allaboutthedog-new

Pain, is the name of the game!

allaboutthedogtherapy@gmail.com (Gemma Hodson) — Thu, 09 Sep 2021 13:40:38 GMT

Why are we waiting for the dog to go lame, before we consider they might be in pain?

It’s everywhere at the moment and rightly so.

However, the emphasis always seems to be that pain and discomfort creeps up on a dog, but this is not the case for all. In fact often the subtle signs were there long before the more obvious, but we were too blind to see.

I want to highlight the dogs that have always been slow, lacked enthusiasm on a walk, the ones that have been labelled difficult, aggressive or reactive. The ones with the funny looking gait, who sit or stand slightly odd and ALWAYS HAVE.Just because they have always been like that, doesn’t mean it should be classed as normal and certainly doesn’t mean we should do nothing to help.

I spent years at Hartpury College (UWE) studying horses where, even at a basic level, you get taught what made up a horse from the inside out, how each system worked, and why this was important information to know so we could keep our horses in optimum health for optimum performance and how all this impacts on behaviour.

Not one system within the body operates on its own without it involving or impacting on another.

It is exactly the same for dogs.

A lot of the physical issues with dogs are developmental meaning that the condition developed as the dog was growing … right from puppyhood. Owners are unaware of how the health of their dog impacts on the emotional wellbeing and find it hard to make the connection between pain and behaviour. You only know, what you know and that’s fine, but there is a lot more we can do as dog professionals.

We focus too much on the outward behaviour - even when we know there are contributing factors to it; diet, environment, past experience, equipment, handling and health (to name a few), but we are in a world where the physical affects the mental - pain affects behaviour. It is to a point that I have spent the last 5 years of self-employment working with those dogs and their humans. For those that don’t know about the study on Pains Affect’s on Behaviour in Cats & Dogs by Daniel Mills in Lincoln University - he found that approximately between 50 - 80% of dogs in the study that presented with behavioural issues had some form of undiagnosed pain. It is a rapidly growing concern.

If you are a dog trainer or behaviourist and you think that you don’t need to know canine anatomy & physiology to do your job then sadly, you are missing so much of the dog in front of you.

If you think that understanding how a dog moves and uses their body in day to day life is boring and has nothing to do with what you do then you are mistaken. Get Interested, start looking.

The amount of time trainers and behaviourists spend with their clients compared to Vets is infinitely more! Those that do puppy and follow on classes, socialisation classes, hoopers, agility, 121 sessions, you could potentially help spot conditions before they negatively impact on the dog and help support the client alongside the Vet.

Why are we waiting for a dog to go lame before we consider they might be in pain?

I encourage you to learn about other things that will help you to understand what’s going on for a dog; crazy coat, body & facial tension, what healthy movement looks like so you can easily see the poor, weight shifting, loss of muscle mass and tone, good/poor conformation, breed specifics.

Thankfully there are an ever growing number of my students that have graduated my course with this new knowledge and are changing the lives of dogs who were previously mis-labelled due to their behaviour. Those dogs are now on adequate pain meds, getting the support from a therapist such as a physio or hydro and the dog and human are getting relief.

A little bit of information can go a long way in changing everything for a dog.

Resource Guarding

Thu, 23 May 2019 12:31:28 GMT

So as I said in my first post Tag was a serious resource guarder everything he discovered in the world was treasure, even litter he found in the street! Once he decided something was his it really felt impossible to get it back from him!

I read all sorts of ‘helpful’ articles online that said if your dog ever shows aggressive tendencies you shouldn’t encourage them to play games like tug-of-war. This is false, it helps release a lot of tension and energy – in fact it’s Tag’s favourite game and he will try and play it all of his toys, even balls, he’s not fussy.

I am going to be upfront about resource guarding – there is no magic cure, he will always resource guard however the items he guards are now fewer and we can go days and weeks without any guarding. But then we can have times where it feels like we’ve stepped backwards. At the time I’m finishing this off he has spent the whole week hiding my slippers in his bed.

They key to resource guarding, and I learned this the hard way, is not to shout, chase after them, try and snatch the item out of their mouth etc. – none of that helps, in fact it makes the whole situation worse. You get stressed and irritated, the dog gets more possessive as it too is getting stressed. The key was playing swapsies with him – finding something to exchange for the stolen treasure. This could be a favourite toy or food. Most often food worked better for Tag when in the house, however if you put the food near him and then try to pick up the stolen item that he’d dropped next to it this was usually a fail. We had to start slowly, show him the food, get his interest in it and then throw it away from ourselves. This usually led to the item being dropped where he was stood so that he could go to the food – much safer in my opinion than a battle of reflexes, (and let’s be honest a dog will always win that!). For a whole it was a 2-person job as well – mostly because I was still petrified as to how he would react.

Over time I started to add the word ‘drop’ and Tag started associating the link between the word, dropping an item and receiving food. Additionally we practiced ‘drop’ a lot at training with his toys so the word became associated with fun as well – he dropped the toy which meant it got thrown away for him to chase. I have to say this really became a beautiful skill and he passed his impulse control element of APDT with flying colours first time around, (not bad for a resource guarding dog).

We tried some of that spray you can buy that is meant to taste disgusting to dogs on items such as TV remotes. Apparently to the dog this tastes disgusting and therefore deters them from picking the item up, (an aversive training method I know – my apologies). I have to say though that with Tag it simply did not work. I covered those remote controls with the spray, there wasn’t a single millimetre that I didn’t coat. But no Tag would still find a way to pick it up with just 2 teeth so that he didn’t have to taste the spray just minutes after you’d covered it. I think a combination of never being allowed to keep the remote, training and maturity all played elements in overcoming resource guarding, as he now has no interest in TV remotes or mobile phones!

Litter on the street was overcome with lots of patience and practicing of ‘leave’ at training and with treats at home. In time Tag stopped needing to pick up everything he found on the street and bringing it home. I had random socks, baby toys, gloves scattered around my house because he had to bring his treasure home. Occasionally he will still pick up the odd crisp packet or paper bag he finds on the street but will give it up drop it when told to or grow bored of carrying it quite quickly these days and we don’t fight over it.

Remember – be patient, be understanding and don’t give up!

For me these were the key items and with consistent and persistent training we’ve come a long way. He no longer eats my post and for a while I had to fit one of those baskets on the door to save it from him. When I go home from work now he usually presents me with some post as soon as I step through the door. He will give me ‘stink eye’, he doesn’t want to give it up but when I very kindly thank him for taking care of it he gets confused and gives it to me.

Dogs can pick up the tone of your voice so when Tag is having an episode of guarding I tend these days to speak to him in a very kindly tone and converse with him over the item. If anyone heard us they would think I have gone completely mad, and they would probably be right, but it works.

