Category: Companion Animals

If Only They Could Talk – Animal Pain In Home and Veterinary Practice

Posted on by Les Ellison
If Only They Could Talk – Animal Pain In Home and Veterinary Practice

Whether it’s the chronic pain of illness and age or the acute pain of accident and intervention, it’s generally accepted that animals experience not just pain, but emotional distress. But how to recognise and evaluate pain in animals? The Glasgow Composite Pain Scale (GCPS) provides an objective assessment.

Assessment of an animal’s pain

For the veterinary professional, there’s a whole range of measurable indicators on which to base an assessment of an animal’s pain. Changes in an animal’s blood pressure and heart rate may be interpreted as indications of stress or a response to physical trauma related to the experience of pain.

With the resources of a veterinary laboratory, hormonal, metabolic, gastrointestinal and homeostatic changes – such as blood clotting times, provide further validation or contradiction of opinions formed in the veterinary surgery.

Evidence-based veterinary response

These ‘professional’ assessments of an animal’s pain status depend on physiological information not available to an animal’s owner or keeper. For the animal’s closest companion, the best available indicators of pain are changes in their animal’s normal patterns of behaviour, development and expression. For the veterinary clinician, behavioural signs – together with the observations of owners and keepers, contribute to a complete, evidence-based veterinary response.

Non-physiological indicators of pain might include changes in activity, the development of new activities – such as limping, vocalisation, body language, excessive scratching or licking, and even facial expressions. For example, a relaxed and comfortable cat will normally sit feet curled under the body, head up, ears up and eyes wide open. While cats suffering discomfort will often lie flat and with half-closed or squinting eyes.

Owners need to develop a high degree of familiarity with their pet

Neurological studies on rodents support the ‘pained face’ as a reliable indicator of pain, showing that there is an emotional factor in an animal’s response. Picking up these non-verbal signals requires owners to develop a high degree of familiarity with their pet’s ‘normal’ behavioural state. It also requires a consistent, validated scale of measurement.

The Glasgow Composite Pain Scale (GCPS) provides an objective assessment of pain and allows subsequent assessments to help determine if an animal’s pain is getting better or worse. Devised by Glasgow vet school, the scale helps to improve veterinary diagnosis of acute, postoperative pain and the appropriate treatment of long-term, chronic pain.

The Glasgow Scale questions behaviours including vocalisation, attention to wound, mobility, sensitivity to touch, demeanour and activity. Responses are scored as to which best describes the animal’s behaviour and scores totalled to give a maximum pain score from 0 to 24.

Animals might not be able to communicate verbally, but with the GCPS objective scale of measurement, vets can encourage owners and keepers to speak up on their behalf.

To find out more about our large range of veterinary diagnostic test kits visit our website: www.vetlabsupplies.co.uk or Telephone: 01798 874567

Welcome to The Virosphere – Keeping Watch On New Virus Threats

Posted on by Les Ellison
Welcome to The Virosphere – Keeping Watch On New Virus Threats

Five newly recognised viruses could be of serious future concern to dog and cat owners as well as to veterinary practitioners specialising in companion animal infectious diseases.

Feline morbillivirus (FeMV) is a new paramyxovirus closely related to dog distemper virus. Discovered in about 12% of tested Hong Kong strays suspected of kidney disease, almost 30% of cats tested positive for antibodies against FeMV. The large number of FeMV-positive cats in the Asian survey, and the first cases in Europe and the Americas, suggests that FeMV is set to increase significantly over the next few years.

The pathogenicity of canine circovirus remains unclear

First observed in dogs in 2012, circovirus previously infected only pigs causing post-weaning multisystemic wasting syndrome. Canine circovirus was identified in the liver of a dog with severe haemorrhagic gastroenteritis, and in 14 other dogs that had died showing similar symptoms. However, because some studies show no difference in detection rates between healthy and diseased dogs, the pathogenicity of canine circovirus remains unclear.

Reports of dogs contracting influenza from humans and occasionally from horses have circulated for years, but only in 2004 did veterinary laboratories report a canine-specific influenza virus. Studies showed that the virus originated from the H3N8 strain of equine influenza. A second unrelated canine influenza virus, evolving from an avian-like H3N2 influenza was found in Asia, which then appeared in Chicago, US in 2015. So far, neither the H3N8 nor H3N2 canine influenza strains have been identified in the UK to date; the last reported case of H3N8 was more than a year ago.

