Aggression in Dogs

It is not hard to find stories of dogs being aggressive anymore, although this didn’t used to be true. Like some of the holistic vets, I wonder if this isn’t due to what we are exposing them to, or even from vaccine damage to the brain and nervous system. I have personally been told many stories of aggressive dogs that were helped when the offending substance was eliminated. Here is one story:

Teresa had a sweet, loving bichon frise. Her dog loved the children in their neighborhood. When she was two years old Theresa took her to the vet to have something checked on her and she was given a distemper-parvo vaccine. Not at all what she was there for, or wanted her dog to have, but they did it anyway. Within 24 hours the dog became aggressive. It growled at her children and the neighborhood children. By the end of the week, there was no change in her attitude and Teresa was considering putting the dog down rather then risking a law suit for a dog bite. Before doing so, in an effort to save the dog, she took it to someone who was familiar with vaccines and their damage potential to the brain. This person made a homeopathic remedy for her from the dog’s saliva in an attempt to stop, and hopefully even reverse the damage that was occurring to the dog’s brain. She said she gave her dog three doses of the homeopathic saliva remedy and then waited to see if it helped. Within 24 hours she had her sweet dog back. She said it worked so well that it was like flipping a switch. I know that isn’t very scientific, but this is not the only story like this that I have heard.

Another story involved a one year old standard poodle that lunged at a four-year-old in an attempt to bite him. Then there was a bichon mix who, on several occasions, lunged at and tried to bite children. Even another dog was just a 10 week old puppy who, 2 weeks after receiving her parvo-distemper vaccine, growled unprovoked at a three year old child. And last, an 8 year old little boy and his golden retriever who were both described as having a “Doctor Jeckyl & Mr. Hyde personality” by the boy’s father. The change in personality occurred shortly after the dog received his vaccines. The little boy, in this last case, slept with his dog which means there was plenty of exposure to the boy from the dog’s vaccines. In all of these cases, the dogs (and the little boy) went to a person who gave them the Distemper-Parvo vaccine homeopathic remedy. All had the same “flipping a switch” reaction.

What was most interesting in all of these stories, was that it wasn’t just the family or owner of the dogs that noticed the changes after the homeopathic remedy was given. For example, in the last story, the little boy’s teacher was so surprised by the changes she witnessed in him that she called his mother to ask what she had given him. He was not only calmer and more cooperative, but she said his school work was rapidly improving. She was hoping the mother had found a “miracle supplement” that she, the teacher, could tell other parents about who also had children struggling in school.

Dr. Pitcairn said he found dogs sometimes become aggressive, destructive, and even hysterical after receiving a vaccine. In his 20 years of practice he witnessed a dramatic difference between pets that were vaccinated and those not vaccinated. Pets not vaccinated have less illness, better coats, they tend not to attract parasites and are generally healthier overall.

Additionally, Dr. Don Hamilton, DVM in his book Homeopathic Care for Cats & Dogs says “A second type of aggression can arise as a consequence of anesthesia with ketamine (Ketaset) or tiletamine (Telazol).”

As you can see, doctors have found chemicals used on animals as the underlying cause of dog aggression.

We aren’t veterinarians, and wouldn’t presume to tell you what to do for your pet, but what we can do is share with you the list of things we found in our research to both stop doing and to start doing, in order to support your pet’s health from this point forward. As always, we recommend you consult with a Holistic Veterinarian or a Naturopath that works with animals.

Homeopathy

Belladonna, Hepar sulph, Hydrophobinum or Rabies vaccine remedy (especially if there is also a fear of water), Hyoscyamus, Lachesis, Lyssin, Mercurius, Nux Vomica, Stramonium, Thuja (after any vaccine is given), CoronaVir vaccine remedy (if aggression is toward moving objects, such as cars or bikes), Distemper & ParvoVirus vaccine remedy combination (if aggression is primarily aimed at children); ParvoVir & Tetanus Vaccine combination remedy (aggression is aimed at people of all ages and a thyroid imbalance appears to be involved); Rabies vaccine remedy (aggression aimed at other animals), Parainfluenza vaccine remedy (aggression is more like rage).

