Talented Animals Blog

This past week our Mal-n-Collie “Flint” turned 18, and several people asked me a question that we hear fairly often, so I thought I would address it here: what are we doing that is allowing our dogs to consistently exceed, or at least push the upper limits of, the expected lifespan for their breed?

Of course, the answer is that I do not know—we do many things, and without conducting a careful study it is impossible to know which of these things are significantly contributing to our pets’ longevity. But here, in roughly descending order of importance, are the things I believe are most important:

Low stress: this is perhaps the single most important ingredient in keeping your dog young.  Nearly every time I spend time around other people and their dogs, I can feel my anxiety climbing—so many unclear rules, so much correcting, nagging, yelling.  So many conflicting requirements, or vague paths to success that change depending on circumstance or mood. Be mindful of your dogs stress level.  Use good management techniques to avoid stress.

Exercise: not walking on leash, or running for a minute around an agility course, but real exercise.  Exercise that gets their heart rate to 80% or more of max for prolonged periods several times each week.  Exercise that pushes their muscles nearly to the point of failure repeatedly. Sprinting up sand dunes, swimming hard, pulling weights, tugging for all they are worth, work their hearts and lungs and large muscles and small muscles and…

Weight: study after study has demonstrated that calorie restriction is one of the greatest prolongers of life, health, and comfort. Honestly, I get so frustrated when people say their dogs are fat because they love them too much to feed them less.  Grow up and quit feeding your dog too much. Keep them lean and they will live years longer and be more comfortable.

Diet: we feed a very carefully planned natural diet with minimal grains.

Minimal vaccinations: not only are multiple vaccinations implicated in many ailments, but also the adjuvants contained in most vaccinations are detrimental to health.  This is not to say that you should not vaccinate, but you should utilize the fewest number of vaccinations that is likely to provide adequate protection in your circumstances.

Minimal toxins: we are very mindful of toxins.  We live way out in the woods away from urban poisons, our dogs drink well-water, we use almost no herbicides or other toxins on our property, we almost never put topical flea or tick treatments on our dogs, we feed from inert bowls, we use least-harmful cleaning products and do not let our pets near them.

Diverse Enrichment: have you ever noticed that some people as they age just get bored and lethargic and sit in their comfortable chair waiting to die, while other people are still active and engaged?  And the lethargic people generally wither away, while the engaged people stay younger longer…  A similar phenomenon seems to occur in animals.  I often go over peoples’ homes and their dogs are lying in the same spot, going on the same walk, essentially experiencing the same day over and over and over.  Sure, they are still eager to go for a walk or get dinner, but there is very little novelty or excitement. Give your dogs new experiences, new treats, fun games.  Give them challenges to overcome and puzzles to solve. Maintaining neural plasticity protects youthfulness.

Joy: being happy is a powerful energizer.  Play with your dogs, wrestle with them, have them chase you.  Laugh and smile and be happy together.

Temperature/climate: in general it seems that dogs who spend most or all of their time outdoors age more quickly. So I would suggest keeping them inside, particularly when the temperature or weather deviates more than a little bit from ideal.

I genuinely believe that quality is more important than quantity when it comes to life.  However, for the most part, pursuit of either results in an increase in both.  So give your pets low-stress, healthy, rich, and happy lives, and they will live the longest they can…

Every conscientious animal lover wrestles with the question: what is the best, happiest, longest, richest life for an animal? Parents, zoos, Disney, rehabilitators, rescue groups, and animal rights organizations have relentlessly asserted that, “Animals belong in the wild; nature is beautiful, peaceful, and good; captivity is bad; if you love animals, leave them alone; animals are happier in the wild than in captivity; animals need freedom to be happy; if an animal ‘must’ be in captivity, the highest goal is to recreate a wild life as faithfully as possible.”

Animal lovers should set aside such propaganda and honestly examine this issue and decide for themselves what is truly best for each animal. While a “natural” existence is one possible life, in many cases humans can provide a better life for an animal in our world than it could enjoy in the wild: not merely an acceptable alternative, but a better life.  Recreating nature should not be our objective: nature is brutal and unforgiving, and most wild animals live harsh, brief lives fraught with danger, hardship, and pain. Long ago man came in from the wild, sacrificing some theoretical freedoms for safety and comfort in a civilized world. Almost immediately, animals began following us, and most animals if given a choice will elect to live with man rather than in the wild.

