pet connection

For a few months now, a lot of things have been going on behind the scenes here. You know Dr. Becker has a book coming out in the spring — “Your Dog: The Owner’s Manual” — which I helped to write, along with Kim Campbell Thornton and Jana Murphy, with additional input from the rest of the PetConnection team, especially Dr. Tony Johnson and Christie “Deerhound Connection” Keith.

And yes, we’ve also upped our reporting from conferences and trade shows, added more places where our work shows up (such as AARP.com) and generally, just hustled our butts off to try to make it in a tough economy that’s even tougher for writers.

One thing I wanted to try was e-books. We have a team that many veterinary schools and certainly specialty practices would envy, not to mention we have some of the top writers in the pet-care world. So I had this idea of e-books, short, tightly focused and very inexpensive works on a single topic people need to know about, such as how to know if your pet needs to go to the ER (Dr. Tony, of course, in his own unique style), how to introduce a new baby to an established pet (Arden Moore and Mikkel Becker), hospice care and pain management (Dr. Robin Downing), various dog-training topics (Liz Palika) and so on.

We’re getting ready to make the first of these book available soon, with the help of an outstanding editor, Greg Melvin (that’s him at right, going over Dr. Tony’s e-book, which he’s editing on paper, being Greg).  Greg is MY editor, the person I have worked with the longest in what is becoming a pretty long career (just because, hey, I’m getting old!). Until fairly recently, Greg was at Universal Press, where he edited Ann Coulter, Aaron McGruder, Dear Abby, Roger Ebert, James J. Kilpatrick and many more writers and cartoonists, and yes, that’s the entire range of left-to-right politics, and all his writers loved him.  (Here’s an article on him, talking about what it was like to edit such a wide range of opinion.) He is an old-school editor, the kind of person whose mastery (and I don’t use that term lightly) of the language is complete, but more than that, you never see his fingerprints on your work: When he edits, it’s as if you wrote it, but better. And yes, he prefers to edit on paper, even e-books.

He is the best editor with whom I have ever worked, and I have worked with a lot of very good editors. He has also, over the years, become my very good friend.

Greg is now working for the federal judiciary, but since he has nights and weekends available in theory, I asked him to take on editing the e-books, and he agreed.

I’m writing from his home in Overland Park, Kansas, now, staying here over the weekend to talk about the e-books (and Madeira, jazz, film noir, Monty Python and Chaucer) before I head in to Kansas City for a couple days of meetings about the spring book tour.

This morning Greg took off for a four-mile walk (he walks 36 miles a week, four miles a day during the week and four miles twice a day on the weekends, no matter the weather … even during blizzards) leaving me with his utterly charming cat, Harry.

Turns out Harry is an editor, too, “helping” me with my writing this morning.

That Harry is here to harass me is a bit of a miracle. He was born on Greg’s uncle’s farm in Mississippi, and Greg saved him on a family visit. He tried to catch all the kittens and the mother, but only Harry would allow himself to be picked up.  The little kitten had every kind of parasite known to cats, and barely made the transition from farm kitten to suburban housecat, he was so sick. Now he has it so good that Greg immediately got a stern warning from me about Harry’s weight … which he’ll need to be reducing slowly before I am back in Kansas City this spring.

Hmmm … maybe the editor and the editor’s cat can write a feline weight-loss guide together. Then I can edit him.

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Tell me about the size and width of a dog’s head, and I can make an educated guess how fast he or she might be.

OK, I can’t, but William Helton at the University of Canterbury can. His findings suggest you can be strong, or you can be fast, but probably not both. From Discovery News:

“In the real world, it would be hard to be both fast and efficient at running, and to be extremely strong in combat at the same time,” author William Helton told Discovery News. “Nature does not allow unlimited budgets and the trade-offs are often physical constraints.”

Helton, a senior lecturer in the University of Canterbury’s Department of Psychology, studied how well 217 dogs performed during International Weight Pulling Association sporting events for canines.

Brachycephalic, or broad-headed, dogs that participated included American Pit-Bull Terriers, American Bulldogs and Bernese Mountain Dogs. Dolichocephalic, or more narrow-headed, breeds consisted of Samoyeds, Siberian Huskies and Alaskan Malamutes.

