DOG TRAINING AND BEHAVIOR

We wanted to show a photo of Gracie the Bassett hound with her new owner, Mike Phillips. But that would have been impossible, reports Mr. Phillipss wife, Beth. Gracie wont go near him. She is terrified of him, Mrs. Phillips says. She stalks him when he is moving around, barking non-stop, but as soon as he comes towards her, she shies away from him and runs. …

The idea of different brain hemispheres controlling different aspects of thinking, and feeling, has been preliminarily observed in dogs, too. A couple of years ago, researchers in Italy published a paper in which they observed the tail-wagging direction of dogs presented with four different tail triggers: their owners, a cat, a dominant dog, or an unfamiliar person.

Letters to Tufts Veterinarians - The dog dines on squirrels; Can you predict bathroom time?; Dog is uncommonly itchy

My neighbor and fellow dog walker Brendon Potter is distressed that I rarely let our little shiba inu, Rosie, off the leash. So am I. She would love nothing more than to run free. But with her high predatory drive and her attention-wandering tendencies, letting her explore unconnected to me tends to turn into a hard-driving chase. By the time I catch up to her once Ive located her, Im usually a sweaty wreck,…

Letters to Tufts Veterinarians - My dog scares smaller dogs; Why dog urinates indoors is a mystery; Cure for kidney failure?

Its well established that while dogs yawn if theyre tired, youre even more apt to see them yawning when theyre under stress. With yawning, a dog is working to displace the stress, or inner conflict, with a safe, neutral behavior. People do the same thing - not necessarily yawn, but do something to cope with their feeling ill at ease in a situation they cant get out of. …

Perhaps youve seen the scenario played out in front of you. A large dog comes galloping toward a small one in what can only be interpreted as an attack, and the owner of the little dog picks it up to protect it from harm - which works to make the larger dog even more aggressive and tenacious. It continuously jumps up in an attempt to bite, or at least scare, the smaller one, sometimes…

Its never your fault if a larger dog attacks your smaller one. But there is something you can do to make your dog less reactive so that she might not as easily become a target for larger dogs. Dont overcompensate for her small size by constantly picking her up out of concern. If the owner of a little dog becomes anxious about her safety even without any hint of trouble, the dog might have a…

For some dogs its tail chasing, or chasing lights and shadows to the point of exhaustion. For others, its running in geometric patterns, perhaps in a figure 8. Or it can be swimming. Ive seen dogs who continuously swim, seven hours a day, says the director of our Animal Behavior Clinic, Nicholas Dodman, BVMS, DACVB. Theyre whimpering all the while because they cant stop even though theyre unbelievably tired. …

A few years ago, Dr. Dodman of the veterinary school at Tufts and Dr. Louis Schuster at the Tufts Medical School came up with a new pharmaceutical treatment for ameliorating the symptoms of obsessive compulsive disorder, or OCD: NMDA blockers. NMDA is an acronym for a piece of the neurochemical wiring in the brain that allows for the action of glutamate, which is the number 1 excitatory neurotransmitter in the central nervous system and is…

p>Q About three months ago Iadopted a 1-year-old Lab-terrier mix. For the first two weeks she sat like a bump on the couch. She has warmed up considerably in the apartment, but when we go for a walk she becomes very apprehensive, scared even. She cowers or tries to run from people, cars, or noises.