Introducing Willow

I retired last May and, of course, my life changed completely.  One of the biggest changes was the entry of a little Westie terrier puppy named Willow into my life. My wife Marilyn and I are now raising this adorable little furball and the effect on our lives has been amazing.

Marilyn and I had been without canine companionship for over a year when Willow arrived. Our previous dog, Saladin, was a Norwegian Elkhound/Spitz mix, and he brought joy, love and laughter into our lives for forteen years. He was such a special friend that we didn’t know whether we would ever own another dog. We certainly didn’t feel ready last May. Anyone who has ever lost a beloved dog knows what I mean. The void a good dog leaves behind when it passes seems unbearable.

Our Westie Terrier arrives

Then came the fateful knock on the door. One of our neighbors had bred a litter of Westie terrier puppies and one of her sales had fallen through. When she got the dog back it was pretty messed up. She had watched us working with Saladin over the years and asked if we would take this puppy off her hands. She even waived the $600 fee she was charging for her pups. We had some hesitations, but agreed to take the pup on a trial basis. At that point I had no experience with West Highland Terriers at all. Marilyn had known a Westie terrier that lived at a horse farm in Aldergrove where she worked for a while. We were totally unprepared for the Westie Terrier experience. To boot, it was almost fifteen years since we had started a puppy and, frankly, we had forgotten how much work it was. So, in our blissful ignorance we agreed to take the pup.

Well folks, that little Westie terrier may save my life in a very real sense. Getting a dog at the same time as I retired was a true blessing. For the first time in my life I had enough time to devote to the care and training of a dog. The fact that the dog in question was a Westie terrier just added spice to the mix. When you stop and think about it, most dogs don’t have a very good life. We get a puppy and try to shoe-horn it into a life already filled with earning a living and trying to have a social life. The dog is usually loved and pampered, but there simply isn’t enough free time to exercise or train it properly. So the dog spends most of its time alone, seeing its owner briefly in the evenings and on the week-ends. Then, if the dog develops behavior problems, we think it needs to be trained, as if it were a broken appliance that needs fixing.

But you know, I never appreciated this until I found myself with a new puppy and enough free time to try and do it right. I’ve had to throw out a lot of things I thought I knew about dogs in the process. In subsequent posts, I’ll be sharing my experience coming to grips with this new reality. I’m learning all new ways of building a relationship with a dog and a Westie terrier is the perfect dog to teach me. Westie Terriers are so intelligent, so energetic and so loving that they just drag you off into new areas whether you want to go there or not. As time goes on you’ll get to know Willow and me very well as I chronicle the trials and tribulations we go through day by day. Stay tuned. Go Westie terrier!

The food and Drug Administration is investigating reports that chicken jerky from China is making dogs sick. Here’s their bulletin:

FDA Continues to Caution Dog Owners About Chicken Jerky Products

November 18, 2011

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is again cautioning consumers that chicken jerky products for dogs (also sold as chicken tenders, strips or treats) may be associated with illness in dogs. In the last 12 months, FDA has seen an increase in the number of complaints it received of dog illnesses associated with consumption of chicken jerky products imported from China. These complaints have been reported to FDA by dog owners and veterinarians.

FDA issued a cautionary warning regarding chicken jerky products to consumers in September 2007 and a Preliminary Animal Health Notification in December of 2008. After seeing the number of complaints received drop off during the latter part of 2009 and most of 2010, the FDA is once again seeing the number of complaints rise to the levels of concern that prompted release of our earlier warnings.

Chicken jerky products should not be substituted for a balanced diet and are intended to be fed occasionally in small quantities.

FDA is advising consumers who choose to feed their dogs chicken jerky products to watch their dogs closely for any or all of the following signs that may occur within hours to days of feeding the products: decreased appetite; decreased activity; vomiting; diarrhea, sometimes with blood; increased water consumption and/or increased urination. If the dog shows any of these signs, stop feeding the chicken jerky product. Owners should consult their veterinarian if signs are severe or persist for more than 24 hours. Blood tests may indicate kidney failure (increased urea nitrogen and creatinine). Urine tests may indicate Fanconi syndrome (increased glucose). Although most dogs appear to recover, some reports to the FDA have involved dogs that have died.

FDA, in addition to several animal health diagnostic laboratories in the U.S., is working to determine why these products are associated with illness in dogs. FDA’s Veterinary Laboratory Response Network (VLRN) is now available to support these animal health diagnostic laboratories. To date, scientists have not been able to determine a definitive cause for the reported illnesses. FDA continues extensive chemical and microbial testing but has not identified a contaminant.

The FDA continues to actively investigate the problem and its origin. Many of the illnesses reported may be the result of causes other than eating chicken jerky. Veterinarians and consumers alike should report cases of animal illness associated with pet foods to the FDA Consumer Complaint Coordinator in their state or go to http://www.fda.gov/petfoodcomplaints.

The symptoms they describe are similar to the ones that showed up in the Melanin scare a few years ago. Note that they aren’t sure yet that there actually is anything wrong with the product. It will probably take the FDA months to come up with a definitive answer.

So what are we supposed to do in the meantime? As far as I can see there’s only one responsible thing to do and that’s to cut the chicken jerky out of your dogs diet. You might think that you can just avoid the Chinese product, but that doesn’t work in today’s globalized economy. Products from China are shipped over here in bulk and then repackaged without any notification of where the product came from in the first place. That was the case in the Melanin problem a few years ago. Chinese wheat gluten was being used in many of our lower priced dog foods, and that gluten had been laced with Melanin to increase the perceived protein content. The problem wasn’t with Chinese dog food so there was no way to protect yourself based on where the food itself was manufactured.