Fay Thomas belongs to Tag the rescue Collie and lives in Tewkesbury with her partner Aaron.

How do you solve a problem like Tag?

Thu, 23 May 2019 12:29:00 GMT

So I mentioned in a previous post that Tag had issues with Resource Guarding and I will tell you about the work I did to overcome this in a separate blog.

But, this wasn’t his only issue so this issue will tell you about the other difficulties he also presented with. Before I do, I am going to apologise. I have always worked very hard not to use aversive training methods with Tag, reward based training has been the key, however, not all of the methods have quite followed the rule – so I am sorry. There were times where it felt like we had tried everything else and couldn’t think of any other solution. I do now however seek advice and enlist help to ensure future methods are up to date, reward based and force free. You only know what you know and at the time I thought I was doing the right thing I now know differently.

Poop!

So let’s get the unpleasant topic out of the way first – poop! Tag ate his own poop, he’d circle around, do his thing and before you knew it he was turning around and gobbling it up. Absolutely disgusting!! I am not sure why he did this so I did a lot of research online at the time. It may have been a lack of something in his diet so he was trying to re-digest the food (or something along those lines), another reason may have been having his nose rubbed in his own faeces whilst he was being house-trained by his first owners or finally it may have been that having lived in a kennel for a month and therefore his poop not being cleared up straight away he got into a habit of eating it to keep his ‘home’ clean.

Now I am absolutely positive that there were much better ways of handling this but in the end my ex resorted to following Tag around the garden when he was let outside and sprinkling chilli powder onto his poop before he had chance to eat it. When Tag did try to pick it up he got a bit of a shock and put it straight back down. After a short while Tag stopped trying to eat his own poop and I’m pleased to say he hasn’t ever tried to take that habit back up.

Car Chasing

Another habit Tag had was car chasing. You would be quite happily walking down the street towards the field when a car would drive past and suddenly Tag yanks the lead so hard to chase it you almost go flying. If you didn’t let him chase the car he would just try again, and again, and again!

Tag absolutely loves walks so whenever he chased a car I would just stop walking, sometimes I would even sit in the middle of the pavement, and we would stay there until several cars had gone past and he hadn’t reacted. As a reward we would start walking again.

I’d love to say I brought clicker training into this and lots of tasty food but Tag is so excited by the world he mostly couldn’t care less what food you have in your pocket when you leave the house.

Eventually Tag stopped chasing cars and I could walk down the street without fear of being pulled into a road. Now and again he might try and jump towards a car but it seems he only does it these days if he is particularly tense or we’ve had some pretty extreme weather – cars make a lot more noise when they are on a wet road.

Hard Mouth

It is important to teach dog’s something called ‘soft mouth’ (aka bite inhabition) – this is for them to only bite you lightly when you’re playing with them. Tag always enjoyed a play-fight but my goodness he went all in and it bloomin’ hurt if he caught you. Just simply saying ‘ouch’ and stopping the game taught Tag over time that he needed to reduce the force of his bite when you play. Now sometimes he can forget his own strength, (as we all do on occasion), but a simple ‘ouch’ makes him step back from the game and he waits to be told it is ok before we start playing again.

Body Touching

Tag still isn’t always keen on being touched and this really has taken some time to get to where we are. He has massively improved in some ways and is super cuddly now but in other ways we have had huge set-backs with body touching. He will let most people in my family touch him briefly before he then panics and growls at them. He despises being touched by the Vet but he will happily walk into the consultation room.

I have recently found out the most likely cause as to why he has issues with touch – but that is a whole other story!

Fay Thomas belongs to Tag the rescue Collie and lives in Tewkesbury with her partner Aaron.

Building the Bond

Thu, 23 May 2019 12:23:46 GMT

It took me a long time to start building a bond with Tag. All of his behaviour shocked me, I’d never owned a dog that resource guarded before, that didn’t like to be stroked and made a fuss off. But as I said in an earlier post I knew I couldn’t give up on him.

I wanted to be a responsible owner so even before he had his first night in the house I was calling dog training companies to help him learn basic obedience skills. This wasn’t as easy as it might sound. A lot of company’s offer puppy training classes and although he was technically still a puppy he was considered too old to participate. Fortunately I found ‘Naturally Clever Canines’ who held classes for ‘Beginner’s Training’ – the age of the dog didn’t matter but it was aimed at Dog’s who had never been trained. Perfect!! And well, both Helen and Correna were and still are fantastic, so supportive and were so understanding of Tag’s background. There were definitely things that Tag struggled with when working towards his ‘Good Companion Awards’ – notably body touching – but both of them worked with him at his own pace, we took it step-by-step and week-by-week and whenever he showed signs of it all being a bit too much, we stopped. He passed every test and we have all of the rosettes to prove it!

If I could give you any advice for bonding with your dog I would recommend going to a Training Class. I have always worked full-time from the day Tag came home and the least I could give him was 1 hour of my undivided attention each week. He got 1 hour in a local community centre learning new things with me, we learned together without the distractions that come with being at home, (cooking dinner, the housework, something on TV – you know what it’s like).

Also, I can’t say it enough – patience, understanding and don’t give up!

It still wasn’t easy though – we were still dealing with the resource guarding at home and trying to overcome this and then just a couple months after getting him he got sick. When I say he got sick – he got REALLY sick. We were all sat relaxing in the living room one evening, TV was on but Tag just couldn’t stay still – he moved from the Sofa, to the floor, back to the sofa, kept changing position – he was clearly uncomfortable but well we all get like that sometimes don’t we?!

Part of the agreement with my Landlord was that Tag wouldn’t go upstairs, we installed a stair gate to comply with the Contract. So, I got up in the morning to take him for his walk before I got ready for work and well WHAT A MESS!! I won’t go into detail but he’d clearly had a rough night and my hallway was disgusting! He could not have been more ill! Usually, in the mornings he got excited about going for his morning walk but he didn’t move, just looked at me with sad eyes. He was probably waiting to be told off but how could I do that when he was clearly sick. So my now ex-partner got screamed at to get up and help me, I couldn’t walk Tag, clean up and get to work on time so he had to help. I picked up Tag’s lead and he still didn’t move, well I thought I’ll open the front door and see what he does, he got up and slowly walked towards me. Ok, I thought let’s go. It was a 5 minute walk to the park usually but we took it slowly that day, we got there and he was sick….. again! This wasn’t looking good! I was in my probation period at work, I’d only started there about 2 months before we got Tag so my ex-Partner called into work and negotiated a change in his day off that week. By about 10am Tag was being sick after just having a little water so off to the Vets he went. I was assured at the time that carrying a 17kg dog for a mile is actually exhausting. When he got to the Vet’s they confirmed Tag had lost 2kg due to dehydration so he spent the day on a drip. I think it was this day that I realised how in love I was with him – it broke my heart knowing he was so unwell. Luckily after the help of the Vet and some TLC he was back to his usual self quite quickly – was that good or not? I wasn’t sure!

