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Culture

54 Percent Of Dogs In North America Are Obese

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LOS ANGELES, Calif.  – It’s not just people who are experiencing a high rate of being overweight. According to the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention (APOP), 54% of dogs in the country are considered overweight or obese. That adds up to 50 million dogs in the USA (and much more taking Canada and Mexico pet dogs into consideration) with an increased risk for health problems. This year, as people strive to make changes to improve their own health, Just Food For Dogs is setting out to give people assistance in getting their pet healthier, too.

“What we are doing is making it easy for people to help give their pets healthy food that they can feel good about,” explains Dr. Oscar Chavez, a professor of canine clinical nutrition and staff veterinarian for Just Food for Dogs. “We stick with making wholesome pet foods from good ingredients. Our foods will give dogs the nutrition they need and help improve their quality of life with every bite.”

APOP also reports that overweight and obese dogs are at an increased risk for having chronic inflammation, a reduced life expectancy, skin disorders, orthopedic disease, cancer, kidney dysfunction, respiratory disorders, and metabolic and endocrine disorders. Focusing on improving pet health can help avoid problems and can keep them feeling well.

Here are some tips from Dr. Chavez for helping to get dogs healthy:

Focus on fitness. In addition to taking your dog on walks (or runs) and playing fetch, focus on agility exercises. Look online to create your own obstacle course that will have your dog jumping, swimming, balancing, crawling and tunneling. Is it safe to put your dogs to work? Strength training is important and can be done by fitting your dog with weighted harnesses or latching it to light wagons or sleighs. However, this should only be attempted with properly trained dogs that are already conditioned and are deemed healthy by their veterinarian – just as you wouldn’t jump into strength training – they must ease into it.

Doggy diet do-over. Most commercial dog food is highly processed and can be made with byproducts from the 4 D’s (dead, dying, diseased or drugged) animals, this includes the popular raw diets. Traditional pet food can also contain toxins and cancer-causing agents. Seriously consider changing your dog’s diet to a lightly cooked, fresh, whole-food recipe.

Learn more about pet foods. It’s important to know about what pets need to be healthy and what should be avoided. Use only fresh whole food (ground beef, fish, broccoli, sweet potatoes, carrots, etc.), and avoid excess fillers that only fatten your pet. Veggies must be cooked, not served raw, as pets may not derive their full nutritional value when served raw and it can be tough on their digestive tract. No spices should be used as you would in human food as it disturbs their digestive system and can cause pain and intestinal problems. Once any potatoes are cooked to the desired level, immediately add ice to halt the cooking and cool the food. This will preserve the maximum nutritional value of the food.

Don’t just read my mind. Like people, dogs thrive on mental stimulation to keep them happy. A bored dog can become depressed, anxious and even ill. You can extend your dog’s life and enrich it by keeping them busy. As they age, keep their mind active with training, socialization, games, one-on- one attention, and other enrichment activities. Doggie daycares are a great way to let your dog stay stimulated when the alternative is to be home alone all day.

Sink your teeth into this one. Dental hygiene is an often-overlooked aspect of pet care. Many of us simply forget to brush our dogs’ teeth on a daily basis. Unfortunately, poor oral hygiene can lead to plaque, gingivitis, and eventually, periodontal disease, a bacterial infection of the mouth that has been linked to heart disease and organ damage. It’s a myth that kibble helps break down tartar – the only thing that will work is daily brushing, so make it a priority to brush your dog’s teeth at least once a day!

“Research shows that a focus on your dogs’ fitness leads to better fitness for yourself,” adds Dr. Chavez. “This is a lifestyle change that selfless and selfish at the same time. Make this the year where you and your dog get healthy together!”

Focusing on wholesome nutrition and freshness, the company doesn’t use any types of preservatives, growth hormones, BHA, BHT, pink slime, or artificial colors. All of their foods are made from recognizable ingredients that are approved for human consumption, lightly cooked, vacuum sealed, and immediately frozen. They remain good for up to 12 months in the freezer, or 3-6 days once in the refrigerator. Their collection of meals includes, turkey and whole wheat macaroni, beef and russet potato, chicken and rice, fish and sweet potato, lamb and brown rice, and venison and squash, and a line of prescription diets used by veterinarians to manage disease.

“Our mission is to help give people a way to get their pets healthier,” added Shawn Buckley, the founder of Just Food for Dogs. “Our dog food is created by dog lovers who want pets to be happy, healthy, and live longer lives. We treat your pet just like we treat our own.”

About Just Food for Dogs
The Just Food for Dogs kitchens and pantries are located in southern California in Costa Mesa, West Hollywood, Sherman Oaks, Manhattan Beach, Capistrano Beach, Downtown Los Angeles, Anaheim Hills, Long Beach, Glendale, Del Mar and Mission Viejo. The company also offers online recipes for those who want to make their own small batch pet meals from scratch at home. The company has a veterinary nutrition team of nine veterinarians, including a board certified veterinary nutritionist, a board certified veterinary toxicologist, and a board certified veterinary dermatologist. The company also offers treats, supplements, veterinary support recipes, and one recipe for cats. Their foods are also available online and can be shipped nationally.

Featured image- australiandoglover.com 

Culture

What Dog Breeders Don’t Tell And Trainers Don’t Teach

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Could You  Lose Your Homeowner’s Insurance Because of Your Dog?

In many years, dog bites accounted for more than one-third of all homeowner’s insurance liability claims in the United States, according to the Insurance Information Institute and State Farm. In Canada numbers are not readily available but there is a strong chance we are not far behind.

