Episode 66: Obesity in Dogs with Dr. Marty Greer

This week, Laura is joined by Dr. Marty Greer, DVM, JD to discuss the prevalence of obesity in dogs. In the US, having overweight dogs has become more and more common, thus shifting the public perception of what a dog should look like. Many owners overfeed their dogs because of their love for them - their dog is hungry, so why not continue to feed them? In reality, over-feeding and under-exercising dogs can lead to many health problems, and a shorter lifespan.

Laura and Dr. Greer discuss some ways to continue feeding your dog more, while decreasing their calorie intake: replacing their typical food and treats with fruits and veggies, or giving them ice cubes to munch on are all great low-calorie substitutions.

Dr. Greer goes on to explain how you can assess your dog's weight just with your eyes and hands, making sure to check that your dog's body conforms to the relevant breed standard.

Transcript

Laura Reeves [0:40] Welcome to the Good Dog Pod! I am your host, Laura Reeves, and I’m excited to have, joining me today, Dr. Marty Greer. We have a topic I think we both feel pretty strongly about, right, Marty?

Dr. Marty Greer [0:55] Indeed.

LR [0:56] And that is loving our dogs to death. I had the idea because I have just seen such continuing rolling, and I’ve experienced it in grooming situations: dogs who are morbidly obese. There was a dog that used to come into my group shop. It was a Bernese Mountain Dog that weighed—I don’t exaggerate—probably 250 pounds. It was sent with buckets of food that it had to eat during the day—during the time that it was being groomed at our shop! It had to be catheterized because its kidneys were shutting down, and the vet said, “It’s the obesity,” and the woman wouldn’t quit feeding the dog because he was hungry. So this, to me, is a relatively extreme example of what I think of when I think of loving our dogs to death. 

MG [1:50] Absolutely. Unfortunately, obesity is one of the things we see but certainly not the only thing. We definitely see it every day, and it really breaks my heart. I have people that come in and say, “She doesn’t eat very well,” and so you look at the dog and they’re 40% overweight. You’re like, “Well, I think she’s eating more than she really needs. So what do you exactly mean by not eating very well?” “Well, I put food down and she doesn’t finish it.” Well, that’s probably because she shouldn’t finish it! 

LR [2:22] She’s not hungry anymore! 

MG [2:25] Exactly. It’s kind of interesting to see the different people’s perceptions. Then we have people that come in with their dogs at an ideal body condition that are maybe competition dogs, maybe pet dogs, and they say, “My friends, my neighbors, my family—they all think my dog is too thin!” and you look at them and say, “This is an ideal body condition. This is what your dog should look like.” The American public’s eye has become distorted by looking at dogs that are overweight or obese for so long that many Amreicans have absolutely just forgotten what a typical body type should look like. It’s really heartbreaking to me. Ian Dunbar has a fabulous thing that he was able to pull off. Personally, I don’t have the personality to do it, but he would squat down next to the dog when he would have these dogs that would come in to his veterinary clinic that were overweight, and he would whisper in their ear, “I’m so sorry, but this is going to be the last time I’m going to be able to see you,” and the owner would look at him and they would say, “What? Are you quitting? Are you going to a new practice? What’s going on?” And he’d say, “No, no, no, no. It’s just that your dog is not going to live very much longer, so I just wanted to say goodbye to them!” Oh my gosh. I could not pull that off. But Ian Dunbar is Ian Dunbar, and he could do it. At that point, he would get the clients’ attention to believe that they needed to start listening to his discussion. It is a very difficult topic to bring up to clients because it’s a hot button for the dog, and sometimes it’s a hot button for them as well, especially if we see clients that themselves are overweight. They don’t want to hear the discussion about their pets’ weight problem as well. It’s not an easy topic for a veterinarian to bring up in the exam room, particularly if they’re there for a wellness visit. It can be really hard to bring up, so a lot of people are like, “My vet didn’t say anything, so it must be okay.” Maybe your vet didn’t say something because they don’t know how to approach the conversation. 

