DOG TRAINING AND BEHAVIOR

Since antibiotics came into common medical practice in the late 1940s, they have eradicated countless bacterial infections that used to routinely kill people long before they reached old age. They are indeed wonder drugs. But today, antibiotic resistance - a weakening of these drugs power to do away with harmful bacteria and eliminate sometimes deadly infections - is more and more becoming a threat not only to human health but also the health of our pets.

You know you should be assessing your dogs body condition score to make sure shes not too heavy by looking at her from above so you can easily see and then feel her waist and an abdominal tuck. You should also be able to feel her ribs very easily when you lightly run your fingers over her sides. But the body condition score assesses only your dogs fat stores. What about her muscle condition score? Your dog can be just the right weight, or even overweight, yet have too little muscle.

When to euthanize is a very deeply spiritual decision, says Alicia Karas, DVM, who heads the Tufts Pet Loss Hotline and therefore knows that people often call in not only once their dog has died but also when they have to make the decision about whether to put their pet down. Compassion is called for when it comes to hearing people out about this, she says.

But a new Tufts study led by veterinary nutritionist Deborah Linder, DVM, MS, DACVN, and colleagues just published in the American Journal of Infection Control provides evidence that those visited by therapy dogs - especially the elderly and those with compromised immune systems - are put at risk by a lack of rules about a therapy dogs vaccination status and other health parameters. Likewise, lax rules potentially compromise dogs safety.

Our small cockapoo Bailey always sleeps on the bed with us. And he always ends up on my pillow, curled around my head with breaths from his little nose going right into my ear. Curiously, in the middle of the night, I almost always wake to find him furiously licking my face, especially my eye sockets and scalp. Once he did it so long and hard that he scratched my cornea. If I have a nick from shaving, he will literally lick it until the scab is gone. These episodes can last as long as 30 minutes. Is he grooming me as his master and trying to please me? Whatever the reason, its so cute that I never cut him off. Its good to be loved. Hes a great dog and tends to my every emotional need. I should note that he doesnt ever do this to my wife. Whats going on here?

Most people, if asked about devices that can train dogs when youre not right next to them, might mention electric shock collars. The dog runs off, you give a jolting zap by pressing the button on a little gadget you hold in your hand, and presto, your pet comes back to you.

My 20-pound cockapoo, Bentley, is a very docile service dog who never barks outside the home or for food or water. But strangely, even if hes lying peacefully on the floor, as soon as my wife and I embrace in affection, or lie down next to each other, he runs over to us and barks until we stop and give him some attention (which Im sure isnt right but we love him to death). He never becomes aggressive or threatening at all. He just barks, almost as if hes jealous, feels left out of the intimacy, or simply wants the attention. Its comical to see and we laugh about it. Is this normal behavior? Whats the cause?

Kim Curtsinger has ruined her dog, she tells us. My four year-old sheltie, Casey, is very timid around other dogs, says the Nicholasville, Kentucky woman. Unfortunately, she adds, I am the cause of this. I have a habit of scooping him up in my arms if were out walking and a loose dog approaches us. Sometimes I will yell Get back at the loose dog if it is approaching slowly. Sadly, this has imprinted on Caseys mind, and the sight of a dog bigger than he is sends him pulling away from the dog with his tail tucked between his legs.

You know how some people are able to get their dogs to lie down and roll over after they say, Bang, bang? Or how some dogs are able to retrieve an item from another room, or even from another floor of the house, and bring it over to the person asking for it? How do people get their dogs to do things like that, which require more steps than just Sit, or Down?

Patricia Koons of York, Pennsylvania, takes issue with our view that a dog should never be locked in a crate unless he is being toilet trained, and then, only for very short periods of time-with his owner in the house to watch over him and keep taking him out every 15 minutes or so until he relieves his urge to urinate outside.

As a Your Dog reader, youre already well aware that you should never punish your dog. The first reason is that its cruel, plain and simple, and will only fray the bond between you. Second, punishment wont teach a dog the behaviors you do want him to engage in. In fact, it could serve to make him behave inappropriately whenever he gets the chance. As world-renowned trainer Victoria Stilwell puts it in Train Your Dog Positively, the aim is to reward a behavior you like to insure that it gets repeated, and to ignore or redirect a behavior you dont like so its incidence will decrease.

Our six-year-old Portuguese water dog has started to become very destructive when we go out, especially at night. He empties trash cans, goes into closets and tears up shoe boxes, walks over to my bedside cabinet and swipes things off, and so on. I think it is separation anxiety; I know he is not doing it out of any negative feelings towards me or my husband. I think I read in a long-ago issue of Your Dog that when you come home, you should make a fuss over your dog because it makes his endorphin levels go up and contributes to his feeling happy. We have been doing that for a long while. But our trainer has now said it is absolutely the wrong thing to do in our situation and that we should ignore him until he settles down and then give him affection. Im confused. We want to do the right thing, but which approach is the way to go? Thanks for any guidance you can provide. By the way, other than this behavior, he is a wonderful, sweet dog and, in fact, is a therapy dog at Childrens Hospital where he is calm and loving.