Author: Pam Hogle

News from the Golden Retriever Lifetime Study

Pam Hogle The Thinking Dog Blog , , ,

Golden retriever Cali wears her yellow Morris Foundation study bandana, with drawings of golden retrievers all over itCali, along with her brothers Sailor and Pirate, is part of an elite group of golden retrievers: They are members of the Golden Retriever Lifetime Study, a project of the Morris Animal Foundation.

The study is in its ninth year and has shared some of what researchers have learned.

Of 3,044 goldens, aged six months to two years, who enrolled in the study between August 2012 and March 2015, 78% are still in the study and fully compliant. Goldens are much better behaved than humans in long-term studies!

In addition, 99 dogs have dropped out of the study (they didn’t say why) and, sadly, 240 have died. Of those, 60% have died of cancer, mostly hemangiosarcoma and lymphoma.

Studying cancer was the first and is the primary objective of the study, which looks at the dogs’ genetics, exposure and “lifestyle,” — everything from their diet to the amount and types of exercise they engage in.

Researchers, with “21,100 dog years of data” (I don’t know what that means but it sounds like a lot) are also looking at:

  • Possible links between spay/neuter age and obesity
  • Developing an early blood test for lymphoma in dogs
  • Diet and microbiome health
  • Impact of inbreeding on litter size and adult dog size

… and so much more.

Morris Animal Foundation is enrolling “golden oldies,” golden retrievers aged 12 or older who have never had cancer for a companion study. They will compare genetics of these healthy dogs with the genetics of study dogs who had cancer, in hopes of identifying potential genetic risk factors. If you are a human lucky enough to be owned by an elderly, cancer-free golden, please consider participating.

Dog Photos Are Good For You. Really.

Pam Hogle The Thinking Dog Blog , , ,

Golden retriever Cali rests her head on my knee to tell my it is time to stop working

It’s official. Science has demonstrated that looking at pictures of dogs increases your sense of well-being.

It’s funny how often science simply confirms what we dog lovers already know, have always known, and use daily to our benefit. Think about it — if looking at a picture of a dog makes you feel good, how much better do you feel when you look at, or cuddle your actual dog. Bonus points if you have multiple dogs.

The study may have stacked the deck a wee bit, though. Participants were put into one of three groups. They all answered questions about how they were feeling, then they looked at different online content. One lucky group looked at pictures of dogs. Another looked at popular funny posts. The unluckiest group spent the time reading tweets in (then-president) Trump’s official feed.

They then answered the questions again. All three groups had significant changes in their feelings of well-being. The Trump tweet group felt worse — even the people in the group who were Trump supporters felt worse. The funny post people felt a little better. But the lucky dog people — well, you know what I am going to say.

Enough chatter. Just look at some dog pictures. Here are a few to get you started. You’re welcome.

Cali’s Pronouns Are She, Her, Hers

Pam Hogle The Thinking Dog Blog ,
Cali holds a toy that looks like a "banned" sign
Don’t call me “it.”

It’s long past time to consider our dogs, and of course all other sentient creatures, as living beings. Not as “it”s.

A letter signed by dozens of animal rights and animal welfare luminaries was recently the subject of a radio op-ed by NPR’s Scott Simon. The letter asks the AP, the Associated Press, to change its style and use the correct gendered pronouns when referring to animals — and the nonbinary “they” in other instances. The current AP style for animals is “Do not apply a personal pronoun to an animal unless its sex has been established or the animal has a name.”

The letter states, “This is too limiting to writers as well as fellow nonhuman animals, most of whom are discussed abstractly and thus their sex is not established.We pay respect to humans whose sex is indeterminate or gender fluid by using he/she or the non-binary term they. That same courtesy should be extended to all animals, as they are gendered beings.”

As a writer and editor, I work for several organizations that use AP style. I work with it every day. I also read a lot of news media from outlets that use AP style.

Simon’s op-ed supports this change and calls attention to how much of life we share. Indeed. If the role of pets in getting us through the pandemic doesn’t show that, I don’t know what would.

I can think of numerous compelling arguments for recognizing nonhuman animals’ dignity and worth with pronouns that don’t objectify them. Starting with their obvious vitality, consciousness, intelligence, empathy … and other traits too numerous to mention that set dogs, cats, birds, and thousands of other species apart from toasters, shoes, or cardboard boxes. They are not “things.” They are beings.

It’s also more accurate. Accurately labeling living beings is low-hanging fruit in media organizations’ efforts to regain trust and build up their credibility.