But with time and patience our bond today couldn’t be stronger. We used to have Sunday morning dances, I would put the radio on and dance to the music….. I use the word dancing loosely – Tag just thought it was a game of tug-of-war with the dressing gown, but we both had fun. Sometimes I try to instigate this again but he just doesn’t seem as keen now that he’s older, (kids!). We started going on adventures, just me and him walking over the hills and through the woods and he looked forward to it. My Partner was out a lot with his hobbies so Tag and I had a choice to make, ignore each other or build the bond. I was determined we would build the bond and with perseverance and patience and understanding I don’t think our bond could be any stronger than it is today.

I also started taking Tag to agility lessons – again it was an hour each week where it was just me and him learning something new together. Yes there were other people and other dog’s there but we weren’t working with them. We stopped Agility in April for reasons I will cover in a later blog but we do still go to training. This isn’t because he’s disobedient but because I want to keep spending that time with him where we aren’t distracted, we’ve done doggy fitness and yoga, reminded ourselves of the basics and just used the time to play enrichment games.

You have to keep in mind that rescue dogs have been given up or their owners have passed away and much like us when we have our hearts broken it takes time to trust new people.

Have patience and understanding and you will get there. Remember that you will never know exactly what life your rescue dog had before you.

I don’t rent anymore and own my house – every morning when I start to stir Tag dives onto my bed for a morning cuddle, he lies across my chest, paws me until I give him attention and licks my face. When I get home each evening he comes straight to the front door and sits waiting for his cuddle because I’m home. Early on he was taught not to jump at me when I walked through the door, (his excitement may have once caused me to drop my brand new phone into his water bowl!). As he’s not allowed to jump at me he sits and shuffles across the floor to get as close as he can and watches my every move until he gets that cuddle. In the evenings once the household chores are complete and dinner has been eaten he will even jump up and lie next to me, (or on me, usually on me), on the sofa. Not for the whole night, I think the longest was an hour, BUT not bad for a dog that couldn’t stand to be touched!!

Fay Thomas belongs to Tag the rescue Collie and lives in Tewkesbury with her partner Aaron.

Bringing him home

Thu, 23 May 2019 12:15:31 GMT

I’d wanted a dog for a while. I wanted a buddy, a companion but also I’d become pretty lazy so I wanted some motivation to get off my butt and do something with my days. Unfortunately I didn’t own a house and was nowhere near being able to and finding a landlord who would allow any kind of pet was pretty hard to come by.

The story of moving house somewhere that would ‘consider pets’, the fight to get landlord permission is a whole other story but the Estate Agent said he didn’t think it would be a problem when I looked around the house…… so the search for a dog began.

Now I didn’t care what breed of dog I got my only requirements were that I didn’t get something tiny but equally I needed to be realistic, not something too big because well it’s not like I had a huge house or a huge garden. Also I was pretty set on re-homing a rescue dog, because, well, anyone can buy a puppy right? I wanted to give a dog a chance, that for no reason of their own, had been given up by their previous owners.

Where I live the local Animal Shelter is FULL of Staffordshire Bull Terriers. Personally, I think they are cute but my now ex-partner was adamant that he did not want a Staffy. He was also pretty adamant he didn’t want a short-haired dog. Now came the dilemma, he wanted a Husky or a Collie – well you can see from the pictures he got his own way – Tag is most definitely a Collie!

I was at work one day and came across Tag at a Rescue Centre in Somerset – a little far away from my home town but not miles away from work. Tag was described as a 6 month old pure-bred Border Collie and what an unusual colour he was. Off we went one Saturday to meet him and he was adorable. He raced out of the kennel before they could even get the lead close to him and straight into the adjoining field. He stood the opposite end of the field for a while just observing us from a distance and then suddenly raced towards us and led in front of us, he also presented us with a toy and well what more can you possibly ask for. The shelter said he had never responded to anyone like that and I was feeling like he had chosen us rather than the other way around.

Getting a rescue dog is far more intrusive than going off to get a puppy from a breeder. They do have to assess your house, your garden, the height of your fences, your daily routine, (how long will the dog be alone whilst you’re at work?), do you have other pets, children? It’s quite a long list but they have the dog’s best interests at heart.

We passed that assessment and a couple of weeks later I got permission from the landlord to bring him home, (subject to many additional contractual clauses), so off I went to pick him up, after spending a fortune on a bed, food, toys, leads etc. When I got him home he raced into every room exploring his new surroundings, and you could tell which rooms he’ been into because he STANK!!! I found out later that he’d been ill on the journey….. to this day (3 years later) I don’t know which end of him was ill. Also I don’t know how I was so nose blind to the smell whilst in the car.

Anyway…… his first night involved a bath! I have pictures of that first evening, he seemed very unsure, very timid. He didn’t sit proudly whilst he was at the Shelter he was always hunched and barely knew his own name. If he sat for a treat…. well that was a fluke, he was actually 7 months old when I rescued him and it seemed as though he’d never had any basic training.

Now what you need to keep in mind when you rescue a dog is that you will probably never know their history, you can’t guarantee they came from a happy home. What I was told about Tag was that he was the runt of the litter, (well, he towers over every other Collie we meet so that’s never held him back), and that he was sold to a couple who were in their mid-80s with his sister. They felt he was aggressive towards his sister so got him neutered at 4 months old, yes 4 months old!!! He wouldn’t have even finished puberty at that age, in fact he probably would have barely started it. They said he was still too aggressive towards his sister and decided to get him put down. Luckily a family member took him from them and said he would give him a home, after only a few weeks he had also given up on him, (I would like to add that this family member was also around 80), and so Tag found himself living in a kennel, outside, with limited interaction with other dogs or with people at a Shelter.

Now having heard all of this I think you can imagine the thoughts going through my head, ‘I just met him, he’s not aggressive’, ‘idiots! puppy’s learn from play fighting with their siblings’, ‘what an irresponsible breeder’.

Now, it is at this point I am more than happy to admit that I was incredibly naive. If you are going to get a rescue dog be prepared to be patient, be understanding, and please don’t give up.

It became apparent VERY quickly that Tag had issues with Resource Guarding. There are lots of websites out there who can tell you more about this and I will post a separate blog on the work we did to overcome this. To Tag, everything was treasure and he would do everything to keep you away from it, growling, snapping and lunging. I’m not over-exaggerating when I say everything was treasure either, if it could fit in his mouth it was his. The list is endless but he would claim tissues, socks, the TV remote, baubles from the Christmas Tree, even Mobile Phones. My sister had a huge shock when she dog-sat for me one evening early on and he slyly stole her phone and then raced out into the garden with it, in the pitch black and rain. As you can imagine she was pretty keen for it to not be outside and to get it back however he was even more keen to make sure she didn’t get it back. Rest assured, although she had a shock with his growling and lunging she did get it back and he didn’t actually hurt her but he did his best ‘I’m scary’ behaviour to put her off. I can’t say that she’s ever been keen to dog sit for me since.

