Do Dog Owners Really Look Like Their Pets? Judge for Yourself

See photos of people and dogs who appeared on "Today" to test the doggie doppelganger theory.

When you and your dog start to look like each other, is that the sign of a close, healthy relationship? Or does it just mean that the two of you are spending way too much time together?

Whichever way you lean on the issue, it's clear that it happens. According to The Atlantic Magazine, there's even science behind it. In an article covering the phenomenon, Sarah Yager wrote this week that "Researchers around the world have repeatedly found that strangers can match photos of dogs with photos of their owners at a rate well above chance."

The Today show took the idea and turned science into something cute and charming by bringing five owners and their pets to New York to model their similarities for the nation. David Frei, who co-hosts the USA Network's broadcast of the Westminster Kennel Club dog show, did the judging of which owner and pet looked most alike. You have to admire their moxie; while most people think that other people start to look like their pets, very few are willing to admit that they have started to share physical characteristics with their beloved Labradoodle. Even in dog-loving circles, telling someone that they look like their dog may very well be a faux pas.

So how true is the Doggie Doppleganger theory? The Today broadcast at least gives us a chance to do some casual testing. The website includes pictures of all five owner-dog pairings and gives you the chance to vote for the one that you think looks the most alike.

And then, there's the important questions: Do you think that you and your dog look alike? Do you think that you will, given time? And if so, is it something you'd admit in public?

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A Version of "Lost" We Really Don't Like: Dog Marooned on an Island in Santa Cruz for a Month

"This dog was literally starving to death on the island, and now he has a second chance at life."

When he was leaving for work earlier this month, Luis Castellanos noticed something odd when he looked out at the island in Northern California's Watsonville Slough. A dog, alone. He thought it was "peculiar," according to the Santa Cruz Sentinel. 

Later, his wife and kids got a better look what was occupying the island, and they could tell the dog must be in trouble. Castellanos called the authorities, and Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter's field service manager Todd Stosuy showed up. He quickly realized he needed a boat. He called the Watsonville Fire Department for backup, and a few firefighters showed up -- without a boat. 

Castellanos got out his inflatable boat. 

Firefighter John Stone paddled and Stosuy navigated. They made their way to the island but couldn't find the dog. They searched for 30 minutes and then went home. A short time later, Castellanos saw the dog lying on the shore in the duckweed. 

And not a moment too soon. The dog was very confused and lethargic, and very, very skinny. Stosuy and Stone returned, then paddled to the island and quickly located and scooped up the dog. He was in bad shape -- "severely emaciated," according to the Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter's Facebook page. 

"It looked like it had been there forever," said Fire Capt. Corey Schaefer. "It looked pathetic and skinny. It was withering away."

Stosuy estimates the dog had been surviving on the island for a full month. He said the dog is an Australian Shepherd mix, 12 or 13 years old -- and was down to just 30 pounds. A healthy Shepherd at that age might weigh twice as much. 

How does a dog survive a month on an unpopulated island? Stosuy found his source of food: bird eggs. Lots of them. He found the remains of more than 100. 

The dog isn't out of danger yet

"He's not a full spry guy at this point, but he's walking on his own," said Stosuy.

He predicts the dog will have ongoing health problems, but he should be able to have a fine life with the right person or family. 

"This dog was literally starving to death on the island, and now he has a second chance at life," he said.

Via Santa Cruz Sentinel; photos via Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter's Facebook page

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Hypoallergenic Dogs: Are They Really Hypoallergenic?

A new report came out last week that added fuel to the growing argument that there is no such thing as a hypoallergenic dog. This is nothing to sneeze at, since some people are dropping thousands for the lure of dogs touted for their allergy-free properties.

In fact, not only did the study conclude that hypoallergenic dogs are pretty much mythical creatures, but it found that these dogs have more allergy-causing proteins in their fur than dogs who aren't thought to be anti-allergy. Poodles and Labradoodles had the highest amount of this allergy-causing protein of all the dogs studied. 

The Dutch study involved nearly 400 dogs, about half of whom were of the supposedly hypoallergenic persuasion. Utrecht University's Doris Vredegoor and her colleagues measured the Can f 1 allergen -- a protein that's one of the culprits in dog allergies -- in hair and coat samples, as well as in the air and floor dust of homes of the canine recruits.

