september 2016 pawprint - lakes region kennel club · more foods everyday. in 2009, pet poison...
TRANSCRIPT
Editor
Ken Polakowski
33 Hackberry Lane
Laconia, NH 03246
973-735-3174
Deadline 15th of each month
OFFICERS
________________________
President
Linda Heath
________________________
Vice President
Corina Alexander
________________________
Recording Secretary
Deborah Mardin
________________________
Corresponding Secretary
Susan Blake
____________
Treasurer
Barbara Champaigne
________________________
AKC Delegate
Deb Kreider
518-891-5241
_____________________
B.O.D.
Mike Tierney 2018
Nancy Large 2017
Cathy Barber 2017
254-5237
_______________________
LRKC Mailing Address
P.O. Box 752
Meredith, NH 03253
Pawprint Official Publication of The Lakes Region Kennel Club-NH
AKC Member Club
www.lakesregionkennelclub.org
September 2016
We’re looking for pictures and brags about your
dogs along with interesting articles to share with
our community.
Send them to [email protected]
Next Meeting
October 3rd
Meredith Center Fire Station
6:00 PM Board Meeting
6:30 PM General Meeting
Member Meeting (Annual Meeting)
Harts Turkey Farm
September 12, 2016
Meeting Called to Order: 7:01
Members Present: Linda Heath, Deb Mardin, Nancy Large, Barb Champaigne, Mike Tierney, Ken Polakowski
Guests: Carol Sullivan, David Heath
Motion made by Mike Tierney to accept the August 2016 meeting minutes as submitted. Seconded and passed
Presidents Report: No Report
Recording Secretary Report: No report
Corresponding Secretary Report: Absent
Treasurer Report: Motion made by Mike Tierney to accept the treasures report subject to review. Seconded and passed
Committees Reports:
Barn Hunt: Judge has been secured for July
Handling, Obedience, Performance Classes: Started a week ago, good attendance.
Rally trial: Started to receive entries.
Responsible Dog Owner Day: September 17th at Tractor Supply in Tilton.
Nose work trial: New event being scheduled for November 6th.
Nomination Committee: Slate of officers = President – Linda Heath, Vice President – Corina Alexander, Treasurer – Barb Champaigne, Recording Secretary – Deb Mardin, Corresponding Secretary – Susan Blake. No positions were con-tested.
Meeting adjourned at: 7:13
Respectfully submitted, Deborah Mardin, Recording Secretary
Next meeting October 3, 2016 at Meredith Center Fire Station
O c t o b e r 2 0 1 6
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
25 26 27 6 S. T.A.R. Puppy
6 Basic Manners
7 Comp Novice Obedi-
ence
7 Nose Work
7 Adv Rallly Course
28 29 30 1 Connecticut Valley
Siberian Husky Club -
- Sturbridge,MA
2 Garden State Siberi-
an Husky Club, Inc. - -
Sturbridge,MA
3 LRKC Board- 6
General Meeting 6:30
Siberian Husky Club of
America, Inc. - Stur-
bridge Host - Stur-
bridge,MA
4 6 S. T.A.R. Puppy
6 Basic Manners
7 Comp Novice Obedi-
ence
7 Nose Work
7 Adv Rallly Course
5 Siberian Husky Club
of America, Inc. -
Sturbridge Host -
Sturbridge,MA
6 Siberian Husky Club
of America, Inc. -
Sturbridge Host -
Sturbridge,MA
7 Siberian Husky Club
of America, Inc. -
Sturbridge Host -
Sturbridge,MA
8 Siberian Husky Club
of America, Inc. -
Sturbridge Host -
Sturbridge,MA
9 Obedience Training
Club of Rhode Island -
- Taunton,MA
10 116 S. T.A.R. Puppy
6 Basic Manners
7 Comp Novice Obedi-
ence
7 Nose Work
7 Adv Rallly Course
12 Souhegan Kennel
Club, Inc. - Am-
herst,NH
13 14 Souhegan Kennel
Club, Inc. - Am-
herst,NH
15 Souhegan Kennel
Club, Inc. - Am-
herst,NH
16 Souhegan Kennel
Club, Inc. - Am-
herst,NH
17 18 6 S. T.A.R. Puppy
6 Basic Manners
7 Comp Novice Obedi-
ence
7 Nose Work
7 Adv Rallly Course
19 20 21 Albany Kennel
Club, Inc. Spring-
field,MA
22 AM LRKC Rally O
Trial Meredith Community Center 1 Circle Dr. Meredith, NH 0325 Albany Kennel Club,
Inc. Springfield,MA
23 Albany Kennel
Club, Inc. Spring-
field,MA
24 25 6 S. T.A.R. Puppy
6 Basic Manners
7 Comp Novice Obedi-
ence
7 Nose Work
7 Adv Rallly Course
26 27 Riverhead Kennel
Club, Inc. - West
Springfield,MA
28 Queensboro Ken-
nel Club, Inc. - West
Springfield,MA
29 Queensboro
Kennel Club, Inc. -
West Springfield,MA
30 Riverhead Kennel
Club, Inc. - West
Springfield,MA
31
The calendar lists LRKC events and a sampling of AKC sanctioned events in New England.
