Amazon.com: A Dog Who's Always Welcome: Assistance and Therapy Dog Trainers Teach You How to Socialize and Train Your…

Amazon.com: The Golden Bridge: A Guide to Assistance Dogs for Children Challenged By Autism or Other Developmental Disabilities (New Discoveries in the Human-Animal Bond S.) (9781557534088): Patty Dobbs Gross: Books

Amazon.com: Healing Companions: Ordinary Dogs and Their Extraordinary Power to Transform Lives (9781601630933): Jane Miller: Books


Amazon.com: Your Pet, The Therapist: A Guide to Beginning Animal Assistance eBook:…
Animal-Assisted Therapy differs greatly from the emotional-support visits of therapy-PETS -
AAT works with a physical or behavioral or cognitive therapist to achieve specific therapeutic goals, whether a better range of motion,
the ability for an agoraphobic person to walk the dog out the door, grooming the dog to achieve better fine-motor control,
or any other measurable physical, behavioral or cognitive improvement.

therapy-pets are well-trained, highly sociable and bombproof pets of any species, who brighten the days of kids
in resident programs, patients in hospital, emotional trauma victims (the survivors of the World-Trade Center collapse or other life-changing events), cancer patients, amputees, and so on.

AAT-certified animals go several steps further - and not even all therapy-pet teams qualify for this rarified air of higher altitude challenges, where the patients may be clumsy, angry, scared, unpredictable or profoundly depressed.
working to help a stroke-patient recover their former clarity of enunciation is a steep but incredibly rewarding climb.

__________________
terry pride, APDT-Aus, apdt#1827, CVA, TDF
*wolves R wolves, dogs R dogs, + primates R us.*
tmp, sept-2007

please do suggest a book for dog relocation and food types exclusively for muscular food types with less fat

what is dog relocation? i am not familiar with the term.



Any food with adequate protein will maintain or develop muscle, but muscle isn't "created" -
it's GROWN. Muscle grows when the body part it moves, is exercised - or put to work. No work?
Muscles will shrink, or atrophy - they become shriveled & even useless; a withered arm that was
severely injured, then received no physical-rehab during healing, may be impossible to restore to use.

to build MUSCLE & Bone-Strength & Density - move! Walk, run, swim, BEND, stretch, FLEX,
twist, lift weights - carry groceries vs use a cart; have the dog carry a light bag in her / his teeth;
play fetch, bike-jog with the dog, play fetch on stairs with good traction [no slip & fall injuries,
no joint-pain or soft-tissue tears], & so on... Bodies are meant to move.

it's also worth noting, dogs can use FAT directly as an energy-source, which humans can only do under
certain conditions: Environment [severe cold] &/or Demand [severe need: starvation, intense labor, etc].

that doesn't mean we should feed dogs, especially dogs who don't do real work & get exercise,
more than minimal fats, & just like humans, all dogs should AVOID saturated fats
& all 'hydrogenated' oils / fats.

hydrogenated fats are often OILS, which would normally be liquid at room-temps over 60'-F;
by adding hydrogen-bonds, they are physically converted to a room-temp solid. The body does
not see them as anything other than a saturated-fat, but they have other & much-worse health effects
in addition to the "normal" bad-effects of a natural sat-fat, as opposed to an un-natural created sat-fat.

most dogs, even dogs doing aerobic work - hunting Labs, herding BCs, conservation-k9s covering mileage
in their search for wildlife sign, & similar - DON't need 'extra' fats: the normal 10 to 12% of diet is plenty.

SLEDDING DOG TEAMS are among the few dogs who actually need more fat: they are demanding a lot
of every muscle in their bodies, & they are converting the fat they eat directly to energy for use.

too-much fat, especially as a fatty TREAT, can cause pancreatitis or a severe, short-lived diarrhea:
poultry skin given around seasonal-holidays to dogs who relish it, is a common cause: Don't give the dog
that palm-sized patch of turkey-skin from the breast of the bird, it's slick with grease & full of fat,
despite the crispy exterior - give the dog a tidbit of breast-meat or even better, a bit of dark meat
off the thigh or drumstick, which is slightly fattier & contains more minerals and vitamins than white-meat.


sudden changes of diet are very hard on dogs; when changing diets, ADD 1/4 the volume of the meal
as the "new" diet, 3/4 the volume as the "soon-to-be Former" diet; feed that for 2 to 3-days, then it's
1/2 & 1/2 for 2 to 3-days, then 3/4 'new' & 1/4 'former' for 2 to 3-days, until it's finally ALL 'new diet'.

As U can see, the changeover takes at least a WEEK - if at any point the dog has diarrhea or soft-stool,
back up one step: go from 1/2 & 1/2 back to 1/4 new & 3/4 'former' for 2 or 3 days,
then try again to increase the ratio of New : Former diets in one AM-meal - see how that goes.

Dogs with sensitive bowels may need 3 to 4 days for each stage - meaning 10 to 14 days total,
to make the changeover from "former diet" to "new diet" without gut-distress.

__________________
terry pride, APDT-Aus, apdt#1827, CVA, TDF
*wolves R wolves, dogs R dogs, + primates R us.*
tmp, sept-2007