Tag would even walk around the house with his food bowl in his mouth, his EMPTY food bowl! If his food bowl was in the room you couldn’t even get through the doorway at times, because he would be there keeping you as far away from the bowl as he could. Being stroked also wasn’t high on his list of things he enjoyed, in fact more than 2 strokes was too much for him. He seemed to absolutely hate human interaction. I think the bath on the first night he just went along with because he was so overwhelmed by everything he wasn’t processing it all.

I found all of this difficult to deal with – he wasn’t that dream dog I wanted, the one who would cuddle up with me on the sofa and on at least 1 occasion I contemplated putting him in the car and taking him back. What stopped me? Knowing he’d had a tough start, knowing he was young, and knowing he would probably end up being put down and he didn’t deserve that.

Remember – be patient, be understanding and don’t give up!

Fay Thomas belongs to Tag the rescue Collie and lives in Tewkesbury with her partner Aaron.

Benefits of Grooming your dog on a regular basis

Thu, 23 May 2019 12:11:48 GMT

You may ask isn’t regular grooming just a matter of keeping your dog looking pretty? Absolutely not! There are many benefits to regular grooming, some of which you may not have thought about.

Firstly, grooming can become a good bonding opportunity for you and your dog, especially if you build up confidence and trust gently from a very young age. For some owners the issue isn’t that they don’t know how to brush their dog correctly, it is that they go straight in and expect to be able to brush their dog head to tail in one go, then make it into a battle when their dog doesn’t like it, tries to bite the brush or hand, or runs away and hides at the sight of a brush. There is help at hand to overcome these issues, Gemma (All About the Dog – Therapy) will be happy to help with this, or attend one of my workshop where I can teach you a number of trust based techniques to build up confidence.

Grooming is also a good opportunity for you to check over your dog for lumps, bumps, cuts and grazes, and those nasty grass seeds, ticks and fleas!!

Short hair dogs, such as labradors, staffies, etc, will also benefit from regular brushing. I personally love the Kong Zoom Groom for short haired breeds. For those dogs with longer coats, regular grooming with a good quality slicker brush will enable you to keep your dogs coat free of mats.

Mats can be a major problem for dogs, owners and groomers.

A matted coat prevents a dog from maintaining a healthy temperature, especially during the warmer weather. A mat free cost will capture the cool air within the coat and keep the dog cool. The coat will also prevent penetration of the sun heat rays reaching the dogs skin. However, a matted coat will capture the heat and hold it against the dogs skin, basically causing the dog to overheat.

Matted coats can potentially cause or hide health related issues.
Prolonged matted coats can cause the skin beneath to break down. When the groomer then has to shave down to the skin, there is the potential for the skin to tear, causing bleeding. Because of the closeness of the clipper blade to the skin, clipper rash can be caused, leaving the dog itchy and uncomfortable.
Shaving matted ears regularly causes haematoma – where the blood builds up and then bursts, causing bleeding. Although the groomer will do their best to prevent this, it is not always possible, particularly if the dog shakes his head.
It is very easy for parasites, such as fleas and ticks to hide in mats.
Lumps, bumps, injuries are also very difficult to detected under mats.
Mats are painful. Imagine a mat in your own hair and how that feels against your skin – now imagine that over your whole body.
Despite popular belief, most groomers dislike having to shave down to the skin, they would much rather have a full coat to work with and show off their grooming skills.

Right now we know the issues around not grooming your dog regularly, what can we do about it?

Many dog owners tend to just use a brush and skim over the outer layer. Irrelevant of how hard you press down, this means that the fur closest to the skin never gets brushed, mats go unnoticed, then felting forms at the root of the fur. Matting and felting leaves groomer has no option than to shave down to the skin; brushing tight mats, tangles, and felted fur is extremely painful and against the animal welfare act. Most of you will have experienced a tangle in your hair has a child and your mum yanking again your skull to get it out – painful. Now imaging that discomfort all over your body.

The best way to ensure that mats do not form is to part the fur so that you can see the skin, then brush from the skin outwards up to the end of the fur, then re-part the fur and repeat, do this all over the dogs fur until the whole coat is brushed, then go through the fur with a comb.

There are some good detangling sprays on the market to help with getting the little mats out before they become big mats. I like Pro Pooch, easy to use yet not expensive.

If you cannot manage to keep your dogs coat mat free discuss with your groomer an increased frequency of having your dog groomed, I personally do a “one hour special slot” at £25 but owners have to bring their dogs on an agreed schedule – mostly 4 weekly, but some less. This saved the dog getting too matted and in the long run saves money. For example, I charge £35 upwards for a cockerpoo on an 6-8 schedule (depending on cost type), however if the dog comes in heavily matted at 8 weeks, it can take me double the time to clip the mats out, this causes distress to the dogs as it hurts, and damages my blades. If it takes twice the time, then I have to charge extra, say £60 for up to 3 hours. However, if they bring the dog every 4 weeks at £25 that works out £10 less than bringing them every 8 weeks. It also means the groomer doesn’t have to shave so short. Not every groomer will give you a discount on more regular grooms but it is worth asking.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me via facebook @happypawswithsue or email info@happypawswithsue.co.uk

Sue Williamson (Happy Paws with Sue) is a Dog Groomer and Tellington TTouch Training Practitioner P1 based in Leicestershire. She combines her grooming and TTouch Training skills to help dogs overcome grooming anxieties. Sue runs regular workshops for dog groomers and in has recently introduction trust based grooming workshops for dogs owners to teach them the trust based techniques she uses in the grooming salon.

Helping Milo

Thu, 23 May 2019 12:05:33 GMT

Meet Milo! Milo is a very handsome 3yr old Golden Retriever.

Milo’s owners contacted me when he suffered a muscular injury after slipping on wood flooring. Upon taking him to the vet his owners were told that the issue was with the muscles in his lumbar region.

After performing a superficial muscle palpation on Milo I could find no issue with his back, however he did sit down rather quickly and he turned to look at my hand when I went inside the top of his left hind limb. On further investigation I found quite a bit of heat and swelling right up deep inside his groin (iliopsoas muscle), where it felt like a bag of marbles. Tearing of the iliopsoas muscles is usually the result of excessive stretching consistent with that of splaying of the legs due to slipping or high energy games such as chasing after a tennis ball, jumping off high objects, excessive training or play with other dogs. Tearing of this muscle can be extremely painful and can cause lameness. This definitely fitted what Milo had and was experiencing.