LR [4:28] Let’s stick with the obesity topic for a minute and talk to people out there. “I just want to make sure she has the best of everything,” right? I mean, these people love their dogs. They sincerely believe that they’re doing good rather than harm. What are some of the ways that we can talk to people and help them understand that they are actively harming their dog? 

MG [4:57] Right, so it’s challenging because you have to talk about lifestyle. You have to talk about exercise. And you have to talk about food intake. Those two things go hand-in-hand. I try to explain to people that obesity or being overweight is like a checking account. If you put in too much, you get too big. You’re too heavy. If you take out too much, then you’re too thin. There’s only two ways to lose weight. Either you put in less calories, or you use more calories. Just like your checking account. You either spend less or you earn more. Those are the trade-offs that you have to make. It can require, typically, both an increase in their activity level and decreasing their caloric intake. Then you get to the topic of “How do I decrease caloric intake? Because my dog is hungry or my dog wants to eat or I like to see my dog eat.” People equate eating with—

LR [5:50] Happiness.

MG [5:51] Affection, love. Absolutely. You can understand why. They feel a certain way when they get to eat the things that they want to eat. That’s where it becomes difficult. In fact, my dad—when he entered hospice—I said to the hospice nurse, “He’s not eating very well.” She looked at me, and I realized that she didn’t understand where I was coming from. To me, a dog that’s sick doesn’t eat well and a dog that’s healthy does. That’s one of the very first questions that we ask clients when they come in or when they call on the phone: “Is he eating? Is he drinking? How’s it going?” If the dog is eating, we equate that with they’re probably feeling reasonably healthy. She kind of looked at me like, “Do you understand this?” And I said, “No, no, no, no. You don’t understand. To me, eating isn’t equivalent to feeling okay. If he’s not eating well, it means he’s sick.” She thought it was an emotional thing. And I was more practical.

LR [6:51] Physical. 

MG [6:52] Physical illness. As soon as I told her I was a veterinarian, she was like, “Oh, okay, now I get it.” She was okay with it. But those are the things that we often say. Illness and appetite go hand-in-hand. Yes, I understand why people want to see their dogs eat. I understand that they might have had emotional things that happened as children, as adults: eating equates with feeling good, good health, all those things. It’s too much. You have to figure out a way that you can continue to give treats, and the reward system and the interaction, because people love to feel good about their dog’s appetite. They love to feed them things. But then we have to start trading off: What can you feed your dog that’s appropriate so that it’s no longer an obesity issue? Can you substitute fruits and vegetables like carrots and apple slices for another cup of dog food and make the owner feel good about the relationship and that their dog loves them? I can always tell who overfeeds the dog because when I’m in the exam room, I say, “So, under the kitchen table, when you’re eating dinner, where does the dog sit?” Frequently, I will get a response. If I have a couple in the exam room or people that live together, they’re like, “Oh, it sits under her chair or his chair,” so you can very quickly figure out who’s cheating. 

LR [8:09] Exactly. So, ideas? You had carrots. You had apple slices. Fresh green beans. I will tell you: the most popular treat in my house is ice cubes out of the ice maker. My dogs have learned how to operate the ice maker on their own in the refrigerator and push the lever such that they can release a spray of ice cubes all across the tiled floor that they can entertain themselves with. They love that! 

MG [8:43] Which is all good! We call those “water bones” in our practice. People can kind of associate that. It’s not just an ice cube. It’s a treat! I actually did have a client that had a houseful of Great Danes and they could all run the ice maker. Yes, she would come home to a flooded kitchen, so you’ve got to be careful! Be careful what you wish for! Be careful what you train, because even if you don’t think you’re training your dog, you’re training your dog. They are watching everything you do. So, yes, ice cubes are absolutely the lowest calorie treat that you can possibly feed. Most fruits and vegetables are safe and a great way to feed pets. You have to be aware that grapes and raisins can cause kidney failure, and we don’t know why because we’ve never figured out what the relationship is with home-grown versus commercially-grown versus insecticides. 

