Speaker 1: You were listening to Petlifradio dot Com and.
Speaker 2: Good morning or good afternoon to all of you out there.
You're here live for the next half hour with doctor
Jeff Werber, your host for Ask the Beats with Doctor
Jeff here on pet Life Radios only live call in
radio show. Let me distress those words again. Call in
radio show. We want to hear from you after this
wonderful July fourth, hoping everyone had to save July fourth,
I want to hear about your pets. On July fourth,
I'm going to talk about my experiences as getting emergency
calls like crazy yesterday. But yeah, I want to hear
from you. Best way to get ahold of us is
to call us at eight seven seven three eight five
eight eight eight to two. You can also go ahead
and send this a note to Drgeff Doctor Jeff at
Petlife Radio dot com. Or if you are on your
computer right now as I am from wherever, you can
go on to a pet Life Radio dot com page
on the left. You'll see all the different shows here
on pet Life Radio and you click on Ask the
Beets with Doctor Jeff. Then you can just join in
on the conversation on there's little tab there's a box
there invite friends pet Life Radio, and right now there
are the only speaker is me, and I want to
see some others because I want to hear about your
fourth or July, what you do or what you've done
in the past to help your pets survive, especially those
that are fearful, that become very anxious around the fireworks.
And what's interesting is that I start getting the phone
calls at least a week ago, sometimes even longer, because
I don't know, you know, depending on where you live.
And we're here in southern California, but we start hearing
fireworks from different areas that you can hear the boom. Now, remember,
if we hear it, you know that your pets hear
it because their sense of hearing, much like their sense
of smell, is so much better than ours. So they
pick up things, you know, that we would barely hear,
and they pick them up all the time. It's amazing.
Speaker 3: So all of a.
Speaker 2: Sudden, I get a call from somebody on my dog
is panting. My dog is very anxious. Nothing's changed around
the house. And I always ask about loud sounds anyway,
any construction going on nearby? Do you live near an
airport anything like that. But no, this last week I
fire works and I heard them as well. So I
want to hear how your pets espressed, your dogs have done.
That's a little easier because cats, let's face it, depending
on who you ask, I think that innate smartness. You know,
those that are the supporters of the cat is smarter
will tell you rightly so that you put a cat
outside defend for itself, and you put a dog outside
defend for itself, the cat's going to do better. You know,
it's interesting when you see a cat running around the
neighborhood with or without idea, you don't think twice about it.
I mean, it's it's that's the cats. Do you see
a dog running loose around the neighborhood, Oh my god,
he must have gone out of somewhere. Let's go catch him,
Let's go look at his ID, let's get them take
him in and the scape seem as a microchip, all
of those things. And if he's you know, tough dog
causing problems, you're gonna call animal control. But cats, cats
are cats. You just they do their thing. So I
do feel that the calls that I get, interestingly with
four problems around this time of year. They are fourth
of July, fireworks, thunder and lightning storms, et cetera. Are
going to be dog related. And I will reiterate once
again the very very brief suggestion I had last week
at the end of the show, mentioning also, this is
probably too late to do anything about it. But if
I tell you, if we go again through it now,
then you have a whole year to work on this,
and a whole year you should be able to do it,
and your pets should do just great. So once again,
while I'm waiting to hear from you at eight seven
seven three eight five eight eight eight two, to let
me know how things went with your pet, or just
kind of come in into the conversation, then I will.
In the meantime we will talk about the suggestion I
have something you should start literally now. Is that way
during the year you can play it out and practice,
and hopefully by the time the real thing happens or
even a thunder lightning storm, it will be a little different.
And as a matter of fact, while you're doing the
fireworks sound effects, you can also do the thunder and
lightning sound effects, So that way you'll basically be getting
both these reconditionings done, this counter conditioning done at the
same time. The way you do is this you want
to get. You can go online and you can download
sound effects. You can find them and all different soundffects,
you know, construction sound effects, thunder and lightning, sonic booms,
planes taken on and off. I mean, you could find
a sound effect for everything. We used to first of all,
get these audio tapes. There's a little pass when you
say then we had the CDs. I still have a
CD somewhere of sound effects. You can still get those,
but now you can pretty much find anything online. So
you download your sound effects for fireworks. And the key
is remembering that dog's ability to hear perceive sounds is
much better than ours, much more sensitive years. So you're
going to start sitting down with your dog in a
good comfortable part of the house wherever it is you
normally chill with your pet, and you're going to play
this sound effect so low you probably won't even hear it,
but your dog will, and play it for you know,
maybe ten to fifteen seconds, and give your dog big
hugs and kisses and say, oh my god, here's such
a good boy, and give a treat, and that's it.
