An holistic approach towards
canine health and welfare

by Nicole Mackie

Nicole at home with two of her Labrador retrievers.

A good healthy well-balanced diet is part of the holistic approach to effectively treating dogs or any animals. In many cases changing a poor diet to the correct diet for a particular dog’s needs makes a significant improvement to the dog’s behaviour.It may be necessary to have a hair mineral or blood analysis done to determine the state of health and any mineral excesses or deficiencies. Finding the correct diet for a particular dog can only be achieved with the guidance and help of a veterinarian or animal nutritionist.

Health
The health state of your dog should be checked yearly by a veterinarian. Many health conditions are not easily observed outwardly and dogs are excellent at hiding pain. If at all possible take a urine sample into your veterinarian. A urine sample can give the veterinarian a lot of information.

Your veterinarian will most likely check the dog’s whole body, feeling for any underlying or potential problems such as lumps or bumps, hot or cold spots, condition of the nails, eyes and ears, anal glands, how the dogs moves, muscle condition, bones and if you have fasted your dog this day, a blood sample could be taken to check the internal state of health and stress levels.The dog’s state of health is extremely important and affects how a dog behaves. This assessment should be done before getting a veterinary referral to see a canine therapist or behaviourist.

Bodywork
Another important part of the holistic approach to the dog is bodywork. Bodywork can make a significant difference to the dog’s health and welfare in restoring balance to the body and aiding healing. There are many areas of bodywork that can help your dog such as the Bowen technique, T-touch, acupressure, acupuncture, hydrotherapy and many other therapies, all helping to restore the dogs balance.

Personally I have found the Bowen technique to be the most effective treatment on my own dogs and myself. We should always have a treatment ourselves first before having any treatment done on our dogs.If the treatment is uncomfortable for us, then perhaps it’s not the right treatment for our dogs either. Be careful to chose the right body-work for your dog. Many body therapies need a veterinary referral, so check this before having any treatment done. The therapist should have an understanding of dog body language in order to help your dog feel more comfortable and to know when the dog has had enough treatment.

Relationships
Dogs have the same need for love, touch, understanding, time and communication as we do. If these basic needs are not met, then our relationship with others suffers and we feel empty, lonely and needy. Studies have shown that children lacking these basic needs in life do not live long and are susceptible to diseases. Why should we think our dogs’ needs are any less than our own?When we are meeting our dogs’ needs on a holistic level, that is providing all basic needs, emotionally and physically. Our dogs can develop a good trusting relationship with us and vise versa. Being left alone all day is difficult for dogs as they are pack animals and very gregarious. They need company, they need relationships and they need to be with us. Too many dogs are left alone all day while owners go out to work for long hours. This can create many behaviour problems.

Would we leave a small child alone at home with no carer? I don't think so. Why should we think we can do this to a dog? In the wild dogs are not alone, they are always near the pack, the pack works as a team created with a well developed communication system. They do not separate for eight hours of the day and return in the evening.Unfortunately, living with humans, dogs have had to adjust to our way of life with little adjustment from the human side to meet our dogs’ needs. If we do need to work and leave a dog alone, it may be worth considering a dog sitter for at least a few hours a day. Someone who has enough dog knowledge to care for the dog’s needs and who knows how to keep the dog calm and relaxed, who can sit with the dog while reading a book, give the dog a short walk, and generally be a friend to the dog for a few hours.

Communication
Dogs have been created by God with an amazing communication system. They communicate with their whole body, also known as calming signals. When dogs are unhappy, worried about something or afraid they will try to communicate this with us or other animals by using this communication system of body language we call calming signals. Just to list a few of these calming signals:
lip licking
head turning
turning body round
lying down
sitting
blinking eyes
paw lifting
tail wagging
tail held high
hackles up
ears back
panting slowly
fast panting (when the dog is not hot)
yawning
barking
walking between people or other animals
stiff body
quick, short stepping.

There are many more signals known and possibly many yet to be discovered but these are a few to watch for and if you see your dog doing any of these calming signals, it may be best to help him/her out by taking him/her out of the situation or doing whatever you can to make the dog more comfortable.

Exercise – too much, not enough
Too much or too little exercise can create health and behaviour problems with many dogs. It may be worthwhile visiting a therapist who may be able to create an exercise programme specifically for your dog, working with your veterinarian. We often see dogs with an excess of exercise rather than not enough. This can place a lot of strain on young dogs and their growing bones, especially the larger breeds of dogs. It is good to begin the exercise programme at around four months old.

Before this your dog probably needs very little exercise and is most likely getting enough playing around the home or garden.At around four months old start with just five minutes of slow, calm walking on a soft padded harness or collar and long lead. At five months old, increase the walking to 10 minutes daily, at six months old increase to 15 minutes daily and adding five minutes each month after that up until the dog is walking about 40 minutes daily, give or take five minutes depending on your dog’s needs. Make sure the dog and you are walking slowly and calmly. The area should be reasonably quiet with little traffic, activity or excitement.

You don't want a wound-up dog that cannot rest after the walk, but a nice calm dog that is walking nicely on a long lead and being allowed to sniff and explore while walking. After all, the walk is for the dog. If you want long, fast walks, then it may be best to leave the dog at home.Keep in mind the health of the dog each day. We are not always in the right state of health for walking. Sometimes we don't feel like it, sometimes we are not feeling well, sometimes we have pain in our body somewhere such as a headache or muscular pain. Our dogs can feel the same way and it is up to us as the owners to consider this daily before walking our dog, through regular observation.