Male to male aggression could be a key route of transmission

Because the newly discovered virus felis catus gammaherpesvirus (FcaHV1) is a retrovirus similar to that implicated in human cancer, Burkitt’s lymphoma, veterinary laboratories suspect its possible co-involvement in feline lymphoma. FcaHV1 has been identified in around 16% of cats in the US, Asia, Australia and Europe with up to 32% testing positive for antibodies. Comparison with FIV infection rates suggests that male to male aggression could be a key route of transmission.

The first canine astrovirus (CaAstV) reported in 1980

Named because of their star-like shape, astroviruses are thought cause up to 10% of global human childhood gastroenteritis. The first canine astrovirus (CaAstV) was reported in 1980, with current worldwide infection rates of between 2% and 27%. A UK study showed 6% of dogs diagnosed with severe diarrhoea also tested positive for CaAstV but no detection in dogs free of symptoms. Although this implicates the virus as causative of canine gastroenteritis, other studies tend to refute any link.

Clearly, evidence to connect a novel virus with apparent symptoms of the disease may often be lacking. However, vigilance and diligence remain the first line of defence against new threats to the health and welfare of companion and commercial animals.

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Homed, Homeless or Re-homed – Testing and Vaccination is Key

Posted on by Les Ellison
Homed, Homeless or Re-homed – Testing and Vaccination is Key

Britain’s best-loved pet dogs get the protection of immunisation against distemper, parvovirus, adenovirus, leptospira, parainfluenza virus, bordetella and rabies.  Reputable kennels and breeders offer UK dog owners healthy pups with the confidence assured by routine vaccination and canine diagnostic testing.

Not all dogs are so lucky – 120,000 Chernobyl workers fled their homes

When more than 120,000 Chernobyl workers and their families fled their homes following the disastrous 1986 nuclear accident, they left behind everything including their pets.

The 30 kilometres wide exclusion zone established around the wrecked power plant, to protect the human population from radioactive contamination, is home to around 900 descendants of those abandoned dogs and pups.

With the human population excluded, many of the Chernobyl dogs were seen to be suffering from disease and malnutrition. Their poor health posed a risk to the health of the workers arriving to clean up the former power plant.

Vaccinating and neutering the dogs to improve their health

Fortunately for Chernobyl’s strays, animal welfare organisation Four Paws in co-operation with US charity Clean Futures Fund have set up shop in the Chernobyl region with the aim of vaccinating and neutering the dogs to improve their health and reduce the population.

Closer to home, and for reasons in no way as dramatic as a nuclear accident, large numbers of UK dogs also experience sudden desertion and abandonment by their owners. According to the canine charity, Dogs Trust, Britain’s back-to-school week sees vacation-time ‘nanny’ dogs dumped onto the charity for re-homing.

Caring for a dog no longer fits the household timetable

In September 2016, Dogs Trust gave sanctuary to 220 ‘Mary Puppins’ dogs, originally bought to keep children entertained during the long summer holidays. Once the holidays end and families return to their normal routine of school runs and office hours, caring for a dog no longer fits the household timetable.

The charity estimates that up to 81,000 dogs are abandoned in Britain each year. Despite the best efforts of the Trust and other dog charities, between April 2015 and March 2016 local authorities were forced to put down 3,463 stray dogs that couldn’t be saved.

Dogs are rescued from as far away as Afghanistan

Yet Britain is still one of the world’s most dog-friendly societies. Some of the world’s most fortunate stray dogs find themselves re-homed with a British dog-loving family through one of 30 dog re-homing charities.  Dogs are rescued from as far away as Afghanistan, but most arrive from Eastern Europe mainly from Bulgaria and Lithuania, but increasingly from Romania.

Whether provided by careful owners or dedicated animal charities, the health and welfare of all dogs – homed and homeless, depends on preventative vaccination and canine diagnostic testing provided by professional vets with their veterinary laboratory in support.

To find out more about our large range of veterinary diagnostic test kits visit our website: www.vetlabsupplies.co.uk or Telephone: 01798 874567

The Changeling Coronovirus – Test For Feline Infectious Peritonitis

Posted on by Les Ellison
The Changeling Coronovirus – Test For Feline Infectious Peritonitis

Diagnosing Feline Peritonitis (FIP) requires a veterinary test that can detect antibodies to the widespread Feline Coronavirus (FCoV). FASTest FIP, FASTest CoV Strip and FASTest RIVALTA FIP-VETube help provide a vital early warning of the possible presence of the FIP mutant strain.

Weight loss and lethargy, fever, a fluid-filled chest or abdominal cavity and a laboured struggle for breath. Symptoms that would see any cat owner phoning for the vet are all indications of possible Feline Peritonitis (FIP).

