69. Behavior Breakthroughs: Tackling Dog Anxiety

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Alright. Story time. Story time. Kristen, you want to go ahead and kick us off? Sure. I'm excited

Speaker 3 (02:36):

Because you know what this Friday is.

Speaker 2 (02:42):

No, I don't.

Speaker 3 (02:43):

It is. Take your dog to Workday.

Speaker 2 (02:46):

Oh hell yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:49):

I've been celebrating this for so long and I got this press release from Pet Sitters International, the ones that actually created this event 27 years ago, and that's back in the day when I was working at the animal shelter. And so we used to promote this all the time and it was a really great event that actually raised awareness for pet adoption.

(03:08):

And that's actually why PSI or Pet Sitters International started it because they wanted to encourage people to bring their pets into the workplace on this day of the year. Usually it's the last Friday of June, so I guess this year it's the third Friday of June because they wanted people who don't have pets to experience the love and the bonding and just the joy that our pets bring to our lives. But I think what ultimately happened is over the years as they celebrated this, people started to realize that bringing pets to the workplace can really be beneficial in the workplace, like reducing stress. Employees are willing to stay at work longer if they've got their pet there with them as opposed to having to leave early to go let them out and such. So it's a really impressive event that has evolved over the 27 years that they've been doing this and now they encourage people to bring their cat to work, bring their bunny to work, bring whatever the boss will allow, and of course, whatever pet would be appropriate. Obviously you're not going to bring your cat to work if your cat would not enjoy that and most cats probably wouldn't. But anyway, I just wanted to remind everybody about this awesome event that just keeps giving back to the human animal bond and to our relationship with pets.

Speaker 2 (04:28):

Yeah, I love Take your pet to work day. And the best part is I get to live it every day because Zappa has a dog friendly office and it is remarkable. We have a colleague who has a Dalmatian puppy and when that Dalmatian puppy enters the office, sure it's about 20 minutes of nobody really working, but the attitude, the mood, it goes through the roof and our office is very accommodating. There's a room you could go put your dog in that doesn't have a lot of stimulation and you could kennel them and all sorts of toys and stuff lying around. That's what you get when you work for apa. But I do think that it's great for us to be pushing for that across the board because every office could use a couple more dogs.

Speaker 3 (05:18):

It's great for morale,

Speaker 2 (05:20):

It's great for morale.

(05:24):

What's your story, Chris? Well, speaking of morale, I wanted to get everybody together and talk about the economy because we love, that's what we love doing on pet's a Life. We love talking about the economy, but it's important because this show, it serves to prepare people for animal ownership if that is something that they're considering. And I thought it would be good to bring this up because we all know about inflation. We all know that prices of things are going up. So let's see how it's affecting animal ownership. And this is a study that was conducted by Synchrony, a financing company, and they were basically looking at the cost of there was some dog ownership and cat ownership. So this is since 2022, so about three years. The cost of owning a dog has increased 11%. And what Cat care has jumped 20% and hold on, I had this number pulled up, lemme see if I could grab it again.

(06:33):

The annual inflation rate 2022 is 6.5%. So we're looking at consumer products that are outpacing inflation, which is always not great, meaning in reality it is just getting more expensive to own a pet. Now there's some caveats with this research. It's done in the United States where people are generally spending more money on their pets anyway. They're buying premium brands, they're buying more stuff. So that just goes into it. But let's be real, there's a reason people do that. If you're going to get a pet, you're going to be a sucker too. Guess what? You're joining the club. You're going to be a sucker too. You adopt that dog and you're like, okay, this is my budget. The first couple of months you're going to stick to it. By month three you're going to be like, ah, but I got to get him this new little thing. It's simply the way it works.

Speaker 3 (07:23):

I was just going to say, and pet ownership tends to, the cost tends to increase once your pet is like seven or eight years old as they become seniors.

Speaker 2 (07:32):

Yes. And they looked at the average cost for caring for one of these animals. They did dog and cats for 15 years, and now most dogs aren't going to make it to 15 years. Let's be real. That would be incredibly rare. And a lot of cats will live longer than 15 years. Caring for a dog over a 15 year period can cost between 22,000 and $60,000 caring for a cat over a 15 year period. It can cost between 20,040 $7,000. So I mean that's over 15 years. But it really depends on what you're buying.

(08:09):

Food is going to be your biggest choice. There is certainly advantages to increasing the quality of the food, but not all high quality food is expensive. There's definitely some that are more costly than others with just marginal health benefits. So if you're concerned about budgeting a get a budgeting app, it's 2025, there's an app for everything. Get a budgeting app and really look at your family budget, determine what you are willing to spend for your pet, whether it's a cat or a dog, and then do some basic research. Find the food you would want to feed, think about how much food they're going to take, litter, leashes, poop bags, that kind of stuff, and throw it in and see what you're going to be on the hook for. Because if you're going to make that kind of a choice, you should be ready financially as well as emotionally.

