hilary swank : a fan of pet adoption

The
ay,
f e at u r e d
websites
1. American Behavior Research Institute
www.abrionline.org
2. American College of Veterinary Behaviorists
www.dacvb.org
3. American Humane Association
www.americanhumane.org
4. American Veterinary Medical Association
www.avma.org
5. American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior
www.avsabonline.org
g r e at n e w s a b o u t p e t s s n i f f e d o u t f o r y o u
6. CATalyst Council
www.catalystcouncil.org
the Animal Doctor
Dr. Lori W. Wyatt
815 Feinberg Ct.
Cary, Il. 60013
847-516-8190
7. International Association of Animal Behavior
Consultants
www.iaabc.org
8. Stephen Huneck
www.stephenhuneck.com
9. Steve Dale
www.stevedalepetworld.com
www.petworldradio.net
10. Steve Dale’s blog
www.chicagonow.com/blogs/
steve-dale-pet-world/
spring 2010
Our PawPrints guarantee: Love your pets,
and they will love you back.
For more information about PawPrints, please
contact [email protected], or call
toll free: 1.866.319.2855.
EDITOR
Steve Dale, syndicated newspaper columnist
(Tribune Media Services), host nationally
syndicated The Pet Minute and Steve Dale’s
Pet World, also heard on WLS Radio, Chicago.
Steve’s a contributing editor for USA Weekend
and special correspondent of Cat Fancy.
He’s also on the Board of American Humane,
CATalyst Council, Tree House Humane Society
and the Winn Feline Foundation.
COnTRiBuTing pARTneR
American Veterinary Medical
Association
COnTRiBuTing WRiTeR
Dr. Debra Horwitz
©2010 by Merial Limited, Duluth, gA, and
Steve Dale, all except where noted. All rights
reserved. All rights to articles belong to their
respective authors, except where noted. All
trademarks and registered trademarks are the
property of their respective owners.
®MERIAL, FRONTLINE, HEARTGARD and the Dog
& Hand logo are registered trademarks of Merial.
MER10PAWPRINTSSPR
hilary swank: a fan of pet adoption
“I have been a huge animal lover my entire
Two-time Academy Award winning actress Hilary Swank is
life,” adds the 35-year old actress, who earned
on the telephone, and she sounds positively chirpy. Or perhaps
by steve dale
Best Actress Oscars for Boys Don’t Cry and Million
that’s a parrot in the background. “Yes, that’s my African Grey; I
Dollar Baby.
have two parrots,” says Swank. “Let me give you the great news,
“I think one of my first words was ‘dog’. I’ve had many pets, and I’ve
from October 1, 2009 through January 4, 2010, Iams® Home 4 the
rescued many animals. I think
Holidays® adopted nearly one
they know they’ve been rescued
and a half million animals!”
and are so grateful to you.”
(1,363,638 to be exact).
One of her dogs was rescued
“Whoo hoo!” she cheers.
from the streets of South
“That’s pretty amazing, and not
Africa. “I saw a little puff ball
only dogs and cats, but rabbits,
on the street when I was making
birds, turtles and horses. Some
a movie (Red Dust) in 2004. “He
may want a pure bred dog.
was just 8-weeks old, and the
Well, 25 percent of animals in
veterinarian said, ‘If you don’t
shelters are pure breds.”
take this dog, he’ll die on the
Iams Home 4 the Holidays
streets,” she says. “So, of course,
began a decade ago. Millions
I took him. He’s probably a Jack
of animals have found homes
Russell/Corgi mix and other
as a result of the initiative –
breeds, too.”
arguably, the most effective pet
She named that dog Karoo,
adoption drive in history. Last
for the National Park by the
year’s drive tallied 1.2 million
Hilary Swank with her dogs and Mike Arms
same name in South Africa.
pets adopted.