If a person cannot provide for an animal a life that equals or surpasses the life it would live in the wild, then he should not commit to possessing the animal. The only intrinsic difference between a wild animal and a pet is that the pet has a caring, competent person dedicated to tending to its every need.  Keeping most animals in an authentically “natural” way – even if such a thing were possible – would be neglectful, abusive, and unconscionable. We can and must do better than “the wild.”

Furthermore, because man has overrun the entire planet, “the wild” is essentially a thing of the past, a haunted memory.  There are grievously few authentically wild places left on the globe, and many species are near extinction for the simple reason that there is no wild place left for them to live.

We should carefully study natural existence as a starting point from which we create optimal lives for our pets. We must set aside human preferences and rigorously evaluate every decision from the animal’s perspective.  We may like cleanliness, but pig will rarely prefer a clean enclosure.  We may like bright colors and lights, but many animals do not.  We may like fluffy fabric beds, but furred animals may not care about texture and would prefer a material that is cooler and cannot harbor parasites. We may like the notion of an animal lounging comfortably in an huge meadow, but the animal might prefer to be in a small cave. What is ideal for one animal might be miserable for another. Forget about what you like, or what you think will look good to your friends, and focus on what is truly best for the individual.

Two primary arenas demand our attention in animal care: the physiological and the psychological.

Ensuring excellent physiological care is relatively straightforward: wild animals are inundated with fleas, ticks, intestinal worms, heartworms, flies, mosquitoes, and other parasites from which our pets should be kept free. Wild animals spend much of their life without enough food or water, or drinking brackish filthy water; our pets should have clean, fresh water at all times along with high quality balanced meals and vitamins, supplements, and treats to ensure maximal health. Wild animals are shot, poisoned, leg-trapped, and struck by vehicles. They are under constant stress and are held captive by geographic boundaries or other animals’ ranges. They are hunted and killed by animals of other species and regularly dominated or attacked by members of their own species in territorial or mating disputes; our pets should have ample space without threat of predation or injury and appropriate companionship. Wild animals are uncomfortably cold and wet or hot most of the time; our pets should be kept close to an ideal temperature at all times, and have access to dry clean bedding and shelter. Wild animals are unvaccinated against even the most common diseases and their injuries and illnesses go untreated and are often agonizing and eventually fatal; our pets should be given excellent preventive care, any injury treated immediately, any pain carefully managed, and as appropriate they should receive massage, chiropractic adjustments, homeopathy, acupuncture, etc. Our pets should receive well-planned exercise and regular grooming. Consequently they live an average of two to three times longer than their wild counterparts, and for much more of their lives they should be healthy, robust, and comfortable.

For some animals, particularly some fish, reptiles, and amphibians, meeting all of their physiological requirements may suffice to ensure an excellent life, but for many animals it is every bit as important to consider their psychological welfare. Our pets’ psychological needs are often subtle, and meeting them requires thought and careful observation. Recently I had the pleasure of visiting an excellent wolf facility with fabulous enclosures: acre upon acre of beautiful and natural space, regular natural food, wolves in pairs with virtually all of their requirements met.  They were free to lounge where they wanted, had virtually no demands made upon them, and had hardly any stress in their lives.  At first blush, it seemed excellent.  Yet I found myself feeling profoundly sad as I walked around and looked at the animals. They had not found a home in man’s world; they were captive wild animals, caught between two worlds, living in extremely nice cages. Our host carefully explained that these were not pets, but I found myself wondering, “Why not?”  Why not welcome them into our world and cherish them and give them the very best of both worlds? Their lives seemed empty: comfortable and safe, but with little purpose, little joy. (I was only there for a few minutes, and they may have great lives at other times; I am not commenting on their existence, only on my “feelings…”)

Driving home, I thought at length about why those animals’ lives did not seem rich to me, and I kept returning to the same notion: for millennia, canids have spent much of their time struggling: hunting, searching for water, digging a den, trying to cross a river, courting a mate. Their bodies, their minds, their endocrine systems, even their “spirits,” have evolved in the fire of struggle, and their health, fitness, and happiness are all linked to meeting and overcoming challenges.

