Dogged Blog

Classic pet-care manuals get a make-over

For more than a quarter-century, pet owners have turned to the "Home Veterinary Handbook" series when faced with questions about pet illnesses and injuries.



While the questions are mostly the same today as when the series debuted, the world of veterinary medicine has changed dramatically. New technologies, advanced diagnostic techniques, newly emerging diseases, and recent research on drugs, vaccines and surgeries have made having current information a necessity.



Fortunately, newly updated and revised editions of both of these classic reference books were released in the last few months, authored by a team of four veterinarians led by Dr. Debra Eldredge.



"The goal was to update the books with the wealth of new veterinary information we have had in recent years," she said. And the authors succeeded: From cutting-edge diagnostics to alternative therapies, the handbooks cover it all.



The "Dog Owner's Home Veterinary Handbook" and "Cat Owner's Home Veterinary Handbook" (Howell Book House, $35 each) are organized by body system, with a comprehensive index in the back and a handy mini-index inside the front covers. Pet owners can read about the causes, symptoms, prevention and treatment of common as well as unusual animal health problems, from allergies to cancer. Sections are also included on first aid and medication, as well as instructions on how to monitor a pet's vital signs.



There's more than just practical advice on how to cope with health problems, too.



"The books are meant to make pet owners better health advocates for their pets, more informed and better able to communicate with their veterinarians," said Dr. Eldredge.



That's because the authors managed the tricky task of offering pet health information that's genuinely useful but doesn't confuse pet owners into skipping veterinary care when it's needed. Easily followed guidelines tell owners when it's appropriate or even necessary to give immediate aid to a dog or cat, when symptoms require an immediate trip to the emergency clinic, and when the pet can wait until regular office hours to be seen.



Also on the cutting edge are two new books on pet first aid from the American Red Cross. While there's nothing new about pet health emergencies, some recent hurricanes, floods and fires have underscored the need for resources to cope with them. And these two spiral-bound books -- one for dogs and one for cats -- are great resources. Each book comes with a companion DVD that gives step-by-step instructions on how to give first aid to pets. The sections on animal poisoning are particularly impressive, as is the information on what to do in an emergency until veterinary care can be obtained. They cost $17 each and are available online at RedCross.org (click on "Store" and then "Reference Guides"), or by calling 1-866-782-3347.



One more book to round out the pet owner's health library is Eldredge's "Pills For Pets: The A to Z Guide to Drugs and Medications for Your Animal Companion" (Citadel, $15). It lists drugs by brand and generic names, covers issues including online pharmacies and compounded medications, and gives tips on how to get medicine into the pets -- yes, even those uncooperative cats.



And don't forget the Merck/Merial manual!



Most pet health books are lucky to have one veterinarian listed as an author. "The Merck/Merial Manual for Pet Health: The complete pet health resource for your dog, cat, horse or other pets - in everyday language" (Merck, $23) offers more than 100 veterinarians, most with advanced degrees and certification, as contributors.



Within each section of this hefty paperback is an encyclopedic listing of disorders and body systems, as well as an overview on routine care and preventive medicine. If it's about animal health, it's almost certainly in this book, often in surprising detail.



Your turn: In this Internet age, what pet-care books do you still value enough to keep on the shelf?

Howl for dog humor with the editor of The Bark!

Gina's on her way home from Global Pet Expo, and I'm on my way to Las Vegas for the Western States Veterinary conference. And Dr. Marty's on his way from the first to the second, because he's an Iron Man!



I didn't blog today because I'm overwhelmed with work -- Chat Month is clustered on the weekends and this one was a killer!



But tonight, Sunday, February 17, while I'm in Las Vegas hanging out with veterinarians, Gina's and my friend, Claudia Kawzczynksa, editor of The Bark Magazine, will be the guest at DogHobbyist.com's Sunday night chat. It will be at 9 PM Eastern/6 PM Pacific, in the Dog Den. Claudia will be discussing Bark's newest book, "Howl":

Dogs are celebrated members of our families thanks to their capacity for unconditional love, unfaltering loyalty, and now, in "Howl: A Collection of the Best Contemporary Dog Wit," for their comedic genius. In their follow-up to the New York Times bestseller "Dog is my Co-Pilot," the editors of The Bark have returned with over seventy pieces highlighting the hilarity of dogs. Come hear more about the witty voice of today's canine culture, and the endless reasons why we love our dogs -- plus get an inside look at America's hippest dog magazine.