Treating nonhumans as things and describing them that way makes it easier to justify mistreatment of them. We don’t have to acknowledge their suffering if they are seen as equivalent to inanimate objects.

Organizations like the Animal Legal Defense Fund, whose head signed the letter, have spent years fighting for legal rights for nonhuman animals, for giving legal weight to treating them differently from other property owned and used by humans. Cleaning up our language is an obvious place to start.

Language is powerful. Propagandists, politicians, and marketers have long known that. And language evolves. Simon describes how our use of pronouns has changed, from wide use of a supposedly generic “he” to more inclusive pronouns that fully recognize humans all along the gender spectrum. Marketers and advertisers increasingly (and gratingly) use “who” when talking about corporations. Using “who” rather than “that” for a living, breathing sentient being surely makes more sense than that!

Cali would like everyone to know that her pronouns are she, her, hers. She is not an it or a that. She’s also a huge fan of Scott Simon and NPR. And she really, really hopes that the dogs hold on to their title by winning pet wars on Montana Public Radio’s spring pledge drive next week.

 

A Secret Weapon in the 2021 Brackets?

Pam Hogle The Thinking Dog Blog , ,
An empty NCAA bracket form

Is your dog into sports?

One lucky dog owner had help — or a secret weapon? — when completing their NCAA basketball brackets this year: The family dog.

Apparently, with a lot of time on their paws, Satchel, the dog, took to chasing basketball statistics. And came up with a winning bracket. Satchel’s owner filled out the bracket (following careful instructions, no doubt) to prioritize teams with canine mascots (Go Huskies!). Those with non-canine non-human animal mascots came next.

As a person who rarely (OK, never) watches TV sports, if I were to fill out a bracket, I would have done exactly what Satchel did. I mean really, how else would you choose?

Besides, Satchel is hardly the first non-human to excel at sports betting. Remember Paul, the octopus who correctly predicted the outcome in a majority of Euro 2008 and all World Cup 2010 football (soccer to Americans) matches? Paul is probably the only octopus with a biography on Wikipedia, too …).

Satchel and Paul are joined in sports betting prowess by Cruz, a parrot who correctly bet on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to win this year’s Super Bowl. (Cruz was alone in the Washington Post roundup of animal predictions; the unnamed tortoise, dolphin, sand cat, and panda all chose Kansas City.) Jane the river otter, a Tampa resident, and fellow local Buffett (a manatee) also loyally — and accurately — picked the Bucs. Their friend Nick, a dolphin, unfortunately chose the Chiefs, ending his yearlong winning streak.

So, next time you need some assistance with your sports predictions, just check with your dog. Whatever you do, don’t ask the dolphin.

What Happens When a Service Dog Retires?

Pam Hogle Ask The Thinking Dog, The Thinking Dog Blog , , , ,
Yellow Lab Ryan and Black lab Koala relax in a play tunnel
Ryan, left, and Koala, enjoyed a short vacation in Florida just before Ryan’s 2020 retirement.

When a service or guide dog is no longer able or willing to work, what happens?

Many of them stay with their families, living a life of leisure, enjoying many belly rubs, and watching some young whippersnapper do “their” job. Poorly, of course.

But not all people who partner with service or guide dogs can keep their retired partners. There are many reasons for this: Some are elderly folks or people who live on a very tight budget, and they simply cannot care for a second dog. Some are busy professionals who travel frequently and feel that they owe their retired dog a better life than frequent stays at a kennel and long, lonely days while they — and the new dog — head to work. Sometimes a guide or service dog retires because their partner dies or becomes seriously ill.

Whatever the reason, the guide or service dog’s partner or family often looks for a retirement home for the dog. Often extended family eagerly step up: Deni’s first guide, Oriel, spent a couple of years with family in Indiana before moving to Florida to live with us. Alberta, who retired young due to an eye tumor, lives with Deni’s nephew & family, including her new charge — a human puppy!

If family placement is not an option, many guide dog partners ask dog-savvy friends and acquaintances; I was a finalist in the retirement-home search for a Guiding Eyes dog recently, but the dog opted to stay closer to her partner rather than move to Montana (her loss …).

When neither of those options works out, guide and service dog schools generally place the dog with someone on their extensive waiting lists. These are usually volunteers, donors, puppy raisers (perhaps even that dog’s puppy raisers!), or others with ties to the school.