Characteristic symptoms

Perhaps the most characteristic symptom of feline peritonitis infection is the distended, fluid-filled abdomen manifestation of its ‘wet’ or effusive form. In its ‘dry’ form, outward symptoms, depending on the organs most affected, might include excessive thirst and urination (kidneys), jaundice (liver) and neurological disorders.

Yet the particular strain of virus that causes FIP is understood not to be infectious between cats. Rather it is a pathogenic mutation, that occurs within an infected cat, of a relatively harmless and widespread virus.

Infection rates can be as high as 100% in colonies and multi-cat households

FIP is a mutant strain of the Feline Coronavirus (FCoV). Feline Coronavirus is most common where many cats live closely together such as in catteries, cat rescue centres, multi-cat households and semi-wild city colonies. Where a large number of cats are kept together, the infection rate can be as high as 100%.

The symptoms of FCoV infection are generally limited to intestinal disorders such as diarrhoea. The virus multiplies itself in the digestive tract of infected animals, quickly invading the cattery, household or colony via the cat’s faeces.

Potentially fatal FIP symptoms arise when the coronavirus spontaneously mutates into the virulent stain known as Feline Infectious Peritonitis Virus (FIPV). FIPV invades and destroys key components of the immune system contributing to a death rate of up to 95% of infected cats.

Overcrowding and poor hygiene are the main drivers behind the spread of coronavirus

There is currently no test to distinguish between FIPV and FCoV. However, clinical symptoms, individual circumstances and the results of veterinary tests for antibodies indicating exposure to FCoV provide essential diagnostic evidence.  Distinguishing ‘wet’ form FIP from other effusive conditions can also help and is made simple and reliable with FASTest RIVALTA-VETube.

Overcrowding and poor hygiene are the main drivers behind the spread of coronavirus. The stress imposed on cats living under these conditions seems to influence the mutation of FCoV into its FIPV form.  As with so many infectious diseases of animals, prevention best effected with by the combined forces of good hygiene, constant vigilance and veterinary diagnostic testing.

To find out more about our large range of veterinary diagnostic test kits visit our website: www.vetlabsupplies.co.uk or Telephone: 01798 874567

Cup of Tea and Dog Biscuit? – Canine Blood Donors Save Lives

Posted on by Les Ellison
Cup of Tea and Dog Biscuit? – Canine Blood Donors Save Lives

The donation of blood and receiving of blood transfusions is a regular lifesaver in human medicine. Animals too often need a vital transfusion following an accident, during an operation or to treat blood disorders including anaemia and low red cell count, diagnosed in the veterinary laboratory.

Just one donation can serve as many as four dogs

Since 2007 Pet Blood Bank UK has been encouraging owners to enter their canine companions onto the charity’s list of 8,000 registered donors. The Loughborough based service runs as many as 5 donation sessions every week at veterinary surgeries and canine centres around the UK.  One donation can serve as many as four dogs and donors can give blood up to 6 times a year providing over 5,000 units (2625 litres) of blood and blood products each year.

The process of donating is simple with little discomfort. A small area of fur is clipped from a foreleg and a local anaesthetic cream applied.  Fluid volume is quickly replaced, with whole blood content restored in around 2 months.

Pet Blood Bank UK doesn’t add any profit margin to the blood it supplies

Just like blood matching in people, donor and recipient dogs fare best when their blood types match. 70% of dogs are type DEA (Dog Erythrocyte Antigen) 1.1-positive, and 30% DEA1.1-negative.  DEA 1.1-positive dogs can receive blood from any dog.  A DEA1.1-negative dog can receive DEA1.1-positive blood once, but then becomes ‘sensitised’ and could suffer a fatal reaction if DEA1.1-positive blood is received a second time.

Over and above the cost of obtaining, processing and storing donated blood, Pet Blood Bank UK doesn’t add any profit margin to the blood it supplies. The charity even recommends that veterinary practices shouldn’t include the cost of blood in their treatment charges.  Any surplus earned by the charity is reinvested in animal welfare and owner education.

Cats, rabbits and guinea pigs may soon be joining the dogs

Though any dog can be considered for their donor register, the health and welfare of donor and recipient dogs is the charity’s biggest concern. Dogs applying to join the register must be fit and well and not under any medical treatment.  Donor dogs must be over 25kg (55pounds), between 1 and 8 years old and up to date with their vaccinations.  Imported dogs and dogs that have travelled abroad, that would require extensive diagnostic testing, aren’t added to the register neither are dogs that have been previously transfused.

