spinoni from does it right: she gave us copies of their shot records and required in the contract that we complete the entire series of shots.
However a co-worker purchased a puppy from a breeder and was informed that he had all his shots, but the breeder became indignant when asked for cpoies of the shot records. If a breeder cannot or will not provide records of their shots, or at least the name of the vet that gave them, they are undoubtedly hiding something or lying. These breeders certainly don’t have the puppy’s welfare in mind and cannot be trusted.

Elvis turns 5 months old

So far this hasn’t felt like summer – more like October than July. I think it’s the haze in the air and the humidity seems to be higher than normal. Maybe it’s just that I’m looking forward to hunting season that begins in a month and a half. Elvis turns 5 months old today and I think he’ll be ready for hunting although I haven’t introduced him to guns yet – but he’s gaining confidence in himself, so won’t be long before I do.

The temperatures haven’t been real high, generally in the 80’s, but still too hot to train the dogs in the heat of the day. I’ve been taking them swimming every time I get a break from work and our 4 acres, and yesterday I took Squirt and Elvis with me to visit my parents.

I did some yard work for my parents and stopped at a little pond on the way home. There were a number of ducks and geese where we stopped and Elvis was a lot more interested in feathers and droppings than retrieving. I had a string tied to the bumper and I think the string bothered him, plus he didn’t have his Sophie to swim with.

It didn’t take long to figure out that it wasn’t going to be a productive training session so I loaded them back into the Jeep and called it a day. This morning, however, it was a different story.

I took Dakota to the gravel pit ponds and gave her a good half hour of swimming. I know that consistency is everything when it comes to training, but Dakota is doing much better with not breaking on the bumper so I reward her with allowing her to break on some retrieves. For her this seems to work – if she does it my way, then she gets rewarded with some retrieves her way. I always end the sessions with retrieving my way.

I took Dakota home and returned with Sophie and Elvis. Elvis always needs some wading refresher training, and the first time out needs to be coaxed. Sophie is like the little pup she used to be, and is the best coach that Elvis could have. Her excitement inspires him but she is still calm and patient enough to tolerate him.

They spent about half-an-hour in the water. For Sophie, I tossed the bumper out as far as I could and for Elvis, about 10-20 feet out. Sometimes Elvis retrieved his own bumper, sometimes he swam out and took Sophie’s and several times after taking his bumper, continued swimming out after Sophie so that he could swim back with her.

Spending half-an-hour swimming is great exercise (for both me and the dogs) especially in hot weather, and is going to help them when hunting season begins.

Lost Dog

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

Pass Along PDJ
June 2009

Lost Dog
by Steve Smith

If you have been running dogs for any length of time, eventually you’re going to lose one. It’s something that pointing dog people share with our counterparts in the hound community. Retriever and flushing dog people, it doesn’t seem to happen as often; their dogs aren’t bred to quest to the degree our pointers and setters and shorthairs and Britts and all the rest are. Pointing dogs are supposed to go out there and find birds, and sometimes, they don’t find their way back.

I have lost dogs on three occasions. I calculate “lost” as anything more than an couple hours. I calculate “really lost” as pinning a picture of the dog and your phone number on the bulletin board at the local diner and laundromat. I’ve never had to go that far, but I’ve been with people who have. Invariably, it’s in an unfamiliar place at the worst possible time – on an out-of-state trip the day before you have to leave, something like that.

Of course, there’s the third level of lost, and that’s just plain gone. At first, we hope someone hasn’t stolen him. Then, after a while, we hope someone has – at least he’d be alive and maybe even, after some time has passed, happy again. After all, no one’s going to pick up a stray bird dog and keep him unless he’s at least thought about being a bird hunter, right?

It seems as though every year or so, we hear a story about a dog that was lost for months, even years, that somehow finds his way back home – just shows up one day. But those are rare, Disney-like occurrences, which is why we hear about them. Most dogs that are recovered are found within a half-day, usually an hour or so. The longer they’re gone, the worse the odds of getting them back.

A dog getting lost in strange country is both good news and bad news: It’s easier to get lost in strange country so the likelihood of his being injured is more remote – he’s more than likely just lost. But the dog may wander because nothing’s going to look familiar and end up a long way off, especially if he hasn’t been thoroughly trash-broken. In familiar country where the dog knows his way around, if he’s lost it’s more likely to mean he’s injured or has been stolen.