I hope you can stop by -- I'm sorry I won't be able to make it, although maybe I'll find a little wi fi sweet spot somewhere and sign in!

You can lead a Florida county commissioner to water...

I'm back! I am telling myself you missed me terribly, so don't disillusion me. I was in Los Angeles at the Xena: Warrior Princess convention, and yes, I was working, but also yes, I'd have gone anyway. I am just that geeky.



I was digging through a pile of email that reaches to the virtual ceiling. I go through my email backwards, which can be confusing, but it does mean that while I haven't read my Google alerts from last week, I did read one that bounced in a few minutes ago.



Seems Florida's Palm Beach County is considering a mandatory spay/neuter law, and some kind constituent sent each of the county commissioners, the ones who'll be voting on the issue, a copy of Nathan Winograd's "Redemption: The Myth of Pet Overpopulation and the No Kill Revolution in America" to assist them in making this decision that will impact the lives of dogs, cats, and people in their county.



Now it seems that one of the commissioners, Burt Aaronson, has no plans to read the book, saying, "If people want me to read something, they could have enclosed a letter: 'We'd like you to read this, we’re giving it to you as a gift.'"



Wow, commissioner, you're a tough guy to do a favor for. It wasn't enough that this constituent purchased the book and sent it to you, you wanted them to schmooze you up, too?



The rest of the story's here.



And hey, did you miss my lame headlines? Or just me in general?

Talk about feel-good stories

I'm reviewing a book for the Pet Connection syndicated feature. I don't get much room for those reviews, just enough to give readers an idea of what the book is about. And I'm not going to "spoil" the review for you here.



I just wanted to share a small excerpt from the book itself, because it took me by surprise and gave me hope, and I thought it might brighten your hearts, too.



The book is Bonnie Silva's "Fifteen Legs," and it's the account of the nationwide network of animal rescue transporters who move dogs, cats, and other animals from areas where they're unlikely to be adopted to foster and forever homes.



But this post isn't about rescue transport, nor even Silva's book. It's about a network of cat lovers caring for a feral colony in Newburyport, Mass. The cats live in a waterfront area full of expensive shops and restuarants, and were becoming a nuisance, stealing food off the diners' plates in the summer, and mewling pitifully outside the restaurants in the winter.



Several residents went to the head of the local Chamber of Commerce, herself a cat lover, and suggested something be done to help the cats, and in 1992, the Merrimack River Feline Rescue Society was formed.



And all that's very wonderful and heartwarming, but it's not the part that made me cry. This is:

We have twelve feral cats living on the waterfront right now that are fed out of four feeding stations by thirty-five devoted volunteers who are there twice a day feeding and caring for the kitties. The volunteers are all between twelve to fifteen years of age.

Twelve to fifteen years of age. Go give those kids some love.

Oh, AKC, I wish I knew how to quit you!

There are few organizations that irritate me on a more consistent basis than the American Kennel Club.



Don't get me wrong; there are lots of organizations that make me angrier than AKC ever has. I don't hate them like I hate, say, the Klan. But sometimes it seems that a day doesn't go by that I don't feel like getting in my car, driving to AKC headquarters in North Carolina, taking the board by the ears, and shaking them.



See, I'm reading Donald McCaig's "The Dog Wars: How the Border Collie Battled the American Kennel Club." Before he gets into the saga of the Border Collie, he tells of a weekend he was at a sheepdog trial, and an AKC rep showed up -- something that none of them could recall ever happening before. The guy asked a lot of questions, and everyone was sort of wondering why he was there, but didn't think about it too much.



"Not two weeks later," McCaig writes, "the AKC moved to swallow the Australian shepherd.... Without telling anyone (including the Aussie people) or the AKC's own membership, who never discussed or voted on these new procedures, AKC directors had changed their rules to (as they explained in a press release) 'make the applications and approval process more efficent and expeditious for breeds meeting AKC requirements.'"



He went on:

In a nutshell, the new rules meant that if AKC staffers could locate (or create) a handful of breed owners who wished to join the AKC, the AKC could annoint them the dog's breed club, accept their application, and recognize any dog it wanted to. They'd forget about the studbooks -- those precious repositories of begats -- and simply take the word of those wishing to register their dogs with the AKC that their dogs were purebred Australian shepherds, and that if registrants claimed their dogs was sired by decades of ASCA champions, by God, so it was.