A complete listing of AKC events can be found at: https://www.apps.akc.org//apps/events/search/index.cfm
It is time for membership renewal. Renew-
als are due October 1, 2016. Please fill out
and return the renewal form on the next
page.
ANNUAL MEETING The Annual Meeting was held on September 12, 2016 at Harts Turkey Farm in Mere-
dith. A Teacup auction was held and a fine dinner was enjoyed by all.
Lakes Region Rally Trial
Premium Page 1
The full premium can be found on our web site at: http:
//www.lakesregionkennelclub.org/2016/08/24/rally-obedience-premium/
Premium
2016162001 2016162002
Rally Trials
LAKES REGION KENNEL CLUB, Inc (Member of the American Kennel Club)
Lakes Region Kennel Club used to be known for having some of the best trophies available for our shows and trials. Club members and friends supported our entry with generous donations to celebrate their breed, a treasured dog, friend or family member. This is a request for your donation to make our Rally Trophy table spectacular! Suggested trophies are toys, treats, collectibles, rosettes, and cash. A trophy doesn't have to be expensive but people seem to appreciate practi-cal items or recycled trophies from previous wins that are in good condition. Breed specific items are always a hit. Or you can donate to the LRKC general Trophy fund which supports our ribbons for qualifiers, placements, rosettes, and High In Trial Trophies.
Please make a trophy pledge for our 2016 Rally Trial in any amount. Include how you would like to be acknowledged in the catalogue and if your trophy is intended for a specific breed or class. I like to support entries in Novice A and encour-age those who are just starting out in our sport. You may offer trophies for Veteran Dogs (or Handlers) Junior Handlers, dogs with titles in other venues (Champion, Earth dog, Field events, etc), Varieties - everything is welcomed. As a bonus, since LRKC, Inc is a 501(c)3 non-profit, your donations are tax deductible.
Please use the form below and let me know if you will be bringing your trophy to a Club meeting or class or directly to the Rally Trial on 22 October 2016 in Meredith, NH.
Thanks in advance for making our Trophy Table special again. Any Questions: please email: [email protected] - Nancy
Calling All LRKC Members & Friends
Lakes Region Kennel Club Inc. Trophy Pledge for AKC Rally Trials 10/22/16
Trophy or Monetary Award Offered:
______________________________ ______________________________ ____
______________________________ ______________________________ _____
Breed(s)______________________ ______________________________ ________
Class : Novice A or B Advanced A or B Excellent A or B
Highest Scoring Puli (for example) in Trial: _____________________________ ________
Trial 1 Trial 2 (please circle one or both)
How you would like to be acknowledged in the catalogue:
______________________________ ______________________________ _______
______________________________ ______________________________ _______
I will bring my trophy to the (please circle one) Trial Sept/Oct Meeting Tues, Classes
Thanks so much for your generosity!
Responsible Dog Ownership Day The club presented a Responsible Dog Ownership Day on September 17, 2016 at Trac-
tor Supply in Tilton NH. Literature was distributed and the classes offered by the club
were discussed with a number of people.
FROM
Tips To Keep Your Dog Safe This Halloween
By: Jo Marshall, CVT, NREMT
Halloween is a widely celebrated holiday, and as such, it is one of the holidays that leads to a significant increase in call
volume at Pet Poison Helpline http://www.petpoisonhelpline.com/. Halloween can be a scary and hazardous time of year
for most pets, since many parts of our celebration are dangerous to them. So here's a helpful list of what to keep out of
your pets' reach this Halloween.