Play
Play is important to puppies. Not so important for mature adult dogs. However, play should be kept to the minimum as many owners initiate far too much play with their dogs. Many dogs, specifically certain breeds, can even become addicted to play, especially ball chasing games. Ball chase or any chase games are generally more fun for the humans than for the dog. When playing ball and chase games with our dogs we are encouraging strong hunting instincts such as chase and bite. When these instincts are strengthened many other unwanted behaviours can develop, such as chasing joggers, cyclists, cars and just about anything.

Finding treats thrown over a wide area or hidden, is a good game to encourage scenting abilities.

Choices
Dogs need choices just like we do. I see many dogs who are not given choices but their whole life is based around being told what to do without a choice. Imagine how we would feel if we were not given any choices in life, if we were told when we can and can't sleep, when we can or cannot investigate or explore, or read, or chose whether or not we feel like a walk or if we could not tell someone when we are feeling unwell or perhaps have an un-noticed skeletal problem and we are made to sit or walk in a position that causes us pain. If we think we could not live like that, then why do we expect our dogs to live this way?Our dogs are often not given the choice.

Our dogs look to us as their carers to meet their needs, to understand them, to learn what they are trying to communicate to us, they want to trust us and know we will help them out in every area of need and allow them to make some choices for their life. Choices help our dogs to develop in confidence, independence, a better relationship with their owners and make a much happier dog. When a dog is happy it is generally healthier.

Rest
Rest is as important for dogs as it is for us. After exercise, eating or any activity, a dog should be able to relax and rest. If this is not happening after activity, then the dog is probably doing too much. It may be necessary to keep a daily log book of activity and times when the dog is unable to rest or relax. A log book can give a therapist a lot of information in order to help with a programme to help the dog relax.

Sleep – too much, not enough
It is important to understand that an adult dog needs between 16 – 20 hours sleep daily and a puppy may need more. Many dogs do not get enough which can cause some behaviour issues.This sleep should be deep sleep with eyes closed (unless its one of those dogs that can sleep with eyes partly open) and not just resting sleep where the dogs eyes are open and alert. If a dog is not getting enough hours’ sleep each day, then he/she is probably doing too much or has too much stimulation in his/her daily routine.

Environment – in house, outside air smells, pollution levels
Environment also plays a very important part in your dog’s behaviour. Many air fresheners used in homes today are often irritants to a dog’s nose. Before using any air fresheners in your home, first check if your dog likes it. A dogs sense of smell is hundreds of times better than ours. Hold the freshener near the dog (but don’t spray). If he takes a sniff then turns away or walks away, or maybe doesn't even want to smell it, then he most likely does not like it and should not be made to live with the smell. Imagine having to live with a smell we did not like, it would soon effect our own behaviour.

This is the same with dogs. Smells can affect behaviour.It is not just indoor smells that affect a dog’s behaviour but some outdoor smells can too, such as traffic pollution, incense, oils, fireworks, chemical smells near factories, food smells near restaurants or bakeries. Farm smells, tyre burning smells, incinerator smells and many more smells can affect our behaviour and our dog’s behaviour, remembering that the dog’s sense of smell is hundreds of times stronger than ours. You may need to consider the environment for your dog and make whatever possible changes you can to help your dog out. Of course some things are unavoidable but we can often do something to help our dogs.

Keeping a dog indoors as much as possible could be a solution to an outdoor environmental problem we cannot change.Perfume can also be a problem to dogs. Many perfumes are strong to humans, so imagine how strong the smell must be for our dog. Our dogs often don't get a choice but to live with irritating smells. If your dog keeps away from you when you have perfume or any other smelling products then it may be the dog does not like the smell. This is easily solved by only wearing the smelling product when you go out without your dog.

Noise levels
When looking at dogs in holistic way, we need to consider all areas of the dog lifestyle. Noise levels need also to be considered. Taking into account that dogs’ hearing is so much more superior to our own, if a noise is quite loud or irritating for us, it is probably extremely loud or irritating for a dog.It may be worth considering the noise levels in the house, the radio and television levels as well as times when there is construction going on in the house or nearby in the street. You may live near an airport, railway or busy street. Many of these noises cannot be changed and many you and your dog can probably accept living with, but be aware that anything new or overly loud in the house can be expressed in behaviour changes and health issues.

Escape routes
Dogs need escape routes and so do we. Many dogs that are confined, tied up outdoors or restricted on short leads can become fearful of environmental factors such as other dogs, animals or humans approaching and display their fear by lungeing, barking, cowering or hiding.Can you imagine the fear if you were in a place from which you could not escape or had limited movement, when along comes a lion, a bear or a bully you did not like from school?

What would your feelings and reaction be? I am sure you would not be relaxed but may be angry or afraid and may even try to break lose of your restriction, scream, yell or do whatever you can to escape the situation. Why do we think we can restrict dogs and expect them to cope and not react? Many may even appear to cope well, but maybe that is because there is some shutting down experienced.Often when we know we cannot do anything about our situation we shut down as a final coping strategy, but that does not necessarily mean we are coping. We need choices and we need an escape route. Maybe we need to look at giving our dogs a few escape routes in order to help them out and make life a little easier to cope with.