Environmental enrichment involves stimulating your dog's senses - smell, hearing, etc. This can be achieved by activities like being outside, playing fetch or ball, and even simple walks. Providing an outlet for the brain helps prevent unwanted behaviors. There are also many tools available like snuffle mats, puzzle balls, and lick mats that can provide additional stimulation. A happy and tired dog tends to be a well-behaved dog. A tired puppy is a well-behaved puppy. Tire your puppies out. Play with them, and then they won't do things that they're not supposed to do, like eat things and make bad life choices.

Let's talk about punishment. Punishment can mean a bunch of different things. When someone says punishment to me, I'm thinking it is like when I got spanked for going out in the parking lot when I was little without looking, because that happened, and I do have that core memory. We have to look at the spectrum. I believe in levels of punishment, but I don't like that word. I almost want to use, like, correction or redirection. We don't necessarily need to punish, but we need to redirect the situation, and they need to know that they haven't done something right, but we don't have to hurt them to let this happen. You can use negative reinforcement.

For instance, my husband's cat is kind of a turd. He's been like us since he was a kitten. He bites, and I could not train him out of this. He knows that if he tries to bite me, he’s going to get flicked in the nose. Am I trying to hurt him? No. Am I trying to get him to stop and he knows not to do it? Yes. He knows exactly what that means. If I go up to him like this because he's gnawing on me, he knows that's not good. So punishment can be if they potty in the house and you do something surprising and you put them outside. That's not really a punishment. You're redirecting the behavior because most dogs don't have a long attention span, so there's also the possibility that they're not going to know why they're in trouble. If you catch them in the act, I usually like a big exclamation to startle them, and you pick them up and go outside, and when they make potties outside, you reward them.

Crate training is also great. I would say if they're doing things that are not allowed, like if they are growling at a child, friends, or family that are coming over, then they get put up in their crate. That's negative reinforcement. If they're jumping on you and won't stop jumping and they're clawing you up, ignore them until they have four paws on the floor. If they have four on the floor, they get rewarded. So it's not really a punishment. We have to be careful with that terminology.

Working with a trainer also can really be beneficial. I'm not a big fan of punishment unless it's something super bad and it's a knee jerk reaction. You might be able to handle it better. I've been guilty of this. I know my husband's dog is not aware of his body all the time, and he clawed me in the face the other day. Without thinking, I just shoved him off me and he fell off the couch. It was a gut reaction. So give yourself some grace if something does happen, but definitely reach out to a trainer if you're struggling.

Socialization involves exposing your dog to different situations, environments, other dogs, and people. It helps dogs to develop a level of independence and identity and to learn not to be scared of certain things. If a dog isn't socialized, it can become maladjusted and may even pose a health risk by biting people. You should expose your dog to a variety of situations such as visits to the veterinary clinic, car rides, walks, and parks. It's crucial to balance this exposure with risk mitigation since your dog might not be fully vaccinated yet. The key is to handle the process like you would handle risks in your own life, being cautious but not avoiding experiences altogether.

Every cancer is different. Some are more curable than others. However, stage four tumors that have spread throughout the body and cause the patient to feel awful typically won't live for very long, and we may decide to say goodbye a bit sooner. It's important to ensure our pets don't suffer, even if it means making the difficult decision to let them go. This is a very emotional process, but we're here to support you through it.

It depends on the type of cancer. For instance, a small skin tumor has a high likelihood of being 100% curative through surgery. However, other types of cancer that have spread to other parts of the body may only buy time through radiation and chemo but ultimately, the pet will succumb to their disease. It's very dog-specific and depends on the individual. It's also important to consider the financial aspect of treatment and the quality of life of the pet. This is a conversation that's best had in person or over the phone to discuss what's individually going on with your pet and the options available. This kind of stuff is really hard, and it's really emotional because our pets are part of our families. When we're having these conversations, I prefer for them to be in the clinic. I hope this gives you a good foundation, but if we are considering going through this, please make an appointment or if you haven't already, call me and let's do a phone consultation and walk through this together.

It's a great question. It depends on what panel we run. If we're running a mini young wellness panel, I typically have results back in one to three days. If we're running a bigger panel that includes your full thyroid panel that can take up to four to five days, so it's a little bit variable. Most labs will be back within the same week that you pull it, unless it's on a Friday in which it'll come back the next week.

We decide what labs may be needed for certain patients based on age, physical exam, and if they're having any symptoms. For instance, if I have an overweight middle-aged lab that we're having trouble getting some weight off, I'm probably going to have a blood test that includes a thyroid test. Our thyroid has a lot to do with our metabolism, and unfortunately, labs commonly get hypothyroidism or low thyroid, and that can have an effect on their metabolism. It's really going to be based on what I find in my exam. On the other hand, cats go the absolute opposite direction as they get hyperthyroid so their metabolism ramps up, and then all of a sudden, these cats are eating everything in sight and dropping weight like crazy. So if I have an older cat that's doing that, we're also going to check their thyroid and I'll be surprised if we don't see an elevated thyroid. It's based on the physical exam and on talking with the owners about what the symptoms or the clinical signs are, but we tailor each individual lab profile according to what is appropriate for that patient.

Even if we don't have a definitive answer after all these tests, we would have ruled out a long list of diseases. We have to be able to sit here and clinically look at the diagnostics you have done, what the patient is doing, and build a list of things that maybe aren't so common. We may have to do additional testing to get there. If we reach a point where we've exhausted all testing resources here, we may consider a referral to internal medicine or surgery. We may also consider more sensitive testing that we can't do here. It can be frustrating not to have all the answers right away, but please know that we are persistent and will work as a team to figure out what's going on with your pet.

Diagnostic imaging helps us narrow down the causes of symptoms. There are instances where it provides a clear answer, like if a dog has eaten a toy or if a cat is urinating blood due to bladder stones. In some of our more sad cases, if an older large breed dog comes in limping, it could just be arthritis, but maybe it's not. We have to look for bone cancer, and x-rays are very sensitive for bone cancer. It's very diagnostic, especially if it's farther along in the course of disease. If I don't catch it, then the radiologist will. The same goes with ultrasound. If your dog or cat is vomiting, has abdominal pain, lethargy, and is hiding and not wanting to eat, we do an ultrasound. If the pancreas is mad, you're going to see it. A pancreas that's normal, you're not usually going to see on an ultrasound. When the pancreas is mad, we see it. When the liver is upset, we can see it. If there's a tumor in the spleen, we see that on an ultrasound. We get very definitive answers.

The process will depend on the type of imaging we're doing and the dog's condition. Most sessions are done without sedation or anesthesia and usually take less than an hour, especially for X-rays. If we're not statting the X-rays, we usually have results back in a day or two. The actual procedure itself is typically done in less than an hour, often within half an hour.