Chocolate – One of the top ingestions in dogs. Depending on the amount ingested and the type of chocolate, there will be
clinical signs of vomiting, diarrhea, agitation, and excitation along with an increase in heart rate and blood pressure and
even seizures with significant ingestions. Keep in mind that the darker the chocolate, the more dangerous the ingestion.
There's also a worry about risks with pancreatitis with ingestions of this type of food. Signs of pancreatitis may not be
evident initially but can include a decrease in appetite, vomiting, diarrhea, lethargy, abdominal pain, and potential organ
damage.
Candies and gum – The biggest concern with candies is the risk of the ingredient xylitol. Xylitol is showing up in more and
more foods everyday. In 2009, Pet Poison Helpline had approximately 300 cases of exposure to xylitol, and so far in 2015,
there have been more than 2,800 exposures. Xylitol is highly toxic to pets and can result in a rapid drop blood sugar and
the risk of liver damage. Again there is a risk of inflammation of the pancreas or pancreatitis. There's also a concern with
large ingestion of hard candies that can clump up in the stomach and cause a risk of an obstruction.
Wrappers from candy - Toxicity with candy is not the only concern, the wrappers can be an issue. Most animals do not
stop to remove the wrappers from these treats before eating them. Wrappers that are foil or cellophane have the poten-
tial to result in gastrointestinal irritation and bowel obstruction.
Raisins –Many people try to provide healthier options for Tick-or-Treaters by handing out a single-serving box of raisins.
They are healthy for humans but can be extremely poisonous to pets. Grapes and raisins can result in renal failure and
any ingestion is consider potentially toxic and is a true emergency.
Glow sticks and glow jewelry – This tends to be an issue for curious cats. Pets can bite or chew into the glow sticks, leak-
ing their glowing content everywhere and causing mouth pain and irritation. The good news is that these generally are
not life-threatening, but the foaming, drooling, and vomiting that can occur is alarming to most pet owners. Offering a
tasty snack to dilute the ingestion is a good option but giving a bath immediately after to prevent further ingestion is also
recommended.
Costumes – Costumes on your pet can result in overheating, impaired vision, and even difficulty breathing if it covers the
face or is too restrictive around the pet’s neck or chest. Hair dyes that are applied to your pet may be harmful even when
labeled non-toxic. Metallic beads or snaps can contain zinc and lead, which can result in serious health concerns and tox-
icity when ingested.
Candles – Should be used with care around pets. Wagging tails and sniffing noses can land on flames that can result in thermal injury and burns.
Flashlights and battery-powered candles and decorations - Many decorations contain a variety of batteries. Many people use flameless candles that have a small disc battery to light Jack-O-Lanterns. These can be chewed and the batteries can be ingested resulting in burns and corrosive injury to the mouth, esophagus, and stomach. Extra care should be made to keep battery powered decorations out of your pets reach to prevent a Halloween trip to the emergency clinic.
Enjoy your Halloween and keep your pets safe. If you think that your pet has ingested something poisonous or harmful, it is always easier, less expensive, and safer for your pet to be treated earlier, rather than waiting for severe clinical signs to occur.
Pet Poison Helpline is the most cost-effective animal poison control center in North America. It that provides treatment advice and recommendations relating to exposures to potential dangerous plants, products, medications, and substances, to veterinarians, veterinary staff, and pet owners 24 hours a day, 7 days a week through a helpline number 800-213-6680 and an iPhone application. Please be aware there is a $49.00/per case consultation fee. For further information regarding services, visit www.petpoisonhelpline.com.
FROM
Dog Walks 4 Miles Into Town Each Day to Say Hi
to Everyone
Watch the video here:
http://www.kcentv.com/news/land-of-10-000-stories-bruno-of-longville/305805364
For most of the past 12 years, Bruno has been making a daily, 4-mile commute into the town of Longville, Minnesota to
say hello to all of his human friends.
He has become so beloved by the town that a statue was dedicated in his honour on Longville’s main street. “Longville’s
town dog and ambassador,” the engraving on the accompanying plaque reads.