Speaker 3 (09:03):

Yeah, and I would add to that too, consider pet insurance as well, because your biggest expenses are going to be your veterinary care and your pet food. So pet insurance is a way that can protect you from those unexpected vet bills. Should there be an accident or an illness. And the younger your pet is, when you get that insurance, typically the lower the premiums are. Yep.

Speaker 2 (09:28):

Great advice

Speaker 1 (09:29):

Beyond the leash, exploring the untold stories of pet passion and professionalism.

Speaker 3 (09:36):

Alright, I am so excited to introduce our guest, Dr. Lisa Adaa. She's a renowned board certified veterinary behaviorist, one of only about a hundred in the world. She's also the founder of the Florida Veterinary Behavior Service. And with over two decades of expertise, she's an advocate for fear-free practices and the co-author of Influential Works such as From Fearful to Fear-Free, and the fourth edition of Behavior Problems of the Dog and Cat. Dr. Re regularly contributes to veterinary literature and she is a sought after speaker in the veterinary world, and we are lucky to have her today. Welcome, Dr. Radsa.

Speaker 4 (10:15):

Thank you.

Speaker 3 (10:17):

Yes. And I have to thank you again for joining us on The Expert Show that's airing now. It was just such a great panel, wasn't it?

Speaker 4 (10:28):

We had a great time. I cannot believe that you were able to corral Andy Rourke and I because we just talk and talk and talk and talk, and both of us had this energy like this, and I just thought, how is she going to keep us from taking over? But you did an excellent job. Well, thank you. Not only that, but we sat you together. That was a mistake.

Speaker 2 (10:48):

Foolish. I know. Foolish.

Speaker 4 (10:49):

I know. And then I'm so short and everyone else is tall. So remember I shoved like a pillow under my butt so that I would be little booster seat looked like. Get in frame. I did. It looked like this. So yeah, it was really fun. And we got all dolled up with the makeup artist who now I follow her on Instagram. She was so good. Yeah, it was a good time. And the snacks and the sandwiches.

Speaker 3 (11:15):

Oh yeah.

Speaker 4 (11:15):

I felt like Jennifer Lopez

Speaker 3 (11:17):

Dog TV does it upright.

Speaker 4 (11:18):

Yeah,

Speaker 3 (11:19):

They know how to make you feel like a superstar. Well, my first question is actually kind of a basic question. I would love to know what motivated you to specialize in veterinary behavior and how did your early experiences shape your approach?

Speaker 4 (11:33):

Yeah, so when I went into veterinary school, I knew already I wasn't cut out for primary care practice. So I had three specialties in mind. Behavior, neuro, so that's neurology and dermatology. I don't like surgery, so neurology is out, A lot of neurology is surgery. So I had derm and behavior. And the truth is that there were two factors. Number one, I really felt like, and I believe this to be true 25 years later, that I can save the most lives in behavior because there's the least amount of access to care. And number two, what did I love? Every second of every day was behavior. I was training my dog. I would train my horse, I would train my cat, I would train other people. It was all about just the love of being in the middle of it. And then you asked about early experiences.

(12:18):

Look, I have every human being trauma with Big T and little T. And my childhood was, I describe it as kill or be killed. There was a lot of conflict. And at every moment of my life when it was dark, there was a dog every moment. And then as I got older, there was a cat, my catted, my heart cat. So when I came into veterinary behavior as a specialist or whatever, I carried that who saved me every time. It was always an animal 100% of the time. And so that made Fear Free seem very simple to me because why would I hurt someone? Why would I hurt someone I love, first of all, but why would I stress someone who has saved me from all of the hurt and pain? So yeah, it's a little bit of what do I love and also who has loved me.

Speaker 2 (13:17):

And you brought up Fear Free, which we've talked about a bunch on the show, but with your background and experiences and maybe some of your early training, how did you integrate those principles into your work and how does the Fear Free Initiative change your relationship with the animals that you're working with?

Speaker 4 (13:41):

So for me, as a veterinary behaviorist, I'm always practicing fear free. And let's face it, I live in the specialist bubble specialists. We have longer appointments or we can make our appointment, I can make my appointment 21 and a half minutes. I can do whatever I want. So I have that freedom. The real question is how do veterinarians and primary care do this? Because they are limited by, let's say, the corporation that owns their practice because about half of primary cares and 75% of specialty hospitals are owned by corporations. So how do you meet the needs of the corporation who controls length of your appointments and also live by your own ethics, which is not to hurt animals or stress animals unnecessarily. And then also on the other hand, something that we don't think of. So I don't know if Kristen, if you've read this book, but it's called The Body Keeps the Score.

