Barking Dogs And Biting Cats
Transcript for:
Barking Dogs And Biting Cats MR. SAM LITZINGER
12:43:36
I'm Sam Litzinger with Dr. Gary Weitzman of the San Diego Humane Society. Tell us your animal-related questions and stories, 877-610-3647 or animalhouse@wamu.org. Again, 877-610-3647 or email animalhouse@wamu.org. You can play our Animal of the Day quiz on "The Animal House" Facebook page. You can also find "Animal House" updates and event information on Twitter. Search for WAMU Animal House. We try to stay in touch.
DR. GARY WEITZMAN
12:44:06
Your whole life can be "The Animal House."
LITZINGER
12:44:09
I hadn't thought of that. We're like a full service, 24-hour...
WEITZMAN
12:44:11
Ours is. (laugh)
LITZINGER
12:44:13
Let's take a telephone call from Jesse. Jesse, glad to have you with us in "The Animal House." Question for Dr. Gary?
JESSE
12:44:19
Yeah. I have two dogs, one of which we've had for two years. He's a Border Collie. Great dog, great with the kids, super affectionate, good in the house.
WEITZMAN
12:44:29
Good.
JESSE
12:44:31
The one thing he wasn't doing that we sort of wanted our dog to do was bark when someone knocks or when...
WEITZMAN
12:44:38
Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait. Jesse, you wanted your dogs to bark?
JESSE
12:44:41
I know. I know. It's funny….
WEITZMAN
12:44:42
Have I got a dog for you. (laugh)
LITZINGER
12:44:45
He may have two dogs for you now that...
WEITZMAN
12:44:47
Yeah. I might have two. And Sam, you're a Beagle person. You know.
LITZINGER
12:44:50
Yeah. Yeah. So you're looking -- Jesse, you're looking for -- what would you like to do, to train the dog to bark but only in specific cases, right? Not all the time presumably.
JESSE
12:45:00
Right. Exactly. And so a friend of ours' parents was getting rid of a dog, and they said, oh, the dog barks, great with kids, great with other dogs, so we said, okay, we'll bring him over. So we definitely wanted to obviously keep our current dog, and so we've had this new dog now for about a month, and he barks great outside at other dogs.
WEITZMAN
12:45:24
All right.
JESSE
12:45:25
But refuses to bark inside when someone knocks.
WEITZMAN
12:45:30
Oh.
JESSE
12:45:30
And so what I'm wondering is, I mean -- and he's, you know, great with the kids, non-aggressive dog.
WEITZMAN
12:45:38
Okay.
JESSE
12:45:38
But we just want, you know, we're wanting a deterrent is essentially what we want.
WEITZMAN
12:45:42
Really? Where do you live? (laugh) How bad is your neighborhood?
JESSE
12:45:46
Well, actually, our house did get broken into about two months ago.
WEITZMAN
12:45:49
Okay.
JESSE
12:45:50
I was out of town and someone came into the house in the middle of the night and didn't take much, but...
WEITZMAN
12:45:56
Oh.
JESSE
12:45:57
...our dog -- our current dog, Scout, essentially would roll on his back and show his belly to anybody who came in the house, which is...
WEITZMAN
12:46:04
Mm-hmm. Okay.
JESSE
12:46:05
...which is great for having friends and family over, but...
WEITZMAN
12:46:09
Yeah.
LITZINGER
12:46:09
Doesn't work so well for burglars.
WEITZMAN
12:46:11
No.
LITZINGER
12:46:12
And by the way, here's the TV set over here.
JESSE
12:46:14
Yeah, exactly.
WEITZMAN
12:46:15
Yeah. The necklaces are over here, the jewelry is in that box. Oh, boy.
LITZINGER
12:46:19
What's the new dog's name by the way, Jesse?
JESSE
12:46:22
What -- the other dog's name is Mr. Darcy.
LITZINGER
12:46:24
Mr. Darcy. Well, he's obviously too well-mannered to bark within...
WEITZMAN
12:46:27
Yes.
JESSE
12:46:27
Well, and that's the funny thing. If we end up keeping him, we're not going to keep Mr. Darcy. He's too goofy and to -- he's not a Mr. Darcy in personality.
WEITZMAN
12:46:36
Ah, okay.
JESSE
12:46:36
But -- yeah. I mean, essentially we just want something -- we want a dog that will bark and keep anybody out of the house that we don't want in the house.
LITZINGER
12:46:46
Okay, Gary. What do we do about this one? This is one of the more unusual barking questions you've run into, I suspect.
WEITZMAN
12:46:50
It is. This is like opposite world.
LITZINGER
12:46:52
Yeah.