You can see more photos and learn more about this heartwarming story on Kare11.com.
FROM
DogPatch
Art Exhibit For Dogs Encourages Owners To Play With Their
Pups
Interactive displays for canines by experiential artist Dominic Wilcox
Karen B. London PhD| August 26, 2016
More Than insurance company commissioned British designer Dominic Wilcox to create a contemporary art exhibit for
dogs. It is part of an ongoing effort by the company to improve the physical and mental health of dogs by encouraging
people to play with them more.
One goal was the development of an exhibit like those in the best science and children’s museums that stimulate visitors
and entice them to interact with the displays. Another part of Wilcox’s assignment was to come up with an exhibit that
would fit in at any of the world’s best museums of modern and contemporary art.
The displays in “Play More” are varied and focus on different senses. There are paintings in colors within the dog’s visual
spectrum and hanging at just the right height for them to view easily. The Watery Wonder exhibit is a series of fountains
in water bowls with the water jetting from one bowl to another. Cruising Canines simulates an open-window car ride by
blowing a fan to send the scents of raw meat and old shoes to the dogs seated behind cutouts in a two-dimensional car.
Dinnertime Dreams is a 10-foot representation of a dog bowl filled with 1000 balls that each resemble dog kibble. Catch is
a video of a Frisbee™ disk bouncing around a screen and consistently held many dogs’ attention.
Two dogs admire “Drumstick Park,” a park scene painted by Robert Nicol and placed at canine eye-level.
A dog is captivated with “Catch,” a multimedia installation that simulates a Frisbee bouncing around a screen.
Dog pals posing with the 10-foot wide “Dinnertime Dreams”—filled with dog food shaped balls.
The exhibit’s designer Dominic Wlicox and friend next to one of the exhibit’s meat-inspired sculptures.
It’s a daunting task to create a series of interactive displays for canines to enjoy that are also contemporary works of art
worthy of display in a modern art museum. I think Wilcox succeeded, but you can judge for yourself in this video.
https://youtu.be/Q7KGnJPD8s0
Karen B. London, PhD, is a Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist and Certified Professional Dog Trainer whose clinical work
over the last 17 years has focused on the evaluation and treatment of serious behavioral problems in dogs, especially
aggression. Karen has been writing the behavior column for The Bark since 2012 and wrote The Bark’s training column
and various other articles for eight years before that. She is an adjunct professor in the Department of Biological Sciences
at Northern Arizona University, and teaches a tropical field biology course in Costa Rica. Karen writes an animal column,
The London Zoo, which appear in The Arizona Daily Sun and is the author of five books on canine training and behavior.
She is working on her next book, which she expects to be published in 2017.
Photos by Mikael Buck of More Than
FROM
First Set of Identical Dog Twins Born in South Africa
By Nathaniel Scharping | September 1, 2016 2:49 pm
The first confirmed pair of identical dog twins was born recently in South Africa. While there was anecdotal evidence
(http://doctorbarkman.blogspot.com/2015/12/identical-twin-dogs-its-rare-but.html) to suggest it was possible, the
phenomenon had never been substantiated. This time, though, there was a certified veterinarian on hand to witness the
event, and DNA samples to back the claim up.
Dogs naturally give birth to multiple puppies at the same — the average is five or six. But monozygotic twins, siblings from
the same egg, had never before been observed. It was thought that the extra puppy was too much for one placenta to
handle, and the embryos would die from a lack of food and oxygen, as had been seen before. The twins, named Cullen
and Romulus, are living proof that identical dog twins can survive. They were a little smaller than their litter mates at
birth, but are doing just fine now, the BBC reports (http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160830-first-identical-twin-dogs-
discovered).
Cullen and Romulus playing outside. (Credit: Kurt de Cramer)
Dogs are gifts that keep giving. And sometimes,
they give us more than we bargain for. This time,
thankfully, it’s not a puddle of pee in the kitchen
but an altogether more surprising, and adorable,
discovery.