As part of my training/coursework case studies I treated Milo using remedial massage on 4 separate occasions following his injury to which he dramatically improved and returned to his normal self.

Four months later the injury reoccurred although not to the same extent. Newly qualified in Canine Sports Therapy I returned to reassess Milo. He was lame again on his left hind and not fully weight bearing. As well as the issues with the iliopsoas muscle returning his hamstrings were now also tight. There was also significant muscle wastage of the biceps femoris, but what struck me the most was the coat change over both of his stifle joints. What was usually a sleek glossy deep golden in colour coat had become light fluffy and fuzzy in texture – this was something my TTouch Practitioner training was telling me to make a note and investigate further!

I should also mention at this point that on top of Milo’s recurring injury we also had to work through his issues with being touched by a stranger. Making a dog feel safe and to know that they have plenty of choice throughout every session is very important to me. It ensures that the dog trusts me and enables them to relax further during treatment. It would be quite easy for me to walk into a treatment session and force a dog to accept what I do but this has the total opposite of what I am trying to achieve, it gives the dog a bad experience making them more reluctant to engage with me on the next session. Milo has an incredible connection with his mum human Sally and initially only felt safe when focused on her, he would only allow me to touch certain bits and only when he signaled he was ready. I put in lots of breaks and he was allowed to move whenever he wanted. As each session has gone on Milo has become more settled and less focused on his mum, he now presents parts of himself for me to work on and definitely knows why I am there and what it’s all about. The trust between therapist and dog grows with every session and it is an absolute joy to witness the responses he gives.

As I proceeded to move through Milo’s session after reassessment I was able to assess the stability of his stifle joints. The left stifle appeared considerably looser than the right, but he didn’t appear to be in any pain because of it. Not being a vet I couldn’t diagnose, but something wasn’t quite right and I advised Sally that a check up at the vet would be a good idea. I had a feeling that the stifle and the iliopsoas injury were connected.

Less than a week later Milo’s vet confirmed that he did indeed have a loose stifle, which can be quite common in the breed. This leaves the joint open to excessive wear and tear, predisposing the stifle to osteoarthritis and the greater possibility of cruciate injury which could lead to surgery. I got to work planning a specific therapy plan to build Milo’s core strength initially to enable him to perform strengthening and stability exercises for the hind assembly safely and effectively. This included on-lead walks, exercises routines that were built gradually before moving them to a balance board to increase exercise difficulty. But it’s all very well me writing a plan to improve a dogs issue, there needs to be a dedicated owner or owners to carry it out. Thankfully Milo’s owners are very pro-active and they have carried out every part my therapy plan daily and weekly and Milo has progressed beautifully. I have treated him a further two times since injury re-occurrence and on my last visit last week he was not only looking more toned, but had muscle symmetry in the hind limbs, he is bearing more weight on the affected limb and his fluffy knees have started to diminish! He settled into his treatment session with me better than ever and gave me his total focus rather than his mum.

2 days later Milo went to the vet for his hydrotherapy referral appointment. The vet has commented on the significant improvement in muscle development and symmetry and there is now minimal movement in the stifle joint! The vet also confirmed my suspicions that the loose knee was caused by an “event”, the event being slipping on wood flooring, and that reluctance to use the limb properly due to pain and discomfort had caused muscle wastage and instability.

I am thrilled that I was able to pull my skills as a TTouch Practitioner and Canine Sports Therapist together to help Milo who will continue to see me going forward as part of a maintenance programme. He will also continue with his exercises as well as starting hydrotherapy to further strengthen his musculoskeletal system. This multi-model approach will ensure he stays fit, strong and injury free!

Vet Consent

Thu, 23 May 2019 11:59:55 GMT

Sounds like a long drawn out and costly process doesn’t it? Well not necessarily.

What is Vet Consent?

If you want your dog to undergo physiotherapy, hydrotherapy, massage therapy, sports therapy, galen therapy or acupuncture the therapist must obtain vet consent before treatment can begin. It is a legal requirement for a therapist in order to treat your pet and relates directly to the Veterinary Surgeons Act 1966 and Exempt Order 2015.

Why should I obtain Vet Consent?

Other than it being law it is a way for your pets therapist to ascertain if there are any reasons as to why treatment should be avoided, also known as contraindicated. This could be a simple as the vet advising care should be taken in certain areas due to surgery or injury, or that the treatment should be avoided altogether in the likelihood the animals condition is exacerbated for example if your dog is taking certain types of medication or has a serious illness.

How do I go about it?

Most therapists have their own forms that you can take in to or email to your vet for them to sign. These forms ask for certain information about you as the owner and your pet; owner name and contact details, pets name, age, breed, sex, etc, followed by a section for the owner to sign which gives consent for the vet to share your pets medical history with the therapist. The rest of the form is filled in by the vet who gives history of any illness and/or injury, going into detail where necessary and any medication the animal is currently taking. The vet then signs to say they are happy for treatment to proceed.

Will it cost me anything?

99% of the time gaining vet consent shouldn’t cost you. It should be just a simple case of giving the form to the vet and waiting a few days for them to fill it in (or sooner if your vet is super speedy). Occasionally if your vet hasn’t seen your pet in a while they may ask you to bring them in for a check over before they give the OK, so it may cost you a consultation fee. I have experienced 1 vet that charges their clients a £10 admin fee but this is rare and I personally tend to knock this off of the price of the first treatment if proof of payment is provided. If in doubt call your vet and ask them what they need from you in order to get the form signed.

Will I need a new vet consent every time I want to book my dog in for a treatment?

Not usually. Vet consent is kept on file, in accordance with GDPR regulations, by the therapist. However, if your dog experiences any changes i.e. illness or injury the therapist should cease treatment until the vet gives the all clear to proceed again.

If a therapist is willing to work on your dog without gaining vet consent – STOP! Any professional therapist should be working inside the law and alongside your vet. If they proceed it may invalidate their insurance and if anything goes wrong your dog could be the one paying the price.

All About the Dog – Therapy recognises the Veterinary Surgeons Act 1966 and Exempt Order 2015 and will not work on an animal using Canine Sports, Massage & Rehabilitation Therapy without gaining prior veterinary consent.

Gemma Hodson Dip ICAT CST (Dist)

Recovery

Thu, 23 May 2019 11:54:05 GMT

So Ron had been diagnosed with Calcinosis Cutis, a condition bought on by steroid use, as the cause of the growth on his neck. He was on 10mg of prednisone per day, which is a pretty low dose, but enough to do the damage none the less.