Nutrition

More organic meat, or raw meat in the diet.

Detox

Vaccines you might consider detoxing: Parvo & Distemper together, Rabies, ParaInfluenza, Tetanus.

Herbs & Supplements

Feverfew capsules or extract supports the health and normal circulation to the brain. It also supports the elimination of headaches if that is a factor, and if it started within six months after vaccines were received.

Environment

Avoid poison exposure, including toxic dewormers, pesticide shampoos, pesticide sprays, pesticide ointments, and collars that contain chemical pesticides, all of these weaken the immune system. 

Consider using natural products on the lawn pets have to walk on.

Consider getting titers on dog before revaccinating.. According to Don Hamilton, DVM., in his book Homeopathic Care for Cats & Dogs, “Aggressive animals are much more prevalent these days than ever before” and many holistic vets are suspecting vaccinations as the main cause.

As always, we recommend you consult a Naturopath that works with animals. 

Is Your Dog What You Think?

As a customer, I want to see pictures of the parents of my new puppy. As a breeder, I want my customers to see pictures of the parents of their potential new puppy.

Why?

Seeing what the parents look like, also known as the sire and the dam of the litter, is an additional way to ensure that you are getting the breed of dog you are wanting.

Last night, I was visiting with a friend who had recently adopted a new puppy.  She didn’t know what the puppy was before she had purchased it, but felt sure it was a Goldendoodle.  She showed me a picture of the female puppy, and sure enough, her puppy looked like a Goldendoodle.

In fact, her puppy looked very much like my new puppy Goldendoodle.  Then she told me she paid $75 to have the puppy’s DNA checked to find out if she was right.

What my friend learned will surprise you! We learned that she was 25% Bichon, 25% Shitzu, 25% poodle and 25% “don’t know”.  Makes one wonder – how did those turn out a puppy that looked like an apricot colored Goldendoodle?! Luckily, my friend was okay with this; although, a little disappointed.  She hadn’t received any assurance of her puppy’s breed when she purchased her because she was a rescue puppy, but hoped she was right about it being a Goldendoodle.

This story reminded me of another couple I know who purchased a Collie-Australian Shepherd Mix puppy.  She fell in love with her puppy right away, but was a little shocked to find out when the dog got older that it most likely (no DNA test with this one) was neither Collie nor Australian Shepherd.  Instead, her puppy grew up into something that actually looks like a mix between a Pitbull and a Boxer.  Obviously, she ended up with a breed much different from what was intended. They love their dog dearly nonetheless; but, they have a dog with different characteristics and behaviors than what they originally thought would be the best match.

This got me thinking about how many of us buy puppies from breeders without ever getting any reassurance (not even so much as a picture) of what the parents look like.

Have you ever noticed how many breeders don’t offer photos of the sire and dam? Often it can be because a breeder does not have the tools or desire to keep a website. In other cases, it can be because the website is not regularly updated. A really good breeder will go out of their way to make photos available to be seen by those interested in adopting whether they have a website or not. Photos can be sent via email, posted on their website, or posted to their Facebook page.  If photos are not made available, you can request to see a picture of the sire and dam before making your decision.

In the beginning, I had purchased “purebred” standard poodles 3 different times without ever being offered any visible proof of parentage. Yes, my poodles are all AKC registered, but I don’t believe that certificate of paper always guarantees as much as people would like to believe it does. None of those purchases were from breeders that had photos available of the sire and dam, but luckily my breeders were honest and my poodle puppies grew up into the adult Standard Poodles that I was intending to purchase.

Fast forward to today, now that I know better, and after hearing a number of mystery-puppy stories, I always ask to see pictures of the parents.  With persistence I get pictures!

This is why, as companion breeders, we will always try to have pictures posted of the sire and dam of our litters.  If you are paying for a purebred dog, I think you should get what you pay for.  I know that is what I would want!

What Do We Do for Heart Worm?

We are not veterinarians, and we are not medical doctors, so we only speak from experience. We also love to do our research before making a decision. 