The dogs never end up panhandling for cookies or living under a bridge somewhere.

Celebrate K9 Veterans!

Pam Hogle The Thinking Dog Blog , , ,
statues of 4 dogs and a soldier at the military dog national monument
Military Working Dog Teams National Monument

A reader let me know that National K9 Veterans Day was on March 13.

The U.S. has had canine service members since 1942. Our brave canine service members sniff out explosive devices, patrol, serve as guards, track people, and do so much more. They also provide companionship and comfort to human service members serving in difficult situations.

Other canines serve veterans as service dogs, including supporting veterans with PTSD and helping them adjust to civilian life. While these dogs are not actually K9 veterans, they deserve a mention for their service as well!

A local K9 veteran, Sergeant Bozo, began his service at Fort Missoula as a young puppy. At the age of 4, Bozo was promoted to the rank of honorary master sergeant and joined the Fourth Infantry. After Sergeant Bozo’s tragic death, he received loving tributes from newspapers all over Montana. He was buried with full military honors, it’s said, possibly in the military cemetery at Fort Missoula (though that was against the rules and has never been confirmed). His footprints and name are scratched into a cement marker on the site of the old post, though, and local lore holds that he was buried there. And the Sergeant Bozo Memorial Dog Park is located nearby, in a large park now located adjacent to the historic fort. Cali and her friends honor Sergeant Bozo’s memory with frequent walks there.

The Military Working Dog Teams National Monument in Lackland, Texas, honor all U.S. military dogs. And military dog heroes are honored with monuments across the country, from New York to California, and there’s even one on Guam. If there’s no monument you can visit, consider honoring military K9s — veterans and active duty service members — with a donation to an organization that sends care packages to canine teams, trains service dogs for veterans, or helps K9 veterans find loving retirement homes.

 

Silence, Please

Pam Hogle Main Blog, The Thinking Dog Blog ,

Profile of Cali, a golden retriever, and her silicone-wrapped tagThe Whole Dog Journal recently ran an article about everyday things that irritate dogs. I was pleased to see one of my pet peeves on the list: Jangling tags.

The constant jangling of dog tags is annoying. It’s annoying to me, and I can get away from it. Imagine how the dog feels?

I’ve used many tricks over time to eliminate the jingle-jangle:

  • Silicone or neoprene cover for one or more tags
  • Silicone edging on the tag
  • Rubber band to hold the tags together
  • Stick-on dots to separate the tags

The little covers or edging — you can order tags with the edging or buy little slip-on silicone frames for common tag sizes and shapes — are the most effective, but any of those solutions will reduce the noise. You can also now buy silicone dog tags! Next time Cali loses her tags, I’ll replace it with one of those!

Reducing the number of tags helps too, of course. Cali wears an ID tag with her phone number and her Montana dog license (she’s very proud of that one!). And that’s it.

The noise can be problematic in unanticipated ways: The WDJ article describes a dog who refused to eat because the noise of the tags banging into his metal dish was so unnerving.

It’s an easy fix. To find out other irritants you can eliminate from your dog’s life, read the Whole Dog Journal article (regular readers should all be subscribers by now; it’s the best $20 you’ll ever spend on your dog!).

Pandemic Puppies Are Hitting Adolescence

Pam Hogle Main Blog, The Thinking Dog Blog , , ,
Young Cali, a golden retriever, runs through a tunnel holding a tennis ball
Cali, now 8, took ages to grow up!

Wow, all those pandemic puppies people got last spring are now hitting that wonderful adolescent stage. You know, where they have boundless energy, no sense, and no memory of anything you’ve taught them?

How long does that stage last? Jana’s was about 5 months. Cali’s? closer to 2 years … Then one day something clicks into place and you have a wonderful adult dog. If you’ve done your homework, that is.

If you didn’t get training when your dog was a puppy, you might find yourself on a long waiting list now. Even if you’ve raised puppies before and know how essential early socialization and training are, the pandemic poses significant problems.

Last spring, many dog training classes were shut down. How do you go to puppy kindergarten on Zoom? Sure, you can learn to teach the pup to sit on cue and wait before bolting out the door by following online lessons, but — like human kindergartners — pups need to play with others to learn how to be a nice dog.

They also need to interact with people. All kinds of people — all ages, ethnicities, genders, sizes, shapes — and wearing all kinds of clothing, walking with different gaits (or using wheelchairs or walkers) … it’s nearly impossible to get that kind of exposure while socially distancing.

