DOG OWNERSHIP

[From Tufts August 2011 Issue]

I was eager to read the article in your March issue by Edie Jarolim concerning vaccination choices [Vaccinations present an array of choices/The vet can help determine the best course based on health and life stage, March 2011] but was disappointed that no mention was made of the possibility of auto-immune encephalitis as a reactionto vaccinations.

I got my beautiful little Annie, a Maltese, at 4 months of age in August 2009. In November of that year, about two and a half weeks after her booster shot, she was diagnosed with auto-immune encephalitis. After a month-long battle that included an MRI, hospitalizations, seizures and more, I had to put her to sleep at only 8 months of age. It was a devastating loss and I am immensely concerned that it could happen again.

[From Tufts May 2011 Issue]

An article in a scientific journal published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention made headlines nationwide when it warned that people can - and often do - get too close to their dogs. Bruno B. Chomel of UC Davis and Ben Sun of the California Department of Public Health, writing in Emerging Infectious Diseases, said that about 50 percent of owners in the U.S. allow their dogs to sleep on their beds, but doing so puts them at risk for health problems.

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Im pretty sure Franklin and Rosie view me as a relatively companionable person - a toy breed (Im short), perhaps from the sporting group of humans. That is, Im pretty easy to have around, dont snap at others (much), and most important, can without much difficulty adapt to their ways and learn the behaviors they seek in a biped. …

Because you're in a rush, you call your dog in a somewhat irritated voice to come back to you once he's had his walk off leash. But just to get your goat, it seems, he makes his way toward you slowly — and in a curve rather than a straight line, which only makes him take longer. And the more annoyed you get, the more slowly he goes. So of course you scold him once he gets to you.

Or perhaps you want your dog to do something, and his response is to act "stubborn," or perhaps "distracted." Maybe you're yelling at him to comply one way or another and all he does is sniff the ground.

I'll be out of the office until Monday, March 28, on pawternity leave. I will be checking my email only occasionally.

So went the automatic reply that came to us from a business associate. He had taken several weeks off from work to stay home with his new puppy, which he adopted when the dog was eight weeks old.

Over the top? We dont think so. To bring a puppy into your house after it has been with its littermates, and then the next day go off to work - youre rupturing that delicate bond at the beginning of life, says Tufts Animal Behavior Clinic Director Nicholas Dodman, BVMS, DACVB.

Carol Costello was nervous. "I'd never had a dog before," she says, "and it bothered me that Teddy would be home by himself for so many hours every day while my husband and I were at work and the kids were at school."

Teddy was the malti-poo — half Maltese, half poodle — that the Massachusetts-based Costellos were adopting from a breeder in Spokane, Washington, and Ms. Costello's consternation actually began even before the 12-week-old dog stepped into her house. "I was concerned about his transition all the way across the country," she says. "I didn't want him being ‘shipped' in a crate in the cargo load.

"While it is generally true that all dogs need lots of aerobic exercise," says veterinarian Nicholas Dodman, BVMS, in The Well-Adjusted Dog, "breed requirements...

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Constance smelled smoke. John, then 12, was showering in preparation to go to a French lesson. Franklin and Rosie were hanging out in their usual spots-he under the couch; she, on it. I was at the office. Typical day.At first she tried to ignore it. Someone must have their fireplace going. It was one of those raw March days. But the odor grew stronger, and seemed to be more prominent on the side of the house, whereas its usually our neighbors across the street who are the most likely to throw logs on the grate.

In his delightful book, Off the Leash, about a grown mans very first year with his very first, very beloved puppy, author Matthew Gilbert asks, Why get a dog when its life will end, probably before yours? He then goes on to answer the question: Because its worth the pain of loss."Like so many others, he had, as he puts it, begun to understand and accept the bargain. He acknowledges that his yellow Lab, Toby, would leave…someday. But, he says, I was blocking that fact as much as I could, successfully, rather than obsessing about his death so much that I forgot to enjoy him. I was not pregrieving him, just savoring him.

The best way for an old dog to die would be the same as the best way for a person-peacefully, in his sleep, and suddenly, because of a stroke or some other incident that takes his life in a single moment. Unfortunately, as with people, most dogs dont die easy. Theres a better-than-even chance that euthanasia is one of the choices you will make for your pet.