The best thing you can do is switch to a better quality dog food. Or you can try making some of your dogs food yourself by following these recipes that you can download for free.

If your dog really, really likes chicken jerky you can make it yourself. The key to making delicious dog treats is to get yourself a dehydrator. Then all you have to do is slice the chicken into thin strips and dry it for a day. The same thing can be done with liver or heart to make great healthy treats that your dog will go nuts for. One caution, though. Put the dehydrator outside on the carport or the balcony. Drying meat products give off a powerful smell that you really don’t want being pumped into your living space. I know this from personal experience.

In my earlier article about deer chasing I talked about the prey-drive. This instinct is especially strong in younger West Highland Terriers and it can cause a lot of excitement from time to time.

Another instinct that these dogs have is a desire to cover their scent. Dogs naturally love stinky stuff. Here in Courtenay the salmon have just finished running and the banks of the creeks and rivers are littered with the bodies of spawned out salmon. The biggest challenge for dog owners in this area nowadays is keeping their dogs from rolling on dead salmon. This is a special challenge if your dog is off leash and exploring on his own.

When we lived in Maple Ridge we had a lot to do with horses. Willow went to the barn nearly every day to help out. She managed to find a great way to cover her scent there as well.

This video was also posted on Willow’s Facebook fan page. Next time you’re on Facebook, check out her page.  For more videos of Willow in action subscribe to her youtube channel.

A video of a man screaming at his deer-chasing dog in the U.K. seems to have created a small interest in how to bust dogs off deer.

Dogs chasing deer is not a new problem but an old one, and it is not limited to deer. Dogs may bust on fox, geese, feral cats, horse, sheep, bear, and even cars and bicycles.

Anything that moves away quickly — and especially anything that moves away while making noise — will tend to trigger the prey drive in a dog.

What to do about it?

Well to start, recognize that prey drive is a deeply-seated code that is curled up like a watch spring in some dogs, and that pursuit is a self-reinforcing behavior.

What’s that mean?

Simple enough: It means the dog gets a great deal of pleasure from the pursuit itself.

For a dog, chasing things is a peak experience in and of itself. It is FUN in capital letters.

What that means for you, the owner or trainer, is that you are going to have to use all three legs of operant conditioning in order to achieve success if you have a dog with a lot of prey-drive.

(From a recent article on the Terrierman Blog)

Deer-chasing Willow

I have a confession to make. Last month I came very close to losing my little Westie, Willow. It was a prime example of the danger of deer-chasing.

We were walking in Morrison Park close to where we live in Courtenay. The park is a large area of forest and streams where we like to walk almost every day. Its a great place to wander and gives a Westie a wonderful chance to exercise its nose.

Courtenay is a small city surrounded by forest. If you live on the outskirts of town, as we do, this forested area starts just a couple of blocks away and runs up to Mount Washington and then on to the west coast of Vancouver Island. Morrison Park is actually just a promontory of forest that has been set aside for recreation and there are no fences or any other containment. In other words, if a dog takes off in those woods it can easily be lost forever. Deer-chasing is very dangerous under these conditions.

And that’s what almost happened to me. We were walking in the park. Willow was loose, dragging a 30 foot long-line. Suddenly, she jumped a deer and she was off before I could jump on the line and stop her. That’s how fast you can get into trouble with deer-chasing.

That long-line is all that saved our bacon that afternoon. The brush was too thick to track her. All I could do was head off in the direction she was going and hope she would get hung up somewhere.

That’s exactly what happened. She got a couple of miles and the line finally tangled around a root and stopped her. Fortunately for us, she has been trained to sit calmly as soon as her leash pulls tight, and thats what she did instead of fighting it. As soon as her forward progress was stopped she sat and started barking so I could find her. Everything ended well and I learned a valuable lesson.

Here’s the thing: Westies are terriers. That means that the prey drive is pretty strong in most of them. They can be tripping along as cool as cucumbers one minute and gone in the next instant if something catches their interest. This is especially true if the dog is young and fit like Willow is. Deer-chasing is especially attractive for dogs in their prime when they still have lots of energy.

You may think that you don’t need to worry about such things, especially if you don’t live in a place like Courtenay where deer, and sometimes bears, are often seen walking down the street at midday. But, your dog has the same instincts and they can be triggered by kids on skateboards, cats or other things just as easily as by deer.

The absolute safest thing is to never let your dog off the leash, but who wants that? Having your dog running free beside you is a great feeling and something we should all work towards. That’s why Willow was hooked up to the long-line that afternoon. Deer-chasing wasn’t on my mind though. I was guarding against her chasing a squirrel and figured I would have lots of time to reel her in.

Its fine to let your dog off the leash once you’ve done some work with him. That work includes having him solid on-leash and then on a long line. It takes work and time, but its worth it. Things can change in an instant and its quite possible to lose your dog. It may not run off into the woods, but it could run in front of a car or get into some kind of mischief that ends with it in the pound or being put down.

So, do the work. Put the time into training before you let your dog run free. The training is fun and rewarding in itself and it will protect you from a lot of heart-break in the future. Deer-chasing is not the only thing you have to be careful of.