How to Raise the Perfect Dog (32 page)

We can’t say for sure that Daddy’s being intact “caused” his cancer. From a holistic viewpoint, sexual frustration leads a dog to build up excess testosterone as well as negative energy in his body, which can contribute to creating cancer. Soon after Daddy was diagnosed, I adopted him legally and finally had him neutered. It was very painful seeing a dog that I love so deeply suffer so much. Because I loved him, I was going to spend whatever it took to save his life. It ended up costing more than ten thousand dollars. Of course it was worth it—but that ten thousand dollars could have been put toward my mission in life, which is saving more dogs’ lives.

MR. PRESIDENT GETS SNIPPED

When Mr. President reached his six-month birthday, I decided it was time for him to go under the knife so that he could go on to live a long, healthy, frustration-free future. “Oh, how could you do that to such a perfect specimen of dog as Mr. President?” an extremely uneducated stranger asked me. The answer is that even though Mr. President is a very handsome dog, there aren’t a lot of appropriate females available for him. You don’t just go out and place a personal ad for a genetically perfect female English bulldog. I am not a breeder. Lots of people think it’s a great idea to breed their dogs, but as you learned in
Chapter 2
, avoiding the pitfalls of genetic illnesses and behavioral problems is a complicated, scientific task that should never be left to amateurs. I come from the point of view of wanting to prevent unwanted puppies growing into dogs that we put to death, simply because we can’t find homes for them. To me, this is the only real moral outrage, something that creates negative karma for our entire species. By leaving breeding to the pros, we create only healthy dogs for future generations and prevent unwanted dogs from being born into lives of suffering.

A Trauma-Free Procedure

Dr. Rick Garcia of Paws and Claws Mobile Veterinary Hospital has been a great friend and supporter of both the Dog Psychology Center and the
Dog Whisperer
television show for many years now. Dr. Rick has known Mr. President since early in his puppyhood, so I arranged to bring my growing bulldog to his mobile operating hospital on a sunny April morning.

In order to ensure that a spaying or neutering—or any veterinary procedure for that matter—is an effortless, positive experience for your dog, it’s crucial that you, as the owner, have your emotions in check. Simply put, if you are feeling unsure or guilty about the operation, your dog will feel even worse about it. I hope that by educating yourself on the many benefits of spaying and neutering, you will be going into the situation in the same state of mind in which I approached Mr. President’s procedure—I was truly happy and excited for him and proud to be able to contribute in this way to his future as a stable, balanced bulldog.

When we arrived at Dr. Rick’s, Mr. President was his usual, playful self. All the work that I had done by exposing him to a variety of people, places, and things during his puppyhood was paying off now, with the little guy seeing all new experiences not as scary threats but as exciting, new adventures. He had no idea he was going to get neutered—all he knew was the thrill of coming to yet another new environment. Dr. Rick had instructed me not to feed or give water to Mr. President twelve hours before surgery, but I had brought along one of his favorite toys, a stuffed squirrel, coated with a special organic scented spray I have developed, so that I could keep his nose engaged right up until the moment he went to sleep. I would be there to wake him up in the same way, to ensure his waking up in the same state—calm, content, and submissive.

When we got to Dr. Rick’s mobile van, Mr. President jumped right into it—it’s a familiar place to him and the rest of the pack, and has always had good, happy associations for him, right from the beginning. He immediately started strutting around, making himself right at home. Dr. Rick and his vet tech, Lizette Barajas, marveled at how much he had grown since the last time they’d seen him. He weighed in at a whopping 39.2 pounds! I engaged Mr. President’s mouth with the toy while Lizette petted him—remember, we had spent many months of his early puppyhood getting him used to being touched in all different parts of his body and associating that with rewards and affection, so when the first injection came, he didn’t even notice it. Rick and Lizette were both charmed by Mr. President’s bubbly personality; he is a naturally happy-go-lucky guy who simply loves all new humans. “Not all dogs act like this in the vet’s office,” Dr. Garcia remarked. But then, not all dogs were raised from the point of view of becoming the role model for the perfect dog!

After his first shot, Mr. President seemed just as joyful and curious as when he first came in. He watched Dr. Rick fill his syringe with medication as happily as he would watch me preparing a treat or toy for him to play with. The vet tech held Mr. President’s body and I massaged his jowls and redirected his attention toward me as Rick swabbed his front leg to put the IV in. One more shot, and he quickly drifted off into the land of pink elephants.

Once he was asleep and his body totally relaxed, Dr. Rick began the intubation process. “For bulldogs, with their unnatural body designs and short noses, it’s extra important for us to keep their airways open and keep their necks extended during the whole procedure,” he explained. They also made sure to keep his eyes lubricated. In the operating area, Lizette laid Mr. President on a heating pad to keep his temperature constant (anesthetic drops a dog’s temperature about five degrees) and hooked up his intravenous fluids. Dr. Rick made a delicate elliptical incision around Mr. President’s entire scrotal area. He cut out the skin sheath first, then detached the small ligament that attached each testicle to the genital zone. Finally, he stitched up the incision. Because I had asked Rick to take off Mr. President’s entire scrotal sac to leave him looking “clean and sleek” as well as to prevent some of the skin irritations that can develop when a dog is left with the extra sac hanging, the stitching took a few extra minutes. Even then, the entire procedure was done in just about fifteen minutes. There was one final shot—twenty-four hours of pain and anti-inflammatory relief plus penicillin. Last, before taking Mr. President to his recovery area, a cozy blanket in a corner of the mobile unit, the vets also drew some blood so they could check his immunity titers.