“Those claims can be financially hard on the homeowners and  tragic for the dogs, which is especially troublesome when you know that bites aren’t a ‘bad dog’ problem – they’re a human ignorance problem,” says Melissa  Berryman, a dog bite specialist who designed and teaches a safety and liability  class for dog owners. She’s the author of “People Training for Good Dogs: What Breeders Don’t Tell You and Trainers Don’t Teach”.

“In all of my years as an animal control officer, I’ve never  come across an incident with a dog that was not preventable,” she  says. If we look back a decade during an especially peak period, there were 360,000 nonfatal dog bite injuries treated in emergency rooms in the United States, according to the Centers for  Disease control, with claims totaling into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

“Regardless of provocation, dog owners are largely held  liable and see their insurance canceled or their premiums increased. To be  reinstated premiums can go up and insurance companies often require them to get  rid of the dog.  And, often, that means the dog is euthanized.”

Here's a look at some of the contents inside Melissa's book. CP
Here’s a look at some of the contents inside Melissa’s book. CP

Pet owners can prevent this common and unnecessary tragedy by understanding a dog’s perspective and acting accordingly.

She offers five tips to reduce dog bite incidents:

• Remember, dogs aren’t trying to protect a home when they react negatively to strangers or visitors: Dogs place no value on your home, car, or the valuables they might contain. When they’re in a home or car, they are trapped in an enclosed area and will respond to perceived threats with an automatic fight-or-flight response. It is the owner’s responsibility to train dogs to calmly signal someone’s approach and then to assert authority over the situation.

• Consider your dog’s “rank”: Dogs have superior/subordinate relationships similar to the military.  Rank of family and guests dictates a dog’s behavior towards them.  A high-ranking dog, a “general,” won’t tolerate insubordinate behavior from a perceived low ranking “private’’ child or guest. Bites often occur when human “privates” try to take food or toys away, hug or pull a “general” type dog by the collar off of furniture.

• Yelling can exacerbate a dog’s agitation: Your dog doesn’t know you’ve ordered pizza, so when the delivery person arrives, your dog is agitated by the threat at the door and starts barking. When you yell at your dog to stop barking, he interprets this as agitation on your part; he understands tone, not language. That only increases a dog’s anxiety and vulnerability. When the door opens, the dog bites because it thinks you and he are both feeling threatened and you’re both going to attack the threat. It’s best to happily reassure your dog when someone arrives and leave the greeting of guests to you, and not the dog.

• How you treat strangers influences how your dog treats them: Dogs respond to their owners’ behavior, which gives them signals about whether or not a situation is safe. When the dog’s owner meets a stranger and interacts formally with that stranger, as many of us do, dogs can view this as the behavior of foes, or as apprehension, such as that of prey. Owners holding leashes tightly unwittingly place their dog in the dangerous fight stance of the fight or flight response.  It’s best to relax and act like a friend when meeting strangers, which will elicit a friendly response from a dog.

“Dogs react based on their pack positions, the handling ability of their owners and the situation and context,” she says. “People have the power to recognize this and redirect the interaction to that of friends.”

The cover of Melissa Berryman's book.
The cover of Melissa Berryman’s book.

By understanding and respecting how dogs’ instincts and natural behaviors differ from ours, dog owners can prevent bites and insurance headaches, Berryman says.

A Massachusetts animal control officer for nearly ten years, Melissa Berryman is a national dog bite consultant who founded the Dog Owner Education and Community Safety Council and works with communities ,rescue groups, dog owners and bite  victims.  For the Silo, Ginny Grimsley.

Culture

$182 Million Spent On Autism Treatment 0$ Spent On Autism Service Dogs

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Haldimand do not need an auditor general’s report to tell them that ASD services are in disarray. Our government should be commended for spending $182 million dollars on Autism treatment, however I have yet to meet a single Canadian family satisfied with their services. In 2007 there was thankfully, no wait list for Intensive Behavioral Intervention (IBI). Braydon spent two years working 24 hours a week, one-on-one with IBI therapists from Haldimand-Norfolk R.E.A.C.H. Essentially my toddler had a part-time job and after two years our family was unable to keep up the pace of it. Over $100,000 was spent on Braydon’s Autism Services, but now we were left to fend for ourselves.

Last week National Service Dogs for Children with Autism (NSD) asked a very interesting question on their Facebook page. Has the government considered Service Dogs? In 2012 my son was granted a Certified Autism Service Dog. Before that time, our only options for treatments were pharmaceuticals or privately funded and enormously expensive traditional therapies that were not effective at tracking results. Today, Braydon attends J.L. Mitchener Public School in Cayuga where he is thriving socially and academically. His service dog ‘NSD Whoopi’ attends school with him each and every day. Last month at Braydon’s Parent-Teacher interview I was told that my son was easy to integrate with his peers and all the students seemed to behave better when he and Whoopi were in the classroom. I have a very different little boy than I did a year ago, and the change in my son brings a flood of welcome respite to our home.

$30,000 might seem like an excessive amount of money for a Certified Autism Service Dog, however consider a Service Dog has a working life of 8-10 years. This means for some families like us; desperate for an alternative to treating our son’s autism with medication would receive 24 hour a day, 7 days a week support for 10 years for only $30,000! How much of the $182 million dollars spent on Autism Treatment this year was allocated to this alternative? Zero dollars!!! Incredibly National Service Dogs for Children with Autism provided us this option at absolutely no costs to us either. It is the generosity of the staff and volunteers at NSD and the support of our families and friends right here in Haldimand that brought accessibility for our family to our community. As a result, all of us are able to embrace a much higher quality of life than most families affected by Autism are able to experience.

So…let’s talk about making Certified Autism Service Dogs an available treatment alternative to more families. For the Silo, Jenny Tansley.