So that this sound is so low it's not going
to cause that anxiety or fear yet. So what you
do is you continue on each session every couple of days,
and you are going to play the sound a little
bit louder, and your reaction each time is going to
be the same. Oh my god, you're so good. So
basically what we're doing is conceptually, when you think about
how we really like to train dogs, we like to
a number of different techniques. One is called operating conditioning.
We'll talk about that another time. That's like clicker training,
for example, is operating conditioning, and the other one is
to desensitize and then counter condition. So we're not only
trying to minimize or eliminate the fearful reaction to the
loud sound stimulus, we are also counter conditioning him or
her to actually look forward to to want to hear it,
to like it. Why, because they're gonna get treats every
time they hear this. They're gonna come to you. In fact,
when it works, and it does, when the fireworks start,
your dog's gonna be running to you happy, not tail
Latina's legs, not wanting to hide, not looking for protection
from you. They're gonna come over to you because they
want their treat, because they're gonna start making association that
that sound means I'm getting a treat and I'm getting
hugs and kisses, and it's a difference. So it's something
they actually will look forward to. They can't wait. They're
calling their friends and telling them, I can't wait till
next year's fourth of July because I'm gonna get I'm
gonna get all this attention in these treats. But the
bottom line is they are not going to be fearful.
It's no longer a fear response. It's something that we're
gonna look forward to. So you can picture it. You
continue to play this sound louder and louder, and then
hopefully they will get to the point where this means
nothing to them, sort of like when we hear background
sounds it means nothing to me. A perfect example, I
am in my office and I'm in one of the
exam rooms and I happen to be talking to my
dad who was there, and all of a sudden, in
the middle of the conversation, goes, let this drive you nuts.
I go, what drive me? Nuts, he goes just listen,
so I stopped talk for a second. I hear and
in the back I can hear the dogs in the
main treatment rule, I can hear the run I mean,
just a lot of yapping dogs in them waiting room.
Let's face it, I've Verney Hospital is a high energy,
noisy place, but for me it's blocked out. That to
me is normal background noise. I don't even think twice
about it. So it's interesting. What we want to do
is get to that point with your dog that these
sounds in the background are just background. They don't do
any they don't have an effect. If anything, there's something
they look forward to because they're going to get some
treats because of the desensitization and the counter conditioning. So
that's kind of what we're our goal, if you will,
and it's very easily done. The only thing is, as
with any behavior modification technique that involved some desensitizing, involves
some counter conditioning, it takes time because you have to
go baby steps for example. I mean, it's no different
than this. I mean, think about it. I had a
client call me yesterday. This was one of the few
not fourth of July related complaints calls that he had
a dog with some diarrhea, and we talked about put
him on a bland diet and then we're going to
gradually switch him on to his regular food. So he
called me and he told me that as soon as
they got back to the regular food, the diary of
starting it. So my first question was, of course, is well,
let's go through the process again. He was doing well
right on the on the regular food.
Speaker 1: Yes.
Speaker 2: On the bland food, yes, he would. So tell me
how you made this switch. He goes, well, I put
in fifty percent of his regular's old food and time
out fifty percent. I'm thinking you got to start with
ten percent and then do that for a couple of days,
and then you boost to twenty percent, do that for
a couple of days, and then thirty percent, do that
for couple. It's got to be a gradual switch. You
have to ease the system back into it. And it's
the same thing as we're talking about the desensitizing and
the playing the fireworks sound effects extremely low. It's because
we have to gradually gradually get them used to that sound.
If you just go straight to like I'm gonna try
this in four sessions, and I'm gonna go from zero
twenty five to fifteen and then one hundred. It's not gonna work.
It's got to be zero three percent and then five
and then seven and just so you got to go. Really,
that's why I even said last week though it's a
conceptually boy, this could be great, but you're not gonna
do it in a week. It's gonna take a lot
longer than a week. So now that you are aware
of the tricks, you're gonna get it done. It's gonna
be a these sound effects tapes. Play them very small,
make the association positive instead of negative. If you don't
want to use treats, no problem, just use hugs and kisses,
just to you know, a good pattern. Head, good boy,
good boy. You know dogs. Hey, let's face it, dogs
love when we love them. They love to get the
positive reinforcement and not the negative reinforcement, which is why,
you know, think about it. As we mentioned, the reason
why somebody dogs continue to do this is because they
come to you. They're fearful as all can be, their
tails between their legs, they're frightened, they're trying to hide.
They come to you for love, and what do you
give them love? So what do you just do? You
just reinforced the bad behavior, You reinforce the fear. The
goal is not to reinforce the fear. The goal is
to decrease it, to eliminate the fear and make it
something positive, something good. So I still want to hear
from you. So we're just about to go into our
short break. But eight seven seven three eight five eight
eight A two or tr Jeff doctor Jeff at petlife
radio dot com, of course, or you can just join
in the conversation here at petliffairity dot com. Click on
the ass thevest with doctor Jeff tab and start typing away.