None of the studied breeds included the extremes of each condition. Pugs, for example, have incredibly broad heads, while Borzois are the polar opposite.

Excuse me, I need to go find my tape measure.

A Dog’s Breakfast: One of the most controversial –  and important –  documentaries on the pet food industry will finally premiere on U.S. television. “A Dog’s Breakfast” aired on Canadian TV in 2008. The story of what gave rise to the 2007 pet food recall will air a week from today, Thursday, Feb.10 at 10 p.m. on CNBC. It will repeat Friday at 1 a.m., then again on Sunday, Feb. 13 at 10 p.m. (Hat tip to Mary Cvetan)
Note: Ingrid King informed us that “A Dog’s Breakfast” has been pulled from the broadcast schedule without explanation. Stay tuned for updates if it returns.

Performance depends on the handler’s beliefs: Interesting piece in Science Daily about a study out of UC Davis’ Department of Neurology. How a drug or explosive-sniffing dog does in their duties can be swayed by what their handler believes.

The study, published in the January issue of the journal Animal Cognition, found that detection-dog/handler teams erroneously “alerted,” or identified a scent, when there was no scent present more than 200 times — particularly when the handler believed that there was scent present.

“…There are cognitive factors affecting the interaction between a dog and a handler that can impact the dog’s performance,” said Lisa Lit, a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Neurology and the study’s lead author.

“These might be as important — or even more important — than the sensitivity of a dog’s nose.”

Stuffed things? I love stuffed things! Remember Pets.com? I still have a Pets.com sock puppet around here somewhere. Even though they went belly up more than10 years ago, the idea is being resurrected by a new startup. SF Gate says PetFlow has learned the lesson from Pets.com, and intends to remain profitable.

“They sold product for below cost,” PetFlow co-founder Alex Zhardanovsky says of Pets.com. “You can’t get a customer to buy a product for half price and then later charge them twice the price. It makes no sense.”

PetFlow might not offer insanely low prices, but they’re making a profit on each order they ship and are projecting to break even by the end of the year. In January, PetFlow has shipped out 7,000 different orders resulting in $600,000 of revenue for the month.

Whereas Pets.com offered free shipping even on heavy bags of food, PetFlow charges a consistent $4.95 shipping fee per order. They also have an exclusive deal with FedEx that reduces their shipping costs even more – similar to the shipping deal Zappos has in place with UPS.

I just want them to have really good television ads.

They won’t catch us. We’re on a mission from Dog. My buddy Nancy Freedman-Smith at GoodDogz Blog wins the prize for this week’s best blog story.

Go Pack Go! Feel free to watch the Super Bowl this Sunday, but I have it on good authority the Green Bay Packers will win. How do I know? Veterinary Pet Insurance says so (full disclosure – a Pet Connection sponsor). Their inside information? Dogs’ names. Don’t laugh. Last year, they successfully picked the New Orleans Saints, and the year before, they said the Steelers would beat the Cardinals. This year, if the Packers win, that’s three in a row.

Cat movie: I’ve seen literally hundreds of videos about cats. However, Cat Diaries is different. It’s sponsored by Friskies, but from the cat’s point of view. (Thanks, Patti S.)

Midnight madness: Thanks to Lisa in Toronto for this wonderful ad from the Winnipeg Humane Society.
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I always like to hear from readers, especially if you have tips, and links for interesting stories.  Give me a shout in the comments, or better yet, send me an e-mail

Photo credit: Borzoi, Flickr Creative Commons (Llima)

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This is eerily appropriate for some of us. We’ve had sub-zero temperatures this week, and as I type this the winter’s seventh snowstorm is in progress.

The topic is dog coats. Not the fur, but the coat you buy so they can wear in the cold, ice and snow. The Wall Street Journal‘s Gwendolyn Bounds discusses the need for small, short-haired dogs or those without a good, thick undercoat to have extra protection in the winter.

“There’s no question in winter with rain, snow and ice that these dogs are more at risk because of their size and inability to keep body heat,” says [Dr.] René Carlson, president-elect of the American Veterinary Medical Association.