If you have read my blog on raising healthy dogs, you already know the answer to this question: What do we do for heart worm? In case you haven’t read the blog though, be patient with me and I will repeat the story here. As the story goes – we used to have two collies. Instead of giving a remedy (homeopathic) to immunize our dogs ahead of time, we often waited until they would get a particular bacteria or pathogen before we gave a remedy for it. I usually give remedies ahead of time now, but 20-25 years ago, I would wait until symptoms occurred before giving a remedy. 

In case you are wondering, we weren’t afraid of illness with the dogs, because we had the remedies on hand. We felt we had God’s resources available and His blessings on our side. After all, we weren’t doing something harmful or dangerous, but rather what was safe, effective, and healthy too. We were confident we were adequately prepared.

Here is the story: Both of our collies eventually got heart worm. It seemed like years before they finally got it. Yes, I said “finally”. It reminded me of watching water boil. When you are watching and waiting, it seems to take much longer than you anticipated. When our dogs finally developed the symptoms, we gave them the homeopathic remedy for their symptoms, and they recovered within hours. I want to say 24 hours, because that is what people expect – it should take at least 24 hours, right? But that’s not true with homeopathy, and honestly, it was more like 3 hours before all symptoms were cleared up. Of course their stools were stinky and strange looking for sometimes as long as 24-32 hours as they passed the remains of the worms from their system.

There’s more to the story – Approximately two years after our dogs had had heart worm, a friend called to tell me her rottweiler had been diagnosed by their vet as having heart worm. They were devastated, knowing that the treatment would possibly kill their beloved pet. At best, they were told, it would shorten his lifespan by 60%. My friend decided to do the homeopathy we had done instead. After giving the remedy, they waited three days for his body to have time to get any remains of the worms out of his system and his stools, then took him back to the vet for a re-check. The vet assured them that their dog still had the heart worm and if anything besides his drug would work on them, he would have known about it. He did the test, and it came back negative. There were no heart worms present. He pronounced the first test a “false-positive.” It was wrong he said, the dog never had the worms to begin with, and this is why they aren’t there in the second test. Had he ever had a “false-positive” heart worm test my friend asked? No, he responded, “but there is always a first time” he told her.

Months went by and my friend was talking with a neighbor of hers who told her she had just learned her dog had heart worms. You can imagine what happened. This time however, the veterinarian she used told her that if this “remedy” worked he would be the first to come knocking at her door wanting to learn more about homeopathy. She did the same thing my friend had done, gave the dog 3 doses of the homeopathic remedy that fit her dog’s symptoms, waited 3 days for his system to clear out the worm remains, and took him back for a second test. The vet didn’t know what to make of it. At least he didn’t deny it had worked, or excuse the test results as a false-positive test. He also didn’t “come knocking at her door” as he had said he would.

The nice thing about homeopathy is that it not only works, but as I stated above, it also has no side-effects. It works by encouraging the animal’s (and human’s) immune system to do the work of repairing on its own. In doing so, the animal builds real, life-long antibodies. Not the short-term, often ineffective “antibodies” that the vaccines claim.

Why Don’t We Use Antibiotics on Our Dogs?

We aren’t veterinarians, and wouldn’t presume to tell you what to do for your pet, but what we can do is share with you information we have found in our research  to support your pet’s health from this point forward.

Dr. Leo Galland, author of Super Immunity for Kids and Power Healing, believes  “It is no accident that the most allergic generation in history has been raised on antibiotics.”  This applies to animals as well as humans. Antibiotics are used in the manufacture of many medications and vaccines.  Antibiotics are also typically given for 5 days to young puppies after they receive their first vaccines. Why? Because, as research shows, the immune system of the vaccinated individual is left compromised, so they are more likely to get sick.  

Besides allergies, asthma, and overall poor health, antibiotics have also been linked to chronic bloating, fatigue, constipation, poor memory, depression, short attention span, environmental sensitivities, moodiness, learning disabilities, and asthma.  