(14:36):

It's an extraordinary book about how trauma is stored in the body and the doctor's written by an md. And I am going someplace with this, Chris, Kristen knows I go off, hang in there, Chris, hang in there. We're getting there. So this MD as a psychiatrist that treats trauma victims. So anyway, what he said was he was brutally honest, and I just am now reading this book, and he said, I was shocked at the personal, and I'm paraphrasing fulfillment, I got at holding down a patient who was hallucinating so that we could sedate him. And I was like, right, right. So in veterinary medicine, when you hold an animal down, you're not thinking I want to hurt it. That's the book. Yeah. You're not thinking I want to hurt it. You are thinking, wow, I'm going to do it. You're thinking, I'm in conflict, I'm in a battle.

(15:34):

And sure enough, the technicians that get the injection in by three of them lying on top of a chihuahua, the veterinarian goes, yay, I can get my job done now. So it's not how I can do it. I have the privilege of doing whatever the heck I want. How do we help veterinarians do it? How do we help the technicians believe that they are going to get praised, even if they go to the vet and say, we can't do this today because the animal's too stressed. That's the challenge that every veterinarian and primary care faces.

Speaker 2 (16:15):

Yeah, that is really interesting. How significant would a pet's environment be an influencing behavior? And are there any remedies to changing the environment, changing your home in a way that could either alleviate some stress or anxiety and end up aiding in behavioral therapy?

Speaker 4 (16:36):

Yeah, I think that that's an amazing question because it's underestimated the influence of the environment. What I tell my clients is, aren't you different on vacation or let's look at it differently. Aren't you different when you go to your mom's house? You are, yeah,

Speaker 2 (16:50):

I feel attacked

Speaker 4 (16:52):

When I pull into the driveway. I got the tightness like, okay, modulate your emotions. So it is different. You are different in different environments. The difference for me is that I can drive away, I can walk away. I can take a break. You've got to think about your animals. They have no choices. If you have a dog door, yes, they can get into your backyard. So they have some choices. They can go to the water bowl when they want, but they don't have a lot of choices and most animals cannot get away. So structuring the environment is huge. Every animal needs a safe place. And guess what? You may not be invited into that safe place as the pet parent. That's okay. That's okay. There's plenty of times where I need space from my own family. You know what I do on Mother's Day? I go to a spa who's not invited my family because that's how I want to spend my time.

(17:46):

So we're going to give each pet a safe space for a cat. It might be on top of a cat tree, it might be under a bed, it might be in a closet for a dog, it might be a walk-in closet, a bathroom, whatever. It could be their bed in the living room. But we're going to respect that space. We're going to watch our pets. Maybe our cat runs out of the kitchen when we make our daily smoothie. Maybe that's a no phobic cat. We think about a quarter of cats or no phobic. We need a lot more research on that. So can we then maybe toss some treats into the safe space before we make our smoothie? It's a small step. It's grabbing the treats, walking over, tossing them in,

Speaker 2 (18:27):

Going

Speaker 4 (18:27):

To make this movie. So we also want to make sure that we have realistic expectations and we're changing the environment so our pets can survive. So for example, does your dog need to meet everyone that comes in your house? No. That is your MHA gas. That is not that dog's problem. Okay. So if your dog doesn't want to meet your friends, put them in a separate room. So we're going to manage expectations, manage the environment, watch our pets for signs of fear, anxiety, stress, and distress. And we're going to recognize that animals have no control, and that sets up a baseline of stress. Right?

Speaker 3 (19:07):

Yeah. So before we let you go, Dr. Roda, I mentioned at the top in the introduction that you're one of only about a hundred veterinary behaviorists in the world. So how would any of our listeners or viewers, how do they know when they need a veterinary behaviorist and how do they go about finding one?

Speaker 4 (19:26):

Yeah. Well, so you know, need a veterinary behaviorist if you feel that your pet's quality of life is compromised by their behavior or by a medical problem that's affecting their behavior. Let's say you have an elderly dog who has arthritis, and when you go to help him up, he growls at you. Let's say you have a dog who growls at neighbors or a dog who destroys when you're not home or a cat who's chasing their tail. So these are the times you need a veterinary behavior. So you can find one by going to DAC vb.org. You can get lots of information just by following me on YouTube or LinkedIn or Instagram or Facebook just at my name Dr. Lisa Roda. And my website has tons of free resources. It's not password protected. You don't pay anything. It is for you to get information that helps your pet right now. And by looking at some of those resources, you'll probably be able to figure out, do I need a veterinary behaviorist or not?