Pet Blood Bank UK hopes to extend their veterinary laboratory backed service to include other small and pet animals.  Cats, rabbits and guinea pigs may soon be joining the dogs as they line up for their post-donation cup and tea and a dog biscuit.

To find out more about our large range of veterinary products visit our website: www.vetlabsupplies.co.uk or Telephone: 01798 874567

The Art of Veterinary Communication: Simple Words, Clear Message,

Posted on by Les Ellison
The Art of Veterinary Communication: Simple Words, Clear Message,

However advanced the laboratory technology, and however expert the veterinary practitioner, the critical step in any consultation or veterinary diagnostic test is communicating with the pet owner.

In the treatment of sick and injured animals, the animal’s owner is the veterinary practitioner’s greatest ally. To get the best outcome, for a companion animal or a commercial herd, the owner needs to fully understand what the vet is saying and what they, as continuing carer, are required to do.

48% of those surveyed didn’t feel that annual vaccination was necessary

A recent survey of 2000 cat owners showed that 60% of cat owners understood little or nothing of their cat’s health needs. The impact of this lack of knowledge is revealed in the fact that 48% of those surveyed didn’t feel that annual vaccination was necessary, while 28% didn’t vaccinate their cats all.

Questioned further on why they didn’t understand what their vets told them, the top reasons stated were: too much information given, too many big words used, the vet was too rushed, the vet was distracted by the animal, and no ‘take-away’ message given.

Understanding the vet’s message

Vets have come to rely on accurate, easy-to-read, clear-cut results from the analyses and diagnostic tests carried out in their veterinary laboratories. Veterinary test developers have invested in simple to interpret colour change tests such as the MegaCor FASTest range of diagnostic kits.

Pet owners and keepers are no different to vets in their need to quickly appreciate and trust the outcome of a diagnosis. Most pet owners might not have the specialist veterinary vocabulary.  But this doesn’t mean that owners are unwilling or unable to understand the vet’s message when it’s given in the right words and the right language.

Communicating with the pet owner is clearly the key

Like the colour change diagnostic, keeping the message clear and simple is the key. Something visible to look at is also a good way to focus the attention – of the vet as well as the keeper, on the information to be shared.  If it’s practical and safe, the keeper could be shown the diagnostic, allowed to handle the X-ray photograph or talked through the printout.

It might be appropriate to talk to the owner in the absence of the pet or other distraction to either party. Perhaps most important is for the vet to pose the question: ‘So what?’ on behalf of the pet owner.  Asking: ‘So what does the diagnosis mean for the animal?’  ‘What does it mean for the owner?’ And most importantly: ‘What I, the owner, need to do now?’

The unreadable character of medical doctors’ handwriting has been a standing joke for many years, but not for anyone who’s ever received the wrong prescription. For the vet trying to translate the clear-cut results of a veterinary diagnostic test into clear improvements in an animal’s health and welfare, communicating with the pet owner is clearly the key.

To find out more about our large range of veterinary products visit our website: www.vetlabsupplies.co.uk or Telephone: 01798 874567

Slugs and Snails and Puppy-dog’s Ailments – The Rise in Canine Lungworm

Posted on by Les Ellison
Slugs and Snails and Puppy-dog’s Ailments – The Rise in Canine Lungworm

As its alternative name suggests, the lungworm parasite was not always a disease common among cats and dogs in the UK. The first case of ‘French Heartworm’ appeared in 1975.  In the 40 years since, the parasite has established hotspots in the UK’s more southerly counties, with cases reported as far north as Paisley in Scotland.

UK veterinary laboratories reported more than 80 cases of lungworm, including 6 fatalities in the first half of 2017. Infection with the nematode worm species, Angiostrongylus vasorum, has many symptoms including coughing and shortness of breath, an aversion to exercise, weight loss, vomiting, abdominal and back pain, nervous disorders, unusual bleeding, heart failure, and sudden death.

The life cycle of A.vasorum makes it difficult to eradicate. The adult parasite lives in the small arteries of the lungs and in the right-side heart chambers producing eggs that hatch into larvae.  Larvae penetrate into the lungs and make their way into the back of the throat where they are swallowed to enter the animal’s digestive system.  Finally, the lungworm larvae are passed out with animal’s faeces.

