Author: Pam Hogle

Checking In on Cali

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Cali and Orly, both golden retrievers, snuggleCali is done with her first round of chemo, so I thought I’d give everyone an update.

She did really well with the first two infusions. A little tummy upset, not wanting breakfast the day or two after; some indigestion. Tired. But she rallied after a few days and was back to her usual appetite and energy levels. Most important — even on the “down” days, she was cheerful, silly, and playful.

Golden Cali holds a pink stuffed toy and wags her thin tailThe third infusion hit a little harder. The digestive stuff stuck around for longer … and I started noticing clumps of fur everywhere. Now, flying furballs are a daily hazard when you live with two goldens, but this was different. Her once-magnificent, full tail is a thin wisp (but it still wags just fine!); she has bald patches on her throat and near her ears, and thinning fur all over. I’m looking into getting her some fleece sweaters for the looming Montana winter.

Fur loss is an unusual — but not unheard of — side effect of chemo for dogs. Also skin discoloration (dark pigment). Cali is experiencing both. She’s also more tired. On our off-leash walks, she’ll still run and play with Orly … for the first 10 or 15 minutes. Then she walks more slowly with me while Orly bounds through the forest. These walks are getting shorter.

I conferred with Cali’s medical team — her regular vet, her specialist vet, and her chiropractor vet (who is an emergency vet here in town). We did some bloodwork and a scan, and everything looks good; she has no visible tumors. Even so, we decided to skip her fourth infusion, since side effects tend to get progressively worse.

We’ll soon move on to the next chemo, which is two daily pills: A chemo pill and a pain pill. If she tolerates it, she’ll be on it for the rest of her life. They are very low-dose pills and have to be sent from a compounding pharmacy, so I am waiting for the info on how to get them.

Cali’s still taking her magic mushrooms. We’re working through the bucket list and squeezing in extra ice-cream dates with friends whenever possible, And Cali and Orly continue to wrestle, play, and gobble treats.

Unacceptable!

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2 golden retrievers run in a huge meadow with tall grassesTo say that Cali is a “good eater” and not at all fussy about food and treats is to vastly understate. Which is why I was astonished when she rejected proffered treats recently.

We have a hierarchy of treats. This is an essential element of training and motivating dogs to do the right thing. The harder the “right thing,” the better the treat. High-value treats — treats that dogs will do anything for, must be reserved for the most challenging situations, or they lose their value.

I have special treats that I use only for off-leash recalls. This can be practice in an enclosed area or, more commonly, when we’re hiking in the wide-open spaces around our Missoula home. For more ordinary moments, and for walks in familiar places, I use doggy trail mix, a try-your-luck mixture of second-best treats like freeze-dried liver, lower-value, but still delicious, treats we find at the local holistic pet store, and “filler” treats — Charlee Bears and Cheerios, usually. These take on scent and taste from their better cousins in the doggy trail mix jar and are usually accepted eagerly by Cali and Orly.

I would have said “always accepted eagerly” until yesterday.

The weather was dicey, and I wanted to get them out for a run. When the rain paused, I grabbed girls and leashes, and off we went. Astute readers will note no mention of grabbing the good treats. Indeed. The dogs noticed that too.

I always have a handful of doggy trail mix in my coat pockets, and a reserve supply can usually be found in the car. So we’re walking along, dogs off leash, me periodically calling them back and offering treats Continue reading →

They Dig It!

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2 golden retrievers in small area of a large yardI recently had extensive landscaping done in Cali’s yard. In naive hope of keeping the dogs out of the new beds, and to provide them stimulation and fun, I had a digging pit put in.

Don’t get me wrong: They love it! It just doesn’t keep them out of the beds … or keep them from digging in the lawn (at least not yet).

2 golden retrievers dig in a sand-filled pitThe digging pit lets them follow their noses to find buried treasure. It is fun and lets them do natural doggy stuff (dig, make a mess, eat stuff they find) in a way that doesn’t cause conflict with their human.