Normal dog body temperature runs 101 to 102 degrees. A drop in body temperature of five or six degrees can put dogs at risk of low blood pressure and kidney damage, as well as decreased blood flow to the liver and brain, which can possibly lead to hypothermia.

Elderly or ailing animals may need to don extra layers, regardless of their breed, says [Dr.] Stephen Zawistowski, science adviser to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

In the extreme cold, and particularly on salted walkways, consider booties, too.

Labradors are No. 1 again, maybe: Labrador Retrievers are the most popular dog in America for the 20th straight year, according to the American Kennel Club. The full list of breed rankings  is here, but pardon me for not giving this news top billing.  Here’s why: The AKC’s registration numbers have been falling steadily, and if a dog isn’t AKC registered, it doesn’t count. Most dogs, even purebreds, probably aren’t AKC registered these days. So an accurate accounting of the country’s top pooch is anyone’s guess. Maybe it is the Labrador retriever, but it could also be another breed. A good guess: the pit bull.

Big news from Petmate: Two important happenings were announced last week at pet-products giant Petmate (full disclosure: a Pet Connection sponsor). They acquired Bamboo Products, the folks who brought you Fat Cat. The bigger news is that Petmate itself has been bought by a private equity firm called Wind Point Partners, based in Chicago. Interesting developments.

PETA’s at it again: In the timeless logic of PETA, No Kill is the same thing as hoarding. Hey, I didn’t say it made sense, that it was correct, or that it was even a defensible statement, I just said that’s their logic. In the current issue of PETA’s Animal Times magazine, they make their case, such as it is (it’s not available online to link to). Gregory Castle points out the problem in his recent, wordy Best Friends blog post.

PETA’s presiding mentality on pets appears to overlap that of a hoarder at the motivational level: obsessive control of pets and an almost phobic aversion to risk when it comes to trusting the public with the care of animals.

Hoarders believe that no one but themselves can be trusted to look after their animals, so they keep them under lock and key. They are blind to the pain and suffering they inflict as a result of their obsessive risk aversion.

PETA, too, is obsessively risk-averse when it comes to pets. Like hoarders, they believe that most people can’t be trusted with the care of a pet, but rather than keep them under lock and key, PETA simply kills them or advocates for killing them. They, too, are blind to the effects of depriving an animal of its most fundamental right — the right to life.

That’s about right. Altogether everybody: Why is anyone still listening to PETA?

Baltic update: Remember Baltic? The dog who was found drifting on an ice floe last year? H was adopted by his rescuers, and he’d be the first to tell you life is good now. The story is at Dogster.

There’s no excuse: Fair warning — this story will make you very angry. An 11-week-old hairless Sphynx kitten was being transported from Utah to Connecticut. The flight landed in 7 degree temperatures, and then sat on the tarmac for close to an hour. Pawcurious hits the nail on the head.

This was totally preventable. TOTALLY.

Yes, it was.

Requiem for a clinic: The saddest article I read all week wasn’t about the loss of any single animal, but a Salon piece recounting the end of a veterinary clinic. I’d be very interested in the opinions of veterinarians out there on lessons to be drawn from the story.

Catty positions: I think this big chart should be enlarged and framed. I just love it.

Video time!!

Thanks to Ericka for this one. If I remember correctly, this ad for EDS debuted two years ago on Super Bowl Sunday. Cowboys herding cats.
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Simon’s Cat is having a tough time in the snow. I know this didn’t take place in our yard because you wouldn’t be able to see Simon behind the four foot high snowdrifts, and the bird would be a colorful block of ice.
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I always like to hear from readers, especially if you have tips, and links for interesting stories.  Give me a shout in the comments, or better yet, send me an e-mail.
Photo credit: Dog with coat, Getty Images.

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I think one of the reasons I still get two morning newspapers is because of the comic section. Even though the newspapers have grown smaller and smaller — and I grumble about it — reading the comics every morning is enjoyable. I know I can read them online and I do that, too. But I like my morning newspaper comics, in the newspaper.