Slugs, snails and even frogs are the usual suspects

Slugs, snails and even frogs are the usual suspects in the spread of lungworm, though exactly how is not altogether clear. The established theory is that the larger slug species, which will eat dog and fox faeces, become intermediate hosts for the maturing lungworm larvae. When domestic cats and dogs eat infected molluscs, anything else that ate them, or lick infected slug and snail slime off their paws, the cycle of infection is complete.

Research estimates the presence of lungworm in UK foxes has risen from about 7% in 2008 to just over 18% today. The highest incidence is in the south-east where up to 50% of foxes are thought to be infected.  This might not be entirely the foxes’ fault.  A high urban fox population – feeding on readily available discarded food, would also be in much closer contact with fouling from domestic animals.

Links to climate change

The increase in infection rates might be linked to climate change with milder, wetter winters boosting the population of larvae-carrying slugs and snails.

Lungworm is not infectious to people, although other diseases that can infect your pet also pose a risk to human health.  Perhaps the most significant of these is the tick-borne Lymes Disease.  Like lungworm, the spread of Lymes in the UK might be linked to changes in the climate and the growth in travel to and from countries where such diseases are endemic.

Keeping your pet safe from lungworm and other parasites 

Whatever the reason for the increase in infection rates, prevention is better than cure, and early diagnosis with veterinary diagnostic tests is vital to effective treatment.  A word with your vet is the best way to find out all you need to keep your pet safe from lungworm and other parasites including fleas, ticks, heartworm, roundworm and tapeworms.

To find out more about our large range of veterinary diagnostic test kits visit our website: www.vetlabsupplies.co.uk or Telephone: 01798 874567

FIV-FeLV Diagnostics More Vital Than Ever as Vaccination Rates Fall

Posted on by Les Ellison
FIV-FeLV Diagnostics More Vital Than Ever as Vaccination Rates Fall

Alarmingly low vaccination rates among UK cats mean that early detection and screening, with a separate or combination FIV and FeLV diagnostic test kit, is more important than ever.

Feline Leukaemia Virus (FeLV) and Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV) are two of the most serious cat diseases and among the most infectious. Although there is an effective and economical vaccine against FeLV, a recent survey shows that almost half of UK cat owners skip their cat’s annual vaccination.

A survey by Merial Animal Health of 2000 UK cat owners found that 48% of don’t take their cats for their annual vaccination, while almost a third don’t have their cats vaccinated at all.

Female cat owners between 18 and 35 were least well informed

The survey uncovered that 60% of cat owners were unaware of or knew very little about the diseases that pose a life-threatening risk to their cats. Further questioning showed that female cat owners between 18 and 35 were least well informed.  35% of the women polled said they didn’t believe vaccination necessary, with 25% of men holding the same opinion.

Feline Leukaemia Virus (FeLV) undermines the immune system of infected cats leaving them open to secondary infections.  Some cats, testing FeLV positive, stay healthy but may infect other cats through their saliva.

At present, there is no proven effective treatment or vaccine against Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV). Because FIV infected cats might live normally but still transmit the infection to other cats, it’s important to test for the virus.

FIV and FeLV diagnosis is vital to the health and wellbeing of the wider cat population

Veterinary testing for FIV and FeLV diagnosis is vital to the health and wellbeing of the wider cat population. With the fall-off in protection rates generally, it’s also important to quickly diagnose individual cats showing the diverse symptoms that might indicate FeLV-FIV weakened immunity.

Saving time for both the veterinary laboratory and worried cat owners, FASTest FeLV-FIV is a combination FeLV and FIV diagnostic test.  Simple, convenient and clear-cut, the test kit’s long shelf life and room temperature storage make it a practical lab-based or field test for individual cats or screening commercial catteries, cat breeders and animal charities on-site.

Sadly, it’s not just cat owners who are skipping their pet’s annual vaccination. A survey by pet charity PDSA found that the proportion of UK dogs not protected from dog diseases such as parvovirus fell from 82% in 2011 to only 75% today.

Reassuringly, 50% of women and 36% of men said they’d welcome more information about their cat’s health. Although 53% named social media and online as their main source of FIV-FeLV and other pet health information, 75% still sought out their local vet as the first point of call for advice on their cat’s health.

To find out more about our large range of veterinary diagnostic test kits visit our website: www.vetlabsupplies.co.uk or Telephone: 01798 874567

Got a Sick Cat? – There’s an App for That!

Posted on by Les Ellison
Got a Sick Cat? – There’s an App for That!

Veterinary apps you can download to your smartphone could mean that home-based veterinary diagnostic testing and even treatment is just a screen-swipe away.

Veterinary smartphone apps could change the way pet owners interact with their veterinary surgery. As apps get smarter, they might even replace visits to the vet altogether.