Speaker 3 (20:26):

So thank you. I'm sorry we're short on time. We could talk to you the whole 48 minutes of the show, but it's

Speaker 2 (20:31):

Almost like we could stick on a panel and do an hour long special. We do that. She's just giving that energy

Speaker 3 (20:39):

And perfect tee up. Chris, if you would like to see more of Dr. Radsa or the other experts that we feature on the experts, check out our show airing now on Dog TV's Unleash channel. Thank you Dr. Mota as always for joining us, and we'll probably see you again soon.

Speaker 4 (20:56):

Yeah, thanks,

Speaker 2 (21:02):

Kristen. I noticed something at the top of that interview.

Speaker 3 (21:05):

What she

Speaker 2 (21:05):

Referenced that on the set of the experts there were sandwiches

Speaker 3 (21:11):

And salads.

Speaker 2 (21:12):

I'm looking around, there are no sandwiches where I'm at, so don't what, I dunno what's going on, but we're going to have,

Speaker 3 (21:22):

You need to get yourself on the set of the experts like, man,

Speaker 2 (21:28):

It's like a real

Speaker 3 (21:28):

Green room.

Speaker 2 (21:30):

Unless the experts becomes a comedy show, I don't think we're going to be seeing Chris on it anytime soon. No, but it's clear. It's clear why Dr. Adaa was invited. A, so knowledgeable, but B, such a clean way of communicating it, making it really simple. I think that's a real boon to her practice.

Speaker 3 (21:53):

Yeah, she's amazing.

Speaker 2 (21:59):

It's my pleasure to welcome Alex Sessa, a professional dog trainer and the founder of Peach on a leash dog training based out of Atlantic Georgia with a focus on modern positive reinforcement techniques, Alex and her team help families build strong lasting bonds with their dogs. She's dedicated to providing practical, compassionate training solutions and is highly regarded for her expertise in behavioral modification and puppy development. Alex, thank you so much for taking some time out of your day to join us on the podcast today.

Speaker 5 (22:31):

Absolutely. Thanks for having me.

Speaker 2 (22:33):

Of course. So to jump right into it, one of the questions we really like to ask a lot of the people who find themselves dedicating their careers to pets is sort of how you wound up in this boat with us. What drew you to dog training and how did maybe some of your personal experiences shape your approach?

Speaker 5 (22:53):

I'm going to try to give you the short version. Okay, thank you. I was at the University of Georgia studying broadcast journalism of all things, which actually has come in surprisingly handy over the years. Yeah, right.

Speaker 2 (23:05):

Yeah, there we go.

Speaker 5 (23:06):

Yeah. But here I was about 98% of the way through the degree when I realized that that is not what I wanted to do for a living. So at the same time, I had been volunteering at the animal shelter in Athens and I just kept seeing dogs that were being euthanized or weren't finding homes because of behavior problems. That to me seemed like surely there was something we could do to help them. But the time is so limited in those situations, and so it was just heartbreaking to see these things happening. So I got really interested in behavior and it was during that time that I met Victoria Stillwell at a book signing in Athens. So for those of you who don't know her, somehow, she's a celebrity dog here. She's amazing. I know she does so much with dog TV and pet outside life. So I met her and she and I just hit it off at this book signing and kept in touch. And then they hired me right after I graduated. So I worked for her for about five years and just kind of learned the dog world and the training behavior world from her before I started my company in 2016.

Speaker 3 (24:07):

That's awesome. What a great mentor to have, right, Victoria? Oh my gosh. The best. Just the best. And Chris, I wanted to mention for the audience that both Alex and Victoria were two of our experts on the experts that premiered earlier this month and is running all this month. It's a special on dog anxiety, and we had the most amazing panel on the show, so

Speaker 5 (24:29):

It was so fun.

Speaker 3 (24:31):

Yeah, we had a really good time. So Alex, obviously your training is focused on positive reinforcement and just for anyone who might not understand that, how is that more effective? How does that differ from other methods?

Speaker 5 (24:45):

So our goal is that we are just reinforcing behaviors that we like and we are essentially redirecting or replacing behaviors that we don't like. And it's so hard to go into too much detail because it's such a broad topic, but essentially our goal is we're not doing anything that is painful or scary to the animal. So it's not to say that there isn't discipline, there aren't rules, there aren't boundaries, but we're just not enforcing them in a way that's going to be painful, scary, or potentially cause issues in the animal that maybe we create new behavior problems because they're scared or uncomfortable. So our goal is to, as much as possible just focus on the behaviors that we do because at the end of the day, what we reward or reinforce is more likely to be repeated. So if we're saying, Hey, we really like when you do this, we make that the easier choice for the dog, they're much more likely to just go for that because dogs are pretty simple in a way of like, Hey, if it works for me and it gets me what I want, I'm going to do that thing that makes me feel good.