Last October, she adopted a Home 4 the Holidays dog in Los
Swank, the 2009 campaign spokesperson, called the decision to
Angeles. The owners apparently lost their home, and their dog
get behind the pet adoption drive, “a no brainer.” “Finding animals
became homeless too. Swank named the “Swank” continued on page 2
loving homes, what’s not right about this?”
inside . volume 3 . spring 2010
awa r e n e s s
share
knowledge
the canine parvovirus
can kill
dog training conundrum
clarified
news from the other
side of the pond
You can prevent this deadly disease.
2
Veterinary Behaviorist, Dr. Debra Horwitz,
explains three dog training philosophies.
3
Gorilla sports, knee replacement for a cat
and a mouse-hoarding cat.
4
from the avma
“Swank” continued from page 1
Golden Retriever-mix, Rumi,
after her favorite 13th Century
Persian poet and theologian.
Her bird continues to
squawk in the background,
louder and louder. “Well, that’s
an African Grey for you,” she
says. Swank points out that large
birds need rescuing too. Their
40 to 65-year life span might
exceed their owners’.
Her Grey does sometimes
talk. His favorite expression is
“What the?” Parrots only repeat
what they’ve heard. Apparently,
Swank may be using those two
words followed by a third word,
a common phrase perhaps when
speaking to movie producers.
She laughs and adds, “Maybe
(talking to) family too, but at
least the bird doesn’t swear.”
Mike Arms, president and
CEO of the Helen Woodward
Animal Center in Rancho
Santa Fe, CA, admits the
adoption campaign has exceeded
everyone’s expectations. But he’s
hardly content. “We’ve only just
begun to find orphaned animals’
homes,” he says.
More impactful than adoption
numbers are individual stories;
most are simple stories really;
such as Catherine Klimek of
LaGrange, IL. Shortly after
losing her elderly cat, Bertha,
last year she decided to give
herself a Christmas gift. On
December 26, Klimek visited
Catnap from the Heart, a local
shelter.
“I wanted to adopt two
adult cats,” she says. Joanie and
Chatchi had been at the shelter
around four years.” I just had
to give them a home. One best
friend, that’s great; two best
friends, even better,” Klimek says.
One of Rumi’s poems is
called “Beauty from the Heart.”
Certainly Rumi didn’t write
about pet adoption back in the
13th Century, but the words
fit how adopters feel. “The
beauty of the heart is the lasting
beauty.”
| 2 | pawprints
from steve dale
the canine parvovirus can kill
Most pet owners have heard of the parvovirus,
but many of us don’t know a lot about this
frightening disease that occurs in puppies. Parvo is
highly contagious and if left untreated, the fatality
rate is 90 percent. That’s why it’s important to ask
your veterinarian about parvovirus.
Here’s what you should know about parvovirus:
• Prevention is the best cure. Get your dog
or puppy vaccinated with the parvovirus
vaccine series as soon as your veterinarian
recommends. Although there is speculation
that there are now vaccine resistant strains
of canine parvovirus, it’s absolutely best to
protect your dog with a vaccine.
• If you see any signs that your dog is coming
down with parvovirus, seek treatment from
your veterinarian, because effective treatments
are available. Symptoms include lethargy; loss
dogs have a soul
of appetite; fever; vomiting; and severe, often
bloody, diarrhea.
• Act fast. If your dog becomes ill, seek your
veterinarian’s help immediately. Deaths from
canine parvovirus occur fast, within 48 to 72
hours following the onset of clinical signs.
• Good hygiene should be used to protect
unvaccinated puppies (or any dog that doesn’t
have up-to-date parvovirus vaccinations). This
disease spreads easily from animal to animal,
in feces, and off water dishes. If
you have an unvaccinated
animal, be extra careful
in dog parks, pet
shops, kennels,
obedience
classes or at
the groomers.
my pets’
troubles
Q: My overweight cat, Stella, makes
Garfield look tiny. My vet says that
because she is now middle aged, she
might potentially have problems if we
don’t get her weight down. She’s on
a special diet, and we adjusted her
feeding so she’s only eating at the
times we feed our dog. Our vet wants
Stella to exercise, but how do we get
a couch potato cat to even move?