I do want to hear how your pets did this
fourth delight. Let's share it with others, and then when
we get back, we're going to share some of my experiences.
Speaker 3: With the phone calls I got yesterday. Said o'hka, A way,
we'll be back in a second. Your pet Life Radio's
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Speaker 2: Hello and thanks for coming back and listen dot here
Got Life Radios asked the bets with doctor Jeff, and
when we left, we wanted to hear a little bit
about your experiences with your pets during this pass forth
of July. I actually had a relatively mild emergencies. Only
one was very traumatic. A dog was a young dog
actually was freaking out and he was a rescue. So
you know, with rescues they could be a little bit
more hyper reactive in that we have no idea what
their prior history was, where they lived, what kind of
training they received, what kind of attention they received. So
I wasn't too surprised. But he was trying to dart
run in the backyard freaking out from the sounds, they
said the owners, and he ran by a little latch
from a fence that was they had. It was a
double latch. It was one high up and one low,
and he literally ripped open his side just this tore
about a seven inch gash into his skin through his skin,
had to go to emergency. Most of the others are
the typical. It's like, oh my god, my dog is
so anxious, won't stop shivering and shaking.
Speaker 3: You know, interestingly that owners know their pets, so they
know that we start getting the phone calls, oh a
week or so before, two weeks before. Can we get
the tranquilizers, Can we get the ace promosine, Can we
get the xenax, Can we give benadryl?
Speaker 2: All these things? And I'm thinking to myself, clearly, this
is not the first time, Because if were the first time,
they wouldn't they wouldn't know, they would need anything. So
instead of doing what we just discussed and trying to
train and counter condition and take a little time and
make it better solve the problem, they opt for continuing
just to cover up the problem with drugs. Certainly, I'm
not a huge fan. Now, let's fay if we have
a dog that it gets himself so worked up, so anxious.
You know, anxiety and stress is not a good thing
on the body. We know that. So then is if
you're looking at to evils these anxiety on the body
and the increase of cortisol levels and all the effects
that that has on the body, or giving some ace
promosin right to chill your pet for you know, twelve hours.
Of course we're gonna offer the ace, But what I
prefer is instead of doing that would be to spend
that time the effort and know, since you know that
it's coming every year, you know from prior experience how
your pets are, and do it the right way. It's
sort of like when treating allergies, and I say to people, yes,
regardless of the drugs on the market, and there are
some pretty darn good ones now that can solve the
problem through suppressing the symptoms, the itching the scratching, maybe
even steroids which will help eliminate the actual allergic response
along with other things, but it's not getting to the
source regardless. It's the band aid. Another example that drives
me nuts is the hyper thyroid cat and we've discussed
this before here on the show, but on the hyperthyroid cat,
we know that yes we can use a medication, all right,
fema is all for limbsol, and yes it could help
the symptoms, but it's doing nothing really to solve the
ultimate problem, which back when I started practicing with surgery,
let's remove that overactive thygroid gland or both if needed,
and then supplement or now I recommend the radioactive iodine
treatment the same way they treat people, but there you're
actually fixing the problem, and in many cases the animal
is left what we call you thyroid needs nothing, no treatment, nothing.
It's perfect if the old fashioned surgery. Yes you have
to supplement with them thyroid supplementation. But when you're using
the filmasol, which is a very effective drug for what
it's supposed to do, it is just the band aid.
It is just masking symptoms and you're stuck with it forever.
So unless you have a cat that is so old,
so infirm, that there's no way they're going to make
it through surgery. There's no way they're going to make
it through the radioactive iodine treatment, or when you're there
you just can't afford to do the treatment. Then yes,
of course, go with the flmasol. But if given an option,
you want to go with something that is getting to
the root of the problem. And that's how I feel
about desensitizing these pets of ours during fourth or July,
during thunderstorms, whatever fireworks in general, is if you desensitize them,
if you fix that problem at its source, then the
animals do better and you don't have to rely on drugs,
et cetera. Same thing with as I said, allergies and
all of these problems. So just something that can think about,
something to consider. But so had about four or five calls,
and it's interesting, it's almost I can predict the calls
I'm going to get fourth or July, and you know,
of course it's a closed day. You know, obviously emergency
hospitals are open, but general practitioners like myself are usually not.
So when I got my phone, I got my page,
so they know how to get a hold of me,
and the calls are so predictable at this point. Usually
they don't result in trauma, but at least physical trauma
and the emotional trauma when the pet is shivering, shaking, anxious, panting,
you know, hiding, hiding under beds. Really it's said you
would not like to see your pet like this, which
is why given the options of drugs versus nothing, yes,
I'm going to go for the littlelace promising. You know,
Benejoel is really good. Benajoel goes a long way, and
it does nothing for allergy, really very little for allergy,
because histamine is not a major player in the pet allergy.