The trouble with steroids is that you cannot just stop giving them, you have to wean the dog off gradually. If you do you run the risk of causing organ damage, not to mention a huge spike in the allergic response that was being suppressed by them. Over the course of the next 2-3 weeks I dropped the dose from 2 tablets per day, to 1 and a half, then one ….. you get the idea. Despite the gradual reduction Ron’s feet flared up within days of coming off completely, Vince and I knew it would happen, he described it to me as steroids being the brakes to the immune system response, remove the brake and you get a flood as the immune system goes into overdrive. However the flare up wasn’t as bad as it could have been, that was so long that I controlled his environment and food and carried on using the remedies Vince prescribed. This leads me back to Ron’s other condition, Hyperthyroidism.

You may recall Jean Dodd suggested that the cause of the Hyperthyroidism in Ron could be down to him consuming meat containing Thyroid Tissue. As I explained my dog is RAW fed. He ate, at that time, 100% duck mince, which is minced up duck carcass, plus added veggies and supplements from me. I like many of you reading this thought that the thyroid gland is in the neck, I rang my food supplier and double checked that the necks were sold separately, they confirmed that this was the case. I went back to Jean Dodd with a list of what my dog was eating along with supplements. I started researching foods that could affect the thyroid function and found out that foods with high levels of Iodine can have an effect on the thyroid gland. Ron was on Kelp, which is one of the most Iodine rich foods you can get and Jean Dodd came back to me advising that I should drop this, Vince too agreed. Next on the list was Spirulina, Doesn’t have masses of Iodine in it but for the time being I was cutting that out too! But these supplements alone couldn’t have caused the Hyperthyroidism, there had to be something else I was missing. Then I started looking into where the thyroid gland was situated in birds, OMG it’s in the chest cavity! Even if the gland is removed the surrounding tissue can still cause a problem, I suppose it’s a bit like putting ginger biscuits into your biscuit tin with all your hobnobs, after a while the hobnobs start to taste of ginger biscuit. Ron had been eating minced duck carcass twice a day for nearly a year so this means I had to change his food, but Ron had food allergies so I was limited to what I could give him and food sensitivities can change over time meaning what he wasn’t allergic to at one point he may be now, I had to be careful. Back on the phone to the savior that is Vince the Vet and he advised that I get his food sensitivities tested again, but rather than take Ron for a blood test I would try a Nutriscan saliva test also to be sent to Hemopet in California. As luck would have it I had a kit that was given to me at the Natural Dog Conference the previous year. It is a really easy test that you can do yourself at home without the stress of taking your dog to a vet to be poked and prodded by needles. It consists of a cotton rope that you get your dog to chew on and get it really slobbery, you then put it in the container provided and pop it in the post. Simples. I will warn you now this test is extremely expensive, costing around £280. However, Ron is worth every penny I have spent so far, to date we are fairly close to the £2K mark which is what I paid for him as a puppy. Petplan at this point were being very difficult, slapping exclusions on his policy left right and centre and only paying out a fraction of each claim so I have footed the bill for about 80% of all his treatment so far myself. Anyway, it take 7 days to get to the US and the test takes 10 – 14 days, again I had to sit and wait.

Back onto Ron’s neck, a couple of weeks had passed and the progression had eased somewhat. He had started to get lumps on the underside of his neck but these were only small in comparison to the one on top. He was still reluctant to come out of his bed but he did seem brighter in himself, but he was still itchy. At one point he rubbed himself raw and barked for me a 5am, this had been the first night I had decided to sleep in my own bed and as soon as I heard him I knew something was wrong. I bathed it in salt water and rinsed it, then applied some Aloe Vera gel which seemed to ease his discomfort and take the heat out of it. I took a photo, and once it was a sensible hour I sent it on to Vince. I was due to take Ron up to see him in a few days and wondered if he could bring something to stop the itch. Vince was turning onto Ron’s personal Veterinarian, the poor guy must dread looking at his phone and seeing my name pop up. I have sent him some very odd photos of my dog over the last few months, from feet, to body, neck and ears, none of which are particularly pretty to look at and a strong stomach is usually required given the photo’s I have shared with you all. Vince again being very proactive would bring something with him in a few days. In the mean time other than slathering him in Aloe Vera there wasn’t much else I could do so I turned my attention onto encouraging him out of his cave.

I went to the local pet shop and chose the biggest toy they did, which wasn’t big at all if you are a 5 and a half stone bulldog. It resembled a skinned squirrel with a squeaky tennis ball for a head and a squeaker in the tail, I got back home with my present and walked into the kitchen. Ron stayed in his bed and just looked at me, utterly depressed. I detagged the squirrel and sat on the floor in front of him with it behind my back so he couldn’t see what it was. One squeak was all it took. The head popped up, the ears sprang to the top of his head and the sparkle came back in his eyes. Another squeak and he was up on his feet, I then showed him what I had bought and his little tail started wagging (as much as his little corkscrew tail could possibly wag, which isn’t a lot). I threw it behind me and off he went, gave it a good sniff, checked where the squeakers were by prodding it repeatedly with his nose, picked it up in his mouth and proceeded to parade around the living room snorting as he went. Thoroughly pleased as punch with his new favorite thing. He played with it for hours before my husband returned home. Noel was greeted by a very bouncy Bulldog, proudly showing him Mr Squirrel. This was the start of his recovery.

A few days later I made the trip up to Wolverhampton with Ron to see Vince at my mother in-laws house. Ron very politely greeted Vince at the front door and followed him into the sitting room. That dog waited until Vince had got settled, carefully watched as Vince retrieved his notes and pens, then walked over to give him what has become called being Ronned. It started with front paws in the lap and an insanely waggy tail, begging to be fussed, and finished with Ron on top of Vince. Notes crumpled and strewn about the place. Pens lost, glasses slobbered on, trousers covered in hair! If ever there was a way for a dog to say thank you I think Ron found it, and Vince was loving every second! After about 10 minutes Ron got back down on the floor looking thoroughly please with his efforts. The boy was back! Vince was amazed at how well in himself Ron now was. The first few meetings Ron had not wanted to interact with Vince at all which was not the dog I knew. Vince left after an hour, but not before giving me a remedy to help relieve Ron’s itch, 1 pill to be taken every 2-3 hours when required. This stuff was AMAZING and definitely did what it said it was going to do.

The next few weeks Ron’s hair started to grow back, he was now sporting what resembled Wayne Rooney’s hair transplant, slightly fuzzy and you really had to look hard to notice there was anything there at all. I was using TTouch on and around the area to not only help with the itch but to help with the healing by increasing blood flow to the area. I posted a photo of this small progress on my Facebook page which was instantly spotted by Sue Thane, another Happy Dog Training Co trainer. “Have you heard of Stinky Stuff?” Sue share the link and I immediately started to investigate. The burning question that came to me was, what on earth makes you call a product Stinky Stuff? I ordered it, I didn’t have anything else to lose, it was all natural so I thought I would give it a try. In the mean time the first part of Ron’s Nutriscan test was in.