(25:42):

So we're going to do that thing. So

Speaker 2 (25:44):

We

Speaker 5 (25:44):

Do avoid anything that's going to be painful or scary.

Speaker 2 (25:47):

Yeah, I think that's great advice. And you know what, let's practice some positive reinforcement on our dog trainers to be, what are some of the common mistakes they might make? You're starting to train your dog, whether you're trying to housebreak them or stop the barking or teaching them some basic commands. What are some of the common mistakes people get, whether they're picking up these bad things from social media or other dog owners that you think people should avoid?

Speaker 5 (26:17):

So I do think you made a good point of being kind to the humans also and just being kind to yourself. I think there's so much pressure that people put on themselves to have this Instagram perfect dog that just does all these cool things and basically as a robot that never does anything other than it's just happy and perfect all the time, which for any of us who have real dogs, for the most part, that is just not reality. Dogs go through a spectrum of emotions just like we do, and they have good days, they have bad days. So I think it's really easy to get caught up in that frustration. But I always tell people train in really short sessions, five, 10, maybe 15 minutes at most. So when we do a training session with the client, it's an hour long just because that's kind of how we need to structure it.

(26:58):

But we tell the client, your sessions with your dog without us should be five or 10 minutes. Keep it really short. We want to end on a good note if your dog is getting something wrong over and over and over again. There's typically a couple of reasons why that would happen. Either the dog genuinely doesn't know what to do, so we've got to kind of redo what we're doing. They're confused. Maybe we're moving too quickly. So if we have a dog that we're pushing the training too fast and they're continuously getting that wrong, we'll go back to an easier step. We also will do something where we kind of bridge between step. Let's say there's a step one and there's a step two. We can make a step one and a half. So if we have a dog that maybe won't stay when the door is fully open but will stay when the door is cracked open, maybe we'll crack the door halfway open and work there.

(27:44):

So we always can find these little baby steps in between. So we want to work at the pace the dog can handle. So I would say reducing frustration for you and your dog by moving slowly and in small steps, rewarding, not just when you're in training, but also in real life. We hear this a lot where people say, oh, well my dog does great when we're in training mode, but then I go out into the real world and everything just falls apart. That's a really common issue that we see people mention, and it's because we kind of forget everything we're doing when we get out. We don't take food with us, we don't take your reward with us. We are distracted. Maybe we're on our phones or we're talking to people. We're not really focused on what our dog is telling us or what they need.

(28:24):

So we want to be really careful when we do go out. That training can happen just as life happens. So we're not saying it has to be this formal session all the time, but if your dog does something you like out in the real world, we want to reinforce it there too. They figure out, well, nothing good ever really happens when I do anything out in public, but I get all the rewards when we're in training. They're only going to perform for training. So we want to kind of bridge the gap between the training session and real life.

Speaker 3 (28:52):

Yeah, that's great advice. And just always be mindful to reward that any positive behavior, even when you're not in the session. I think that happens with people too. We tend to not praise each other for a great job. We only hear about things when things don't go well. Totally, totally.

Speaker 2 (29:10):

No, I was thinking the whole it worked in training didn't work. It's like me pumping myself up to go to a party where I don't know anybody. It's like you're playing all the conversations in your head and then you get to the party and you're like, I'm out of material. I've been here 20 minutes and I'm out of material. What happened

Speaker 3 (29:26):

Are coming out. Right? Right. What would be the ideal time to engage a dog trainer when you have a puppy?

Speaker 5 (29:35):

We always suggest, honestly before the puppy comes home, have your trainer picked out. Know when your puppy's coming home and try to have that trainer scheduled to come within a few days. Even some people will the day they get the puppy home, or sometimes even before, we can help them set up the confinement areas, look at their house, say, Hey, we would recommend maybe some baby gates here. Here's where we put the crate. So if you are especially a first time dog owner, having someone come out beforehand can be super helpful. But certainly within the first week or two so that we don't have any bad habits developing, we're not going to come in and say, oh, we got to change what you've been doing. If we can try to prevent that, I think setting the humans up for success ahead of time is really valuable to you.

Speaker 2 (30:17):

Alex, before we let you go, I know we're coming up on time here. Where can people learn more about your work or find you on social?

Speaker 5 (30:24):

They can find us at our website peach on unleash.com. We're also on Instagram at Peach on Unleash. We post a ton of training content on Instagram, and then we're also on Facebook as well. So I think it's facebook.com/peach on Unleash.

Speaker 3 (30:36):

Thank you for joining us on your vacation. I know

Speaker 2 (30:40):

What a trooper, A trooper just goes to show you Pet's Side Life, the podcast. It's a true vacation. It's a destination podcast.