We've talked about this before, but it really does have
a pretty good sedative effect. Things like a benadel, things
like gataracts. They can work pretty darn well. So think
about that. You know, most people don't realize this, but
if you look at many over the counter sleep aid
medications for us, of course, other than the melatonin type
of natural stuff, but I'm talking about the good old
fashioned sleep medications. The active ingredient twenty five milligrams diphen hydromene.
What is diyphon hydromene it's benadrel, so you can you
know you're better off just buy it some benadrel And
it does have that effect on pets too, as a
matter of fact, when it comes to allergies. Is the
reason why we sometimes like to use it is because
it does have that calming, that set of effect. Now
there's something else out there. I want you to write
this down and talk to your veterinarians about because it
really is pretty effective. I've seen it work many times.
It's a new medication that's really not a medication. It's
more of a supplement and it goes under the trade
name Zilkeen Zylkne. But here's what it is, and I
think it's really fascinating because it's more of the naturopathic
approach that I like. You know, also, pro Sense, the
product line that helps support our show, has comming tabs,
and the comming tabs have things like camameal valerian passion flower.
These are herbs flowers that we know have a calming,
sedative effect and it's not drugs. So if you have
dogs you can get them to take some of this.
You look for the comming tabs by pro Sense. That
would be a great thing Zilke in the way it
works is a little bit different. Obviously, anyone who's seen
nursing puppies or kittens, or any mom who's nurse their
baby knows that during the nursing process, the baby, the pets,
whatever it is, are in a state of kind of
like euphoria. They are so calm, so relaxed. Why is that?
Is it just because they're nursing and getting the milk
or is there something else to it? Well, researchers have
found that in casin casein is milk protein, there is
a substance that has a natural calming effect, which clearly
solves that question, answers that question as to why, ay
you watch to poppy or kitten nursing, they are in
heaven and it's because not Yes, I'm sure they're soothed,
that they're bonding with mom, they're being fed all those
good things, but the actual calm is because of this
substance in milk protein. So a French company actually harnessed
this product, this substance whatever it is, I guess it
might be kind of like a hormone or a pheromone,
and they've created they put it into these tablets these
capsules called zilkin, and it really is effective. So it's
really good for those times. Not sad something you want
to keep them on forever, but when you know they're
going to be in a stressful situation, you know that
every time you go to work in the morning, they're
a little stressed. The neighbors complain that there's barking, fourth
of July, thunderstorms, things that are somewhat predictable, and where
you can actually give this capsule and it works extremely well.
So I want you to, you know again, think about that,
because that's a good idea to think of some natural
ways to calm your pets. That's okay too, but I
guess the worst thing if you know that you have
a pet that gets this worked up over fireworks, the
worst thing you can do is nothing. So it's either
going to be something drug wise. If that's just the
direction you want to go, okay, research it though, talk
to your doctors, go online, something more natural like a
pro sense or a zilk gem or take. In my opinion,
the best approach would be to start.
Speaker 3: Now or you know, give it does not be now
today on July fifth, but give yourself a good six
months but put it on your calendars and start, you know,
look into the sound effects CD or the sound effects download.
Speaker 2: And start sooner when you have plenty of time to
accomplish the task of desensitizing and counterconditioning. Make it fun.
And what's gonna happen is it's almost like anything. Why
do I say, when you teach your pets to have
their teeth brushed, do it before a meal, before a walk,
before playtime, before treat Because what's gonna happen is at
first it might be a little uncomfortable for them, but
then dogs live by association, so they know that when
they see that brush and they see that paste, so
they smell the paste or taste the paste, they know
what's coming. Oh my god, I'm gonna eat, Oh my god,
we're going for a walk, or we're gonna I'm getting
a treat. So you're turning something that was difficult, was
a negative, and you're turning into a positive. And if
nothing else, besides the fact that it's going to solve
your problem, it's going to enhance that bond that you
share with you and your pets. So it's great for
bonding and the time that you're gonna spend doing this
exercise of desensitizing counter conditioning means you're gonna spending at
least ten fifteen extra minutes with your pet a few
times a week, if not every day. So trust me,
you're gonna love it. They're gonna love it, and it'll
probably bring down your blood pressure as well, knowing that
your pets are not going to be so worked up
come next year's fourth of July. Anyway, that's all we
have time for. Next week, I'm going to talk about food.
I'm going to tell you a little bit experience I've
had my recent media trip. I was up in Toronto
and Vancouver, and we're going to talk to some interaction
I've had with a Twitter person who a lot needs
to be discussed about food. I think there's a lot
to learn from my experience. So we're going to go
there next week. Thanks again to pro sense and Calm,
and we'll be here next week, same time here on
pel Life Radio. Have a good review.
Speaker 1: Let's talk pets every week on demand only on petlife
radio dot com.