The high levels on the hypoallergenic dogs were counterintuitive, until you consider the fact that most hypoallergenic dogs have hair, not fur, and that hair doesn't shed as fur does. That could mean that allergens just hang out on the dog and accumulate until banished by a good bath. That jibes with the finding that floor dust from the Labradoodle homes contained less of the allergen. (It could also mean that allergic owners vacuum more.) There was no difference of allergens in the air of the homes. 

You can read more about the study in this Reuters article, or you can read the abstract in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

I know several people who are allergic to dogs, and got Labradoodles, Portuguese Water Dogs, Poodles, or Airedales, only to be plagued by itchy eyes and runny noses. One family we know paid $3,500 for a Labradoodle, and within five minutes, Dad was reaching for his nebulizer. They still have the dog, but the poor man is on a high dose of anti-allergy meds in perpetuity.

We used to have an Airedale ourselves. I've had major allergies to cats, but not to dogs, so the allergy issue is not why we got him. But when Joe came into our lives, I figured that at least I wasn't going to have one of those homes that allergic people can't visit because of a dog.

That was before I lured my extremely dog-allergic friend to my house with promises of my hypoallergenic Airedale. Two Benadryls and 20 minutes later, she could breathe somewhat normally and had stopped sneezing. Oops. It was like learning there really is no Easter Bunny. Could there be no such thing as a dog that doesn't cause terrible allergies without frequent bathing and vacuuming of the premises? (I had vacuumed the day before she came, and bathed Joe then, too, so my normal lack of June Cleaver sensibilities was not the culprit.)

I think my friend would agree with the recent report's conclusion that "The term 'hypoallergenic' is a misnomer that is not evidence-based."

How about you? Do you live with a dog purported to be hypoallergenic? What's been your experience? Do you stock the pantry with Kleenex, or is your dog living up to his allergy-free reputation? Let's talk! Your comments could help others live better with both a dog allergy and a dog.

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Another Case for Making Sure a Dog Is Really Dead

No worries: This dog is just sleeping. (Albeit not necessarily so comfortably.) If the dog did not rouse and did not appear to be breathing, would he be assumed dead? There's a fine line, and it's imperative to know where it's drawn. (Photo from the Flickr photostream of Flickmor)

A couple of weeks ago we brought you the story of a puppy who was hit by a car and appeared to be dead, but when the distraught owner went to bury him the next day, he was very much alive. It brought up an interesting conversation in the comments and Dogster Facebook page about when dead is actually dead.

It seems even the pros can mistake an unconscious dog for a dead dog. Yesterday, firefighters in Utica, NY, found a dog who appeared to have died in a home blaze. They brought the poor dog’s body outside — but the dog did not stay “dead” for long. Once in fresh air, the dog sat up and surprised the heck out of everyone who assumed he had perished, according to WKTV.

So once again we’re faced with the question: How can you tell if your dog is really dead before burying him or sending him off for cremation? I’m finding nothing worthwhile on this online, so I’ll ask any veterinarians, vet techs, or other experts out there to please leave comments about how we can tell for sure that a dog is dead and not just unconscious — perhaps with diminished functions that make it hard to see breathing or hear a heartbeat. Are there ways, besides going to a vet to check?

Update! Minutes after posting this, I asked Dr. Eric Barchas, Dogster’s own veterinary expert, for his input on the topic and he immediately wrote back with a very helpful, insightful answer:

There are three basic tactics I use to determine whether an individual is alive. The first is to listen to the heart. This is generally the most reliable, but it cannot realistically be done by a nonprofessional (or by anyone who hasn’t listened to thousands of hearts), since it’s too easy to listen in the wrong place or to misunderstand the noises one hears. 

The second is to assess whether the animal is breathing.  This can be done by anyone, but it is important to watch carefully and be aware that very shallow breathing can be hard to see (and that agonal breathing, which occurs sometimes after death, may be mistaken for normal breathing). 

The third is to assess for rigor mortis (stiffness that occurs after death). The timing of its onset varies widely — from a few minutes after death in severely ill animals with poor circulation to many hours after death. However, once it occurs, it is a reliable sign that an individual is deceased.

