Ask me ANYTHING about dogs…dogs in general, certain dog breeds…anything.I can answer it, and you’re going to have to trust me I won’t google it or whatever…I already know it…

try me

Learn what you don’t know and teach what you do…

This is Emily, please post appropriately.

Thanks Monty… that oughtta probably put an end to this!

Hi, Emily,

if you’re serious (and I’ll provide the answers if you don’t know),

try these questions on for size – they’re pretty common questions and answers in behavioural and rescue circles, although a couple are not.

What is the T4 normal range for Shelties, and what are the clinical, behavioural and health symptoms of a Sheltie outside the ends of the T-4 range?  What is the generally-accepted Normal range for T-4 in all dogs? 

Please identify one commonly prescribed tranquilizer that should not be given to Collies.  Why?

Please identify the path you would take to teach a dog to walk on a leash, when the dog has never been around people or leashed before.  Generalization is okay – but the more detailed your plan, the greater your credibility.

In general, does a CHW Sheltie have the same defects as a CHW Collie?  Explain.

How many people does it take to effectively evaluate a dog that is turned in as a stray?  Please identify the logic behind choosing the number you indicate.  Does the turn-in as a stray have an influencing factor on your evaluation (compared to owner-turn-in)?

What is Gee?  What breeds would not likely be trained to respond to Gee?

You are fostering a dog recently released from the pound due to crowding issues.  It is December, coldest winter on record in recent years ... very cold outside.  What are your first steps when introducing the dog to your home?    During the first few days of living with you, the dog starts startling more and more often and eventually becomes non-responsive.  Identify a couple of home/habitat conditions within you home that could be a factor, that the dog is less likely to experience during the spring than they would during the winter (specific to the inside of your house, not so much what goes on outdoors). 

How about those questions for starters? 

I’d be the first to admit I don’t know everything about dogs – and to be honest, I’ve never indicated I have.  My breed specialty is Shelties and Collies but what I’ve learned and applied has not been limited to those particular breeds.  What I’ve learned has taken over ten years of rescue, fostering and rehab’ing dogs (turning an unadoptable dog into a dog more likely to be adopted).  My track record is not perfect – I can’t claim success in every situation – I’ve had to have animals put down because they were an extreme liability. 

dwain

p.s.  a couple of those questions have specific right/wrong answers – others are more subjective but can demonstrate a depth of knowledge (in particular to the discipline being discussed).  Don’t be afraid of the answers – part of being a well-rounded dog specialist is sharing viewpoints and learning new skillsets.    I will add, regarding behaviour issues questions and answers, I prefer positive influence training despite the longevity it entails (and with some situations, its the only method that works).  I also understand other methods of training but don’t support them except in extremis situations. 

Those who want to, go ahead and answer those questions if you like – you can always email Reiley and me back privately.

dwain

Ok…I know I’ll be tuning in for more of this one!!!

whoa…before I answer anything…how did you get me myspace thing,Monty?That’s creepy.

honey he just looked at your profile.  it is right under the pic

U are kidding right?  You listed your myspace address on your profile.

Dwain, let me know if I answer these questions the way you wanted me to :)

Ok..

CHW,which stands for Color-headed whites, is greatly penalyzed in the ring for shelties, but is acceptable for collies. Is that what you meant? I got kind of confused on that one…

I remember reading something on the t-3 and t-4…it has something to do with thyroid.And I think it’s the t-3 that has a scale of 1-4(?) and…hmm something like that.

About the tranquilizer…I also remember reading this…the drug is Acepromazine and the collie (and greyhound) can’t have it due to the MDR-1,which stands for Multi-drug resistance gene.

I’m not sure of how many people, but I know they have to do the food aggression test, they need to test how the dog is with cats, male dogs,female dogs,kids,etc.

I feel like I’m missing something…but how’s that?

well, the answers are okay but there’s a lot of information missing – I was hoping for a little more detail…if I was grading (based on your brag), I’d give you about a C- ...you got all the easy ones.

