Just Us Dogs Stuff  Articles, Humor, Facts, Fun, etc....          Adventures in Doggie Dentistry By alldogsbigandsmall.com I suppose I should have expected it. After all, it was Monday. Just as I was reaching for my coat to leave work, the phone rang. It was the receptionist at the vet's office, suggesting I bring a stool sample so my dog, Boots, could be checked for parasites. I explained that I was running late and still had to stop by the house to pick up Boots. The receptionist, Trudy, assured me that they would not mind waiting and that it really would be in Boots' best interest if I could bring the specimen. As I hurried home to collect the dog, and the requested sample, I should have known… My husband and I had only recently acquired Boots. The adoption was occasioned by my grandfather's moving, for he could not take her to his new home. Boots was a cross between a Chihuahua and a terrier, black and tan, and, for the past few years, showing some gray mixed in. Her overall appearance was similar to what you might get by subjecting a Doberman Pinscher to the Shrinky Dink process, only her eyes remained the original size. Boots had been with us only a week when I'd discovered her rabies shot was due, so here we were, off to the vet. "Haven't you ever smelled this breath?" the somewhat disheveled doctor was soon asking me in an accusatory tone. Well, of course I had. Was it my fault the dog had bad breath? I mean, they don't make doggie mouthwash, do they? "These teeth will have to come out," the vet said with authority. "You can bring her in tomorrow morning." Startled, for I had been preoccupied with wondering whether the doctor's assistant was actually choking Boots, or whether the poor dog was simply making those gagging noises out of fear, I realized he was serious. He wanted to pull my dog's teeth. Somehow, this seemed barbaric. Maybe he was a sadist? Angry, perhaps, because she'd tried to bite him? Determined to get revenge? I had to speak up before it was too late. "Won't this be rather hard on her?" I ventured. "After all, she is fifteen years old." "Well, if you want to let them rot out one by one, and put Boots through a lot of unnecessary suffering, okay," he retorted. Questions darted through my mind. "How will she eat?" I asked. I suddenly had a hysterical image of this little dog being fitted for dentures. As if she could read my mind, Boots began dancing around, her toenails clicking on the stainless steel exam table. She even sneezed, her favorite strategy for getting my attention. "Get me out of here," she seemed to be pleading. "Dogs don't chew their food, they just roll it around awhile, and swallow," explained the vet. Oh, really. Then what was that crunching noise I've always heard? I wondered silently. "You can make the necessary arrangements with Trudy, and we'll see Boots tomorrow," he said decisively. Suddenly it occurred to me that my dental plan at work probably didn't cover dogs. Feeling a little guilty for being concerned about expense at a time like this, I timidly questioned Trudy about the cost of such a procedure. "I can give you an estimate," she replied, and began to rapidly enter information into a computer, the lines advancing down the screen. I fleetingly considered checking into the fine print of that dental plan. Finally, Trudy presented me with two letter-perfect, double-spaced sheets of paper. The estimate came complete with such medical terms as Rom Shot, Kennel Cough Vaccine, Kidney Profile, and Heart Worm Screening, many of which I didn't understand, and a $175.00 total, which I did understand. Driving home, I was haunted by memories of the time I'd had five impacted teeth "extracted." Extracted - yes, that was the term dentists and veterinarians preferred. I had a horrible image of Boots in the post-operative stage, her tiny face grotesquely swollen, and suffering terrible pain. When we got home, I was immediately on the phone with Trudy to discover just how many teeth they planned to extract. Would there be stitches? Would Boots get pain pills? Trudy did not know how many extractions there would be, but she assured me there would be no stitches, and that pain pills would not be necessary. She insisted dogs do not suffer as humans do. I wondered how she knew that. As I pulled up to the veterinary clinic the following morning, I was surprised to find that Boots seemed perfectly willing, almost eager, to re-enter the building. If you only knew, I thought, feeling like a traitor. Taking a deep breath, I led Boots into the office. Trudy gathered her up in her arms and told me they would give me a call at work as soon as Boots was ready to come home. I must have looked as leery as I felt, because Trudy kept assuring me that Boots would be just fine. Then she handed me a form to sign. It waived my rights to sue. I signed it. At work, I found it hard to concentrate. What if she thinks I've abandoned her? I thought. What if she hates me after this? And the biggie, What if something goes wrong? After such a wait, I was surprised to find myself moving in slow motion towards the telephone. "We had to extract twelve teeth," reported Trudy, in a cheery, workaday voice. "She's