The whole process is actually much more difficult than many people imagine. Remember that the tradition of holding wakes originated because it is so hard to tell whether an individual is decisively dead. Burials were postponed several days to prevent accidentally burying someone alive.

Finally, be aware that the definition of death itself is controversial. Some folks advocate for using electroencephalography or functional magnetic resonance imaging to assess brain activity as the true measure of whether an individual is alive or dead. The definition of death is not as much of a moral minefield as the definition of the start of life, but it still causes sparks to flare on occasion.

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Jay Leno on What Really Happens to Pets on Pet Airways

Jay Leno appeared rather shocked when he learned about Pet Airways, the airline that caters exclusively to pets. He ran the airline’s short commercial, and I figured he’d come back with a one-liner after. He came back, all right, but with something a little less expected.

This is short. Watch it to the end, especially if you are due for a good laugh. Poor cat. But moohaha!

(Thanks to Dogster’s fabulous and keen-eyed editorial manager Janine Kahn for sending this video my way.)

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What Mad Hatter the rabbit is really teaching us

As a veterinarian who works only with rabbits and other exotic pets, I see rabbits with behavior issues all the time. So when I read Mary Cvetan’s recent blog post about Mad Hatter, the rabbit that’s driving his family crazy by thumping all the time, I rushed to my computer to give some tried and true advice.

Yes, rabbits thump as a warning sign to other rabbits or when they are unhappy with something, and it seems that his caretakers have clearly pinpointed instances when his thumping indicates he is unhappy – with being in his cage alone, when he wants to be with Sarah and she’s not there, when he wants someone to hold up the watermelon for him to eat. The more that family members respond to his demands, the more that he will continue to thump. Remember, people and animals continue to perform behaviors for 2 reasons, generally – to get something good or to avoid something bad. They continue performing behaviors that accomplish these things for them. So, Mad Hatter continues to thump when he gets watermelon on a plate because he knows if he does, someone will find it annoying enough to come over and hold it up to his mouth to make him stop thumping. And he will continue to flip his dinner plate over and over until someone comes over and keeps righting it, because he sees that thumping leads to attention; he thumps and a person comes over to pay attention to him and his plate. The first thing to do is to stop reinforcing the thumping; ignore it. If it doesn’t accomplish what he wants (usually some form of attention), he will have no reason to continue to do it. And if his caretakers find it annoying that he flips his plate over, then they should stop feeding him on a plate. They see that if they don’t come racing over when he flips his plate and starts thumping, eventually he stops and eats a little.  He won’t starve himself.

In veterinary medicine, vets routinely apply the principles of applied behavior analysis – based on positive reinforcement of good, acceptable behaviors – to make behavior changes. We use the “ABC” method: “A” is for antecedent (what’s going on before the behavior occurs), “B” is for behavior (in this case, thumping), and “C” is for consequences (what occurs after the behavior). With the dinner on the plate example, Mad Hatter sees dinner is on a plate (the “A” for antecedent – what occurs before the thumping behavior), so he thumps (the “B” for behavior), and as a result, the caretaker comes over to Mad Hatter and puts the food back on the plate (the “C” for consequences, thereby giving Mad Hatter the attention he was seeking and reinforcing the thumping behavior). Thus, as a result, Mad Hatter will likely continue to thump, because it achieves what he wants – attention from his caretakers.

The goal with changing animal behavior is not to punish what we humans perceive as bad, unacceptable behavior (thumping), which may actually be appropriate rabbit behavior (he’s doing what rabbits do when they want to draw attention to themselves). Rather, we want to reinforce, or encourage, good (more socially acceptable in terms of human standards) behavior. Punishment, such spraying a pet with water when he thumps, just leads to fear on the part of the pet and destroys the human-animal bond. So, in the case of Mad Hatter, maybe there is some other less unacceptable behavior that he does naturally now besides thumping (such as tearing up paper in his cage, if he does this on his own) that his caretakers can encourage him to do instead of thumping, so that he can still express his displeasure about something but in a less annoying way. The idea would be to provide him with paper in his cage (changing the environment, or antecedent to the behavior) before he thumps and then reinforce the paper shredding (with lots of praise or a favorite food treat when he does it). That way, he can still express his displeasure about something but in a more acceptable way.