Ron was intolerant to; White Fish, Barely, Egg, Lentil (peas), Oatmeal, Peanut, Quinoa, Rabbit, Salmon, Rice, & Sweet Potato. He was OK with; Wheat, Millet and Normal Potatoes & Soy but I was told to stay away from them. I would have to wait a further week for the Protein results to come in.

Ron’s neck was now looking like an old bristle brush with a lot of the bristles missing. However, the skin was looking a normal pink colour but it was still raised and rough textured. My parcel arrived from Sticky Stuff and I opened it with much anticipation. In the box came; 1 x pot of Stinky Stuff, 1 x bottle of Aloe Shampoo base and 1 x bottle of Carrier Oil. You mix Sticky stuff with the shampoo 50/50 and use it as an intensive treatment by bathing your dog in it and leaving it on for up to 10 minutes once a week or you could mix it with the carrier oil and use it as a rub targeted on the worst areas a few times a day. Sorry Ron ….. Its bath time! I opened the Shampoo base and poured 3 tablespoons into a container, then I opened the Stinky Stuff. WOW, now I know why they called it Stinky Stuff! That smell could out last religion. It got worse when you added it to wet dog smell. My house now smells distinctly of curried bulldog, and strong curried bulldog at that. In fact I had a very good friend of mine come round for a cuppa and a chat on the day I bathed him and she asked me if someone was ill and had an accident! The smell aside this stuff is fantastic. Not only does it help stop the itch, it repels fleas, ticks and mites, is an effective treatment for yeast infections AND promotes rapid hair regrowth. Within 2 weeks of using this on Ron, with a bath every Friday, the growth on his neck started to rapidly disappear. This has amazed both the breed specialist vet and Vince, who both thought I was going to have to get Ron operated on to remove it. Every day I look at it and every day there is noticeable improvement. I can live with the smell, because it is nothing short of miraculous.

The last of the allergy results were in. Lets just say it is easier for me to list the things he wasn’t allergic to than the things he was. So here goes …. Lamb. That was it. That was the grand sum of things he wasn’t allergic to! The dietary advice said that he should also be able to eat Kangaroo, Emu and Quail. Oh that’s EASY to get my hands on, I mean there are loads of Kangaroo’s hopping about in Tewkesbury, its renowned for them. Thanks Ron, you don’t make things easy for me. Lamb was ordered the same day but something told me this wasn’t going to be the end of things, I will leave that to my next blog in the new year.

But I cannot end this one without just a little bit of happiness. I am pleased to tell you that Ron has made a full recovery from Calcinocis Cutis. I no longer spend my nights on the kitchen floor with him, he is back to enjoying cuddles on the sofa. He is full of bounce and vigor and cheek. When all this started I never thought for one minute that Ron and I could possibly be any closer, but I was so wrong. He continues to teach and inspire me every day and he has opened may doors for me that I didn’t know existed. To some people he is just a dog, to me, he is my life and for all that has gone on and the stuff yet to come, I wouldn’t swap him for the world.

Merry Christmas to all my readers, and have a Happy New Year!!

Gem, Noel & Ron XXX

It will get worse before it gets better!

Thu, 23 May 2019 11:45:10 GMT

So this next part has taken me some time to write. Not because I forgot what happened, far from it in fact, but because I started writing and it all came flooding back!

5 weeks spent sleeping on the kitchen floor so Ron didn’t have to go through this alone. 5 weeks of watching my dog give up on life. 5 weeks of dreading what tomorrow would bring. Reliving what happened brought on an anxiety attack, which surprised me as during the actual time Ron’s condition was developing I didn’t have one ….

I got Ron safely home and put his bloods in my fridge. Fired up the laptop and found the Hemopet website to see how I needed to send them. They needed to go to California and therefore I should be sending serum! Bum, I had left Wolverhampton with unspun blood.

Now I am very lucky to have some amazing friends, one of which I work alongside on the Reactive Dogs Course at The Happy Dog Training Company in Tewkesbury. Kim Hawley is a Vet Nurse and one quick text to her the following morning and I was back in my car heading to her place of work where she would spin Ron’s blood to get the serum I needed. Serum is viable at room temperature for about 2 weeks so it was soon in the post winging its way to the US. I just had to sit and wait.

Now I should explain that due to Ron’s symptoms we were thinking he had Hypothyroidism. A condition that for a number of reasons means that the Thyroid Gland doesn’t produce enough of the hormone. Ron was looking soft and podgy and losing hair on top of the skin issues of recurring abscess in the paws and tail and now this strange thing on the back of his neck. Cushings was also mentioned by Vince as a possible cause of Ron’s symptoms so I would also get his urine tested to check his cortisol levels later in the week. Too high and this could be the answer and one I didn’t want.

Skip forwards a week, the serum was well on its way to California. The thing on Ron’s neck was now 4 inches long by 2 inches wide and had the appearance of a 3rd degree burn! Ron has a Mohican that runs from the back of his head slap bang down his crest to his withers and this thing was following this line. Back on the phone to the breed specialist vet who was now thinking this was a skin infection. Ron wasn’t letting me nor anyone else touch it, it looked really sore. He had also started to get little bite like lumps pebble dashing both sides, down his legs and on his testicles. One of his other symptoms I had forgotten to mention was Ron’s decreasing desire for any physical contact. He used to love a cuddle on the sofa as a puppy but the older he grew and the further down this terrible journey he went the less he wanted to join us on the sofa. The breed specialist wanted to watch and wait for a few days to see what happened with his neck and I would carry on bathing it and applying good old Sudocrem. Vince however was very pro-active. Out of respect for Vince I am not going to divulge what remedies he prescribed my dog, but I can tell you all of which were to help stabilize Ron’s Immune System as after all this was the major factor to his troubles. Once we had started to stabilize the immune system we could then slowly start dropping the steroids down. Until then he had to stay on 10mg a day.

The allergy tests where pretty conclusive but the vet had refused to take bloods for the Thyroid test as the UK one he wanted to use weren’t helpful at a diagnosis and suggested we put him on the thyroid drugs anyway! Ummmm NO! No more drugs will be going into my dog without my knowing a diagnosis. He was allergic to internal & external environmental pollutants along with foods. He had started to lose hair behind both ears, however was not scratching, his hair was thinning elsewhere on his body. His skin was changing colour seasonally, pink to black in the autumn then back to pink in the spring.I was convinced this was diet related primarily so changed him back to RAW. He was panting constantly throughout the winter. January 2016 came and he had his first appointment with the holistic vet in Bath. I was told my dog would most likely have to live with his health issues for the rest of his life, although they could most likely reduce the symptoms he would be on steroids for the rest of his life! I persevered with the homeopathy. I spent a fortune with the holistic vet with no return. I know homeopathy can take months to take effect but after over 6 months my dog was getting worse not better, with abscesses now appearing in his tail regularly as well as his feet and I was now lancing them to relieve the pressure. I had to change tact – I had to change vet AGAIN.