(Credit: Kurt de Cramer)
More Than He Bargained For
Veterinarian Kurt de Cramer was delivering a litter
of puppies by Cesarean section when he noticed a
peculiar bulge. Upon further inspection, his discov-
ery turned out to be another placenta contain-
ing not one, but two connected to their Irish
wolfhound mother by their own umbilical
cord. He says the dual doggy delivery is the first
time he has observed live identical twins in 26
years of practice.
identical to each other and different from the rest of the litter. They do possess small deviations in the markings on their
coats, but those are likely due to differences in how their genes are expressed, not the genes themselves. Research-
ers published their findings (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/rda.12746/abstract) in the journal Reproduction
in Domestic Animals.
(Credit: Kurt de Cramer)
May Not Be Rare
Dog twins may be more common than we
think though. De Cramer only noticed this
pair because he happened to be performing a
C-section on their mother. Had they been
born naturally, it would likely have gone un-
noticed. De Cramer and two researchers from
the University of Pretoria confirmed their find
with a series of DNA tests comparing the
twins to each other and two their siblings,
which shows that they were genetically
(Credit: Kurt de Cramer)
We can now add dogs to the very short list of
animals known to give birth to identical twins
— humans and nine-banded armadillos are
currently the only other species known to do
so. But, as we saw with dogs, there may be
many more adorable surprises waiting for us
out there.
FROM
Wednesday, 31 August 2016
Brain Scans Show Your Dog Loves You And Food An fMRI study shows different dogs have different preferences for food and social interaction.
But scientists have this wonderful habit of testing ideas, and a paper by Peter Cook (Emory University) et al investigates
dogs’ preferences for food and for social interaction with their owner. What if dogs love both?
The team of neuroscientists at Gregory Berns’ lab took 15 dogs who are trained to go in the fMRI machine. They designed an experiment to look at activation of the dogs’ brains in response to food, praise from their owner, and a control condi-tion of nothing happening. They found individual differences in the responses. Prof. Gregory Berns (twitter) told me in an email,
“The takeaway is that dogs, like people, are individuals, and that there is a spectrum of motivations. Some prefer food, some prefer praise, and many like both equally. Know which your dog prefers!”
Since the dog has to keep absolutely still in the scanner, the way the scientists did the experiment was to pair a different
item with each of the three consequences. Each item was presented to the dog on a stick for 10 seconds. Following this
presentation, the relevant event happened.
If it was the toy car, the dog’s handler stepped into view and praised the dog (“Yay! Good boy!”).
If it was the toy horse, a piece of hot dog was given to the dog to eat. The hot dog was presented on a stick so that no
human came into view.
Finally, if the item was the hair brush, there was a short pause in which nothing happened. This was the control condition.
The dogs had two training sessions, during which each item and its paired consequence happened forty times in total.
This was to ensure they knew the items predicted the different consequences. They had a quick reminder of them before
A recent fMRI study investigates individual differences in dogs’
preferences for food and social interaction with their owner. The
results have been widely – and erroneously – reported as show-
ing that dogs prefer praise to food. In fact, the results paint a far
more interesting picture of how brain activity predicts canine
choice.
I think most people feel subjectively that their dog loves them.
The idea they might not is perplexing.
each of two experiments.
In the first experiment, dogs kept still in the scanner while presented with the item-consequence pairs in a random order.
The sessions took place over 2 – 4 days until each dog had seen each item and its paired consequence 32 times.
A dog called Kady is presented with a stimulus in the fMRI scanner. (Creative Commons licence).
The results look at activation of a part of the brain called the ventral caudate, which is connected to positive associations.
In previous work, Berns and colleagues have shown this part of the brain is activated when the dog smells a familiar per-
son and when a dog anticipates receiving a food reward. The main aim of this study was to find out if different dogs have
different preferences, i.e. do some have greater caudate activation to owner/praise than to food, and vice versa.
At a general level, there was no significant difference in caudate activation between food and praise. I mention this be-
cause many reports have erroneously said these findings show dogs prefer praise to food; not so (just imagine if they did;
dogs might all die of starvation).
However, caudate activation occurred in response to both food and praise, suggesting the dogs found both rewarding. At
an individual level, there were differences between dogs: 9 of the dogs had roughly equal positive responses to food and
praise, but 4 preferred praise and 2 preferred food.
In a second experiment with 13 of the dogs, the researchers tested what happened when praise was sometimes withheld
despite the car being shown to the dog. A quarter of the times when the car was shown, praise did not occur, causing a
violation of the dog’s expectations. Only data from 12 of the dogs could be used here, as one dog moved too much in the
scanner.