Animals have opinions, too, and they should be allowed to express them. Otherwise, they, like we, feel they have no control over their worlds. We just need to work with them so that their often natural behavior fits into our world.

Photo credit: neatorama.com

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How to Housetrain Any Dog … Really!

February 27, 2009

Here are some tips that will make housetraining faster and easier. It works on puppies or dogs. Even an adult dog can be put on this program and successfully be housebroken.

You can train a dog to us a specific area of the yard by keeping your pup on a leash every time you go out, and go directly to the designated part of the yard. Later, he’ll only use that part of the yard. This lets you enjoy your yard without worry about stepping on something.Take the puppy outside after he eats, sleeps, plays/exercises, or comes out of the crate.Praise him verbally and with a pat when he does his business. Then go immediately inside. This will show him the purpose of going outside. I would not recommend leaving the dog out in the yard all day, because it confuses housetraining.For the first two to three days — while you’re home with him — put the puppy in his crate with something to chew so that he associates the crate with good things. Let him stay in the crate for an hour, then take him out and immediately go outside. Do this twice or three times per day.When you have to go back to work, make sure the puppy is empty (you may have to go for a walk to assure that he empties out), then put him in his crate with something to do (chew bone, etc.).
A puppy can be expected to “hold it” for the number of hours that matches his age in months. So a four-month-old puppy can only be expected to hold it for four hours. This is true up to about 10 hours. That’s as long as any dog should be expected to hold it.Dogs sometimes pick up from us that there’s something wrong with being left alone because of the way we act when we leave and when we return. Do not say “goodbye” to him or change your voice or make a fuss when you leave the house. Just leave. When you come home, again, don’t do the high-pitched, excited voice or the overdone affection (until after you both come back inside). When you walk in the door, calmly take the puppy outside before you do anything else. Your whole attitude should be, “See? There’s nothing to it.”Many people think that a dog is housebroken when he comes to you to ask to be let out, or scratches at the door. Don’t put the burden on your dog. Take him out on a regular schedule and he’ll know that there will be an opportunity to go soon. This will help him to hold it until the next potty break. Take him out first thing in the morning, after every meal, right before bed, and anytime you come home, no matter how long or short a time you’ve been gone. He needs to know that when you walk through that door, he’s going out.If a dog is having diarrhea, additional breaks might be needed. If you see your pup hanging around the door, let him out.If you take him out on a schedule, you’ll learn when he pees and when he poops. If you’re taking your morning break and he hasn’t pooped like he ususally does, you know that he’ll need to go while you’re at work. In this case, maybe a walk would give the results you need. Paying attention to what’s normal will help prevent a situation where he’s locked in his crate and half an hour later, he needs to go.If you let the dog sleep in your bed, be aware that when he wakes up and moves around during the night, he may need to go out. If you have him in a crate, you may have to set the alarm and take him out. If he cries at night, cover the crate with a blanket.If he soils the crate, don’t punish. Just take him out, then clean it up and continue with the routine. Being confined in a stinky crate is enough of a lesson for him.After a while (at age 9-12 months), you may not need the crate as much, and you can start letting him have the run of the house while you’re gone. If he makes a mess, go back to the crate for 3 months before trying again. By age 1 (or before), he should be trustworthy in the house while you’re gone. But keep the crate for him so he can go to his private place whenever he wishes.

If you have a doggie door, the procedure is the same, until he learns to go out by himself. But you should still be there early on to praise him and to train him to go in a certain part of the yard.
I’ve heard trainers suggest giving a cookie when the dog pees or poops. I don’t like this idea because then the dog becomes focused on the treat. Praise the dog and immediately go back inside. This will show the dog why you’re out there. This applies to yard training, of course. If you live in an apartment, you’ll just walk your dog on a schedule that he can count on.

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Pets vs. Prozac: What does the science really tell us?

Yesterday, the New York Times ran a piece by Hal Herzog, author of “Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat: Why It’s So Hard To Think Straight About Animals,”  in which he questioned the scientific basis of claims for the health benefits of pets.

There’s certainly nothing wrong with challenging claims on the basis of their facts. I do it all the time, and wish the media would do more of it. And here at Pet Connection, we could all retire early if we had a dollar for every time someone replied, “Cite, please?” to a comment on the blog.

