Useful Knowledge for Dogs and Dog Lovers
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The Waiting Dog Staff
Why People Love Dogs
It's more complicated than you think.
By Jon Katz
Pearl
My
friend and fellow dog lover Edie, an occupational therapist in
Massachusetts, has been looking for a mate for nearly 10 years. She
finally thought she'd found one in Jeff, a nice guy, generous and
funny, who teaches high school. They dated for several months, and just
as there was talk about a future, it occurred to Edie that Jeff hadn't
really bonded with her yellow Lab, Sophie. In fact, as she thought more
about it, she wasn't sure Jeff was a dog guy at all.
She confronted him about this at dinner one night, and he confessed, in
some anguish, that he didn't love Sophie, didn't love dogs in general,
never had.
They broke up the next week. More accurately, she dumped him. "What can
I say?" Edie told me, somewhat defensively. "Sophie has been there for
me, day in and day out, for years. I can't say the same of men. She's
my girl, my baby. Sooner or later, it would have ended."
Having just spent two months on a book tour talking to dog lovers
across the country, I can testify that this story isn't unusual. The
lesson Edie gleaned, she says, was that she should have asked about
Sophie first, not last.
In America, we love our dogs. A lot. So much that we rarely wonder why anymore.
This, perhaps, is why God created academics.
John Archer, a psychologist at the University of Central Lancashire,
has been puzzling for some time over why people love their pets. In
evolutionary terms, love for dogs and other pets "poses a problem," he
writes. Being attached to animals is not, strictly speaking, necessary
for human health and welfare. True, studies show that people with pets
live a bit longer and have better blood pressure than benighted
nonowners, but in the literal sense, we don't really need all those
dogs and cats to survive.
Archer's alternative Darwinian theory: Pets manipulate the same
instincts and responses that have evolved to facilitate human
relationships, "primarily (but not exclusively) those between parent
and child."
No wonder Edie ditched Jeff. She was about to marry the evil stepfather, somebody who wasn't crazy about her true child.
Or, to look at it from the opposite direction, Archer suggests,
"consider the possibility that pets are, in evolutionary terms,
manipulating human responses, that they are the equivalent of social
parasites." Social parasites inject themselves into the social systems
of other species and thrive there. Dogs are masters at that. They show
a range of emotions—love, anxiety, curiosity—and thus trick us into
thinking they possess the full range of human feelings.
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dance with joy when we come home, put their heads on our knees and
stare longingly into our eyes. Ah, we think, at last, the love and
loyalty we so richly deserve and so rarely receive. Over thousands of
years of living with humans, dogs have become wily and transfixing
sidekicks with the particularly appealing characteristic of being
unable to speak. We are therefore free to fill in the blanks with what
we need to hear. (What the dog may really be telling us, much of the
time, is, "Feed me.")
As Archer dryly puts it, "Continuing features of the interaction with the pet prove satisfying for the owner."
It's a good deal for the pets, too, since we respond by spending lavishly on organic treats and high-quality health care.
Psychologist Brian Hare of Harvard has also studied the human-animal
bond and reports that dogs are astonishingly skilled at reading humans'
patterns of social behavior, especially behaviors related to food and
care. They figure out our moods and what makes us happy, what moves us.
Then they act accordingly, and we tell ourselves that they're crazy
about us.
"It appears that dogs have evolved specialized skills for reading human
social and communicative behavior," Hare concludes, which is why dogs
live so much better than moles.
These are interesting theories. Raccoons and squirrels don't show
recognizable human emotions, nor do they trigger our nurturing ("She's
my baby") impulses. So, they don't (usually) move into our houses, get
their photos taken with Santa, or even get names. Thousands of rescue
workers aren't standing by to move them lovingly from one home to
another.
If the dog's love is just an evolutionary trick, does that diminish it?
I don't think so. Dogs have figured out how to insinuate themselves
into human society in ways that benefit us both. We get affection and
attention. They get the same, plus food, shelter, and protection. To
grasp this exchange doesn't trivialize our love, it explains it.
I'm enveloped by dog love, myself. Izzy, a border collie who spent the
first four years of his life running along a small square of fencing on
a nearby farm, is lying under my desk at the moment, his head resting
on my boot.
Rose, my working dog, is curled into a tight ball in the crate to my
left. Emma, the newcomer who spent six years inside the same fence as
Izzy, prefers the newly re-upholstered antique chair. Plagued with
health problems, she likes to be near the wood stove in the winter.
When I stir to make tea, answer the door, or stretch my legs, all three
dogs move with me. I see them peering out from behind the kitchen table
or pantry door, awaiting instructions, as border collies do. If I
return to the computer, they resume their previous positions, with
stealth and agility. If I analyzed it coldly, I would admit that
they're probably alert to see if an outdoor romp is in the offing, or
some sheepherding, or some beef jerky. But I'd rather think they can't
bear to let me out of their sight.
Jon Katz is the author of A Good Dog: The Story of Orson, Who Changed My Life.
Jon can be e-mailed at jdkat3@aol.com.