LR [9:30] We just avoid them. 

MG [9:32] Exactly. Don’t even go there, even if your dog has always eaten grapes. Don’t continue! You need to stop that. Onions and garlic in too-high an amount can cause some problems, but overall, fruits and vegetables are great. Of course, you want to avoid the starchy ones like corn and potatoes. But otherwise, fresh fruits and vegetables are great. A lot of people have their dogs, this time of year, out in the garden with them, and the dogs start to raid the garden. They’ll eat the asparagus. They would sell it to the grocery store for $6.99 a pound, and they’re out there snacking on it, but it’s so great! Actually, I have one client that came in. It was a guy that was single. He said, “My dogs wouldn’t eat vegetables.” So I went to the freezer, and I pulled out some frozen green beans and tossed them on the exam room floor, and his dogs ate them, and he looked at them like they had betrayed him. He was horrified! He was like, “I don’t like vegetables. My dogs won’t eat vegetables, either.” I’m like, “Dude. Your dogs will eat vegetables. Look! They’re eating them right now.” So, part of it is that when your dog isn’t hungry, for the first two or three days, if you start introducing fruits and vegetables, the dog may not go for it. They may just look at them like no because I don’t really need that, and I’ll just wait for the next bowl of dog food. But if you start cutting back on the dog food by 10% or 20% (whatever your veterinarian has recommended), and you start adding the fruits and vegetables, within two or three days, they’re going to be hungry enough that they’ll start to eat them. Typically, a cup of dog food has around 300 calories in a cup. It may be 280 if it’s diet food. It may be 320 if it’s performance food. But overall, you can kind of bank on it being about 300 calories a cup. But a cup of fresh fruits and vegetables is around 30 calories a cup. It’s 10% of the caloric intake, so you can easily cut 10-20% of your dog’s amount, volume-wise, and substitute it back. Frequently, I’ll suggest if people are working outside the home, that they throw frozen fruits and vegetables into the dish in the morning, because they’re in a hurry and they need to get out the door and get the kids ready and get all that other stuff done. But in the evening, when they’re in the kitchen making dinner, then they can heat up the frozen green beans. We recommend the frozen versus the canned because they’re fresher, they’re less salty, they’re just easier to use. Very quickly, the dog will start to go, “Oh, I got frozen green beans in the morning for breakfast. Another cool treat! I got warm green beans at night.” They think they’re getting two different treats a day, and the dogs are thrilled. You have to make sure you play it just the right way. 

LR [11:53] You know another one, Marty: my mom was the one actually who I got the ice cube thing from. It was her Clumbers that I first saw work the ice maker. Clumber Spaniel could stand up on refrigerator and work the ice maker! But mom’s thing (and for years, and she had her dogs in great health and coat and body weight) was she would feed potato peelings, carrot peelings. As she’s prepping dinner, she’s putting those types of things in a bowl that’s going to be a topper (if you will) for the dogs. Her dogs were insane for potato peels! 