Vets already use apps to access important records and data out of hours or away from the surgery. They can search online resources ranging from guides for antimicrobial treatments, medical regimens, parasite maps and drug effectiveness and toxicity. There’s also a number of useful dosage calculation apps.

Smartphone technology – already in use

Human medicine already uses smartphone technology. Match the right sensor with the right app, and your smartphone can measure, record and transmit everything from your heart and breathing rate, to your blood oxygen and blood sugar levels.

Smartphone apps really do only one of two things. Either they receive and process information for you, or they process and send out information about you. It doesn’t really matter what that information is. Whether it’s information about you or about your pet, it’s all the same to your phone.

So how long before there’s an app that combines online veterinary resources, your pet’s health history and the sensor-based examination your vet would make at the surgery? And then, why not an app to process all that information and make a diagnosis and prescribe a course of treatment?

All this is technically possible, but only if the interaction between you, your vet and your pet was simply a matter of data processing. It’s a relatively simple programming job to match up all the inputs with an output. But what about the missing inputs?

No app will ever measure how much you care about your pet

What’s missing from ‘veterinary diagnosis by app’ is what you know about your pet, and what your vet knows about you and your pet together. There’s no app that substitutes for this all-important relationship. No app measures how much you care about your pet or your hopes, expectations and even fears.

That’s what Evidence Based Veterinary Medicine (EBVM) is all about. It’s why your vet is ideally placed to examine your pet personally, talk to you about your pet and then help you understand the veterinary laboratory tests, diagnostics and treatments that serve both you the best.

Until there’s an app that lets your cat call up the vet and make the appointment itself, you the pet owner will always be the one with the crucial information your vet needs to give the best diagnosis, treatment and care.

Blue Collar Dogs, White Collar Dogs – Our Growing Need for Professional ‘Helper’ Dogs

Posted on by Les Ellison
Blue Collar Dogs, White Collar Dogs – Our Growing Need for Professional ‘Helper’ Dogs

Selected, trained and accredited, working dogs have achieved – and even deserve, professional status. With private medical care, the equivalent of staff associations and even a retirement plan, some canine professionals seem to have better career prospects than their human equivalents.

Perhaps the best known ‘professional’ role for dogs is the Guide Dog. Providing invaluable, dedicated assistance to thousands in the UK and as many as two million worldwide, the Guide Dog or ‘Seeing Dog’ may have the ultimate career dog. Selected for training while still a pup, apprenticed, accredited and comfortably retired, it is a profession with a high failure rate of dogs that just don’t make the grade.

Hearing Dogs provide a parallel service to Guide Dogs

White-collar opportunities have opened up for a wide range of Assistance and Helper Dogs. Hearing Dogs provide a parallel service to Guide Dogs, while an increasing number of Therapy Dogs are entering the medical and healthcare professions.

Finding roles in hospitals, care homes, schools prisons and other institutions, Therapy Dogs provide comfort to people struggling with loneliness, anxiety and disorders such as autism. Specialist teams are working with ‘Dr Dogs’ whose keen olfactory senses may help with diagnostics ranging from diabetes to prostate cancer.

Selected by breeding and lineage over many generations

In the blue-collar world of technically skilled work, there have always been niche roles for dogs in agriculture and security. Selected by breeding and lineage over many generations, Herding Dogs are, perhaps, the aristocracy of the working-dog world. And until the rise of the more media-savvy Agility Dog, Herding Dogs were the only canines to publicly compete against each other for honours and trophies.

Since 1899 and the first properly organised training programme in Ghent, Belgium, the Police Dog has always been the ultimate profession for action dogs. But in recent times, the warrant-carrying canines have been eclipsed somewhat by new dare-devil dog roles including Mountain Rescue Dogs, Firefighter Dogs, Drugs Dogs and the ultimate courageous canines, Mine Clearing Dogs.

Just like the changing world of human work, who can predict what future job opportunities might open up for tomorrow’s professional dogs. A return to space travel, following in the rocket-assisted paw prints of Russia’s cosmonaut dogs, maybe. But hopefully with happier consequences.

But if they could speak… honestly, most dogs would just prefer to be someone’s loved companion with a warm home, a balanced diet and regular exercise. Just this, and the promise of veterinary care backed up by a well supplied and resourced veterinary laboratory. Safe from flea and tick-borne diseases, parvovirus, fungal infections and internal parasites, what more could even the most ambitious professional dog really want? Well, your place on the sofa of course.

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