Photograph of Pearl by Peter Hanks.
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Good Nutrition for Your Dog
Wendy Volhard
Your dog's behavior, happiness,
health, longevity and overall well-being are inextricably intertwined
with what you feed him. Dogs, just like everyone else, have specific
nutritional needs. And, not to complicate matters, the needs of
individual dogs vary. For example, even though your first dog may have
done wonderfully well on Barfo Special Blend, it may be completely
wrong for the dog you have now. We are not trying to turn you into an
expert on canine nutrition, but you do need to know some basic
concepts.
The most common and most
visible symptoms of nutritionally caused deficiencies are allergies of
one kind or another. In his best selling book, "Pet Allergies:
Remedies for an Epidemic", Alfred Plechner, DVM, paints a dismal
picture for the future of our pets.
"Because many commercial foods
are woefully deficient in key nutrients, the long term effect of
feeding such foods makes the dog hypersensitive to its
environment. . . . [I]t's a dinosaur effect. Animals are being
programmed for disaster, for extinction. Many of them are
biochemical cripples with defective adrenal glands unable to
manufacture adequate cortisol, a hormone vital for health and
resistance to disease."
Allergies can be, and often
are, unrecognized deficiency diseases. Recognizing nutritional
deficiencies will save you a great deal of frustration and allow
you to make the necessary adjustments in your dog's diet.
CHOOSING THE RIGHT FOOD
Not all dog foods are alike and
there are enormous quality differences. The cliché "garbage in, garbage
out" applies with terrifying validity. There are so many choices
available today that trying to make an informed decision can
become an overwhelming task. We are going to tackle the job by
the process of elimination. Two commonly used criteria
immediately come to mind: advertising and price.
Forget about what the ad says
about how good this food is for your dog. You have to look at what's in
it. Forget about price. This works both ways. Just because it costs
more doesn't necessarily mean it's better than a less expensive
variety.
Following is a quick check list to determine if your dog is getting what he needs:
- he doesn't want to eat the food
- he has large, voluminous stools that smell awful
- he has gas
- his teeth get dirty and brown
- his breath smells
- he burps a lot
- he constantly sheds
- he has a dull coat
- he smells like a dog
- he is prone to ear and skin infections
- he has no energy or is hyperactive
- he easily picks up fleas
- he easily picks up worms and has
- to be wormed frequently
- his immune system is impaired
All of these can happen
occasionally with any dog, but only occasionally. When one or more of
them occur frequently, or continuously, it's time to find out why.
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A CARNIVORE NEEDS MEAT
Your dog is a carnivore and not
a vegetarian. He needs meat. His teeth are quite different from ours --
they are made for ripping and tearing meat. They do not have flat
surfaces for grinding up grains. His digestion starts in his stomach
and not in his mouth. All the enzymes in his system are geared to
breaking down meat and raw foods. There is no doubt about it,
your dog is a carnivore.
Your dog's body, as well as yours, is made up of cells, a lot of them.
Each cell needs 45 nutrients to function properly. The cells
need:
- protein, consisting of 9 to 12 essential amino acids
- carbohydrates
- fat
- vitamins
- minerals
- water
All these nutrients need to be
in the correct proportion for the necessary chemical reactions of
digestion, absorption, transportation and elimination to occur.
If the cells are going to be able to continue to live, the exact
composition of the body fluids that bathe the outside of the
cells needs to be controlled from moment to moment, day by day, with no
more than a few percentage points variation.
These nutrients are the fuel, which is converted into energy. Energy
produces heat and how much heat is produced determines the
ability of your dog to control his body temperature, critical to a
healthy life. Everything your dog does, from running and playing,
to working, and living a long and healthy life, is determined by the
fuel you provide and the energy it produces.
The term calorie is used to measure energy in food. Every dog eats the
quantity of food he needs to meet his caloric needs. The food you
feed must provide sufficient calories so your dog's body can:
- produce energy to grow correctly
- maintain health during adulthood,
- reproduce, and
- grow into a quality old age.
A DOG'S STAFF OF LIFE - PROTEIN
On the back of dog food
packages you will be told how much protein is in the food. Protein
content is important, but even more important is the source.
The manufacturer has choices as to the kind of protein to put into the
food. The percentage of protein on the package generally is a
combination of proteins found in plants or grains, such as corn, wheat,
soy, rice, etc., plus an animal protein, such as chicken, beef,
lamb, etc.
By law, the heaviest and largest amount of whatever ingredient
contained in the food has to be listed first. By looking at the
list of ingredients it is easy to see the origin of the protein. For
example, if the first five ingredients contain 4 grains, it tells
you that the majority of the protein in that food comes from grains.
The more grains in a dog food, the cheaper it is to produce. We
wonder what your dog thinks of such a food.
For more information on Wendy Volhard's views on holistic nutrition and the right diet for your dog go to:
Copyright
Volhard Holistic
All Rights Reserved
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"Anybody who doesn't know what soap tastes like never washed a dog."
Franklin P. Jones
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