MG [12:30] Might as well. Not every dog likes every fruit and vegetable equally, but you can do that and then of course when you get the wilted greens (if your lettuce was a little wilty—not slimy and gross but a little wilty) or the stems of the asparagus or the broccoli that are just a little tougher than you care to chew on, the dogs have those big, sharp teeth and they’re meant to chew on things that are really hard, so there’s a lot of ways that you can use it. Then the other thing is, of course, I save all the bones that I have left from my meat. (I’m not a vegetarian.) So if I have chicken bones and beef bones and that kind of thing, I throw them all in the freezer and I throw the wilty vegetables, the celery that might not be quite right or the carrots that aren’t quite perfect—throw them in the freezer. When you get enough of them in a batch, you can throw them in your Crock Pot or your Instant Pot. Cook them down. Take out the bones. If you run your Instant Pot 3 or 4 cycles on 35 minutes each, then you can get those bones to be soft enough to just crumble in your fingers, so you can throw everything in. It’s great for puppies. I start my puppies on fruits and vegetables when they’re really young. I sold a puppy last year to a lady who’s been a client for a number of years, and she called me this year, and she said, “Did you feed cantaloupe when the puppies were little? Because this year when cantaloupe came into season, Ember went nuts.” So, yes, I took the cantaloupe and the honey dew melons, and I cut them in half, and I scooped out the seeds, and I cut it kind of like you would a grapefruit, so it’s still in the rind but the fruit was a little bit easier. Every day, I would give the puppies something different for a fruit or vegetable because it was a great experience. If you’re going to do your puppy raising with 100 experiences in 100 days (and it was during Covid and there was nowhere to go), then the experience was one day it was cantaloupe and one day it was watermelon and one day it was carrots and the next day it was broccoli. We can have a whole bunch of experiences, and the puppies learned to love vegetables and fruits when they were babies. This wasn’t something, to them, that was foreign.

LR [14:26] I love that! That’s a big part. What can we do to get their diet to an appropriate place? Now, how do we train our eyes? Every single human being who owns a dog and has been to a veterinarian’s office has seen those charts. How do we make sure that people can apply that chart that y’all have taped on the wall to their own dog? 

MG [14:53] Right. There are some scores that go 1-5, so 3 is ideal and 5 is obese. There are other charts that go 1-9, where 4-5 is ideal and 8-9 is obese. There are different ways to score it, but basically your veterinarian can pretty quickly score your dog’s body condition. To me, the easiest way to teach a client to do their own body condition scoring is if they make a fist with their hand and they feel the back of their hand between their wrist and their knuckles, the ribs should feel like the back of your hand. You should feel them. You should not see them. Unless you have a Saluki, and then maybe you should see them. If you have a dog that’s underweight and you make your hand into a fist and you go across your knuckles, that’s how the ribs would feel if the dog is too thin. You should not be able to feel big, bony ridges across the dog’s rib. It should feel like the back of your hand. If you’re not sure, then the other thing to do is to flip your hand over and feel the heel of your hand where that squishy spot is, just above your wrist. That’s what a dog feels like when they’re too fat. You’ve got 1, 2, 3. The back of your hand is ideal. The knuckles of your hand are too skinny. And the ball of your hand, which is too fat. 

LR [15:56] That is genius! Marty, that is like the coolest. That’s genius. 

MG [16:00] It’s simple. You teach it to your kids. You teach it to your spouse. You teach it to your kennel help or whoever is feeding dogs. It’s really easy now. Standing from above the dog, you should see that they have a little bit of a waist, unless they’re a Labrador. Standing from the side, you should see they have a little bit of a tuck up in most breeds. Different breed standards are going to require slightly different body types, but you can go to the AKC website, look up your breed, look up the body type, and you can very quickly see what the description is and see the images that they have up there. Should the dog have a tuck up? Should they have a waist? Should they be slender? How deep should their chest be? All those pieces. Really, the back of your hand is the easiest and most portable. Most everybody has 2 hands, so if you’ve got them both, you can very easily assess what the body condition score should be: simple, straightforward. Teach it to your kennel help. Teach it to everybody around you that’s feeding the dogs, and they can very astutely assess what’s going on.

LR [16:55] The great news is once you know what the best weight is for your dog, and you know what that looks like, it’s very easy to assess when that changes. I have a young dog here that I just neutered. He’s 3 years old. He’s not going in my breeding program. He’d run really thin, and I’d been trying to get weight on him. I neutered him, and I do not lie to you: it was not a month before I’m like, “Dude, you are fat!” It’s quick and easy, and you just cut out a small amount of food. He’s fine. He isn’t dying. But he was going to—if he kept getting fatter.

MG [17:33] We typically tell people that when they spay and neuter their pets, they need to cut their caloric intake by 25% almost instantly. 

LR [17:42] It was almost instantly! I was amazed. 

MG [17:46] When they spayed me, I put on 10 pounds immediately. 