This, he said, "was somewhat like the Pope declaring that the Virgin Mary may not have been so virginal after all...." and sent the Border Collie folks into mass hysteria:

We were desperate to learn what was going on. You may think the AKC, a not-for-profit dog club, would be perfectly transparent, that its thinking and decisions would be open to public debate. Think instead of Byzantium, the College of Carindals, a Chinese tong, the Supreme Soviet. As George Sangster wrote in 1986, "The Kennel Club is not an organization, it's a garrison. The world's largest secret society. The world's most impenetrable fortress. A stronghold, not a governing body. A psychosis, not a philosophy. It's in the twentieth century but not of it."

And of course, the AKC swallowed up the Border Collie, too, giving us generation upon generation of fluffy-coated, tail-wagging dogs who aren't quite sure what a sheep is. Or, as McCaig said, reduced "a brilliant working dog to a handsome nitwit."



Last year, the AKC board got a rude awakening when they announced a new partnership with a national chain of pet stores to register the puppies sold through those stores. Seems AKC's education arm had done too good a job of convincing hobby breeders that they really were special, and that the mass production of living creatures as a commodity was not a good thing to do, and that the purpose of breeding isn't to make money or even to put pets into people's homes, but to preserve and improve their chosen breeds.



Because the outcry from the AKC member clubs was loud, long, and angry. At the meeting where this idea was announced as a done deal, the delegate for the Schipperke Club of America, Betty Jo Patrick, said:

I don’t mean to be rude, but I do the rescue for the State of Arizona. And I am the one that gets the dogs and I am the one that tries to find the homes and I am the one that pays for the MPS 3B tests at 80 bucks apiece. And I’m going to say: Petland is not going to take them back when they don’t work out. They come to me. And they’re a mess. And I am angry; very, very, very angry.

Former AKC President Judith Daniels stood up and said:

(A)fter dessert, we find out with a spokesperson from the podium that because we have competitors and because we need more money, and believe me, I understand the need for ancillary lines of income — we were researching them tremendously when I was on staff and we started one of the big ones then. But now because we need the money, we have been told we are going to go to bed with the pet shops, with the enemies, and to me that is indeed prostituting our ethic.

Howard Falberg, Delegate for the Golden Retriever Club of America:

I am scared stiff that that what we are doing now with this proposal reminds me of the Biblical phrase about selling your birthright for a bowl full of rotten porridge. And I don’t think that we should be doing that.

Judy Hart, Delegate from Pembroke Welsh Corgi Club of America:

I have spent over 35 years involved with purebred dogs and this Sport - 100 percent with the American Kennel Club. And don’t think that I’m upset and my voice is shaking because I’m sad or not used to public speaking or something. I am truly angry.

Patricia Laurans is an AKC judge (she's judged at Westminster eight times), is a former member of the AKC Board of Directors, and is the Chair of the AKC Parent Club Committee. She's also the German Wirehaired Pointer Club of America Delegate:

I would like to call attention to every single Parent clubs’ that I know of code of ethics that says we will not sell to pet stores.



I would like to call attention to the fact that, from my humble belief, we are selling our birthright for a few shekels.



I would like to call attention that this is a club of clubs and that we are your constituency. We are the groups that are asked to help out with medallions, to work at shows, to educate the public, to make our clubs and our events more friendly so we can help increase registration on a volunteer basis.



I would like to make note of the fact, and pardon me, I feel we are prostituting some of our values, I feel we are going against what I believe most of the members and member clubs would want to see happen, and I feel that we should have at least had some sort of way to give you our thoughts before contracts were signed, sealed and delivered. You said, and I supported the fact, that we don’t want to let the enemy in. I question the fact right now if the enemy is already here. Thank you.

So the Board cancelled the plan, scolded its member clubs for their shortsightedness, threatened to increase dog show fees, and has been flouncing around sulking ever since. They even recently decided to air some grievances they had with the one organization that gives them the most credibility in the ethics department, the AKC Canine Health Foundation, too. I mean, are these guys PR geniuses or what?