Speaker 5 (30:48):

That's right. That's right.

Speaker 2 (30:49):

Yeah, it's a destination podcast. Thank you so much for taking the time today, Alex.

Speaker 5 (30:54):

Absolutely. Thanks for having me. Wow. I could have used her five

Speaker 3 (30:59):

Years ago when we got Tulip,

Speaker 2 (31:02):

The new show, the experts, it's called The Experts for a Reason. Yeah, I feel, I don't think I'll ever be much of a dog owner. I'm more of a cat guy myself, but I feel like you hand me a puppy right now trained.

Speaker 3 (31:17):

You got it.

Speaker 2 (31:19):

I got it. I got it. After listening to that interview and those words of wisdom just reinforce, positively move them to pee outside, I got this, give me a dog. Somebody hand me a dog right now. Come on, piece

Speaker 3 (31:30):

Of cake. You're going to have a peach on a leash just like that.

Speaker 2 (31:33):

Peach on a leash just like it. The product of the week, product of the week. And Kristen, I hear you're continuing a little bit of a theme, so let's hear it.

Speaker 3 (31:46):

I am, I am. So we are still in the month of June, which means we're still in the month of Dog Anxiety Awareness Month, and my company Pet Living had partnered with dog TV this month to do this fantastic content for dog anxiety, and you've probably heard us mention it before. It's called The Experts. It is an episode that we have dedicated specifically to canine fear, stress, and anxiety. And we had a panel of amazing experts, including the two guests we had on the show today, Alex Sesa and Dr. Lisa Adaa. We also had Dr. Andy Rourke and Victoria Stillwell. So star studded sofa we had there. And we talked all things canine anxiety and how to get your dog help, whether they're just starting to show some symptoms and signs of distress or whether they're in more advanced stages. And we had four amazing sponsors that helped us put this great show together, which by the way, you can watch it, this particular episode, you can watch all the month of June, right up until July 4th.

(32:51):

You can check it out on Dog TV's new Unleashed channel, which is, you can find it on Amazon fire channels, you can find it on tgo TV or on Dog TV's YouTube channel. So definitely check it out. It's airing every single day or on YouTube, basically on demand. So no excuses to miss it. And then I just wanted to give a shout out to one of the sponsors, which is, it's a pharmaceutical drug called Reconcile. And Dr. Barta did a great job on the show of explaining how and when she prescribes it, basically Reconcile is an FDA approved medication for the treatment of separation anxiety in dogs. And it's most often used in conjunction with behavior modification training. What it does is, by the way, it's just a once a day chewable tablet that you give your dog, and it helps to achieve a calmer frame of mind in your dog, which makes it easier for your dog to learn and more receptive to any behavior modification.

(33:56):

So if you're trying to help your dog not react as much to the triggers of you leaving the house, the reconcile actually helps to calm them so that you can implement some of those behavior modification techniques like picking up the car keys, but you don't leave the house or putting on your shoes, but you don't leave the house. Just kind of bring that trigger down a couple of notches for your dog to help them remain calmer. And I know that the drug is often used in off-label cases as well. But anyway, I know veterinarians love it, and I know that I have several friends whose dogs are on reconcile and they have great things to say about it. So talk to your vet if you haven't already discussed your dog's separation anxiety, if that's affecting your dog. And yeah, thanks to them for helping us make dog anxiety awareness month possible.

Speaker 2 (34:50):

Amazing. I think it's great that there are pharmaceutical options as well, because sometimes the more homeopathic methods, they just don't be working.

Speaker 3 (35:03):

Yeah, I think it depends on where your dog is at in the, what do you call it, the evolution of the fear or anxiety.

Speaker 2 (35:15):

Yep. Yep.

Speaker 3 (35:16):

So

Speaker 2 (35:17):

Talk to your vet.

Speaker 3 (35:18):

Yeah. What do you have for us this week, Chris?

Speaker 2 (35:20):

I've got something for all the old dogs out there. You got yourself an old dog. This is something we're going through with the cat, but this product doesn't really exist for cats quite yet. But anyway, the way our dogs and cats paws work is there's some muscle in there that they flex to retract and extend their claws. And as they get older, their muscles go through atrophy, atrophy, atrophy, I dunno, whatever. We knew what you meant. We're going to whatever our way through that one. But essentially they lose strength. So their claws are just kind of always out. And Tiger's been having some issues just getting around because their claws will get stuck on the carpet or she'll slide on slide on the hardwood. So I was looking for some solutions, and I found this one that's dog specific. And it is dog specific because dog nails are much thicker and the way their paws are designed, this doesn't get in the way of 'em.

