Am I Boring My Dog? (11 page)

Individualize. There’s no question that vaccinations are essential to your dog’s health, but views on the efficacy, frequency, risk, and even type of shots required have shifted in recent years. Annual boosters are no longer advised for most vaccines, for example; three-year updates are now considered sufficient. Similarly, because research has shown that not all vaccines remain effective for the same length of time, the practice of bundling—putting several vaccines together in a single shot—is becoming less common.
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In short, a no-shot-fits-all philosophy is emerging. A responsible vet should take the age, breed, habits, and immune system of your dog—as well as the region in which you live—into account when determining which inoculations to give.

Vaccines fall into two basic categories: the core group, which protect against diseases that are particularly dangerous, are easily transmitted, and/or are dangerous to humans, including distemper, adenovirus, parvovirus, and rabies; and the noncore group, recommended for dogs at specific risk. Desert-dwelling dogs don’t have to worry about Lyme disease, for example, as those who live in humid, tick-rich areas do; and pups who don’t go to doggie daycare or engage in group overnight sleepaways need not be inoculated against kennel cough. Even with core group medications, however, vaccinations should be considered on an individual basis. The risks of vaccinating very old dogs, dogs with compromised immune systems, and certain toy breeds, say, may outweigh the benefits.

Lately, there’s been a good deal of interest in titer tests, which determine the continuing effectiveness of a vaccine by measuring the level of antibodies present in the blood. At this point, however, many of these tests aren’t considered accurate enough to justify their expense. Results are not consistent for all diseases—many researchers consider only those for distemper and parvo reliable—or even for all breeds.

The bottom line: A series of core group shots are recommended for puppies as soon as they’ve lost their mothers’ immunity, at around four weeks; at the latest, these initial shots should be given at six months. After two years of age, tread—or shoot—lightly. Don’t second guess your vet, but stay informed.

At no age, if most veterinarians have their say. Cropping and docking have been outlawed in many countries, and the American Veterinary Medical Association’s policy statement dubs these surgeries “not medically indicated, nor of benefit to the patient,” noting that they “cause pain and distress.”

Historically, tail docking, or surgical shortening, helped prevent working dogs from getting injured. For example, overlong tails of hunting dogs running through brush to retrieve prey might get burrs caught in them, and sheepdogs might be mistaken for wolves threatening the herds and get shot in error. Cutting and bandaging a dog’s ears to make them stand upright, on the other hand, was always purely aesthetic, done to make guard dogs like Boxers and Dobermans look fierce and alert. Now most of these cosmetic procedures are performed—usually without anesthesia in early puppyhood—to make dogs conform to the American Kennel Club’s breed registry standards.

In addition to being cruel and—except in working dogs—useless, tail docking also interferes with communication. How can you know what your dog is trying to tell you if he doesn’t have a tail? And I think cropped ears make a pup appear not so much fierce as astonished—the same look you get from a too-tight facelift.

Dogs need to do the same things that we need to do to stay in shape: eat well and get plenty of exercise. Luckily, it’s an easier regimen to enforce than to stick to: your dog can’t binge on junk food unless you provide it (or he lucks into a McDonald’s dumpster), and you’ll never hear him complain, “Sorry, I’m just not up for walking today.”
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When it comes to disease, human-canine principles converge, too, with prevention, early detection, and early correction being key.

To keep your dog from getting seriously ill you need to …

Parasites such as heartworm, fleas, ticks, and mosquitoes are more than just nuisances to dogs; they can be deadly. Pet store shelves are filled with products to eliminate them: pills, topical creams, single doses, combinations … But don’t use anything without consulting your vet.
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If your dog already has heartworm, for example, and you give him preventative medication for it, the nuked worms can clog his cardiovascular system (how’s that for a scare tactic?). And cat medications—even if they look the same as dog remedies and are on sale—can make your dog sick. What part of “different species” don’t you understand?

Yes, you need to brush your dog’s teeth. I’ll explain why in Chapter 4.

Early detection is important in maintaining your dog’s health.