But you know what annoys me as much as sloppy science? Using sloppy logic and equally sloppy science against it.

First, let me mention that Herzog named our own Dr. Marty Becker and his book “The Healing Power of Pets”" in his article. I’m sure Dr. Becker’s gratified at being acknowledged as the leader in this particular area, but maybe not so much at his work, which is about pets, being lumped in with inappropriately pal-ing around with wild animals:

Herzog wrote:

The idea that domestic animals are beneficial to human health and happiness has been fueled by books like “The Healing Power of Pets: Harnessing the Amazing Ability of Pets to Make and Keep People Happy and Healthy,” by the veterinarian Marty Becker, and by news reports claiming that having a dog helps you live longer or that swimming with dolphins can cure autism, bad backs, attention deficit disorder and even cancer. But is there any truth to these claims?

Dolphins are not pets. If we’re going to debate this, can we at least agree on what the subject of the debate is? If it’s “spending time with wild animals,” that’s one thing. If it’s petting your cat, that’s another.

Back to Herzog. After a quick look at some of the research on health and pets — “a survey of 92 heart attack victims revealed that those who had pets were nearly five times more likely to be alive a year later than those without them” … “stroking an animal lowers blood pressure” … “AIDS patients living with pets are less depressed” … “pet owners have lower cholesterol levels, sleep more soundly, exercise more and take fewer sick days than non-pet owners” … he goes on:

Indeed, I have a stack of articles in my office supporting the hypothesis that pets are healthy for us.

Unfortunately, however, I also have another stack of articles, almost as high, showing that pets have either no long-term effects or have even adverse effects on physical and mental health.

He then goes through some of those studies, which he says had findings including “living with a pet did not make people any happier,” “no evidence that pet owners lived any longer than anyone else,” and that a study in Finland found “pet owners were more likely than non-pet owners to suffer from sciatica, kidney disesae, arthritis, migraines, panic attacks, high blood pressure and depression.”

Now, I’m in complete agreement with Herzog that we should be more clear when we talks about whether and how pets are beneficial to human health, and about scientific research and what it tells us. For instance, take the studies about dog walkers living longer after heart attacks than non-dog owners. I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that most dog owners like dogs.

Some non-dog owners like dogs, I’m sure, but many either don’t like them or just don’t have strong feelings one way or another. Common sense would suggest that for a dog lover, being around a dog would make you feel subjectively better at least, and potentially improve some objective parameters of health as well, whereas for someone who either doesn’t care much for dogs, or who actively fears or dislikes them, the opposite would be true.

But to wrap this up by saying the following?

No doubt, the talk in some medical circles of prescribing puppies and kittens for the chronically ill is well intentioned. But until the research is complete, pet lovers should probably keep taking their Lipitor and Prozac.

Really? Because if Mr. Herzog has a stack of articles suggesting there’s two sides to the healing power of pets, I’d like to introduce him to the stack I have on Lipitor and Prozac, along with their other statin and antidepressant cousins.

Let’s start with this look at the subject in an overview of many different studies about statin drugs from the paper that published Herzog’s piece, The New York Times. In “Great drug, but does it work?“, Tara Parker-Pope writes:

Statins are among the most prescribed drugs in the world, and there is no doubt that they work as advertised — that they lower not only cholesterol but also the risk for heart attack.

But in the fallout from the headline-making trial of Vytorin, a combination drug that was found to be no more effective than a simple statin in reducing arterial plaque, many people are asking a more fundamental question about statins in general: Do they prolong your life?

And for many users, the surprising answer appears to be no.

It turns out that, despite their widespread use in any and everyone with high cholesterol, the only people they help are middle-aged men with cardiovascular disease. Everyone else has no benefit, no longer life, and worse, an increased risk of side effects, including a form of amnesia.

What about Prozac? I’m going to link to a long article, and I recommend you read all of it, but here’s one paragraph, discussing a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Assocation:

In an analysis of six large experiments in which, as usual, depressed patients received either a placebo or an active drug, the true drug effect—that is, in addition to the placebo effect—was “nonexistent to negligible” in patients with mild, moderate, and even severe depression. Only in patients with very severe symptoms (scoring 23 or above on the standard scale) was there a statistically significant drug benefit. Such patients account for about 13 percent of people with depression. “Most people don’t need an active drug,” says Vanderbilt’s Hollon, a coauthor of the study. “For a lot of folks, you’re going to do as well on a sugar pill or on conversations with your physicians as you will on medication. It doesn’t matter what you do; it’s just the fact that you’re doing something.”