LR [17:49] I wish it was only 10 when they spayed me! 

MG [17:52] Very quickly, it happens. That 25% caloric reduction helps. And then the other thing, of course, is to increase activity level. Seasonally, that can be more challenging in some places than others. In our winter times, it’s slippery, it’s cold, it’s dark, it’s really tough to walk your dog and get good exercise because it can be dangerous to be out there when it’s icy and slippery and scary. If you live in more temperate climates, of course, you have other opportunities. But your summers are hotter, so you’ve got to time things so you can walk when the weather is appropriate and when the roads are safe and when there’s not too much salt down and all those things. Activity level can be really difficult. You can buy doggy treadmills. You can buy treadmills and modify them. There’s a lot of places where people figure out ways to increase their dog’s activity. Frankly, cutting back on calories is probably the most effective way to do it. The other thing that we tend to use a lot of is you can use popcorn that’s not popped with oil or butter, or you can use Cheerios. Cheerios have 3 Cheerios to 1 calorie—not the other way around. It’s not 3 calories to a Cheerio. I actually had a staff member count a cup of Cheerios one day for me. There’s 3 Cheerios to a calorie, and what we can do in that is we can take a steel container, put the Cheerios (plain ones, not honey nut, the generic ones are fine), put a drop or 2 of liquid smoke into the container that’s sealed and the Cheerios then smell like dog treats. The dogs love them. So you can buy a bottle of liquid smoke for $8 at the store, and it will last you the rest of your life because it only takes 1-2 drops of liquid smoke in a jar of Cheerios. Box of Cheerios, a sealed container, a couple drops of liquid smoke, seal it up, give it 2 days, and the dogs think they’re eating snacks. It’s awesome. 

LR [19:36] That is genius! I am very happy to know about the 3 Cheerios to a calorie because it’s my favorite breakfast food! 

MG [19:46] There you go! You can eat a lot of Cheerios. 

LR [19:47] Exciting! And Cheerios are gluten-free, for those of us that have that issue. Not usually the dogs, but me. So these are some really, really good ideas and suggestions as we go around obesity. Let’s talk about some other ways that we can really love our dogs to death. One of the ones that we talked about was boundaries. Crate training, like that.

MG [20:13] Unfortunately, a lot of people are reluctant to use crates, whether they’re traveling or whether they’re at home. We see far too many dogs that ingest foreign bodies or toxins, and they get into trouble because the client doesn’t want to put their dog in a crate or in a small, confined room when they leave the house. So the dog gets free run, and they get into sugarless gum or they get into rat poison or they get into toys and socks and dish cloths. 

LR [20:37] Electrical outlets…

MG [20:38] Yeah, there’s so many dangers in our homes that we don’t really think about. When you turn the dog loose in the house and you leave them for 4 hours or 8 hours, they have plenty of time to think of all kinds of things that you never would have created that they could have gotten into. So it’s really important that we keep our dogs safe when we’re not able to supervise them. Baby bottle nipples. Socks. Underwear. Dog toys. Squeakers. You name it. If it can go down a dog, it’s going to go down. What I learned about dogs and humans are really kind of interesting because if a kid swallows something and it gets stuck in their esophagus, if they can get it into the stomach with an endoscope, the kid will pass it through their intestines. But dogs are the other way around. Dogs can swallow things that are too big to pass for the intestines and, in fact, do it fairly regularly. Many, many dogs end up in surgery for corn cobs and underwear and socks and dish cloths and dish towels and all kinds of stuff. The things that dogs tend to eat are things that smell the most like us: the palms of our hands, the bottoms of our feet, our underwear. Things like that, dogs are really attracted to—unfortunately. It’s pretty dangerous for them to get into those things. If they eat small things that are going to pass, I feed canned spinach and get them to pass through that way. But canned spinach isn’t going to get the dish towel to pass through the dog. You’re going to have to do surgery. That’s going to be several thousand dollars, or you’re going to lose your dog. I mean, tutus… You name it. Dogs swallow knives. 

