T + 26

With Dexter fully healed from his testicular snipping surgery, we are now able to allow him some more vigorous exercise. Each day we surmise what Dexter's previously life must have been like.  Because he tires so easily from play, I don't think that he was well-exercised. Part of me thinks that he might have spent life on a chain, but because he has such good potty house manners (with only a couple of exceptions which was not his fault), I don't think that was the case. His other house manners are non-existent.  He snatches anything not nailed down and takes it to his puppy kingdom--a place in my office where he accumulates his stuff.

I have recently giving all of our dogs marrow bones---large bones in diameter and cut long.  I do see admonishments NOT to give your dogs marrow bones.  The admonishments concern:

1. Dog can choke
2. Bone fragments can pierce intestines etc

The marrow bones and knuckle bones that I am using are physically impossible for any of my dogs to swallow and are impossible to reduce to shards.  I don't worry about cracked teeth, because none of my dogs chews down on the marrow bones and the knuckle bones are soft. Rather, they pull and scrape sideways on them, removing all of the tartar buildup.

I just read an article that said that dog's teeth are just like human's.  They have to be brushed regularly and cleaned by a veterinarian. Well, that's good advice by those practitioners looking for an annuity payment of cleaning fees over the lifetime of the dog.  I have no plans to ever brush my dog's or cat's teeth.

I am also reading quite a bit about the 'debunking' of the dog pack behavior as a 'myth'.  We have always had multiple dogs, and we have always seen this hierarchical behavior among them.  I don't need Cesar Milan to tell me it exists any more than I need to see ABDT  say that it doesn't exist.  I've experienced it for decades not only in my household but in others.   What I am learning is this:

dog training, business leadership, child rearing etc all go through 'retooling' and 're-imagining' new ways to get the same thing accomplished.  Each comes about debunking the old way.  With any method, fair and balanced thinking and consistent application are critical to success. 

I also know this:  there is a vast difference between theory and practice, and often it is that netherworld between the two that there are failures which is why the mileage of many differs.