We’ve all heard it, and some of us multiple times. And while we’re being very hesitant to call it a myth, we’ve dug up some research, just to help make sense of all the noise.
Written By: The Dog Journal
Daily gentle handling of puppies from 3 days to 3 weeks of age may benefit puppy health. Daily weight checks are opportunities for gentle handling and health monitoring. During this early handling, caretakers can check for any signs of illness. Early handling may also have long-term health benefits for dogs. Stress can make dogs more susceptible to illness, but early handling may help them cope with stress better. This effect may last throughout their lifetime.
Most of the diets associated with the reports of non-hereditary DCM have legume seed ingredients, also called “pulses” (peas, lentils, etc.), high in their ingredient lists. These include both grain-free and grain-containing formulations. Legumes, including pulse ingredients, have been used in pet foods for many years, with no evidence to indicate they are inherently dangerous, but analysis of data reported indicates that pulse ingredients are used in many grain-free diets in greater proportion than in most grain-containing formulas. It appears as though the bigger concern would be the pulses often used to replace grains in these diets.
According, again, to the FDA, while these adverse event numbers can be a potential signal of an issue, by themselves, they do not supply sufficient data to establish a causal relationship with these reported products. Also, FDA has no definitive information indicating that the diets are inherently unsafe and need to be removed from the market.
Shortly before Christmas of 2022, the FDA concluded the matter by stating that they do not intend to release further public updates until there is meaningful new scientific information to share. They also concluded that, based on the data collected and analyzed thus far, the agency believes that the potential association between diet and DCM in dogs is a complex scientific issue that may involve multiple factors.
Accurately interpreting a dog’s postures and body language can help people interact safely with the dog, including recognizing when it is safe to even approach, much less attempt to handle a dog.
Read along as our two Website and Social Media experts weigh in on the subjects and questions that we asked them about. This series of Panel Discussions is the longest and most comprehensive one we’ve done yet, and the contributors haven’t let us down. Although they may all have a little bit of a different twist on their advice, we’re thankful that they’ve gone out on the limb and offered their opinions on these controversial subjects.
Join advertising and marketing guru Dave Lapp, with Fuze Design, as he takes on the hard questions about this subject. This is part two of a continued series of articles dedicated to Branding, Marketing, and Web and Social Media Development. Although slightly different in nature than previous Panel Discussions, with only one expert per part, this one is worth spending some time with.