Most of the AKC parent clubs are full of ethical longtime dog folks like the ones who spoke out about AKC's plan to ally with pet stores. And most of the people you meet a dog show (at least the ones there with their own dogs) are pretty great people. They're people like Betty Jo Patrick, who run big breed rescue operations. Or like Gina, who spends half her free time slogging through the mud to make sure her breed, the Flat-Coated Retriever, doesn't join the AKC Border Collie in becoming a bunch of handsome nitwits.



These people love dogs, they help dogs, they encourage new people in the fancy, and they actually screen their buyers about as hard as those irrationally restrictive rescue groups we're all complaining about in a couple of ongoing threads here at Pet Connection.



Of course there are the win-hungry jerks who don't care about dogs but just about stud fees, ribbons, and glory. And just as in anything else where winning and losing is involved, there's a whole lotta politics going on. But still, lots of good folks who love dogs.



So, is there somewhere else for those people to go? There's nowhere exactly like the AKC, no organization that has as many shows or anything approaching the name recognition of the AKC. But some dog folks have given the United Kennel Club a try, and decided they liked it a lot better.



Becky Baxter of Anutta Standard Poodles is one poodle breeder who thinks the UKC can help breeders like her who are trying to improve the quality of the dogs in their breed who aren't solid colored (parti-coloration is a disqualification in AKC poodles, but not UKC):

UKC has been a great asset to the parti poodles. I love how they do not allow hair spray, dying of the dogs, hair pieces, pro handlers, etc. AKC makes me ill really. Standing ringside watching all the pro handlers spray up their dogs, make sure their 'weaves' are not falling out, etc. It's sickening. I just finished a black bitch in AKC about a month ago. She wasn't dyed (which is rare for a black, let me tell you, most are) nor did we allow the handler to use extra hair pieces, but she did have to grow alot of hair and have a pro handler finish her. It's close to impossible to finish a poodle in AKC without a handler.

I haven't bred a dog in 9 years. Rebel, who is an AKC champion, is eligible to be shown as a veteran even though he's neutered, and I am a member of the AKC parent club for my breed, the Scottish Deerhound Club of America. But like Baxter and other poodle owners such as those who started Versatility in Poodles, my problems with AKC go beyond the hairspray and into the deeper ethical underpinnings of all that fake hair.



If AKC can't sustain itself as what its member clubs seem to believe it is, a body that helps preserve and improve dog breeds and support knowledgeable and compassionate dog care, then it should go away and cede the registration stakes to the bogus puppy mill registries. Giving really good dog shows isn't going to be enough to keep the support of those of us who think the heritage of purebred dogs, and their health and wellbeing, is more important than finding ways to sell more and more pieces of paper, whether by hijacking working and rare breeds, or getting in bed with big commercial breeders.

We fight, animals lose

Over on SFGate.com, there are many people expressing strong feelings one way or the other about my column this morning, in which I discuss Nathan Winograd's book "Redemption." I open the column by saying Winograd is a polarizing figure. I acknowledge his book is controversial. I even explain why that is. And people on both sides of the issue are arguing over "their side," and that's not just fine with me, that's good. That's healthy debate.



What makes my head explode in a bad way is being challenged to defend things I never said, or account for things Winograd doesn't say in the interview or the book itself.



These arguments -- such as the argument over the use of the term "adoptable" -- are irrelevant and divisive. I have written before that I don't use that word, nor do I support classifying animals as "adoptable" or "unadoptable." Winograd has said that "adoptable" is a "self-serving category." Modern no kill terminology uses live release rates to measure success, and advocates not the end of true animal euthanasia (the ending of suffering or untreatable illness or aggression) but the end of animal population control killing (killing animals because your shelter is full, or you think it's going to be full, or, well... for any other reason besides one that a loving owner would have for ending the suffering of a companion animal).



The modern no kill movement aims for a live release rate of over 90 percent.



And that brings us to the second part of this debate: The "cherry picking" accusation.



That's the one that says that no kill shelters refuse to take in animals and only want the easily adoptable ones and that even though they aren't doing population control killing, they're just letting someone else do it for them.



There are two problems with this argument, one of which strikes me as much more important than the other. The first is that, of course, anything that takes the pressure off kill shelters should be welcomed, because if they're full, you'd think they'd be glad there's someone around to care for even a handful of the animals they'd otherwise get. But that's not, to me, the real issue.