Less than twenty minutes after his surgery began, Mr. President began waking up, trying to sit up right away. He trembled a little bit at first, partly from cold, partly from his body working to release the anesthesia from his system. I engaged his nose with the toy, which caused him to perk right up—even in his groggy state, his spirits were just as high as they were when he arrived. Then, as the best medicine, I brought in his best buddy, Angel, to help cheer him up. Angel approached his friend very delicately. Of course, Angel had no clue that his “brother” had just been neutered; he just knew that he smelled different and was in a different state.

After a moment or two, we carried Mr. President outside wrapped in his blanket and laid him on the grass in the toasty glow of the sun. Dr. Rick was amazed at how hardy Mr. President was and how fast he was snapping back. “If he can stand up, he’s okay to go home,” he told me. Almost on cue, Mr. President leapt to his feet and tried to run… but he was a little wobbly on his feet and plunked down on his bottom after a few woozy steps. Undaunted, he sprang right back up again, chasing after Angel, who was encouraging him to play. After a few more steps, once more, plop! “That’s okay,” Rick said. “Running around will bring his circulation back faster.” As I took out a treat for Angel, Mr. President instantly reacted to the sound of the wrapper—just the idea of food woke him up even further. Though he would not be allowed food or water (except a little to keep his tongue from drying out) for another three hours, Mr. President—still swaying slightly—trotted after me, Angel, and the tempting treat as we returned to my car. In a procedure that took less than half an hour, I had given my young bulldog the gift of a lifetime of better physical and psychological health.

Dr. Garcia checks up on Mr. President after his surgery

TACKLING TEENAGE REBELLION

Neutering a dog doesn’t guarantee psychological balance, nor does it ensure a smooth and stress-free adolescent phase. Even a spayed or neutered dog is undergoing other physical and psychological changes that require extra vigilance and patience from you, the owner, to help guide him through this eventful life stage. This is no time to lose sight of your calm-assertive energy—in fact, now’s the time you will need it more than ever. But be assured that, if you have set down a firm foundation of rules, boundaries, and limitations, it’s only a matter of reminding, rather than teaching, your dog what to do.

“In the home it may be necessary to go back to the training stages,” advises Martin Deeley. “The crate or restricted area may be essential to avoid chewing, running crazy around the house, and even slipping out of housebreaking habits. This is when a dog may decide the sofa or even the bed is a good place to go to the bathroom. Attach a leash to your rebellious teen, even in the house, so that you know where he is and can be aware of what he is doing and—with luck!—even what he’s thinking of doing. In this way you can step in early to correct any attempt at naughtiness.” Hollywood trainer Clint Rowe agrees. “Your pup will have to have boundaries refreshed or redefined. Just stay with the training you’ve done since it was young. Don’t put the pup in a situation where you cannot back up what you command. Don’t put the animal in a situation where it can ignore you or be noncompliant at these stages. Never threaten. Follow through calmly, consistently.”

DISTRACTIONS

An adolescent dog is seeing and reacting to the world around it in a fresh, new way, and may not find you as endlessly fascinating as you seemed to him back in the days when he was working his hardest just to keep up with you. Now he is already wise about his environment and infused with extra energy for exploring it. When you get to the dog park with an adolescent dog, he is all charged up: “Okay, let’s run!” But the dog doesn’t want to just run at this stage, he wants to
zoom—
and suddenly he notices he can’t get the human to practice that activity. The dog is saying, “What’s the matter with you? Run with me!” And when he sees the human lagging behind, texting on her Black-Berry, he realizes he is faster than the human. This may make him feel a little cocky about his own physical strength versus the human’s. He begins to see other dogs as more attractive companions, because they can match his intensity. At this point, many owners protest, “He used to listen to me but I can’t get him to come anymore!” This “distracted” complaint is probably the number one grievance listed by owners of adolescent dogs.

“I have noticed this difference, especially with working dogs I train for hunting,” Martin recounts.

Here I lay a very solid foundation of obedience and then develop their skills in the field. I have had females who after their first season—usually around the nine-month mark—suddenly appear to have learned very little. It is as though they have lost their memory, their personality changes, and it is not until after their second season that they begin to “click” with me again. That makes six months of—dare I say it?—“dumbness.” They may begin to find that a sniff is more important than the work you are doing and become easily distracted by a favorable odor when it is not the one you want them to be interested in. It may become more important to cock a leg on that tree rather than hunt around it for a retrieve. And this is where we learn whether we have built a solid foundation during the puppy stage and whether we are respected by our dog, as both a partner and a person who should be obeyed.

The solution to a distracted dog is a four-part formula—leadership, consistency, persistence, and patience. When Junior entered his adolescence, the way I managed his drifting attention and the growing intensity of his pit bull energy was to fulfill those cravings for exploration—by taking him with me to as many new situations and environments as possible. Every time I went to a new place with my adolescent dog, it gave me a new opportunity to show him that I was in control, which served the purpose of keeping his mind both challenged and submissive at the same time. While an adolescent dog may be feeling totally like the master of his home domain, a new environment can send him back into a more receptive learning mode.