The article looks at dozens of other studies and the ongoing medical controversy over antidepressants vs placebos, all of which make conclusions pretty much in line with that one.

So yes, it may be true that pets aren’t always the right prescription — but neither are Lipitor and Prozac, if what you’re looking for is scientific support for your prescription. And when it comes to side effects… I think I’ll stick with my pets.

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Who Really Loves You?

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How to Housetrain Any Dog … Really!

February 27, 2009

Here are some tips that will make housetraining faster and easier. It works on puppies or dogs. Even an adult dog can be put on this program and successfully be housebroken.

You can train a dog to us a specific area of the yard by keeping your pup on a leash every time you go out, and go directly to the designated part of the yard. Later, he’ll only use that part of the yard. This lets you enjoy your yard without worry about stepping on something.Take the puppy outside after he eats, sleeps, plays/exercises, or comes out of the crate.Praise him verbally and with a pat when he does his business. Then go immediately inside. This will show him the purpose of going outside. I would not recommend leaving the dog out in the yard all day, because it confuses housetraining.For the first two to three days — while you’re home with him — put the puppy in his crate with something to chew so that he associates the crate with good things. Let him stay in the crate for an hour, then take him out and immediately go outside. Do this twice or three times per day.When you have to go back to work, make sure the puppy is empty (you may have to go for a walk to assure that he empties out), then put him in his crate with something to do (chew bone, etc.).
A puppy can be expected to “hold it” for the number of hours that matches his age in months. So a four-month-old puppy can only be expected to hold it for four hours. This is true up to about 10 hours. That’s as long as any dog should be expected to hold it.Dogs sometimes pick up from us that there’s something wrong with being left alone because of the way we act when we leave and when we return. Do not say “goodbye” to him or change your voice or make a fuss when you leave the house. Just leave. When you come home, again, don’t do the high-pitched, excited voice or the overdone affection (until after you both come back inside). When you walk in the door, calmly take the puppy outside before you do anything else. Your whole attitude should be, “See? There’s nothing to it.”Many people think that a dog is housebroken when he comes to you to ask to be let out, or scratches at the door. Don’t put the burden on your dog. Take him out on a regular schedule and he’ll know that there will be an opportunity to go soon. This will help him to hold it until the next potty break. Take him out first thing in the morning, after every meal, right before bed, and anytime you come home, no matter how long or short a time you’ve been gone. He needs to know that when you walk through that door, he’s going out.If a dog is having diarrhea, additional breaks might be needed. If you see your pup hanging around the door, let him out.If you take him out on a schedule, you’ll learn when he pees and when he poops. If you’re taking your morning break and he hasn’t pooped like he ususally does, you know that he’ll need to go while you’re at work. In this case, maybe a walk would give the results you need. Paying attention to what’s normal will help prevent a situation where he’s locked in his crate and half an hour later, he needs to go.If you let the dog sleep in your bed, be aware that when he wakes up and moves around during the night, he may need to go out. If you have him in a crate, you may have to set the alarm and take him out. If he cries at night, cover the crate with a blanket.If he soils the crate, don’t punish. Just take him out, then clean it up and continue with the routine. Being confined in a stinky crate is enough of a lesson for him.After a while (at age 9-12 months), you may not need the crate as much, and you can start letting him have the run of the house while you’re gone. If he makes a mess, go back to the crate for 3 months before trying again. By age 1 (or before), he should be trustworthy in the house while you’re gone. But keep the crate for him so he can go to his private place whenever he wishes.

If you have a doggie door, the procedure is the same, until he learns to go out by himself. But you should still be there early on to praise him and to train him to go in a certain part of the yard.
I’ve heard trainers suggest giving a cookie when the dog pees or poops. I don’t like this idea because then the dog becomes focused on the treat. Praise the dog and immediately go back inside. This will show the dog why you’re out there. This applies to yard training, of course. If you live in an apartment, you’ll just walk your dog on a schedule that he can count on.

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