When we take care of an animal, we remove danger and challenge in its life, but in doing so we risk removing most of the joy that comes from accomplishment.  This may sound a little anthropomorphic—that animals would share our sense of joy at having achieved goals. But if you carefully observe an animal for a protracted period, it seems clear that they relish accomplishment.  Solving a puzzle to get food, chewing through something large, dragging a log up a bank, catching a fly, digging a hole, winning a wrestling match – these are favorite activities of most canids. If you have ever watched a goat or a squirrel eating, you may have observed that they will often forgo easy food in preference for identical food that is more challenging to acquire.

Truly excellent animal care balances comfort and safety with challenges, obstacles, and activities that fulfill the animal’s nature, preclude boredom, promote exercise, and develop confidence. Be creative, and think about what would genuinely stimulate your animal.

Here are a few suggestions. Not all of them will fit your circumstances, but hopefully they will get you thinking about how to enrich your animal’s life:

First, some general concepts to remember:

• Safety: observe anything you give and make sure it is safe and does not overly stress your animal. Anticipate any way he could ingest, get stuck, fall, etc.
• Change: anything new and different is enriching.
• Response contingency: one of the best things your animal can learn is that he can influence the environment to cause a desired outcome. This decreases stress and increases learning in new situations as well as decreasing boredom!
• Stress: too much stress can be bad, but that does not mean all stress is. Fear and stress at reasonable levels are natural and healthy.
• Problem solving: many of these ideas are based on this notion.  Create a problem and a motivation to solve that problem, and you have enriched their day.
• Physical challenges: resist the temptation to make life as easy as possible. The point here is to make things challenging.
• Learning: grasping new concepts and new games, remembering tricks and outcomes, these actually develop new neural paths. This not only increases your animal’s knowledge, it increases his confidence and willingness to try new things and his capacity to experience the world.
• Habit forming: everything you do is teaching habits and reinforcing behaviors, so consider what you are training with any new activity.

And here are some specific suggestions:

• Training, Training, Training!!  You teaching new behaviors is the single greatest source of novelty!  Not just obedience, try freestyle or teach a few tricks.
• Play.  Remember, play is a great stress reliever, so spend time each day consciously playing with your animal. Wrestle, play chase, etc.  If appropriate and safe, also let them play with other animals of their own and other species.
• Varied feeding times, locations, and quantities.  Searching for and securing food is one of the primary activities of any wild canid. It is a good thing if your animal is hungry sometimes!
• Kong stuffed with treats. (Stick a Nylabone in the end to make it last longer)
• A fountain that sprays for five minute after animal presses a large button.
• Chicken broth giant ice cubes–these can be given to the animal, or hung so they drip all day.
• Buster cube or any object with food that comes out a hole.
• Large hard Plaque attacker. (observe for the first few days make sure no large pieces are being removed and eaten)
• New locations: rotate their enclosure, build separate play yards they can go into, take them to new places—beach, mall, mountains, car rides, etc.
• Hanging tire.
• Tug toy from a rope attached up high to a rubber spring or you play tug with them yourself.
• Knuckle bones.
• Wobble board or large ball on which you teach the animal to balance. (Great for proprioception)
• Treadmill or underwater treadmill.
• Loose crickets, mice, or rats. (assuming your stomach and ethics do not object)
• Feeder fish in pool. (assuming your stomach and ethics do not object)
• Container that has food inside.
• Different surfaces– bark, sand, rock, grass, astro-turf, metal, tile, plastic, etc.
• Button to press that plays a song.
• An endless pool.
• A wind chime hung high.
• Some little mirrors or a disco-ball hung high that will make lights move around as they blow in the wind.
• Tunnel.
• A sprinkler or other water-spraying device, especially if the water moves.
• Hang food where they cannot get to it, and give them a platform they can drag and climb on to get the food.  It is even ok if sometimes they cannot succeed. Failure and hunger are parts of a full life too.
• Sounds– sometimes play stereo or TV, sometimes sounds of nature or dog shows.  Make a loud noise, put food next to it, and let them spend the day working up the courage to get near it.
• Smells– sometimes spray a new cologne at the base of a tree or other object. Place in their pen a blanket from another animal.
• Set up an aromatherapy infuser.
• Water in which to play.
• Visual barriers.
• Boomer balls.
• An animal in an adjacent enclosure.
• A slide with treats at the top.
• A hole to dig in.
• Nylabones slathered in cream cheese.
• Do not feed in the morning and hide food around enclosure. (bury some and put some up high, etc.)
• New foods- broccoli, bananas, beef, even hot peppers or other things they may dislike.
• Big branches or old dead tree.
• Beam or plank on which to walk.
• Device that blows bubbles.
• Massage or T-touch.
• Big wooden box with various openings leading to food–some should have screw on lids, others sliding lids, others the food should be out of reach, etc.
• Buy or build toys with sliding doors that have to be moved to get to food. (Like tic tac toe)
• Build device that requires several steps to get food– pull one lever than go to other side of run and pull another and get treat.
• Vertical levels– build platforms at different heights and with ramps and steps, hammocks, etc.
• CHANGE– move stuff around, add stuff, take things out, etc.