— C.G. Charlotte NC
A: Your veterinarian is correct, overweight
cats are prone to various physical
ailments. Even if your cat’s prey drive
is dormant, your cat is hard wired to
chase. Start slowly by dangling an
interactive toy with a feather. If she
bats at the toy, it’s a start.
by steve dale
a stay in a nursing home. A place he called
Sometimes people who bring the most joy
“pretty sad,” but his spirits were invigorated
to others are themselves tortured artists.
whenever a therapy dog visited. “I can’t tell you
Stephen Huneck, 60, was an author and artist
what a difference dogs make. They have a power
who depicted canine whimsy and devotion as
within them to heal.”
few ever have.
While discussing his 2004 book, Sally Goes
On Thursday, January 7, 2010, he shot
to the Vet, Huneck told me, “Veterinarians are
himself. His wife Gwen noted in Internet
amazing, they have to figure out what’s going
communications that Stephen was being treated
on with patients who cannot speak to them.
for depression.
You sure don’t become a vet to
Imagine a picture of
make big bucks or for glory,
two Labrador Retrievers
you do it because you are all
each with one end of the
about animals. I think being a
same rope toy in their
veterinarian is one of the best
mouths, and the caption
things you can be.”
reads “Life is give and
Unfortunately, even his
take.” Or another one of a
own veterinarian couldn’t
dog sniffing another dog’s
save Sally in real life. Sally is
posterior end (as dogs do)
among the thousands of pets
with the word “Greetings.”
memorialized at The Dog
Simple – yet just right.
Illustration Courtesy of the Estate of Stephen Huneck
Chapel in St. Johnsbury, VT.
In his first book, My
He built and designed the chapel as a spiritual
Dog’s Brain, Huneck revealed the anatomy of a
refuge to remember and celebrate lives of those
canine brain as few have ever seen it. The front
lost.
lobe he called “food,” further back is another
Many have called The Dog Chapel a little bit
spot in the brain which Huneck said is called
of heaven on earth. Clearly, it took an angel to
“chasing cats.”
build such a place.
His big break literally occurred in 1995.
Of all his many art pieces, Huneck once told
Huneck was lugging a 125-pound wooden
me that his favorite is a lithograph of an Angel
carving of a dog down a stairway when he took
Dog – a canine angel complete with wings –
a tumble and broke some ribs. He contracted an
flying toward the stars, holding a shoe in her
infection and slipped into a coma.
mouth. The print includes the words: “Dogs
In an interview from 2001, Huneck told me,
Have A Soul.”
“Well, it was very restful.” His recovery included
Clearly your cat enjoys food (that’s
why you’re in this mess in the first
place). Split up the portions into five or
six dishes and place them in various
places around the house for Stella
to “hunt.” Dry food can be placed
inside a toy ball which can be rolled
for kibble to fall out from a hole. If
you have more than one cat, do this
exercise in a room with the door
closed to keep the others away.
If your cat likes your lap, whenever
you change the TV channel, get up
instead of using the remote – and use
a toy or your voice to entice Stella to
follow. It’s only a few steps, but a few
steps daily will pay off over time. Your
cat didn’t gain the weight overnight
and she won’t lose the weight
overnight, either.
Email questions about your
pets’ behavior troubles to
[email protected].
dog training conundrum clarified
by dr. debra horwitz
Currently, three major
types of training are
used to teach and
control dogs:
• Reinforcement
training: Often called
reward training; this
Photo Courtesy of Debra Horwitz
is a method that
primarily focuses on teaching the dog what
you want and then rewarding the correct
response. It starts with the assumption that
it is easier to teach what you do want rather
than punish what you do not want. Keep in
mind, there is usually only one way to get
things right, so it is more efficient to teach
the correct response. The reinforcement (or
reward) can be anything that the pet finds
valuable – food, petting, playtime, etc.
