ARF arf

These are incredibly difficult to look at, but I feel like it’s important to post given the discourse here over the last few weeks about proper care for goldfish.

I’m a mod on a goldfish forum, and yesterday these pictures were posted in our illness section by the owner who was concerned about the fish’s inability to swim. He explained that the fish was 10 years old and living in a 20 liter (about 5 gallon) tank. The fish was laying on its side, had a milky film on its face, and was refusing to eat.

It had been in this state, barely moving, not eating, for a week and a half.

The pictures posted were of one of the most stunted, sickly fish I’ve ever seen. I had to go put my laptop away and close my eyes for a while after seeing them the first time and even now they turn my stomach. I can’t imagine the amount of pain this poor thing has gone through.

Emaciated, crooked spine, bulging eyes, pale color, deformed mouth, shortened head, uneven scales, and horrifically small for its age.

And this guy had no idea that there was anything wrong. He waited a week and a half before seeking help for an animal in this condition. He seemed to honestly care about his fish, based on the way he spoke, but he still allowed it to get to this point because he thought this is just how people treat goldfish.

Unfortunately it’s all too common to keep fish in these conditions both due to lack of information and societal acceptance of their neglect. Could you imagine what it would have been like if it were a dog or a cat in this condition?

5 gallons isn’t even the worst size really, most fish bowls are more like 1 gallon, and goldfish are often kept in those for years at a time. Just because not every fish in a bowl stunts this dramatically doesn’t mean that they don’t have the potential to suffer just as badly.

We recommended euthanasia with clove oil. We had to. It would be unspeakably cruel to even try to treat this fish and prolong its suffering. Thankfully the owner agreed to put it to sleep. I can only hope he’ll go through with it as soon as possible.

For comparison, here was one of my boys at 10 months. Fat and round, deep color, alert and active, and already larger than the fish above. He was living in a 50 gallon tank when this picture was taken.

This is what a goldfish looks like when kept in a proper sized tank, with regular water changes, and a healthy diet.

“Prong, choke and shock collars were specifically designed to instill pain. That is the principle upon which they work – the addition of discomfort in order to stop unwanted behavior. This isn’t my opinion. This is simply a matter of fact. There isn’t room for disagreement or debate. It’s reality. It’s truth.

[…]

The other issue is one of ethics. Obviously, that isn’t up for debate. My ethics are mine and yours are yours. But for those who continue to defend the use of such devices, I do have a question: What is the “proper” way to inflict pain upon your companion?

Do it higher up on the neck?

Throw your friend a cookie in between bouts of restricting his breathing?

Only hurt your friend when you’re up against “distractions” (more aptly known as competing motivators)?

I can’t think of a single scenario, outside of a training context, in which any decent human being would knowingly inflict pain on his or her dog. So why do we make excuses when it’s “in the name of training”? Abuse is abuse, right?”

This is absolutely why dental care and health is so important.

Both photos are of the teeth located in the lower right quadrant of a dog.

The top photo shows healthy premolar teeth. The tooth roots are solidly attached to the surrounding bone by the periodontal ligaments, there are no cracks to the crown, and there is no lucency at the apex of the teeth.

The bottom photo shows severe dental disease. The tooth roots look mottled, there are large apical abscesses, and the bone has completely eroded away leaving the jaw exceptionally fragile.

When we ignore dental health, plaque begins to accumulate on the teeth. Plaque is a soft film that is full of millions of bacteria. If left on the teeth, plaque eventually hardens into calculus. Calculus sits on the teeth at the gum line and will cause gingival recession and eventually infection will travel down the tooth root, loosening the periodontal ligaments and causing the tooth to become mobile. Once infection continues down the tooth root, it can cause large abscesses at the base of the root which will cause bone degradation.

Animals absolutely require dental care, and regular brushing like we do can prevent issues like this from becoming this bad. Imagine what our teeth would look like if we didn’t brush!

There are other options if you are unable to brush your pet’s teeth like water additives, chews (NOT BONE OR ANTLER), and professional cleanings that will improve your pet’s oral health. It is recommended that you get your pet’s teeth professionally cleaned under anesthesia to prevent these issues. Non-anesthetic cleanings are not effective and do not improve your pet’s oral health.

a 100% commitment to NEVER going forward without a completely loose leash

It’s Yer Choice - The more a dog understands about self control, the easier all training is. Additionally, teach a release word that means the dog is free to get the distraction.

Silky Leash / Moving Off Collar Pressure

Backwards walking

High Rate of Reinforcement (3 videos)

Penalty Yards

What I particularly like about teaching moving off collar pressure and backwards walking before doing penalty yards is how beautifully they fit in to that framework.

In the linked penalty yards video, you can see the dog has a hard time disengaging from the distraction - more impulse control work makes that easier. But also what happens when the handler starts backing up? The dog feels collar pressure, and with silky leash the dog knows what to do with collar pressure: move off it. What happens when the dog moves off collar pressure? The dog sees the handler moving backwards, and because you’ve taught it the dog knows what to do when it sees the handler moving backwards: move with the handler and reconnect.

Pilot is 8 months old. He has NEVER pulled on leash. Until he was around six months, the leash was clipped exclusively to a back attach walking harness. He is allowed (in fact encouraged) to pull in this harness.

This week we started working on loose leash walking. He has worn a collar and leash about 4 times previously. In those instances, keeping the leash loose is my responsibility. I do this in a number of ways: following the dog, use a longer leash, walk faster, luring past distractions, talking and praising walking closely, calling him back if he gets too far. If absolutely necessary, I stopped and encouraged him back if the leash got tight.

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