If you live someplace where you see lots of free-roaming cats, it would not be a good idea though … the sand might draw the wrong kind of crowd. While we have many roaming neighborhood cats, not a one has been seen in the yard since Cali and I moved in. It appears that Cali made some sort of agreement with the cats early on, and our yard is a cat-free dog and bird haven. (Actually, that’s not quite true: There was one cat, once, in the yard, stalking the birds at the feeder. Cali chased him out and, I don’t know what she said, but that cat has not been seen since, not even in the back alley.)

Our digging pit is far enough back in the yard that any sand on the dogs’ paws and coat drops into the grass as they run back to the house. There is some spillover into the yard, but so far, it’s not too messy.

The digging pit is only interesting when stuff is buried in it, though, which requires the human to keep it going. I bury, they uncover; as often as I bury, they will dig. So there’s always some pressure to come up with stuff to bury. I bury dog biscuits, bones, and tennis balls. No soft toys or small or soft treats. I admit that I do not keep up my end of the deal every single day.

The pit has failed in its mission to keep the dogs out of the new beds. There are too many enticing smells in there, apparently. And (see above), often, the pit lacks buried treats to find.

It does not help matters any that Cali is convinced that there is buried treasure in the yard. There’s a particular spot next to my garden shed where she cannot resist digging. She digs; I fill; she digs, etc.

We’re working on all of that: The lawn is green; the dirt is soft. The landscaping is still new and exotic. The blackberry bushes draw the girls in with a few late-season berries, tantalizingly close to the ground. For the moment, the dogs are winning most of these battles.

I have high hopes for spring, when I will seed the bare patches on the lawn, block dog access, and keep them entertained in their digging pit until they forget all about how much fun it is to dig in the grass and get their paws good and muddy. Yeah, right.

Newly planted shrubs and mulch in a newly landscaped bed

All of My Dogs Have Been Geniuses. Yours Too?

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A white golden retriever holds a teal running shoe
Jana, my first golden retriever, knew the names of many items

Who remembers Chaser, the border collie who learned English grammar? Chaser’s first moment of fame came from the recognition that she knew the names of more than 1,000 toys. Her dad, Dr. John Pilley, meticulously documented her training. He then demonstrated that she could apply different verbs to each toy (e.g., bring, take, give) and that she knew the difference between the object of a sentence and the indirect object, a mastery of English grammar that puts many high school grads to shame.

In the years since Chaser’s accomplishments became known, other dogs have demonstrated proficiency in learning names of objects and showing basic linguistic comprehension.

But not, apparently, in Hungary.

Bizarrely, a dog cognition researcher at a well-known university — whose dog cognition group has published reams of amazing research — found that the dogs she worked with could not learn any words.

Dr. Claudia Fugazza told Modern Dog: “We started investigating and we found that irrespective of the age when you start training, most dogs do not learn the name of objects. We trained a group of dogs very intensively for three months—we included a group of puppies around three months old and a group of adult dogs—and none of them could learn any words.”

I find that strange because every dog I have ever lived with understood many, many words. Some in two languages. Even without any training at all — simply as a byproduct of living with humans who used words and phrases over and over.

“Want to go for a walk?”

“Who wants a cookie?”

“Let’s get you some dinner.”

These — or variations on these — sentences are known to nearly all well-cared-for dogs.

But Dr. Fugazza was specifically interested in and focused on teaching dogs the names of specific items.

Fair enough.

But here, too, all the dogs I know have learned the names of at least a few favorite toys or items — ball, bone, hedgehog (a nearly universal favorite toy). With minimal effort, intention, or knowledge of dog training, many dogs’ families teach them dozens of words.

Service dogs routinely learn to bring multiple items by name — shoes, slippers, keys, glasses, even tissues or pill boxes. By the age of one, Jana (the original Thinking Dog!) could choose the requested snack — “chips” or “Bamba” — from our pantry and bring it to us in the living room (potato chips and Bamba, a peanut-butter snack, smell very different).