What is essential is that the reward is
only given when earned, and that over time
once the task is learned the rewards become
less frequent. So, once the pooch gets it
right, you don’t need to reward each time.
Sometimes people don’t phase out food
rewards so that without food, the pet doesn’t
perform the task. This can easily be overcome
by phasing out the reward very gradually.
• Punishment: This is a training technique
that uses something aversive (a jerk on the
collar, a swat with a newspaper, a correction
with a shock collar, etc.) to stop unwanted
behaviors. The problem with this method is
that it only teaches the pet what NOT to
do without communicating what TO do.
Punishment often also causes fear, anxiety and
even aggression. Additionally, to administer
a proper correction is actually very difficult,
and most owners are not skilled in this type of
training.
• Dominance-based training: This method
assumes that dogs must be conquered and
controlled by humans in order to learn and to
behave. According to this training method,
whenever a dog does not respond to a request
or perform a task perfectly, the dog is trying
to dominate the human. In many cases, in
order to make the dog subordinate, harsh
punishment techniques are used.
The problem with this method is that it
does not allow for the possibility that the
dog does not understand or has not learned
the task being requested, is distracted by
something else, or is frightened or anxious.
So what is the best way to train a dog? In
reality, it is a great deal of #1, a tiny bit of #2
and basic control by humans. The instructions
should be easy to follow for both the humans
and the dog. The focus should be on clearly
indicating the desired response, teaching or
luring the dog into the response and then
rewarding that response. Responses that are
inappropriate and unwanted are not rewarded,
which actually is a form of punishment (#2);
for example if the dog is expecting a treat and
doesn’t get one. It’s your job to make training
easier by being predictable and clear about what
is expected. These are really the same humane
methods we now use to teach zoo animals.
Why would we do anything different with
our dogs?
Dr. Debra Horwitz is a veterinary behaviorist,
based in St. Louis, MO, and the past president of
the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists.
Photo Courtesy of Steve Dale
“It’s your job to make training
easier by being predictable and
clear about what is expected. ”
New Veterinary Feline Life Stage Guidelinesonline
at www.catvets.com
pawprints | 3 |
The
ay,
f e at u r e d
NEWS FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF THE POND
websites
1. American Behavior Research Institute
www.abrionline.org
2. American College of Veterinary Behaviorists
www.dacvb.org
3. American Humane Association
www.americanhumane.org
4. American Veterinary Medical Association
www.avma.org
5. American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior
www.avsabonline.org
6. CATalyst Council
www.catalystcouncil.org
7. International Association of Animal Behavior
Consultants
www.iaabc.org
8. Stephen Huneck
www.stephenhuneck.com
9. Steve Dale
www.stevedalepetworld.com
www.petworldradio.net
10. Steve Dale’s blog
www.chicagonow.com/blogs/
steve-dale-pet-world/
Ever play a game of gorilla football? Maybe. Perhaps, but it's not like these guys play.
They happen to be real gorillas. Psychologists at the University of St. Andrews in England
say that if you give gorillas a ball, they make up their own games - even creating rules.
Researchers Joanne Tanner and Richards Byrne watched gorillas play for many hours.
They say the apes are competitive, but play more fairly than people. The results trace the
evolution of human ability to take the perceptions of goals of others into account,
according to the researchers.
Robo-Cat Missy is the world's first feline with an artificial knee. Veterinarians say the
8-year old cat from Petworth in West Sussex, England was badly injured. Her hind leg had
been broken in seven places, and one of her front legs was completely dislocated at the
knee. "It was a case of putting Missy to sleep forever or developing an artificial knee," says
veterinarian Dr. Noel Fitzpatrick, who performed the surgery. Today, after 12 weeks of
rehab, Missy is doing fine. Missy's owner, Louise Morris, says she has to face huge vet
bills (she's not saying how huge), but adds, "Missy is a valuable member of our family."