LR [22:11] It’s unbelievable to me, sometimes. And leave them alone all day—I think about the one that somebody turned their back on for half an hour and it ate God only knows what. We nearly lost her and an entire litter of puppies. She had to have a C-section 2 days early. Everybody lived, and it was a miracle. That was 30 minutes of inattention. Okay, when a dog gets to be 10, it’s probably—probably!—not going to do this anymore. But young dogs? Absolutely. 

MG [22:50] Every chance they get.

LR [22:51] For me, it’s like: Would you leave your 5-year-old unattended in the house for 4, 5, 6, 8 hours? 

MG [23:00] Not even close. No! The same in vehicles. A lot of people are reluctant to put their dogs in a crate when they’re traveling. Unfortunately, even a quick trip to the grocery store, the dog could end up going through the windshield or getting out of the car. Accidents happen very quickly. I actually have one client that I am quite certain passed away in a car accident because her dog was an aggressive dog to begin with, and when she had a very serious car accident, would not let the EMTs get into the vehicle to help her without them becoming injured. I think that delayed her care enough that we probably saw her pass away because of that. Think about things that you never would think about! Your dog, your pets, should be in crates when you’re traveling. It’s just not safe for them. They can be a projectile in the vehicle. They can step on the gas, step on the break, fly around. 

LR [23:47] Distract you. 

MG [23:49] Exactly. It’s just not safe for your pet to be wandering around the car. I personally rolled a vehicle when my kids were in junior high. If the cat had not been in a carrier… We ended up upside-down. Wheels up in the air. Kids hanging from the seatbelts. My daughter has never forgiven me to this day for releasing the seatbelt on my son before her, because he was closer. She still carries around this baggage from 20 years ago, like, “You got him out of the seatbelt first!” But the cat would have escaped out the broken back window and would not have ever been seen again if it hadn’t been that he was in a crate. It’s super important that you think about those things. Airbags? Dogs in the front seat—airbags will kill a dog. Even tethered or put in a little seat…

LR [24:30] I was going to ask you about it. I have people that I’ve talked to, and they feel so strongly about this, and it’s really hard for me to speak to them and help them visualize why this is so important. As a veterinarian, can you speak to the concept of these doggy seatbelt harness things?

MG [24:51] They’re better than the dog being loose in the vehicle, but they’re not safe enough. I’ve still seen cars in bad accidents where the dog ends up really badly injured. I’ve seen dogs with broken backs and dogs with broken appendages. It’s just much better. One of my favorites was a dog that had bitten into a fishing lure, so they put the dog in the car, and they brought it to the vet clinic. By the time they got there, it was a treble hook. Now one hook was in the dog, and the other hook was attached to the seat of the vehicle. Now we had to release the dog from 2 things. Before we could even get it out of the car to bring it into the clinic to treat it, it had attached 2 of the treble hook pieces to the seat. If it can go wrong, it will.

LR [25:35] My jaw is literally hanging open. That is a new one. I thought I had seen a lot of crazy stuff. 

MG [25:42] There’s always something that you haven’t seen. I’ve been in practice for almost 40 years. About the time you think you’ve seen it all… Look at that! Never could have imagined that that would actually happen. It was a John Deer fishing lure. I still remember. I have pictures. I take pictures of everything! I’ve got a lot of great pictures. Of course, the other things are medicating and brushing your dog’s teeth. We have clients that say, “My dog won’t let me put ear drops in. My dogs won’t let me give him a pill. My dog won’t let me trim his nails. My dog won’t let me brush his teeth.” Seriously, when they’re little babies, you need to get them accustomed to being handled and all those things happening because it is craziness that you can’t medicate or treat your own dog. It’s important that when they’re little, you teach them these things. You teach them the skills. You don’t have to have a come-to-Jesus meeting. You just have to be firm, and you have to give them good rewards. After their teeth are brushed, give them a piece of cheese. Cheese is good for the teeth. There are certainly things you can do to convince your dog that it’s appropriate for you to go through all these things. We have dogs that come into the vet clinic that have to be sedated for things that are basic care because they weren’t managed well when they were little. Sometimes it’s not the owner’s fault because they didn’t have them when they were little babies. But you need to start doing those things, starting with early neurological stimulation on day 3 and going all the way through puppyhood so those little dogs are accustomed to being—not manhandled—but appropriately handled and understand that what you’re trying to do is not going to hurt them. Karen Oakdale has a great video. She teaches her dog to hold his breath so when you take an X-ray of the dog, the dog literally inhales and holds it for the X-ray. It is the coolest thing. You can look online and find her video and learn to teach your dog those things. 