The real issue is that neither Winograd nor anyone in the modern no kill movement talks in terms of no kill shelters anymore. They talk about no kill communities and a no kill nation. This isn't about one shelter going all happy happy and not killing and intaking only fluffy puppies and kittens la la la.



It's about a comprehensive, community-based program uniting all animal shelters, rescue groups, and animal control agencies in a region -- a region as small as a town or as large as a state -- and no longer basing animal control policies on the use of population control killing.



The specifics of that will of course vary from region to region, because each area has its own unique profile of pet owners, resources, and animal problems. But there is a big menu of programs and strategies that have been used in all types of locations, from urban centers on the coasts to small towns in the South, that enable communities to stop killing for population control and find another way.



If there are genuine problems with this, let's discuss them. But if we find ourselves bogged down in arguments over proposals no one is making, based on definitions no one is using, about ideas no one is supporting, it's time to ask: Who is trying to divert us from our common ground? Who wants to see this debate devolve into rancor and dissension? Whose interests are being served by our disunity?



I will tell you whose interests are not: The animals.

The mysterious dog: Great read and a good message

I'm a complete dog mystery addict, although I'm fairly picky about what I'll read in the genre. One of my favorites is Laurien Berenson's series about the poodle, Faith, and her owner Melanie Travis. The fourtheenth book in the series, Hounded to Death, just came out, and I just finished it this afternoon.



One of my favorite things about the series is how every time single-mom Melanie has to go out sleuthing, she first has to find a baby sitter for her son Davey. In the midst of believing a special ed teacher at a suburban private school is also solving crimes and stumbling over dead bodies at least once a month, not to mention her entirely too-good-to-be-true love interest, Sam, we get her old, falling-apart car, deadbeat ex, and the babysitter thing. I love these books.



However my actual favorite thing about them is her Aunt Peg, a grande dame of the dog show world, and the epitome of a responsible poodle breeder. In the latest adventures of Melanie and the indomitable Aunt Peg, the two of them head off for a dog show judge's seminar along with Melanie's sister-in-law, who is a professional dog handler. Someone dies, and of course, Melanie solves the crime. I won't say any more about the plot, but Berenson has a light touch and gets the dog show world  exactly right.



I interviewed the author a few months ago, and she assured me Aunt Peg was based on a real person and one of her dog show mentors. I'm glad to know the babysitter isn't the only dose of reality in the series.



So if you're looking for doggy fun and like your mysteries on the light and cozy side, Laurien Berenson's poodle mysteries are perfect escapist fare.

The big cheese is away

Gina's on an airplane, winging her way to Global Pet Expo, and she left me in charge of the blog. So I thought I'd regale you with adorable stories of my own pets reviews of a couple of absolutely classic sighthound books.



Gazehounds: The Search for Truth by Constance O. Miller. This classic book is based on a series of articles the author wrote for Gazehound Magazine from 1976 to 1980. Don't let the dates fool you, though; it is as vital and interesting today as it was when she first penned it.The origin of Gazehounds: The Search for Truth was Constance Miller's diatribe against what she perceived as lies, myths, and distortions about the origins of the sighthound breeds. While debunking myths may have been Miller's original goal, she ended up creating a fascinating history of sighthounds, liberally illustrated with photographs and illustrations. She discusses the revival of the Irish Wolfhound, the state of the modern Saluki, the history and creation of the Whippet, and how the Deerhound and Borzoi became show dogs. Her chapter on the Afghan hound, and its divergence from the Saluki, evokes an era of dog showing and breeding that few of us today can imagine.



Gazehounds & Coursing: The History, Art and Sport of Hunting With Sighthounds by M H Dutch Salmon. This is the best book about what sighthounds are all about that has ever been written. No matter how you feel about hunting, if you own a deerhound or other sighthound, read this book for the understanding it will give you of what your dog is all about.



Dutch Salmon is held in high esteem as a dog man, and my own contribution to that respect will be just a drop in the bucket, but I have to add that I couldn't help but revere a guy who writes, as he does, about my breed, "I like the Scottish Deerhound best of all the gazehounds. They are a fine pet; the ideal companion dog - quiet, but alert, devoted and loving but not sloppy about it. Courageous but not overly aggressive, either with people or other dogs; dignified but not snobbish. The deerhound is definitely not temperamental. This beautiful hound has a look in his eyes you won't forget; a distant look, until he knows you."



Now THAT'S an expert.