WEITZMAN
12:46:53
Okay. Jesse, what I would say at the very beginning is, what are you thinking? You -- don't do this. Do not look for a dog that's going to bark, because if a dog -- if you're going to get somebody as a deterrent -- a dog as a deterrent, you're going to have a barker in general, and this is exactly what everybody is calling us to try to solve. This is a case of be careful what you wish for. And I know you want a deterrent, but honestly, I would say get an alarm system, but don't use your dog for it because really -- it's a really hard thing to have them focus on.
WEITZMAN
12:47:27
And it's funny that you've got a Border Collie that doesn't bark because, you know, they're really smart dogs, and they're used to being vocal because -- and they're used to thinking things through, but she doesn't bark at all when anybody comes to the door. I wonder, would she -- is she the one that flipped on her back when you had the burglar?
JESSE
12:47:45
Yeah. I mean...
WEITZMAN
12:47:46
Okay.
JESSE
12:47:46
Yeah. We didn't get this other dog until about a month after the break in.
WEITZMAN
12:47:51
Okay. So basically she's useless as a deterrent anyway.
JESSE
12:47:55
Yeah. Yeah.
WEITZMAN
12:47:56
That's why you're looking for another one. Honestly, I'd say the best reason to get a dog is it a companion for yourself or your Border, and I would not go looking for a dog just as a deterrent against crime because that puts the dog in danger, and, you know, most dogs, even if they don't bark, you know, like the Akita, no barking, but honestly, best guard dog in the world.
JESSE
12:48:15
Right.
WEITZMAN
12:48:15
So for most cases, if you did, God forbid, have somebody break into your house and any dog was there besides your Border Collie, you'd probably have a dog reacting to the intruder.
JESSE
12:48:27
Can I have you call my wife? Can I have you call my wife and convince her of that?
WEITZMAN
12:48:30
Yeah, you definitely can. Have her call us.
LITZINGER
12:48:32
Yes. Drop him an email, and then he'll say essentially what he told you to your wife, and then maybe that will work as well.
WEITZMAN
12:48:36
Yeah. Absolutely.
LITZINGER
12:48:38
Thank you, Jesse, very much on that. By the way, I'm thinking Mr. Darcy should be a cat name. Am I incorrect in that?
WEITZMAN
12:48:42
It does sound like a good cat name.
LITZINGER
12:48:43
It sounds more like a cat name to me than a dog name. Our telephone number is 877-610-3647. Our email address, if you'd like to, you know, maybe you'd like to send us an entire book that you've written. We'd be glad to read that, animalhouse@wamu.org. Well, Gary would. Let's take another telephone call. This one is from Sala. Sala, glad to have you with us in "The Animal House." Question for Dr. Gary?
SALA
12:49:05
Yes. Thank you so much for taking my call Dr. Gary.
WEITZMAN
12:49:09
Of course.
SALA
12:49:09
This is a -- we are first time getting a pet. She's a kitten, a wonderful kitten, a short-hair American and she's just been a joy. Now my first...
WEITZMAN
12:49:20
Oh, that's great to hear.
SALA
12:49:21
Yeah. Actually, my...
WEITZMAN
12:49:22
Welcome to the fold -- the animal fold.
SALA
12:49:24
Oh, yeah.
LITZINGER
12:49:25
What is her name by the way, Sala?
SALA
12:49:28
Well, that's the thing, you see. This is going to be a little bit funny or astonishing because my daughter named her Nala, and I think it was Lana. I can't really pronounce the name, so I decided to give her my name which is Kadif (sp?). It's really very easy. But if the kitten can talk, she's gonna tell me, come on, I need just one name. You're confusing me.
WEITZMAN
12:49:46
Yeah.
SALA
12:49:48
So -- but I think now she's kind of responding to both. So -- but that's a question that I want to pose. The other thing that -- she's a joy. She never meows, but she purrs all the time, and I think that's an indication that she's really happy.
WEITZMAN
12:50:03
Yeah.
SALA
12:50:03
She gets a little bit overstimulated by, you know, trying to bite. Not really painful, but she bites, and I wonder...
WEITZMAN
12:50:10
Uh-huh.
SALA
12:50:10
...if there's anything we can do to discourage her from doing that? I just -- I don't want like...
WEITZMAN
12:50:15
Oh, okay.
SALA
12:50:15
...my daughter to, you know, to get scratched or have, you know...
WEITZMAN
12:50:18
Right. Right.
SALA
12:50:20
...a bad injury or something like that. So that was my questions.
WEITZMAN
12:50:24
Okay.
SALA
12:50:24
The other thing that I really need to ask really fast is the role of food. We keep her food always available, and to me, I don't think that sounds right. I would like to ask how many times should she be fed, and if we should keep the food away and just feed her during the meal time, and we really appreciate your answers.