May 23rd 2016 we met with a new holistic vet. His name, Vince MacNally aka Vince the Vet. I knew of him from a conference I went to back in December. I had heard nothing but good things about this man. I now felt confident that this person could help my dog. I had “faith” in him. He made me no promises other than he would do his best. The first stage was to address his diet, try and control his home environment and then add homeopathic remedies. We started to see changes, small at first but then we had 18 days without his feet flaring up. This was HUGE.

On our 2nd visit to see Vince my dog had developed a new symptom. A small 5 pence piece bald patch on the back of his neck had appeared and was growing at an alarming rate! Vince agreed something else was wrong. My dog was looking pretty fed up and lacked any sort of drive to interact with Vince. This was unusual for him as he was an enthusiastic greeter with a lot of Bulldog love to give. I had an appointment booked to see the breed specialist vet for a check up, as Ron was still on steroids, immediately after seeing Vince. It was agreed this time I would push for bloods to be taken and sent to Hemopet in California.

I got the bloods taken and took it upon myself to send them to America. The back of my dogs neck was also checked and it was decided it was possibly a condition called Calcinosis Cutis caused by steroids and that it would get worse before it got better. He wanted to put him on Atopica which is a pretty toxic drug, used decades ago to prevent transplant rejection in humans! Again, NO! I agreed to drop the already low dose (10mg) of steroids down to prevent the Calcinosis Cutis getting worse. Off home I drove, with my beloved dog and a load of bloods.

Little did I know what was going to unfold in the next 2 weeks.

My next blog – What the conventional vets don’t tell you!

Just the tip of the iceberg!

Thu, 23 May 2019 11:39:51 GMT

I am the very proud owner of an English Bulldog! The breed is littered with health problems, from breathing issues to joint problems. I was fully aware of what I was buying and made sure I did my research before settling on a breeder. To this day I still maintain I made the right choice in breeder.

To look at you could not want for a better example of the breed, he has wide nostrils with no soft pallet issues that cause compromised breathing, his nose is not pushed up into his skull. His eyes are clear and free from the gland issue known as cherry eye and his lids do not droop. He has a level top line and does not have a short, squat appearance with rump higher than the shoulders. He is in proportion. He would quite happily go for an hour long walk, where he would run and keep up with Labradors and spaniels without faltering and still want to be played with vigorously when he got home. He is massively intelligent, has progressed through puppy courses all the way through his Kennel Club Good Citizens awards and has done advanced training called Helpful Hounds where he learnt to close doors, pull my coat off and switch lights on and off. Not the stereotypical “stubborn” Bulldog that these dogs are renowned for being. Personally I feel if you find the right technique (reward based and force free) any dog can be trained.

However, my dog has been on such an awful journey these last 18 months that no dog should have had to suffer. It started when he was approximately 6 months old with what we thought were Inter-digital Cysts. Inter digital Cysts is a condition known to short furred dogs where the hair follicle is forced back up into the skin on the underside of the paw resulting in a lump to form in between the webbing of the toes on the upper side. After many home remedies, lemon juice, Epsom salt soaks etc which had little effect I then took my dog to the local vet. I was told “he is a Bulldog, it’s his breed” given a course of steroids and sent on our way. After the course of steroids finished the problem came back, I returned to the vet to be told yet again “it’s his breed” and sent on my way with yet more steroids. I am not one to sit about and take a vets word for things. I am a control freak and need to know what the problem is, why it was happening and what I can do to resolve it. “It’s his breed”! OK let’s find a breed specialist, after all you wouldn’t go to the chiropodist to have a filling, so I located THE man to go to and at the age of 18 months I took Ron to Wolverhampton, which isn’t far from me luckily, to meet the infamous breed specialist vet. 8 months of being on and off steroids and by December 2015 my dog was still nowhere to being relieved of his problem and the list of symptoms where now getting longer and his paw lumps bigger and debilitating. I had tried many different diets, kibble and raw. I had started to turn to the more holistic approach due to perusing my own dream to be a Tellington TTouch Practitioner, and found myself sat at a lecture by a holistic vet from Bath. Alarm bells started to ring for me and after discussion with the holistic vet I went back to the breed specialist vet and pushed for allergy tests and I also wanted his Thyroid checked by Hemopet.

Little did I know what was going to unfold in the next 2 weeks.

My next blog – What the conventional vets don’t tell you!

allaboutthedog-new

Pain, is the name of the game!

Why are we waiting for the dog to go lame, before we consider they might be in pain?

Resource Guarding

So as I said in my first post Tag was a serious resource guarder everything he discovered in the world was treasure, even litter he found in the street! Once he decided something was his it really felt impossible to get it back from him!

How do you solve a problem like Tag?

So I mentioned in a previous post that Tag had issues with Resource Guarding and I will tell you about the work I did to overcome this in a separate blog.

Building the Bond

It took me a long time to start building a bond with Tag. All of his behaviour shocked me, I’d never owned a dog that resource guarded before, that didn’t like to be stroked and made a fuss off. But as I said in an earlier post I knew I couldn’t give up on him.

Bringing him home

Benefits of Grooming your dog on a regular basis

You may ask isn’t regular grooming just a matter of keeping your dog looking pretty? Absolutely not! There are many benefits to regular grooming, some of which you may not have thought about.

Helping Milo

Meet Milo! Milo is a very handsome 3yr old Golden Retriever. Milo’s owners contacted me when he suffered a muscular injury after slipping on wood flooring. Upon taking him to the vet his owners were told that the issue was with the muscles in his lumbar region.

Vet Consent

Sounds like a long drawn out and costly process doesn’t it? Well not necessarily.

Recovery

So Ron had been diagnosed with Calcinosis Cutis, a condition bought on by steroid use, as the cause of the growth on his neck. He was on 10mg of prednisone per day, which is a pretty low dose, but enough to do the damage none the less.

It will get worse before it gets better!

So this next part has taken me some time to write. Not because I forgot what happened, far from it in fact, but because I started writing and it all came flooding back!

Just the tip of the iceberg!

I am the very proud owner of an English Bulldog! The breed is littered with health problems, from breathing issues to joint problems. I was fully aware of what I was buying and made sure I did my research before settling on a breeder. To this day I still maintain I made the right choice in breeder.

Meet Milo! Milo is a very handsome 3yr old Golden Retriever.

Milo’s owners contacted me when he suffered a muscular injury after slipping on wood flooring. Upon taking him to the vet his owners were told that the issue was with the muscles in his lumbar region.