Exploring Common Health Issues that Affect Behavior and Training

A dog that’s fed correctly and given enough exercise and mental stimulation rarely exhibits behavior problems. He deals well with stress, hardly ever gets sick, and keeps his youthful characteristics into his teens. Also, a dog who’s fed properly and is in good health, ages well and has few to no grey hairs. In fact, it’s often difficult to tell this dog’s age.

When your dog doesn’t feel quite right, he won’t act quite right. When he doesn’t feel well, he doesn’t have the ability to learn or retain information.

When you’re training him, it can be perplexing to know that you have properly taught a sequence of an exercise only to find that the dog shows no knowledge of what you have taught him. Not feeling well can manifest itself in many ways, but you as his owner, know he isn’t acting as he did before. While it is always wise to check your dog out with his veterinarian, in the following sections, we provide information on some common health issues that affect behavior and training. We also discuss some supplements that may help Buddy feel better.Prevention is the best policy when it comes to your dog’s health. Here are some things you can do to prevent health problems later on and have a long and happy training career with Buddy:

✓ Visit your veterinarian annually.When you take Buddy to the vet, choose to have titers done (rather than vaccinations) to see Buddy’s level of protection against parvovirus, distemper, and Lyme disease. (We explain what titers are in the later section “Looking at the problems with overvaccinating.”) At the same time, have blood work done to see whether Buddy is in nutritional balance and whether all his organ sys-tems are working properly. Signs of problems can show on blood work long before physical manifestations appear. Take in a fecal sample at least twice a year.

✓ Provide an arthritis formula if necessary. If your puppy’s structure isn’t perfect, or if he’s in performance events of any kind, consider using an arthritis formula as a preventative. In the past, these products have been used after the dog was diagnosed with arthritis. Since then, how-ever, it has been found that when structural problems become obvious in the young dog, the use of these products can be helpful in preventing arthritis later in life.

The product we have recommended for years is called Myristin. We have used Myristin successfully with clients’ dogs who were experienc-ing cruciate ligament problems as well as loose shoulders, loose hock joints, poor hips, and so on. This product works for 90 percent of dogs.

The other 10 percent requires a different form of supplement. We recom-mend System Saver, which is an anti-inflammatory and works to build up the immune system. See www.volhard.comfor more information on these products.

✓ Keep his teeth healthy.Dirty teeth can cause harmful bacteria buildup resulting in gingivitis, loose teeth, and bacterial infection of the gums.

The bacteria drain into the system via the stomach and can, over a period of time, cause heart ailments. Clean teeth also prevent “doggy breath.” To keep teeth clean, feed the correct diet with bones a couple of days a week. Or you can clean Buddy’s teeth with a toothbrush and dog toothpaste or cleaning gel.


            ✓ Choose an appropriate food for your dog.Feeding the correct food
helps to prevent internal and external parasites. External parasites, like fleas and ticks, are less likely to be attracted to a dog who’s fed cor-rectly, because his skin has a correct pH that deters external parasites. The acid/alkaline balance of his digestive tract makes a poor envi-ronment for internal worms to survive. Check out the earlier section “Making choices as to how to feed Buddy” for more information.

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