(36:20):

They're called toe grips. This product is called Toe Grips by Dr. Busby, and it literally just is these little silicone rings that you put onto their nails that's going to give the dog traction, and it's just going to relax the paw and open it to a nice neutral state. This has been studied by some veterinarians according to their website and the research. This doesn't impact the natural way they walk. It's not like putting a full sock over that's going to be weird, or taking some getting used to, according to their marketing, the dogs take to it pretty quickly. It's so tiny and it's just such a little change that's going to relax the paw, give them some grip back. So if you've got that hardwood or the tile, and it's great for older dogs who are having some trouble getting around. I wish there was a cat version, but they don't make it for the cats because cats don't just bring their nails in, they bring them in together.

(37:19):

If you're not watching, you're not seeing my incredible hand demonstration. So be sure to watch us wherever you get your video content, but that cats want to bring their claws in. I especially see on Tiger's back feet, some of her claws are right next to each other. So who knows? Maybe Dr. Busby's working on something for cats, but I think it's just a little bit more of a complicated situation for now. I've been trying to trim her nails, but it's like I could do one nail every day kind of thing. It's like a whole process just to get one nail done.

Speaker 3 (37:55):

By the time you get 'em all done, it's time to start a little bit

Speaker 2 (37:57):

Again. It's time to start over. Yeah, it's basically just a short at this point.

Speaker 3 (37:59):

Well, I like the toe grips also because it's lot easier than putting a booty or a sock on your

Speaker 2 (38:05):

Dog's feet. Yeah, exactly. We tried doing for my parents' dogs, we tried doing the booties once for winter walks, and it was just not taking at all. It was not even close. So be sure to check it out website in the notes as always. And yeah, that's the product of the week, baby. That's the way the news goes, Q and as. Alright, Kristen, it is time for our favorite part of the show. That's right. We're going to answer two questions from our beautiful, lovely, responsible, just in their bag, capable of doing anything, audience, but even those who are fully confident still sometimes have questions. And luckily we've got a special little episode like we've done in the past. We've got experts answering these questions. So you're going to want to check that out, not just Chris and Kristen's opinion. You're getting some real answers this time. You're getting some real answers this time. But hey,

Speaker 3 (39:04):

Answers you could take to the bank

Speaker 2 (39:06):

Answers, you could cash that check guaranteed. And I know what you're thinking. Hey, I want my question answered by Kristen or maybe a fun guest expert. Well, guess what? That could happen. Head on over to pets at life.org/podcast. Scroll on down to the bottom of the page and you will see a form to submit your question. Or if you are feeling as brave as Chris going out in the sun without sunscreen, you could record a voice memo right there on the page, ask us your question. And you may hear it played live on these air waves. Now it is my pleasure to welcome back Dr. Adaa to answer this question from our audience. This question comes from Michelle in Austin, Texas. All my exes live in Texas. Michelle, I hope you're not one. Michelle asks, my dog becomes extremely anxious during thunderstorms, pacing and panting heavily. How can I help calm him down during these episodes?

Speaker 4 (40:12):

Yeah, so that's a good question, Michelle. And I want you to know that about 50% of the dogs in the US have the same problem. So you are not alone. And the good news about that is that when things happen commonly, there's usually a lot of fixes. So number one, you are going to make a safe space for your dog. We're not locking your dog in there. It can be a crate, it can be a room, it can be a closet, it can be a bathroom, it can be anything you, well, actually, anything your dog wants. If your dog's already finding a space that he really likes, we're going to definitely go with the flow on that. What is a safe space for storms? Or let's include fireworks here. Okay, what is a safe space for a dog with noise phobia? It's a space that's relatively dark.

(40:57):

Usually it has some sort of ambient sound. I sleep with airplane noise. You could use white noise. I usually don't recommend music as the sole source of sound in the sanctuary space because it has highs and lows. And the object of the sound is to drown out the outside sound, right? We're going to use pheromones. There's a new company called Signs that makes Pheromones. We have Adapto, which is a Siva product. We also have a Zenni dog, which is a RBAC product that you can put in that room, and we're going to put a cushy bed and water and all the things your dog needs, okay? We're going to try to get your dog in there well before the storm, which means you are going to live by your cell phone. You are going to have at least two apps. That is thing number two, download a minimum of two apps.

(41:45):

At least one of them must have a radar on it. You're going to look at your phone and you're like, oh, I see there's going to be a storm over my house. In the next two hours, I'm going to try to get my dog into the safe place and give my dog something that he loves to eat. And a lot of our pets don't eat when they're stressed. But what you might find is when your dog goes in there before the storm, he will eat. And we know that when dogs eat and chew, their stress level goes down. Okay? Yeah. And when in one study that was actually more effective than medication at keeping dogs from getting worse. And number three, we are going to avoid exposure to things that scare your dog. Please don't play those thunderstorm CDs. Just don't do that. Okay? I know it's all over the internet.