First and foremost, the MDR-1 answer is the most important one in that list, as Acepromazine is frequently prescribed by numerous vets across the country to many dogs that are susceptible to the MDR1 mutation (including numerous folks’ dogs who would be following this forum – not limited to Collies but most prevalent in them).  Most of the vets may not be aware of the large number of suspect drugs.   However, the MDR1 is not limited to just a couple breeds – pretty much any of the collie-rooted breeds and a couple of the sight-hound breeds need to be concerned. 

The CHW, color-headed white collie, is as you indicated, acceptable in the conformation ring for collies (although is rarely a placer).  Also, as indicated, it is so greatly penalized in the shetlie conformation, it would be not worth the effort.  A color-headed white sheltie is very rare – very few hobby breeders will attempt to bred that particular mix.  What is more common in shelties is the confusion with a CHW sheltie and but is a double-merle sheltie. double merle shelties are 100 percent guarenteed to have a disability, either vision or hearing and frequently both.  But there are no defects in the CHW Sheltie or Collie  (very striking dogs but rarely finish in the conformation circles), where a double-merle that looks similar will be an unsound dog.

Many people put faith in what the breeder says is right; John and Jane Q Public may not be able to see the difference between a CHW Sheltie and a double merle sheltie.  You’re going to be one of those who knows now.

The T4 test (commonly done at vet practices, not as many do the T-3, usually sent out to specialty clinics or the TSH test,which is even more infrequently performed) is the thyroid test.  The normal range is 1-4 for a T-4 (not necessarily the most accurate of tests but a good baseline to determine if the T-3 is needed).  However, the normal range for shelties in particular is the top end of that range – 3 to 4 is the normal condition for a healthy sheltie, where below 2, the dog starts to suffer from thyroid deficiency. The clinical, behavioural and healthy symptoms of a low-thyroid sheltie (actually any dog, but noticeable at higher levels in some dogs) include a brittle coat, skin irritation (that is not attributed to other causes and tends to be chronic), hair loss and may lead to tendency to become irritable or aggressive without any outward signs.  They can also become obese (additionally, obesity can lend itself to hypothyroidism).  The dogs also can become anemic fairly easily, may not be as sharp or attentive as they used to be and can become severely hypo-throid. It can be treated with a readily available medication that is cheap – but if left unchecked can exacerbate any other illness.  This is something to remember if you’re treating, evaluating or grooming. Many vets will see a 1 or 2 and not recommend a thryroid supplement – you’ll know differently.

So its important not just to know what the T-4 and T-3 test do but also what they represent – an evaluator or trainer needs to be able to see the health of the dog, not just its behaviour, especially if the health impacts the behaviour.

To properly evalute a dog, you need no less than three people.  The evaluator is the one who is NOT part of the test; the evaluator should be watching the dog and governing the test; there should the the handler and a safety observer in addition to the evaluator – its also a good idea to have a fourth, running a video camera, especially if you’ve got a marginal dog.  The test most commonly used is the SAFER test; a dog that passes all elements of the SAFER test is deemed generally adoptable, dogs that fail are subject to other testing and depending on the reaction during different tests, may be euthanized.  The trouble with the SAFER test is that the evaluator cannot be part of the test and the testers must be able to perform the functions and needs of the test without any personal bias.  This puts a strain on staffing.  The second part of that question was to discuss the other conditions (would you have different criteria for an owner-turn-in compared to a stray).  The best answer is “NO”.  The test is administered to all dogs, equally, no matter what their background, because it is a test of responses to specific conditions.  It is also important that the dog not be over-stimulated when doing the test – the critical period of testing is based on the dog, not a shelter timetable though. 

When you go back to work for the HS this summer, if you really want to be an expert at reading dogs, ask them to let you become part of the evaluation team (assuming they actually perform some kind of testing).  Its a real eye-opener – some dogs you think would be no-problem fail miserably, where others you’d expect to fail pass with flying colors.  If they don’t do a formal evaluation, I’d suggest going to another shelter.

_~~~~
So that’s the questions answered.  The other questions relate to training and rehabilitation – those are topics and areas that if you’d have a little more experience in, you would probably relax your fear of particular dogs. 