The results from the first experiment predicted the results in this experiment. In other words, the dogs for whom there
was greater caudate activation in the praise condition in experiment 1 showed a bigger difference in caudate activation
between the trials when they got praise and the trials when praise was withheld. This confirms they did like praise.
In a final experiment, the scientists wanted to know if the activation they saw in the caudate
would predict the dogs’ responses when they gave them a choice between food and the owner.
This study took place in the room where dogs were previously trained to go in the scanner.
When dogs went into the room, they had a choice in a maze. They could run down one side of a
barrier to find food, or down the other side where their owner was waiting with their back to
them. In this experiment, the owner was allowed to pet and praise the dog. In the food option,
the dish contained 1 – 3 small pieces of Pupperoni dog treats and the dogs were allowed to eat
what they found.
All 15 dogs took part in this experiment. First of all they had four trials in which they were only allowed down one route,
twice to food and twice to the owner, so they could learn that what they saw at the end was what they would get (two
dogs needed extra trials). Then they had 20 trials in which they had a free choice.
Most dogs sometimes chose food and sometimes chose the owner, but over the 20 trials they made different choices.
Using a complicated statistical technique called Hidden Markov Models, the scientists were able to show a correlation
between caudate activation for food vs praise in experiment 1 and the dog’s overall choices in this experiment.
In other words, there is a link between the activation shown in the scanner and the choices the dogs made in the maze.
It’s difficult to generalize these results to dog training since the dogs in the scanner did not have to do anything in order
to receive either the food or social interaction. It was a test of whether they liked something when they did not have to
do anything to get it. (And of course they could not move, because if they moved the imaging would not work). In studies
of dog training that compared food to petting and praise, food was a better reward. Another study in which dogs made a
choice showed that dogs prefer petting to praise.
Although much of the media coverage of this study has said dogs prefer praise over food, there are a few things to take
note of. One is simply that the praise condition was actually sight of the owner plus praise in the fMRI experiments, and
presence of owner plus petting and praise in the behavioural experiment. Essentially, it’s a ‘social interaction with the
owner’ condition, not just praise.
It would have been interesting to have an extra condition in which food was presented with the owner in sight. Would
that have been the best of both worlds?!
Given the headlines that dogs would prefer to be trained with praise, it’s worth noting that food was used to train the
dogs to participate in fMRI studies. (For details of the training, including video, see Berns et al 2012).
By definition, the dogs in this study are highly trained, since they have been trained to keep still during the fMRI scan. The
results may not generalize to untrained dogs or to situations outside the laboratory. For example, these dogs will have
heard a lot of praise associated with the giving of food, and so may have formed strong positive associations between
them.
In real life situations there may be other competing motivators, such as squirrels to chase and new people to jump on. As
most of us have discovered, in these circumstances we need something potent to provide an alternative motivator for our
dogs.
The sample is small, although this is not uncommon for studies in what is still a new field. Most of the dogs in this and
other fMRI studies are Retrievers, Labs or Border Collies. While this helps with interpreting the images (as differences in
head shape pose problems for interpreting images), it also means the results may not generalize to other breeds.
The researchers say future research can investigate the extent to which dog training, genetics, and breed influence the
results. They also recognize that factors like the time of day and satiation may affect the results. Nonetheless they suggest
that for an individual dog, the caudate activation is stable in terms of how it will predict canine choices. They write,
“Given the dramatically different contexts of the MRI and the choice tasks, the predictive value of the caudate activa-
tion is striking. Based on these findings, we suggest that there is consistent neurobiological orientation toward social
and food reward within individual dogs, but the degree of preference may be highly variable between individuals.”
One day, they say, it may even be possible to use MRI in the selection of working dogs.
These results show that owners do mean something to their dogs. While this probably doesn’t surprise anyone who lives
with a dog, it’s nice to have evidence for it.
They also show dogs like both food and their owners. It’s up to you to find out what motivates your dog. And just because
food works best in dog training, it doesn’t mean your dog doesn’t love you.
The paper is open access and the link is below. It’s worth looking at the supplemental materials which include videos of a
dog in the behavioural choice task.
What motivates your dog?