Yet a two-year, global search by the Hungarian research team for their “Genius Dog Challenge” identified only six dogs, all Border collies, who could retrieve items by name. I missed their search somehow. Which is unfortunate, since I could name six dogs just in California who can do that, and not one of them is a Border collie.

I guess those dogs are all geniuses, as are Cali and Orly (and probably thousands more Missoula dogs). Is yours?

Orly’s First Camping Adventure

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Cali and Oly, both golden retrievers, play in a rocky creekOrly and Cali spent a chunk of Labor Day weekend at the Grizzly Campground in Montana’s Lolo National Forest. It was Orly’s first camping adventure, so Cali had to show her the ropes a bit. Not that Cali has a lot of experience … she may have exaggerated a bit when telling Orly her campfire stories.

A view of sunset and trees from the tent window
The view from the tent window

They did not get their own tent; we all shared. Our tent has a huge window, and Orly spent most of the first night looking out the window at the treetops and the stars. We were all pretty relieved that she did not spot any bears.

As the temperature dropped overnight, the girls crept closer and closer, until we were all cuddled into a single mass. They also tried to steal the sleeping bag.

Both girls spent hours hiking, running along the trail and splashing in Rock Creek and Ranch Creek. They gnawed bones, wrestled, grumbled at the dogs in the neighboring campsites, and gobbled treats.

Cali and Orly lick a bowl clean
The girls helped with the dishes

It wasn’t all play, of course. In addition to their responsibility to watch for bears and supervise meal prep, the girls had chores. They energetically tackled keeping the campsite “floor” clean, for example, by removing all sticks, pine needles, and dirt — and unselfishly carrying it around in their fur. Cali does have extensive experience with this and could be seen coaching Orly in the finer points of the roll, with tips on how to wriggle the hips and shoulders just so for maximum pickup efficiency. They also helped clean the dishes after every meal.

Needless to say, their first activity upon returning home was a bath. That may have soured them on future camping trips, but I doubt it!

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Clear Scan Is Great News!

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Cali had her post-surgery follow-up liver scan, and the vet saw no tumors!

That is fantastic news, because dogs who have tumors large enough to see on an ultrasound (a half-centimeter) generally have a very bad prognosis (a few weeks).

With hemangiosarcoma, no visible tumors does not mean no tumors. There are almost certainly hundreds or thousands of tiny hemangiosarcomas all over Cali’s body.

Golden retriever Cali sits patiently with a chemo drip monitor in the backgroundBut they are small. Very small. And with her magic mushrooms and her chemo, we’re slowing their growth. That could buy her anywhere from several months to a year — or more. Our acupuncture vet knows a dog who was diagnosed 3 years ago … the mushrooms seem to be working for him!

With that good news, Cali bravely completed her second chemo treatment. She had mild stomach upset a few days later that could be related … or not. She’s also been over-indulging in the abundant blackberries on the bushes in her garden.

And ice cream of course. Always ice cream.

Cali’s Magic Mushrooms

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Cali is fighting her hemangiosarcoma with magical mushrooms. No, not that kind of mushroom! At least, I don’t think that turkey tail mushrooms are hallucinogenic …

They reportedly do have properties that both boost the immune system and slow the growth of tumors, though, and have been used in Eastern medicine for centuries.

A small study on dogs with hemangiosarcoma found that turkey tail mushrooms could extend their survival by significantly lengthening the time until tumors grew large enough to be seen on a scan. (The study has a terrible title but the text is very user-friendly and fascinating!)

So Cali is taking a large dose of turkey tail mushroom powder daily. She and Orly are both getting a blend of mushrooms that also might slow or prevent tumor growth while also boosting their overall immune responses.

We’ll probably never know whether the mushrooms actually helped. But … as my vets agree, taking the mushrooms won’t hurt anything. And could help.

The dogs in the study had all been diagnosed with hemangiosarcoma following a splenectomy, like Cali. None of them was doing chemotherapy, though that is an option.