Gee is a direction command used in mushing and carting (and horse-carriage driving) – its not something people not into that kind of activity would be involved with except at AKC Carting Trials – and a certified AKC judge had better know those commands.    Obviously, breeds not likely to be trained to respond to Gee would be those breeds not built for carting (either by cart, wagon or sulky).  Someone who’s wanting to be an AKC expert should be aware of the different breed specialty events and what to expect at them.

The fostering question relates to how well you’re able to identify with the dog, from the dog’s viewpoint.  The first part is how you introduce the dog to your home.  If you’ve got other animals, you have to consider introducing them in a controlled environment (which gets more challenging as the weather gets colder).  Do you use an ex-pen?  Do you use a crate? (Answer is yes to both).  Do you make googly talk to the dog for the first day or let the dog adapt?  Things like the hot-water heater kicking over more often due to the cold water, the furnace kicking off and on more often, air blowing unexpectedly from under their backside, all can be issues the foster dog previously has no experience with and may not be able to deal with without your help.  Just examples, mind you, but ones that those interested in saving dogs have to deal with frequently.  You’ve got to be able to think and read dog from the dog’s view.  We’ve already hammered the points home about using non-verbal language with dogs, but its not just non-verbal, the language you speak has to be in DOG, not APE.  Example – do you give your dog a hug or lay your arm across his back?  That’s a simian behaviour indicating friendship.  In dog-speak, thats a dominant behaviour that’s precedent to mounting. 

The leash question was one I was hoping you’d answer, as you’ve trained your dogs.  The biggest challenge in this particular quest was that the DOG HAD NOT BEEN AROUND PEOPLE BEFORE.  This means you must develop the bond with the dog, to gain its trust first.  The first attempt at leash-training may be a few weeks or months down the road from the time you set your mind on leash training.  What I mean by that is: you decide that you can have a dog leash-trained in a month (not an unrealistic goal for a normal dog). For a shy dog, it might be three months before you can reach that one-month start date.  Its quite common to see someone taking a puppy and slapping a collar and leash around the neck and pulling the dog everywhere they go.  If the dog is being pulled, you’re doing it wrong.  You’ve had experience with reward-based training; when you’re dealing with a shy-dog, that will help you immensely, but you’ve got to develop a baby-steps focus with that particular kind of training.  I wish I could explain it better (not enough time, I’m already overdue going home), but to get a dog that won’t even give you any kind of eye contact to wear a leash and go for a walk will be traumatic for the dog if you don’t approach it in very small incremental steps.

_~~~~~
My obvious point on these questions was development; I didn’t expect you’d be able to answer all of them, but as you proceed down whatever path you’re choosing now, you’ll need to think about where you’re going to focus.  Are you going to be dealing with perfect dogs when it comes to training or grooming or judging, or are you going to be dealing with less-than-perfect dogs?  Let me put it another way – there’s hundreds of aggressive-dog specialists; by comparison, there’s a very small handful of successful shy dog specialists.  Its not just the loudmouths that get put down every year; the ones that don’t make contact at the shelter will also end up on the axe list because no one wants a dog that doesn’t interact.

Anyway, if you’ve got questions, if I’ve got the answers, I’ll share them.  I won’t bullshit you; if I don’t have experience in an area, I’ll say that and if I can find a resource to point you to, I will.  But please, don’t think for a minute, that you’ve got all the answers.  You’re not an expert, not even if you’ve an IQ of 190; you’ve got to back the knowledge up with experience before gaining any credibility.  I can’t help you with the experience but I can share mine; you may be able to use it to bolster your own.

dwain

Bravo Dwain!!!  Well handled…barks and howls to you!

Emily, this is what I meant by mentoring.

Dwain is willing to share his time and expertise to help you gain further knowledge and to assist you toward your goal in working with animals. Looks like you have done quite a bit of study on your own. Not googling an answer just to impress us was awesome, shows you really have a willingness and heart to follow thru on your plan to work with dogs. We are all behind you girl, and you have us as a resource to help you.

I’m glad that you didn’t leave. The animal/dog world needs more people like you who are willing to learn and want to help make the world a better kinder place for it’s creatures.

Hugzzz

Monty

 Wow! well put Sandi! And Dwayne, I love reading and learning from you.

Hugs,

Nadia and doglets

we all could learn from you two.  thanks!