LR [27:33] I think it is so imperative. As a professional dog handler, most of the dogs—not all—but most of the dogs I’ve had that I showed have had some foundation work, but I spent 6 years working as a pet groomer. Those 6 years were not attractive! The number of dogs… I understand that folks don’t want to hurt their dog. So they’re afraid to trim the toenails because they might cut the quick. If people are interested in techniques on how you can trim your own toenails, we have a variety of videos and a variety of things available here at the Good Dog Pod to talk about that. But it is so important! I know kids aren’t dogs, and dogs aren’t kids. I understand that. But the idea of boundaries is the same. If you say, “You shouldn’t touch the hot stove,” and the child touches the hot stove and gets a bad burn… It’s safety for our animals and wellbeing for our animals. Just because the dog pulls his foot away is not a reason to not do that particular procedure is what I would suggest.

MG [28:48] Exactly. Oral health. Basic medications. I am stunned every day by people that say, “He won’t let me do that.” Really? Don’t you pay the rent? Don’t you pay for the mortgage on your house? Why is your dog telling you what they’re going to let you do? That’s not okay. You don’t have to be mean. You just have to teach them. You can do it gradually. You can desensitize them. There’s many techniques, like you said. But I really don’t like having to put a muzzle on a dog. I don’t really like having to change the medications we use because an owner can’t medicate their pet. I don’t want to put them in a hospital or make them drive to the clinic twice a day for meds. It just doesn’t make any sense to me. By setting some boundaries and teaching some basic skills, you can do a lot of things to teach dogs to allow you to appropriately handle them. It’s really pretty funny when I have dogs that come in and they love having their teeth brushed so much that their owner can’t brush their own personal teeth without brushing the dog’s teeth. Those are all things about a mindset. Those are all things about training. It’s no different than teaching your dog to eat a carrot when they’re a baby. There’s so much you can do, and they’re so easy to mold into what you want them to be if you start little and you start working with them and you work hard at it. You can make such an impact in your dog’s future and their lifelong health! We don’t know anybody that comes into the veterinary clinic when their dog is elderly and says, “Yeah, I’m ready for them to go!” But by managing your dog’s dental health, by managing your dog’s food intake and their exercise level, it often gives 2 years to your dog of healthy life! If you want to do the 7-year-ratio, that’s 14 years to you and me. We don’t have people that come in and say, “Nope! I’m good! I’m ready for him to go.” If you said to them when they’re 2 years old, “I could give you 2 more years of life if you do X, Y, and Z,” clients will do it because they understand it. But veterinarians need to teach them that, and clients need to listen to their veterinarians and realize they’re not trying to pick on them or beat them up. They are trying to provide good health: good ear care, good dental care, good weight control, good exercise—all those things.

LR [31:03] Grooming! I’m going to go back to grooming. 

MG [31:08] Absolutely. So we can make a difference in our pets’ lives and give them good quality longevity by doing basic things. Just thinking about it and listening to what your veterinarian is telling you is best for your pet’s health.

LR [31:20] Excellent. Marty, thank you so much. I really appreciate your time. I’m particularly grateful that you were kind enough to take a tiny moment out of your amazing vacation to talk to me, so thank you.

MG [31:36] It’s always a pleasure!