Cali's face with hanging bag of orange chemo behind herCali has had a single dose of chemo, and we’re waiting for her post-surgery scan to decide whether to continue. It is administered in a 2-hour infusion; we spent the time working and hanging out in the vet’s office. She didn’t have a bad reaction to it at all (she didn’t have any reaction that I noticed). It, too, can slow the tumor growth — unless there are already visible tumors.

If she continues, she’ll have up to three additional treatments, three weeks apart. Her friends at my workplace sent her flowers the first time she had chemo. She’d never gotten flowers before and was very excited when the delivery person came!

arrangement of colorful flowers

Cali’s Bucket List

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Golden retrievers Cali and Orly play in a shallow river near our house.As we wait for Cali’s next ultrasound, we’re filling in the time doing things on Cali’s bucket list.

For example, we head to the river to play in water almost every day. Deeper water for actual swimming is a little more tricky. I’m trying to take Cali to a little spot nearby a couple of times a week, but I can only manage it when Orly is busy elsewhere.

Cali sits on grass holding a green disc toyAside from swimming, much of Cali’s bucket list involves eating ice cream and playing with her beloved flying disc and tennis balls. Those are pretty easy.

9-month-old Orly, a golden retriever, licks a frozen treatShe’s visited Dairy Queen and Big Dipper. I’m also making frozen treats at home with Greek yogurt, fruit, and peanut butter. And pupsicles with coconut water and berries. Since the weather has remained absurdly hot (for Montana) for weeks, the frozen treats are popular. Honestly, though, I think that Cali would be just as excited about them in February.

When Deni was in town, we even took the girls to a baseball game, where everyone shared popcorn and had fun … for a few innings. They enjoyed drinking from a cup (water!) and people-watching.

Goldens Cali and Orly enjoy a drink at the ball game

Cali’s Village

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It takes a village … to care for an aging dog.

One of the things I like best about living in Missoula is the wonderful community I have here. I tell myself that it extends to Cali (and now Orly) as well; in truth, it’s their community, and the kind members are welcoming to me as well …

Cali recently had some unfortunate medical news. She had had an ultrasound where the vet saw suspicious lesions on her spleen. The spleen had to come out.

It’s a serious surgery, and Cali’s community rallied. Friends visited her the weekend before; I took her swimming; a friend and I took Orly and Cali to Dairy Queen.

Two friends stopped by post surgery to comfort Cali. Still groggy, she was reclining on her bed and unable to get up without help.

When I mentioned that to another friend, she very kindly offered to come over and help me carry Cali out and back in, a wonderful offer. Cali weighs 56 pounds and is pretty awkward to carry. Even so, I had gotten her in from the car, as well as out and back in that afternoon and evening.

Golden retriever Cali holds a tennis ball
One day post-op, Cali asks to play ball

The next morning, I got Cali outside and set up a bed for her on the grass. She had a water bowl, shade — everything she needed. A little while later, I saw that she’d gotten up and made it up onto the deck. I put her bed on the deck and she happily spent the day outside, mostly sleeping on her bed, but occasionally napping on the grass.

Though Cali’s recovery went quickly after that first morning, her friends continue to rally ’round, checking in on her, stopping by to visit, and offering walks. Within a couple of days, though, the biggest headaches were trying to keep Cali from playing too roughly with Orly and resisting her pleas to play ball.

More bad news

Then we got the biopsy results. Cali’s going to need her village.

Cali has a very aggressive type of cancer called hemangiosarcoma. It spreads through the blood and generally, by the time it’s found, there are small (or large) hemangiosarcomas throughout the dog’s body.

We’re “luckier” than many who get this diagnosis, though. For most dogs, the cancer is found only after one of the tumors ruptures, causing internal bleeding. that didn’t happen.

We’re figuring out treatment, and we will know more after Cali’s next ultrasound, which will take place a month post-surgery.

The “good” thing about hemangiosarcoma is that the dog doesn’t have any symptoms or pain unless/until a tumor bursts. Cali’s definitely not feeling sick, and she’s enjoying the extra attention she’s getting from her community of friends.