(42:37):

Don't do that. Don't make your dog endure thunderstorms instead, make sure you're protecting him. And number four, we're going to talk to your vet about medicine. Medicine can help, and sometimes there's resistance, but we all take medicine, whether you have a martini in the evening or whether you're a workout addict, or whether you take a little Xanax before you fly. We all take some sort of medicine in some way to help us cope. And your dog needs this because long-term stress, we think based on the research we have, will affect his lifespan, which we cannot have. We want your dog to have a long life. On my YouTube channel at Dr. Lisa Roda, I have tons of videos on noises. What you should do that will give you a lot more detail than what I've just given you. And if you really need help after all this stuff, you can see a board certified veterinary behaviorist and get a personalized plan.

Speaker 2 (43:34):

That is an amazing answer. Michelle, you're walking away with a gold mine. Congratulations, and thank you again, Dr. Lisa Radsa for hopping back in here and answering Michelle's question.

Speaker 4 (43:48):

Thank you.

Speaker 3 (43:53):

Thank you, Dr. Radsa for answering that question. And for our next question, we're going to again go back in time and have the lovely Alex Cesa answer for us. This one comes from Jason in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Jason says, my puppy gets overly excited when greeting people and won't stop jumping on guests. What's the best way to teach him calmer greetings?

Speaker 5 (44:19):

Great question. So as always, there's not one perfect answer, but I'm going to kind of go over my favorite things for this. So per usual, there's not one perfect answer. There's not a one size fits all answer, but I'll just go over kind of my favorite thing. So the first is, what happens when the dog jumps on people? So often the guests will pet the dog. Oh, it's okay. I love dogs. So the dog gets totally rewarded for doing it. So part of it is how do we set the dog up for success so they don't really have access to the person? So one way we might do that would be teaching a place and a stay. So we'll teach the dog to go to a bed, stay there until we get the person in, and then we'll let them go say hello. But even then, we've got to teach that dog something else to do once they get to the person.

(45:00):

So we'll often tell people, put a harness and a leash on your dog when you know someone's coming over, so that when they do get to greet the person, they're not just free to kind of make mistakes. So if they go to jump on the person, you can potentially just remove them. Let them take a second and then try again. If they offer a behavior, you like standing in front of the person or sitting in front of the person, that can get rewarded with attention. But we also have an exercise that we do called go say Hi. So we teach the dog to first just touch a hand on cue. The dog will just touch their nose to the person's hand, and then we will have the owner reward the dog for that. The dog goes to the guest, touches the hand to say hello, but then they're going back to the owner to get rewarded.

(45:43):

So what ends up happening is they actually kind of stop caring about the guest coming in. They're like, okay, well there's the guest, but I know the reinforcements over here. So they end up not really caring about the guest, which is kind of the goal. So that's a great way to just replace the jumping with something else, especially if you have these really social dogs that just love people so much. And you can't just say, Hey, just sit and stay over here. Because at some point that energy has to go somewhere. And if we bottle it up and we try to force them to not interact with the person, at some point it's going to bubble up. And maybe in a way we don't like. So the go say hi, exercise, gives people a way to send their dogs to say hello, but then the dog is choosing to come back to them, and we're replacing the jumping, so we're not having to try to correct them. Or sometimes you'll get bad advice like kneeing the dog in the chest, which can actually really hurt them physically, but it can also freak them out too. I've seen dogs that suddenly, once that's happened to them, won't come near a new person coming in, and then the owner's like, oh no, I didn't want to make them not like new people. I just didn't like the jumping. So it's about how can we replace that behavior with something that's just a little bit more appropriate?

Speaker 3 (46:49):

Yeah, what a great solution. Well, Jason, give that a try and let us know how it works. Yeah,

Speaker 2 (46:56):

Thank you, Alex, for jumping back in and answering that question. But unfortunately, Kristen, that brings us to the end of our show. That's it. So long. I say s Adios. That's all I got. I'm out of languages. I made it through a few.

Speaker 3 (47:17):

I'll pick it up here and help you out. Don't forget to watch the experts on Dog TV's new Unleashed Channel. Again, you can find it on Amazon Fire Channels, their YouTube channel, or tgo tv. And it's a very special episode this month because it's all about canine anxiety. And Chris, I'll just say bye for now and don't let the doggy door hit you in the, you know what?

Speaker 2 (47:41):

It might. Alright, see you next week. Y'all

Speaker 1 (47:45):

Pets, add Life, your guide to the latest in Pet Trends products and the joy of the human animal Bond with Kristen Levine and Chris Bonti, powered by the American Pet Products Association and Dog tv.