What do antibiotics do to the immune system?  The immune cells typically damaged by antibiotics include: Neutrophils (these combat and destroy bacteria), T-cell lymphocytes (needed to destroy foreign tissue, virus infected cells, and cancer cells),  B-cell lymphocytes (produce antibodies to counter most infections and cancer cells), interferon and interleukin (essential to a healthy immune system and prevention of cancer), macrophages (engulf foreign particles), and monocytes (clean up cellular debris after an infection).

Besides the damage to the immune system, antibiotics also rob the body of the following nutrients

N-Acetyl cysteine, necessary for a healthy thyroid, adrenal glands and immune function, and healing. Without N-Acetyl cysteine, the body cannot properly use potassium gluconate or biotin, both  necessary to remain healthy and to fight cancer.  In the last 30 years, as vaccine and antibiotic use has increased in animals, the number of these diseases has also skyrocketed.

Antibiotics also:

    1. Decrease absorption of calcium, needed for bones, teeth, spine development, kidney and heart health.
    1. Vitamin B12, needed to prevent depression and anxiety, and adjust to motion
    1. B-vitamins in general, needed for a healthy nervous system, and to be able to flush lead from the body
    1. Decrease or block the use of fluorine, the mineral needed for making strong enamel on the teeth, and strong bones.
    1. Inhibit the use of rutin, which is necessary for healthy hair, nails, arteries and veins. Rutin is also necessary for the use of chondroitin for healthy joints and to be able to flush nickel from the body.  
    1. Production of vitamin K, needed for normal blood clotting.  
  1. Protein digestion, especially meat, can also be interfered with because of antibiotic use.  The amino acids found in meats are needed by the body for it to heal properly after an injury or surgery.  They also make muscle growth and strength possible.

What are the long term effects of a single round of antibiotics? The expectation in the health community that you can just fix the damage with probiotics and/or fermented foods and that gut flora magically returns to normal is far from accurate.  Evidence is now emerging from multiple sources that gut flora may actually be permanently altered by antibiotics or, at the very least, the damage persists for several years.

According to Dr. Martin Blaser, MD, of New York University’s Langone Medical Center, who writes in the August 2011 edition of Nature,Early evidence from my lab and others hints that, sometimes, our friendly flora never fully recover. These long-term changes to the beneficial bacteria within people’s bodies may even increase our susceptibility to infections and disease. Overuse of antibiotics could be fueling the dramatic increase in conditions such as obesity, type 1 diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease, allergies and asthma, which have more than doubled in many populations.” Blaser also states that: “Each generation … could be beginning life with a smaller endowment of ancient microbes than the last.” If an illness isn’t life threatening, skip the antibiotics.  The risk to your future health is just too great otherwise.

What this means is that taking antibiotics today for an illness that is not life threatening may in fact lead to a growth of superbugs in your gut that could actually threaten your life down the road and prevent antibiotics from working for you when you desperately need it.

Sources:

Gut Damage from Antibiotics Persists for Long Periods of Time, The Journal Microbiology reports that the generally acknowledged precept that use of antibiotics only causes disruption of the gut flora for a few weeks is highly flawed. Microbiology November 2010 vol. 156 no. 11 3216-3223

Antibiotic Dangers, from the Healthy Home Economist, Jan. 2013

Even a short course of antibiotics can lead to resistant bacterial populations taking up residence in the gut that persists for up to 4 years – maybe even longer. PLoS One. 2010 Mar 24;5(3):e9836. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0009836.

Short-term antibiotic treatment has differing long-term impacts on the human throat and gut microbiome.

Jakobsson HE, Jernberg C, Andersson AF, Sjölund-Karlsson M, Jansson JK, Engstrand L.

Department of Bacteriology, Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control, Solna, Sweden.Sources:  Long-Term Impacts of Antibiotic Exposure on the Human Intestinal Microbiota, Microbiology, November 2010

Short-term antibiotic treatment has differing long-term impacts on the human throat and gut microbiomePLoS One. March 2010

Antibiotic Overuse: Stop the Killing of Beneficial Bacteria, Nature, August 2011