The extended work-from-home time was beneficial to housetraining and developing a close bond with a new puppy, but is that dog able to handle being left home alone?

Get creative!

It’s possible to find workarounds to some of these issues. A trainer referenced in a recent NYT article suggests hanging out in a park with a long leash (15-20 feet) and asking willing passers-by to greet your puppy.

As far as encouraging independence, crate training is always a good idea — then ensuring that the pup spends some time alone each day, crated with a fabulous treat. I like stuffed Kongs, but there are dozens of great treat toys that you can safely leave with your dog in a crate. Avoid anything that looks like the dog could chew off a small part (whether a toy or an edible, like dental chews or rawhide) and swallow it. Smear or stuff it with something irresistible. Peanut butter works for a lot of dogs.

Do this while you are at home, but also start leaving the dog home alone for short periods. Take a no-dog walk, run errands, whatever is possible where you live. Gradually extend the dog’s alone time, and don’t make a huge fuss when you return or release the dog from the crate. It shouldn’t be a big deal to leave the dog or reunite. Just part of an ordinary daily routine.

If your dog has become a wild child and you don’t know what to do, look for online training — try the APDT’s trainer search. Even if you can only get an online class or a phone consultation, professional advice might be the best way to resolve any behavioral issues before they get deeply entrenched. Please choose only a positive trainer, though, and be prepared to put in some time and effort. Changing behavior takes time (whether it’s the dog’s or the human’s — or both!).

Hats off to ‘Thoughts of Dog’

Pam Hogle Barkshelf, Main Blog , , , , ,
Book cover of Thoughts of Dog shows simply drawn yellow dog with stuffed elephant

Thoughts of Dog is more than a book or a calendar. It’s a peek into the mind of a loving, sweet, sometimes silly golden retriever and their human. The dog, who is nameless, has a constant companion named Sebastian (Sebastian is a stuffed elephant). Dog also has a human of course.

That human is named Matt Nelson.

And they are simply brilliant.

Nelson & dog capture the human-dog relationship perfectly. They’re poignant, laugh-out-loud funny and sardonic in turns. Always spot-on.

Nelson got started sharing his uncanny dog wisdom a couple of years ago (don’t know HOW I missed it …) with “We Rate Dogs.” You can see some examples on this blog post: 50 Times People Asked To Rate Their Dogs, And Got Hilarious Results.

Calendar page showing dog saying "Today I waited patiently while the human checked little boxes to try to change the world"I first heard of Thoughts of Dog when a friend shared a page from last year’s calendar. I immediately ordered the 2021 calendar.

Highly recommended whenever you need a lift or a laugh.

Do Dogs Miss Their Friends?

Pam Hogle Ask The Thinking Dog, The Thinking Dog Blog , ,
Golden Cali rests her chin on black Lab Koala's back
I miss my sister (sometimes)

Koala and Deni left Montana a few weeks ago, and recently a friend asked me whether Cali misses Koala. He then jumped to the next level and asked whether dogs understand that someone has left temporarily versus having “crossed the rainbow bridge.”

Those are pretty big existential questions for dogs to consider, but I think they are up to the challenge.

First, does Cali miss Koala? I think that she misses Deni more and that there are lots of aspects of being an only dog that Cali thoroughly enjoys. Cali has regular play dates with her pal Maisy — and the two of them play better together than the pack of three did. Cali always gets to choose where we walk, as well as where we stop so she can sniff. She gets all of the dog eggs at breakfast and can have her snuffle mat whenever she wants (within reason).

But yes, I think she does miss Koala. Life is quieter and more boring when Koala is not here, and Cali rarely has a playmate. Not that Koala is always the nicest playmate, but the girls do often have a lot of fun together. When Koala is not pulling on Cali’s tail, that is, or scheming to steal her treat ball.

I also think that Cali understands that Koala and Deni have gone somewhere else — and will come back. Cali goes to the airport to see them off; they are healthy; and, I am guessing, Koala lords it over Cali for days before a trip: I get to go on an airplane and I get eggs in the Delta lounge and I get to meet the security team … that kind of thing. Cali knows that Koala isn’t simply ghosting her.

When Jana died after a period with many health problems, Cali’s reaction was completely different. She knew that Jana was gone. She cried and moped and grieved for days.

So, yes, I think dogs do understand different types of separations and have appropriate reactions to temporary versus permanent ones. Though if she did think that Koala was ghosting her, I do not know what an appropriate reaction would look like …