Many of the comics strike close to home. As Greg Evans’ “Luann” and Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman’s “Zits” show their characters going through adolescence, I compare them to certain teenagers in my life. And of course, some of the strips portraying dogs often drive me crazy –  “If you trained your dog that wouldn’t happen!”

But one strip has really hit close to home the past few months. “Funky Winkerbean” by Tom Batiuk is showing one of its characters, Wally, a war veteran, getting a service dog to help him deal with his Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).  His new dog was trained by one of the groups that places puppies with prisoners for socialization and training, and then places the dogs with veterans.

My dog training group, Kindred Spirits, also trains service dogs and since we’re so close to U.S. Marine Corps’ Camp Pendleton, we have worked with several veterans to help train and certify their dogs. A few of the veterans have had physical injuries with lasting effects and we’re helping with mobility assistance skills,but almost all of the guys have PTSD and need some canine assistance with that, too.

As a Navy and Marine Corps veteran myself I can speak first-hand about the trauma of PTSD. In simplistic terms, PTSD is a survival mechanism; it kicks in that “fight or flight” instinct. Once the sailor, soldier or Marine is back in civilization, though, that instinct is often in overdrive and out of place. And the dangers seem real: Acar backfires and the soldier or Marine drops to the floor in the grocery store. Or the service member goes to the local county fair or a concert and the crowd hems him in.

PTSD doesn’t always show up right away. The mind can close those wounds away and it may come back full force later. Many Vietnam veterans didn’t show signs of PTSD until after 9-11. Then the veterans mental health clinics were swamped. Unfortunately, also, that PTSD can last a lifetime. The veteran can sometimes learn to control himself or herself, can learn to recognise triggers, but rarely does the PTSD go away.

Dogs are a huge help for many with PTSD. For me, Bashir reads my moods and when I begin to get angry — my usual response –  he leans close, pushes against me, and basically distracts me. When I pay attention to him, I can then see that he’s responding to me and I take a deep breath and calm myself. The important part of this is that I take that breath and calm myself before I react in a way I’ll regret later. Or before it escalates. Because crowds are a problem for me, Bashir will also keep people back from me a little, simply by creating a barrier. He places himself between me and the people pushing too close.

Depending on the veteran’s needs, we can also have the dogs do other things to catch the owner’s attention. Some dogs put their head on their owners leg (when the owner is sitting) and push until they get a response. When a veteran is not able to cue himself to pay attention to subtle cues, we teach the dog to bark, whine, or paw. Because the dogs have to pay attention all the time, learn to read emotions and respond to those emotions, and then sometimes disobey the owner to provide help, it’s often difficult to find and train a dog to assist someone with PTSD.

I have recognized several of the behaviors that Buddy, Wally’s dog in “Funky Winkerbean,” is doing. In Sunday’s strip, Wally is having a nightmare — a flashback — about his wartime service and wakes in a panic. Buddy wakes up, climbs on to the bed with Wally, and snuggles close. The last frame in the strip shows dog and owner sound asleep. Good dog, Buddy!

It brought tears to my eyes reading it and again now, writing about it.

I have to put out a public thank-you to Tom Batiuk, too. I don’t know the man but if I ever get a chance to meet him I’d be happy to shake his hand. No, come to think of it, he’d get a huge hug.

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Our Dr. Becker’s year-end appearance on ABC-TV’s “Good Morning America” has traditionally been an overview of the top veterinary and pet-related items of 2010, based on recommendations of a couple hundred veterinary and pet-care experts, as well as from our team’s trips to trade shows and conferences. Dr. B spends hours distilling a list from all the suggestions, and then putting together information on the top products.

This year’s appearance was to be … tomorrow.

You can guess what happened. He got as far as Minneapolic-St. Paul, and then watched as the few flights into the New York area that were so far only “delayed” were canceled, one by one. There is just no way to get to Manhattan today, so Delta has put him on a flight back to Spokane, and he’ll be home tonight.

We don’t yet know when the “GMA” segment will be rescheduled — as you can imagine, everything in NYC is a big of a scramble right now — but as soon as we know, we’ll let you know.

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