Hi there this is Krista with episode number 114 On the wag out loud pawdcast, are you aware that Sundowners syndrome happens in our dogs too? Well, just like humans as our pups grow older, they experience various health issues including behavioral changes. sundowning in dogs is believed to be caused by age related issues such as the breakdown of the central nervous system, oxidative stress, and brain cell death. is your dog wandering, getting stuck, pacing or barking for no reason? More often in the evening or the nighttime? these could all signal sundowning in dogs.
Welcome to the wag out loud podcast where we are obsessed with bringing you helpful tips on canine health care, nutrition, and overall well being. If you'd like to support the show. Check out the amazing online events, products and resources that I personally recommend on the Wag Out Loud website. I'm your host, Krista and I'm super excited to be bringing you yet another tail wagging episode.
Hi there dog lovers, thank you so much for taking the time to listen in, and for your interest in your dog's health and wellness. Today, we are so honored to have Dr. Marty Greer with us. And she is going to chat about how has dog ownership changed in the era of COVID? And what can you do for your dog? Dr. Greer, thank you so much for spending time with us today. Why don't you introduce yourself and tell us why you wrote the book Your Pandemic Puppy?
Sure. So I've been blessed with a career that I love. I've spent 39, almost 40 years crawling around the exam room floor with puppies with clients with just like I have the best job in the world. All day, I get to work with clients, I get to help them with their pets, I get to help them with managing their breeding programs. I just feel really blessed to have had so much fun with a career where I really do get to play with puppies every day and all day. So the inspiration from the book was sort of a multitude of different things that all coalesce. one was COVID started. So I had some time out of my schedule that I wasn't going to be traveling I normally am traveling quite a bit in the spring and the fall, and doing presentations. But because of COVID we were grounded. So we were home. And I realized at that point, I had a little extra time on my hands. I love to write. So I thought well, I'll just rewrite my exam room material. So I'll just write like a 20 page handout and it'll be good and I'll just get everybody up to speed on what's new with vaccinations and heartworm and flea and ticks and spaying and neutering and all that. So that the material I have in my exam rooms is fresh, but at the same time, I had clients and other people in my ear talking about how many people were staying home and how they were all trying to acquire a new puppy or a new kitten. And the concerns that many people in the industry had about how that's going to look when people started to return to work and to school, leaving their dogs alone when they'd been used to a year or more 100% of our clients of their owners being home with their pets. So we were really concerned about that. And we wanted to keep dogs from entering back into rescue back into Humane Society, and keep those dogs in the loving homes that had decided that during COVID, it was an appropriate time to get a new dog.
Wow! thank you for doing that. Because yes, it is a thing. And I think all of us can agree that the past 14 months have been super challenging and downright difficult. But one of the positives and you mentioned it is that COVID puppies and rescues adoptions were up. I think it's 40% more than the year before. And with that, I think a lot of people have discovered that their dogs are even more amazing because they spent so much time with them, and have formed even stronger bonds. So what do you think we've learned about dogs as a part of the family unit during this crisis?
Well, I think people have come to appreciate their dogs, they've enjoyed being home with them, the dogs have enjoyed having people home. What we did think was pretty funny is at the beginning, we were seeing dogs for things that we normally wouldn't have seen them for, it would have been typically that someone would maybe call or just take care of something themselves, like, My dog is now having four stools a day. And we'd say well, how many times a day are you walking them.? But we used to walk them once. But now I walk them in the morning before I start homeschooling the kids, and then we walk them. And pretty soon you realize that the dog is getting four walks a day. And of course the dog is going to have more opportunities. And yes, they are getting more attention. And yes, they're getting more snacks. And yes, they're getting more food, but they're also getting more exercise and they're getting more attention. So people are picking up on things like that things like lumps and bumps, things like their breath doesn’t smell good things that ordinarily would have kind of gone by the wayside. I think cats are kind of looking forward to people going back to work. They're like, really, you've been home long enough. And I really need to catch up on some sleep episodes that I've been missing out on so yeah, exactly Could you go? But what we also noticed was that we were seeing people that had never had a puppy or a dog before as an adult. So a lot of people had put off dog ownership. They have kids that are you know, in grade school, high school, and their kids were saying, Yeah, but mom, you promised us a dog all the time, and there's not a better time. So we started to see clients that had dogs as children that had never been responsible for selecting, raising and socializing an adult dog or dog to adulthood as an adult person. So it changed the dynamics of pet ownership, we had a lot of people coming in that really didn't know how to manage these dogs. And the other concern was making sure that we were managing them so that they didn't develop a separation anxiety when people went back to work so that they would be able to be crate trained. So that when they started going back to the grocery store, or work or school or whatever they happened to need to do the dentist, whatever, that the dogs were able to self soothe, were able to manage themselves at home, whether they were crated or left loose in the house or left in some confined area, that the dogs understood how to behave. And they were just comfortable in that setting. Because with people home 24 hours a day, or at least one person home all that time, the dogs were being raised in an environment that wasn't sustainable.
That's absolutely right. And you alluded to it earlier, when you said we've been feeding more food and treats and I know that a lot of veterinarians are noticing increased rates of obesity and obesity was already an epidemic before COVID. And I think I read 30% of American dogs were overweight before the pandemic. So now with our quarantine 15 that I know a lot of us experienced. What do you say to people as far as how to check for the correct weight in their dogs? And what would what should we be doing to make sure that they're slim and trim?
Sure. So you should be really careful that they're not eating any excessive amounts of food that you're basically feeding the same caloric intake as you were before. So that might mean a little bit less dog food if you're a little heavy on the stacks. The snacks can consist very comfortably of fresh fruits and vegetables with the exception of grapes and raisins which of course we know are toxic and onions and potatoes and corn which are kind of either starchy or potentially toxic. So we want to avoid those. But if your kids or if yourself you're looking at a snack and you're having you know fruit or vegetable that's a great opportunity for your dog to have that with you. You can cut back a little bit on their dog food and have up to 10% of their food be some other kind of snack like fruits and vegetables. And then of course the exercise. So if this time of year you'd like to go out and spend more time outside and spend more time walking, that's a great opportunity for your dog to start going out and Be with you. Now that the weather is nice, and in most parts of the country, it's warm, but not too warm, and it's rainy, but not too rainy. And it's just a really great chance for us to be outside with our dogs and get them used to that extra amount of exercise that they might have missed out on during the colder weather.
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Can you describe what it looks like for us to actually check our dog's weight, I know the rib test, how do you actually do that?
The rib test is a great one. And you you can do this really easily. Basically, what you want to do is take your own hand. And what you want to do is make a fist and feel the back of your hand, it's not your knuckles, but the back of your hand, you can feel those four bones. That's what your dog's rib cage should feel like. If it feels like the palm of your hand where it's in that little heel part of your hand where it's soft and squishy. That's a dog that's overweight, it feels like the back of your hand. That's where you can feel the ribs. That's ideal. But if it looks like you can see the same kind of protrusion as you would when you make a fist, and you look at your knuckles, that's too thin. So it's a really good tool for people to use, because it's something that they have right in front of them, they can feel it, they can see it, they can relate to it. So it's really handy. Now there are going to be differences from one breed to another. But unfortunately, even the most athletic dogs are frequently thought of as being too thin when they're at an ideal body weight because Americans have become accustomed to their dogs being a little on the soft and squishy side. So our dogs should be fit, they should be able to keep up with you on walks. and that type of thing runs of course, are a differe