One of the advantages of brushing your dog’s coat regularly is that you can feel for any new growths or scabs. While you’ve got him in that pleasure zone of grooming, peer into and sniff at his ears (there’s more on all this in Chapter 5).

 

A change in habits—especially drinking, eating, and elimination—can presage illness.

 

Take your dog for a yearly vet visit (twice a year for a senior pet), even if your dog seems fine.

 

Don’t procrastinate. If you don’t take care of a health problem as soon as you discover it, it can get out of hand—and thus become even more expensive to deal with than it was initially.

Dogs do a lot of stuff that seems very strange to us and perplexes even people with advanced degrees in animalology. Because it’s comforting to know what behavior belongs in the realm of peculiar but not unique, here are some of the most common examples of the peculiar.

Some dogs eat dirt and/or grass. Others down nonorganic foreign objects, like TV remotes and pantyhose. And still others eat feces—their own, other dogs’, other species’. (There’s even a term for this taste for waste—coprophagia.)

No one is entirely sure why dogs have such eclectic palates. The consumption of indigestible items is the biggest problem, because you’ll have to pay for surgery if those pantyhose don’t pass through without incident. But it’s the poop-eating that seems to drive people craziest, even though it’s not generally harmful. My dog’s adorable, they protest. How could he be so disgusting? Proposed cures include putting meat tenderizer in your dog’s food—apparently it makes the poop less yummy—or sprinkling Bitter Apple on the turds. The most logical solution: clean up after your dog immediately.
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Along with barking and howling, dogs pant. It’s their method of air-conditioning: they cool themselves off by increasing evaporation in the respiratory tract. Some dogs don’t pant much, except when it’s really warm or after strenuous exercise. Others pant at the drop of a hat, whenever they’re excited or nervous. The length of panting varies, too. The particular functioning of your dog’s self-cooling unit will soon become evident to you.

Dogs also produce many un-doglike vocalizations. When I first heard Frankie sigh, for example, I was terrified that he was the reincarnation of my mother, queen of the emotionally fraught exhalation. I’ve come to see that, although Frankie inspires guilt in his own special way, his sighs signal impatience or satisfaction rather than disappointment with me. At least that’s what I’ve chosen to convince myself they mean.

Watch for differences when your dog goes to the bathroom.

 

Marking is the stop-and-start, back-leg-raised urinating that unneutered males do to say “I was here” (also known as pee-mail) or “I see your pee and I pee on it!” (a form of pooch poker called four-legged stud). But cross-peeing is also quite common: some laid-back males, even those neutered late, squat and empty their bladders completely, while some alpha females raise their legs and pee in short bursts. So don’t worry if your pup likes to urinate outside gender stereotypes.

 

I’ve already discussed feces eating. Dogs also do something called “scooting” or “scooching”: dragging their behinds across the grass, the floor, or—particularly popular—your white rug. This might indicate something as simple as that your dog’s butt itches or that she wants to dislodge some dingleberries; it might, on the other hand, indicate that her anal “glands”—the small, scent-bearing sacs that inspire dogs to sniff each other’s butts—need to be drained.

Some people perform the fairly simple procedure of squeezing (expressing) these sacs at home, after being instructed on how to do so by a vet. Others—and I include myself in this category—are completely grossed out by the idea. What smells good to a dog doesn’t always synch with human olfactory preferences, especially in concentrated form. I therefore pay a groomer to do it.

Digging comes naturally to many dogs, particularly terriers and other working breeds taught to keep their hunters’ prey protected underground. These Earth relocation projects don’t have to have an object; some dogs simply like digging for its own sake. Some digging, however, is related to burying food, toys, or anything else your dog wants to save for later. I wouldn’t worry about hoarding unless your dog takes his kibble, bit by bit, to the backyard.

Perhaps more disconcerting than digging is the circling and scratching that many dogs do before they lie down. Some hypothesize that this might be a vestige from the days when wolves needed to clear snakes or other pests from the den. Sometimes Frankie roots around vigorously before he goes to sleep; sometimes he doesn’t bother. I’ve never tried to determine whether there’s a correlation between the length of his exploratory gestures and the cleanliness of my sheets.