WEITZMAN
12:50:43
I think you're right, but you don't have to worry too much about that first question. It's good to have one name for your animal so they can learn it, and kittens' brains are all over the place. So right now she's learning everything all at once, and probably retaining very little of any of it. So -- but I'd say if you can simplify, stick with one or two names for her. Go with one. It just makes it easier for the people too.
SALA
12:51:04
Right.
WEITZMAN
12:51:05
And then as far as the biting is concerned, very normal behavior. You're not going to change it, and don't worry about it unless, as she gets older, six to eight months, it continues with the same intensity that she's doing it now. All kittens bite. Everything goes in the mouth of a kitten and a puppy because that's how they test and learn about their environment. And she is doing exactly what she would do if your whole family were her littermates.
WEITZMAN
12:51:32
So that's -- and her mother. I mean, there's biting and chewing and nipping and playing and clawing and all of that is normal activity and, you know, it's all learning how to be a hunter. So I would say the one thing that you should do, and tell your daughter this too, do not encourage it. You can't really stop it that easily, because, you know, their little brains short circuit when you try.
SALA
12:51:53
Yes. Yes. Exactly.
WEITZMAN
12:51:53
But you cannot encourage it. So don't keep your fingers right there when she's doing this, you know, keep your hand cupped if you need to do that. If she is biting, walk away, that kind of thing.
SALA
12:52:02
Okay.
WEITZMAN
12:52:03
But just don't engage it and, you know what, honestly, she's three months old now. Within another three months, every cat can occasionally do a little bit of a nip. We don't love it, but it happens. But I think in probably about three months she's going to grow out of it, but it's very normal developmental behavior right now.
SALA
12:52:17
Okay. That's very good to hear. But it is an extension of expression of playfulness, not anything else?
WEITZMAN
12:52:23
Absolutely. Well, you know, in some cases, it can be aggression. It's very doubtful that this will be the case for her because you've already described a pretty happy, very social kitten. So I'm not too worried about it at all. I think it's just an extension of learning and play for her.
SALA
12:52:37
Okay.
WEITZMAN
12:52:38
As far as feeding, most of us feed our cats free feeding all day long with dry food.
SALA
12:52:44
Yeah.
WEITZMAN
12:52:44
What I like to do is have people concentrate on feeding canned food. Nobody likes to hear that, but it is by far the healthiest thing to ever feed your cat. So if you're going to do that, I would say feed a quarter of a can in the morning, a quarter of a can at night, or if you, you know, you want to compromise, just feed the quarter of a can at night so that he gets some wet food, and put out dry food during the day. Now, always watch that the weight's not getting too out of control
SALA
12:53:09
Okay.
WEITZMAN
12:53:09
If that happens, then you're going to have to pick up that food. But otherwise, in most cases it's not that interesting to them. So you put the food out and they kind of get it, you know, a little bit in the morning, and they eat a little bit more at lunch time, and it's kind of the way cats do. They forage and they hunt and it's sporadic eating. I wouldn't worry too much unless she's getting to be kind of fat.
SALA
12:53:28
That's new to me because actually we're doing the reverse. We're overindulging her on canned food. I mean almost about three cans a day.
WEITZMAN
12:53:36
Ooh.
SALA
12:53:37
And we throw too much food away, you know. And I'm telling my wife and my daughter….
WEITZMAN
12:53:39
Okay.
SALA
12:53:40
...that that doesn't really sound right, you know.
WEITZMAN
12:53:42
Yeah. No.
SALA
12:53:43
(unintelligible) the dry food is the first one, right?
LITZINGER
12:53:47
It sounds like you're not -- she's not eating all the food that you're putting out, is that right?
SALA
12:53:51
No. No. No. She's not. She's not.
LITZINGER
12:53:52
Okay.
WEITZMAN
12:53:52
Okay, yeah. Then you definitely need to cut back. It's -- yeah. I wouldn't do that. If you're taking about the little tiny cans, and you're feeding three of those a day, I'd probably go with half twice a day.
SALA
12:54:02
Okay. Okay.
WEITZMAN
12:54:02
You know, I mean half -- sorry. Half of that amount twice a day instead. So instead of three cans, use one and -- well, one and a half's crazy. Use two cans.
SALA
12:54:10
Well, but, you know, you can save me a lot of money right there. (laugh)
WEITZMAN
12:54:14
Yeah. Yeah. And she's been trying to tell you this because she's not finishing it. But I love that you're feeding canned. It's the best thing for her.
SALA
12:54:20
That's very good to know. I really appreciate your answers, and I'll definitely share with my daughter today. She was really excited. I told I'm going to talk with the doctor, and she said, please just let him know and how can I train her. I said, you know, let's just take it one at a time. (laugh)
WEITZMAN
12:54:32
Yeah. I know.
LITZINGER
12:54:33
Call back when you're ready for the training session.