Caring for any pet is a profound responsibility.  We must constantly, objectively, and without ego, defensiveness, or self-interest, examine the lives we provide for our animals.  We need to look at the whole picture and question whether the job we are doing is sufficient.  At the end of each day we need to evaluate that day from our animal’s perspective: Was it perfect?  Was it good enough?  Can I do better tomorrow? Did they get enough attention, ideal nutrition, optimal exercise? Were they lonely or bored?  Were their brains and hearts engaged?  Were they comfortable? Was their day better than it would have been in the wild?

Ask friends with differing experience and perspectives to visit your home and provide input on any areas in which your animals’ lives could be improved, and be open to their suggestions.

Some animals live in the wild. Nature and chance dictate the quality and duration of their lives.  Other animals live with us, filling our lives with wonder and joy, and it falls to us to ensure that those animals have lives that are not only safer, more comfortable and longer than they would be in the wild, but also richer and fuller.

Note: As published in “Wolfdogs” magazine.

In general, dogs should not be clipped in order to keep them cool. Logically and empirically, clipped dogs tend to be warmer in summer.  The canine coat is well designed to protect against environmental irritants and dirt, as well as shedding water and maintaining body temperature, and the whole system works so well that I see no reason to mess with it.  If it were too hot for my dogs I would alter the environment by moving or cooling or…  I tend to spend really hot days swimming in the pond or creek—cool everyone off, exercise everyone, and kill any parasites that are flourishing in the summer heat…

(If all you are interested in is the “answer”, stop reading here… )

However, the apocryphal logic commonly articulated is, in my opinion, erroneous.  Many people seem to believe that that the virtue of leaving the coat intact is its insulating value and/or dead air space.  This is not true—one does not want to insulate a hot canine body on a hot day. If you doubt this, here are a few examples: 

1.         Mammals in hot climates have evolved almost universally with far less undercoat.

2.         Mammals almost always shed out as much as possible of their undercoat in the warm months.

3.         Heat moves from higher area to lower. This process is slowed by insulation.  In most circumstances on our planet this means that heat is traveling from the dog outward.  Insulation will slow this process. 

4.         Next time it is really hot, go outside and get in a down sleeping bag.  Tell me if you think insulation helps you stay cool. Of course it is not a perfect parallel since our bodies cool somewhat differently from dogs, but it does illustrate the fundamental notion—heat dissipation is retarded by insulation!

5.         Go for a walk this summer with a Malamute and a Saluki.  Observe.

6.         Look at a Bedouin.  When they dress for extreme heat, they wear a thin, light-colored outer layer which is loose and light to allow airflow while reducing direct solar heating.  They avoid insulation.

If you think about the above, you will quickly see why clipping is contraindicated—it removes the outer shell and leaves only insulation! As time passes the insulating layer grows, and the dog has even more insulation and still no shell!  What you want to do is leave a thin outer shell layer to block direct solar heating, but remove as much as possible the insulation provided by the undercoat so that airflow is maximized.  Hence the virtue of rakes, coat-kings, blowers, and other tools that help the natural process of removing undercoat while leaving guard coat.  If you understand this logic, you can also see that in some cases it might be advised to clip a particular dog—say a Malamute in a warm climate that had tons of undercoat and very little guard coat—this dog might in fact stay cooler without the insulation as long as you kept the clip short all summer.  But for almost every dog, maximal cooling will be ensured by leaving the guard hairs and raking out the insulating undercoat!!

The one obvious exception to this general logic is when the ambient temperature in the area around your dog exceeds their body temperature.  In this case, one might argue that shaving would improve the rate at which heat can dissipate, and I suspect this is true; however, in all truth, if it is over 102 degrees, I would find more effective solutions—air conditioning, misting, swimming, relocating, etc.