The best thing we can do, of course, is to not lose them in the first place, and these days, if you don’t mind spending a little money, there are two tracking devices that make a lot of sense. I’ve used both, and they’re great. The first one to come out was the Tracker that uses radio telemetry, followed by the Garmin Astro , which uses GPS technology. The second best way to not permanently lose your dog, of course, is to have good ID on him, the simplest being: Reward: Call 121-555-1234 Collect. No dog name; knowing his name makes it easier for someone to steal him because the dog will be more likely to cooperate, especially if he’s also a house dog and well-socialized.

Three seasons ago, on the edge of a huge tract of state land in Michigan, a fellow pulled up to me and my dog as we were unloading from my truck on a two-track; he had a pointer in his van. The dog had the ID collar with Reward and an out of state – it may have been New York – phone number on it. He also had a beeper collar, which the guy couldn’t figure out how to shut off, so I did. The fellow had called the number – no answer, and no answering machine, so it was pretty much useless. He was driving around looking for the owner, obviously an out-of-state hunter who must have been around because the beeper collar still held a charge. I watered the dog, gave the guy my business card, and asked him to let me know how things turned out, but he never did.

The obvious lesson there is if your dog’s collar has a contact number on it, make sure there’s someone to answer the phone or a gadget to take a message. I think the best number to put on the tag is your cellphone number. If you’re like me and your cardi-ologist knows your voice on the phone, you always have it with you in the woods.

The full article “Lost Dog” by Steve Smith appears in the July/August 2009 issue of The Pointing Dog Journal. If you are a subscriber, stay tuned! That issue is in the 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 July 25th, you’ll receive the issue with this article in it! You can request an issue online or by calling 1-800-447-7367. Make sure you tell our circulation representatives that you’d like the July/August 2009 issue.

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Swimming lessons continue

Friday was just about as non-productive as Thursday was productive. I took the dogs and several bumpers to the pond for some more training – the problem was that bumpers turn Dakota into a maniac.

Elvis required some refresher training in wading before he had built up the confidence to swim. Dakota however made him nervous, which was frustrating and required me to spend much of the time keeping her under control. Elvis also had a little trouble with the bumpers: I had two large bumpers and one small one, and since Elvis can’t really get a grip on the large bumpers, my intent was to let Sophie and Dakota retrieve the large ones and Elvis the small.

Dakota insisted on breaking when I tossed the bumpers and oftentimes took Elvis’ bumper, which either forced him to return without one or try and pick up a large bumper that he couldn’t get his mouth around. Dakota’s antics got Sophie spun up and she wasn’t listening very well herself. As a result, I didn’t work with them too long.

Learning from Friday’s counter-productive training, I changed tactics on Saturday. I thought about it a bit and came to the conclusions that: 1- Dakota goes crazy with bumpers and that influences Sophie; 2- Dakota works well by herself but views working with other dogs a competition not teamwork; 3- Since I can’t seem to find a way of eliminating her behavior, I need to find a way to channel it.

So Saturday, my wife and I took Sophie and Elvis to the pond for water training; she was going to video the session but the camcorder hit the end of tape just seconds after we began. We started Elvis and Sophie out retrieving in the shallow water before moving to deeper water. Elvis retrieved but was tentative and hesitant, so the next time I take him out it will be with a wing on a string.

After taking Sophie and Elvis home, I returned with Dakota. I worked on her breaking and she did much better by herself, even if her interpretation of “sit” is as calm as a bowl of Jello in an earthquake. I turned her training into a game to channel her towards something productive.

I would put her in “sit” and keep her there until after I threw the bumper. All the while her tension was building until I’d finally release her. The game to her was intensely focusing on the moment that I’d release her. She would launch herself out into the water and swim at a frantic pace to the bumper.

I normally disagree with allowing dogs to leap out into the water since it’s dangerous and in my opinion, equivalent to diving headfirst into unknown water. Many dogs have busted their legs or received other injuries from hitting rocks, submerged logs and other debris when they leap into the water. In Dakota’s case, accepting the fact that I can’t keep her from leaping into the water, I have to try and control it in other ways.

In any case, Saturday’s training was much more productive and stress-free for all of us.