still groggy, but just fine. You can pick her up anytime after four." When I arrived at the clinic, I steeled myself for the worst. I kept hearing the words, "We had to extract twelve teeth," and recalling the day I'd had five extractions. I was prepared to find Boots, her bleeding mouth stuffed full of gauze, whining in pain, and worse yet, refusing to come home with me, the traitor who had left her there. Swallowing hard, I pulled the door open. There was Boots, in Trudy's arms - looking just as she had when I'd left her! The only discernable difference seemed to be that she could barely keep her eyes open. Relieved, and eager to get Boots home, I began to write out the check. Before I could fill in the amount, Trudy, in her cheery workaday voice, noted for me that the figure did not include the rabies vaccine Boots was due for. "Would you like us to give her the shot now, since you're already here?" I heard myself say in a dazed voice, "Why not?" After the total for twelve extractions, sedation, antibiotics, etc., etc., what were a few more zeros? I was working the night shift, and being the store manager, had to return to work. So I dropped a half-comatose Boots off at home, placing her carefully in her wicker bed. On my supper break, I hurried home for a quick check, only to find her collapsed in the middle of the living room. Gently, I again returned her to her bed. The next day, the veterinarian's office received a hysterical call from me about the fact that Boots was "not yet herself." They patiently explained that dogs of her age and size sometimes took longer to "fully come out of the anesthesia." They were right. By the following day, Boots was happily "gumming" her food. At fifteen, she was like a new dog - full of life, and blessed with much better breath!

Interesting Comparison Study With Wolves and Poodles Some instinctive social behaviors of the wolf may be left unexpressed in the dog simply because the opportunity never arises for them to be expressed in a new social setting. But even when dogs range freely in wild or semi-wild circumstances, they show distinct divergences from their wild ancestors. As part of his behavioral study of the wolf, Erik Zimen raised a pack of poodles and a pack of wolves under quite similar conditions. While the wolves ran free inside an enclosure, the poodles had free run of the rest of the property. Zimen and his colleagues recorded 362 specific behaviors displayed by wolves, everything from yawning and stretching to howling and tail wagging. The poodles displayed 64 percent of those behaviors with little or no change. About 13 percent of wolf behaviors had vanished altogether, and 23 percent persisted but in markedly modified form. Zimen found that in performing many of these modified behaviors, the poodles lacked a seriousness of purpose; compared to the wolves, the poodles were more playful or simply inept. As Raymond Coppinger observed with his village dogs, Zimen's poodles were incapable of hunting large prey. The poodles readily chased things, but their choice of "prey" was indiscriminate - birds, leaves, bicyclists - and it was clearly a game, an end in itself, very much as with young wolves at play. The most striking differences seen in the poodles was in their expressive behavior or rather, lack thereof. Wolves exhibit a rich array of facial expressions, ear movements, tail positions, and body postures. In poodles many of these expressions were greatly simplified, and many were absent altogether. The lip curling, snarling, and baring of teeth displayed routinely by wolves in defensive and aggressive situations was considerably muted and simplified in poodles. In part, this is simply because poodles are generally less fearful and less aggressive and tend not to mind invasions of personal space as much as wolves do: they just have less of an impulse to act annoyed. Starting as early as four weeks, wolf cubs begin to sleep apart from one another more and more often. By the time the cubs are four to six months old, they are like adult wolves, and almost never make contact with another wolf when sleeping. The poodles, however, continued to frequently lie together through the age of eight months or older, and even as full-grown adults did so about a third of the time, and even in hot weather when there was no conceivable reason for huddling to preserve body heat. Dogs are, in other words, simply more pacific and easygoing by nature Studies of poodle-wolf hybrids suggest that there may be more than one behavioral component to dogs' milder dispositions. When Zimen recrossed poodle-wolves ("puwos") together, these second-generation hybrids came in a mixed assortment of behavioral types. Some were timid about approaching humans but were very affectionate when they did; others were tame and not disposed to flee from novelties but were emotionally aloof. Zimen suggests that a reduction in the flight instinct and a greater capacity for socialization and bonding may be separately inherited traits, though both are necessary for wolves to become dogs. Dog Article Author: Top Dog Dog Author's Website: Dog Articles

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