Monty's cat in Kingsburg, England wasn't a traditional hunter. The cat returned home
daily with at least one mouse. While Monty's cat collected mice, he was never interested in
making a meal of them. Soon, Monty's house was infested. So, he called the exterminator.
The exterminator entered while Monty was at the office, and the cat chased him away.
The cat even trips the mousetraps. Monty was told the only way to eradicate the mice is
spring 2010
Our PawPrints guarantee: Love your pets,
and they will love you back.
For more information about PawPrints, please
contact [email protected], or call
toll free: 1.866.319.2855.
EDITOR
Steve Dale, syndicated newspaper columnist
(Tribune Media Services), host nationally
syndicated The Pet Minute and Steve Dale’s
Pet World, also heard on WLS Radio, Chicago.
Steve’s a contributing editor for USA Weekend
and special correspondent of Cat Fancy.
He’s also on the Board of American Humane,
CATalyst Council, Tree House Humane Society
and the Winn Feline Foundation.
COnTRiBuTing pARTneR
American Veterinary Medical
Association
COnTRiBuTing WRiTeR
Dr. Debra Horwitz
©2010 by Merial Limited, Duluth, gA, and
Steve Dale, all except where noted. All rights
reserved. All rights to articles belong to their
respective authors, except where noted. All
trademarks and registered trademarks are the
property of their respective owners.
®MERIAL, FRONTLINE, HEARTGARD and the Dog
& Hand logo are registered trademarks of Merial.
MER10PAWPRINTSSPR
g r e at n e w s a b o u t p e t s s n i f f e d o u t f o r y o u
hilary swank: a fan of pet adoption
“I have been a huge animal lover my entire
Two-time Academy Award winning actress Hilary Swank is
life,” adds the 35-year old actress, who earned
on the telephone, and she sounds positively chirpy. Or perhaps
by steve dale
Best Actress Oscars for Boys Don’t Cry and Million
that’s a parrot in the background. “Yes, that’s my African Grey; I
Dollar Baby.
have two parrots,” says Swank. “Let me give you the great news,
“I think one of my first words was ‘dog’. I’ve had many pets, and I’ve
from October 1, 2009 through January 4, 2010, Iams® Home 4 the
rescued many animals. I think
Holidays® adopted nearly one
they know they’ve been rescued
and a half million animals!”
and are so grateful to you.”
(1,363,638 to be exact).
One of her dogs was rescued
“Whoo hoo!” she cheers.
from the streets of South
“That’s pretty amazing, and not
Africa. “I saw a little puff ball
only dogs and cats, but rabbits,
on the street when I was making
birds, turtles and horses. Some
a movie (Red Dust) in 2004. “He
may want a pure bred dog.
was just 8-weeks old, and the
Well, 25 percent of animals in
veterinarian said, ‘If you don’t
shelters are pure breds.”
take this dog, he’ll die on the
Iams Home 4 the Holidays
streets,” she says. “So, of course,
began a decade ago. Millions
I took him. He’s probably a Jack
of animals have found homes
Russell/Corgi mix and other
as a result of the initiative –
breeds, too.”
arguably, the most effective pet
She named that dog Karoo,
adoption drive in history. Last
for the National Park by the
year’s drive tallied 1.2 million
Hilary Swank with her dogs and Mike Arms
same name in South Africa.
pets adopted.
Last October, she adopted a Home 4 the Holidays dog in Los
Swank, the 2009 campaign spokesperson, called the decision to
Angeles. The owners apparently lost their home, and their dog
get behind the pet adoption drive, “a no brainer.” “Finding animals
became homeless too. Swank named the “Swank” continued on page 2
loving homes, what’s not right about this?”
inside . volume 3 . spring 2010
awa r e n e s s
share
knowledge
the canine parvovirus
can kill
dog training conundrum
clarified
news from the other
side of the pond
You can prevent this deadly disease.
2
Veterinary Behaviorist, Dr. Debra Horwitz,
explains three dog training philosophies.
3
Gorilla sports, knee replacement for a cat
and a mouse-hoarding cat.
4