SALA
12:54:35
Oh, definitely I will. I really appreciate it.
LITZINGER
12:54:37
We'll put Gary right to work on that. Thank you very much. By the way, Gary, why canned food as opposed to dry food by and large for a cat?
WEITZMAN
12:54:43
Oh, yeah, kidneys.
LITZINGER
12:54:45
Kidneys.
WEITZMAN
12:54:45
Kidneys for cats. And most important for male cats, so bladder issues and kidneys, but we love to have them get canned food.
LITZINGER
12:54:51
Our telephone number is 877-610-3647. Animalhouse@wamu.org is our email address. Let's take a telephone call from Dan. Dan, glad to have you with us in "The Animal House." Question for Dr. Gary?
DAN
12:55:04
Yes. Thank you. It's such a pleasure to have the opportunity to speak with you. And I'm calling about Lucy. She's a three-year-old yellow Lab and Corgi mix, we think. She's a rescue.
WEITZMAN
12:55:14
Good.
DAN
12:55:15
And before all this started, you know, about 29, 30 pounds, so, you know, medium-small dog. She was affected by some of the food that had a salmonella recall, and had been eating it for about a month.
WEITZMAN
12:55:26
Oh, really.
DAN
12:55:27
The concern is, we brought her straight to the hospital, you know, crossed some double yellow lines on the way. Don't tell anyone.
WEITZMAN
12:55:35
Right.
DAN
12:55:36
You know, very scared for her. They gave her fluids and an antiemetic to prevent the vomiting.
WEITZMAN
12:55:42
Right.
DAN
12:55:43
Took great care of her. We got her back, she got back up to full strength. The issue is that we've gotten a settlement offer from the dog food company, but the settlement offer specifically excludes any future complications or costs that we might have from this event.
WEITZMAN
12:56:00
Right. Mm-hmm.
DAN
12:56:02
So every little thing that she does now, you know, if she sneezes, we're concerned that well, you know, darn, is that related to what happened before?
WEITZMAN
12:56:11
Right.
DAN
12:56:12
So before we sign this offer, are there any tests we can do to let us know whether there was any permanent damage from the time she's been affected?
WEITZMAN
12:56:19
Sure. Yeah. I can see why you're asking that.
DAN
12:56:21
And is there anything that we should be looking out for that might be an indication of or affect her health after this event?
WEITZMAN
12:56:27
Yeah. I think you're fine. You know, the one thing I would do is, and I'm sure your vet has already done it, if there's a salmonella toxicity, you know, we look at liver, we look at systemic issues that could happen. In people, Salmonella, there can be a carrier state. I don't think we see that very often, and I don't know of any cases that we see that in animals, but it's certainly possible, and I'm sure we'll get some email and calls about that. So I'll put it out there if anybody wants to help with that answer about carrier state. But I don't think I would, Dan, worry too much about that.
WEITZMAN
12:56:56
So if your vet will just run a blood test, a normal chemistry and CBC, you know, complete blood count on Lucy, I think if everything looks normal on that, you're fine to sign that waiver. If it doesn't, you're not done with treatment for this first bout anyway. So what should also be covered are follow-up labs to make sure that she's back to normal. There shouldn't be anything long term if everything comes out normally on those tests.
DAN
12:57:19
All right. Thank you so much for all your help.
LITZINGER
12:57:20
Thank you very much, Dan.
WEITZMAN
12:57:21
Okay. I'm Dr. Gary Weitzman with an "Animal House" pet care tip. Summer's beach time, and if you're lucky and can find a beach for you and your dog, make sure he's safe swimming. Every year on beaches there are tales of dogs getting caught in currents way too strong for them. Just a few weeks ago in San Diego we had a heroic animal field officer jump into the bay to rescue a Lab who was fighting the current. The woman saved the dog and deserves a huge medal for that.
WEITZMAN
12:57:52
It's a very simple concept. If the current is too strong, or the waves are too big to make swimming safe for us, then it's unsafe for your pet too. So be a good parent and keep your pets by your side if the surf's up. For "The Animal House," I'm Dr. Gary Weitzman.
LITZINGER
12:58:09
This edition of "The Animal House" is almost finished. First, here's the answer to our Animal of the Day quiz. Earlier we asked if you knew the age of the oldest living elephant on record. The answer? Eighty-six years. His name was Lin Wang, and he died in 2003. Thanks to our guests, Dr. Greg Lewbart, Alison Rieser, Jinny Gudmundson, and WAMU news reporter Sabri Ben-Achour for their contributions today. We also thank Bob James, Quincy Jones, and Acoustic Alchemy for their music today. Special thanks to Dr. Gary Weitzman for his work, and thanks to you for joining us in "The Animal House." I'm Sam Litzinger.
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