References
Cook PF, Prichard A, Spivak M, & Berns GS (2016). Awake Canine fMRI Predicts Dogs' Preference for Praise Versus Food.
Social cognitive and affective neuroscience PMID: 27521302
Photos: gpointstudio (top) and Stephanie Frey (both Shutterstock.com)
Posted by Zazie Todd, PhD, for Companion Animal Psychology at 08:30:00
FROM
PROJECT DETAILS
Longitudinal Study of Aging in Pet Dogs
Despite the wealth of veterinary expertise in treating elderly companion animals, there has never been a comprehensive, detailed study of aging in dogs or cats. The goal of this component of the Dog Aging Project is to perform the first nation-wide, large-scale longitudinal study of aging in pet dogs, where individual animals will be followed throughout life to un-derstand the biological and environmental factors that determine why some dogs die early or succumb to diseases such as cancer, kidney failure, and dementia, while others live to a relatively old age free from these problems.
Similar longitudinal studies of aging in humans have yielded a wealth of important data, but require decades to per-form. What takes decades in people will take just years in dogs. Using cutting-edge technologies, in less than a decade we could identify the critical factors that would help our pets stay healthy longer, with added bonus that we will be able to compare our outcomes to those from the human studies.
Visit here (http://dogagingproject.com/longitudinal-study/) if you are interested in having your dog participate in the
Canine Longitudinal Study of Aging.
The Dog Aging Project is a unique opportunity to advance scientific discovery while simultaneous-
ly providing enormous benefit for people and their pets. We believe that enhancing the longevity
and healthspan – the healthy period of life – in peoples’ pets will have a major impact on our
lives.To accomplish this goal, we are creating a network of pet owners, veterinarians, and scien-
tific partners that will facilitate enrolling and monitoring pets in the Project. The Dog Aging Pro-
ject has two major aims, described further below: a longitudinal study of aging in dogs and an
intervention trial to prevent disease and extend healthy longevity in middle-aged dogs
FROM
Stray Dogs Are Terrorizing Dallas —Thousands of Them Nearly 9K dogs are on the streets of city's south, a report finds By Jenn Gidman, Newser Staff Posted Sep 17, 2016 1:59 PM CDT
abandoned by evicted residents, and people from other areas dumping their own unwanted dogs there. "It's a huge problem," Councilman Casey Thomas says. "People walking with sticks and golf clubs? That's a quality-of-life issue." The Boston Consulting Group report found loose dogs of all sizes and breeds, noting that 85% of the dogs in South Dallas aren't spayed or neutered, and that bites from strays in the city went up 23% between 2013 and 2015. The city manager is mulling several options, including upping enforcement and offering cheaper spaying and neutering, per WFAA. But a rep for the Street Dog Project nonprofit tells the Morning News it's "extremely rare" for residents to bump into truly vi-cious dogs: She says that although the dogs her group has rescued are jumpy, they're "fine" once they find a home. Resi-dents who attended a town hall meeting about the issue Monday—with a stray dog loitering in the parking lot, per NBC Dallas—might disagree. "We need the dogs picked up immediately, before there becomes another tragedy," one local said. (Detroit has struggled with a similar problem.)
In this June 17, 2016 photo, a stray dog wanders a
neighborhood where a homeless woman was killed by a
pack of dogs in Dallas. (AP Photo/LM Otero)
(Newser) – In May, a 52-year-old woman in southern Dallas
was mauled to death by stray dogs who attacked her like
they were "eating a steak," her family told the Dallas Morn-
ing News. After that attack, the city commissioned a report
on its dog problem, which has found that about 8,700 ca-
nines are roaming its southernmost streets, forcing residents
to venture outside only with pepper spray or weapons like
baseball bats, the Los Angeles Times reports. The strays are
mainly in the poorer areas of the city, where mostly blacks
and Latinos live, and where the issue is exacerbated by a lack
of veterinary facilities for spaying and neutering, pups
Lakes Region Kennel Club Members Brags
Owner’s Name:_______________________________________________________
Dog’s Name: _________________________________________________________
Brag:_______________________________________________________________
Please email brags to [email protected] so they can be published in the Pawprint.
Pictures are welcome too.
Please send photos of your dogs so I can put them in the Pawprint.
Example: Here is a picture of Tux playing Frisbee.