Podcasts about veterinary sports medicine

This episode is an audio recording of a live webinar presented by Dr. Matt Brunke. Please note that he refers to visual slides during the session. The video recording will be available to view on YouTube shortly. Join Dr. Matt Brunke, DVM, DACVSMR, as he presents “It's Not the Cartilage, It's the Synovium”, a deep dive into the evolving understanding of canine osteoarthritis. In this informative session, Dr. Brunke explores the critical role the synovium plays in the pathophysiology of osteoarthritis, modern approaches to diagnosis, and a review of current evidence-based intra-articular (IA) therapies.With certifications in rehabilitation, pain management, and acupuncture, and as a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation, Dr. Brunke brings a big-picture, practical perspective to managing orthopedic and neurological conditions in dogs.Whether you're a veterinarian, rehab specialist, or veterinary nurse, this episode offers valuable insights into more targeted and effective strategies for OA treatment in canine patients.

In this equine focused episode, our sports medicine experts James Bailey and Federica Cantatore discuss the application of technology in the lameness exam. Our guests reflect on the evolution of gait analysis systems from their lab roots to versatile, in-field tools. They consider the importance of case selection, where gait analysis systems are likely to add value and touch on their use in the pre-purchase exam. They highlight the limitations of the systems as well as their benefits such as the ability to provide objective data, overcome expectation bias and other subjective influences. Our HostAdam is a EBVS and RCVS Specialist in Equine Internal Medicine having successfully becoming an ECEIM Diplomat in 2021. He has spent the majority of his early career in clinical academic practice, having several roles at the University of Nottingham. More recently Adam has ventured into private practice having worked at both Donnington Grove and Oakham Veterinary Hospital as an equine internal medicine clinician over the past 18 months. Adam currently splits his time between his clinical role at Oakham Veterinary Hospital and as Equine Development Lead within the L&D team at IVC Evidensia.  Our GuestsJames BaileyJames graduated from the Royal Veterinary College, staying on to work with their musculoskeletal research group, further developing his expertise in objective gait analysis for the accurate and quantifiable assessment of lameness in horses. He has worked in 100% equine practice locally developing expertise in sports medicine and rehabilitation. He has worked with competition horses of all levels and regularly provided veterinary care at the regions FEI competitions.James has numerous clinical publications and has presented his work at the International Conference in Equine Locomotion. He is currently working on a Horse Trust funded research project to improve management of acute and chronic pain in horses as part of The University of Nottingham's Equine Pain Research Group.Federica CantatoreFederica graduated from the University of Veterinary Medicine of Turin (Italy) in 2014. Immediately after, she moved to United Kingdom to perform a rotational internship at Pool House Equine Clinic. After completing the internship, she remained in the hospital as junior clinician with particular interest in lameness cases. Federica has passed her Diploma examinations and is now a boarded diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation (ACVSMR).In 2017 she started an alternate residency pathway between University of Veterinary Medicine of Turin and Pool House Equine Clinic. In 2022, she obtained a Certificate in Advanced Veterinary Practice (Equine Lameness Diagnosis and Therapeutics) with University of Liverpool and the following year, the Diploma on the American College of Sport Medicine and Rehabilitation.Links:Pool House Equine Clinic pages: https://www.poolhouseequine.co.uk/referralsOakham Veterinary hospital pages: www.oakhamvethospital.co.uk/referral/equine-referrals/referral-informationEquine Gait Analysis Society: https://www.egas.academy/egas-courseBEVA: https://www.beva.org.uk/CPD-and-careers

Send us a textPioneering Veterinary Sports Medicine and RehabilitationIn this episode of Vet Life Reimagined, we are joined by Dr. Laurie McCauley, a pioneer in Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation. Dr. McCauley shares her inspiring journey from general practice to becoming one of the first certified specialists in her field. She discusses some of her past career challenges including her initial unsupported interest in acupuncture, and how she established the first rehab clinic for pets with innovative treatments like the underwater treadmill. Dr. McCauley also opens up about her late diagnosis of autism at age 56 and the importance of understanding neurodiversity within veterinary medicine. The episode highlights the significance of perseverance, the impact of empowered learning, and advocating for women in veterinary leadership roles.Resources:Episode on YouTubeOptimum Pet Vitality & Dr. McCauley's coursesAmerican College of Veterinary Sports Medicine & RehabilitationAcademy of Physical Rehabilitation Veterinary TechniciansCanine Rehabilitation InstitutePeter Attia's The Drive podcastHannah Gadsby, comedianFollow Dr. Laurie on:FacebookInstagramLinkedInYouTubeSubscribe to Dr. Laurie's NewsletterTime Stamps:00:00 Introduction to Dr. Laurie McCauley01:38 Early Aspirations and Challenges03:02 Navigating Veterinary School and Early Career07:32 Pioneering Veterinary Sports Medicine10:48 Creating the First Rehab Clinic14:08 Innovations in Animal Rehabilitation23:54 Board Certification and Teaching27:29 The Joy of Teaching and Making a Difference27:57 Teaching Veterinary Technicians and Expanding Education28:46 Balancing Work and Personal Life29:26 Starting Fresh in North Carolina30:44 Empowering Pet Parents Through Education32:41 Addressing the Veterinary Shortage34:28 Global Impact of Online Courses35:49 Adopting and Rehabilitating Dogs43:14 The Importance of Exercise for Longevity45:09 Diagnosed with AutiSupport the showMore Vet Life Reimagined?

On this episode of Feather and Fur, Brad and Dave are joined by Dr. RuthAnn Lobos, Senior Veterinarian, Nestle' Purina PetCare, and they dive deep into nutrition. Join us as we learn about the science and research that goes into making a quality food, what to look for and what to avoid. As always, we share stories along the way of our hunting adventures and our passion for the outdoors and bird dogs!   A little more about RuthAnn Lobos, DMV CCRT CVAT Dr. RuthAnn Lobos currently serves as a senior veterinarian for Nestle' Purina PetCare. Dr. Lobos joined Purina in 2005, as Veterinary Communications Manager for Purina Pro Plan Veterinary Diets. In this role, she managed the comprehensive VIP experience for the brand, as well as Purina's robust partnership with the American College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation. Throughout her Purina career, Dr. Lobos has worked as Senior Manager of Training and Senior Manager of Veterinary Communication for Purina Pro Plan Veterinary Diets. For four years, she managed the Global Scientific Programs and Events for the Purina Institute, which advances the science of nutrition, promoting global collaboration with veterinary and other scientific thought leaders to help pets live better, longer lives.  She played an integral role in the annual Companion Animal Nutrition Summit, a signature event that connects more than 150 global thought leaders to advance science and research in pet nutrition.   Dr. Lobos graduated from Louisiana State University School of Veterinary Medicine in 2003. She also became certified in canine physical rehabilitation through the Canine Rehabilitation Institute in 2010. She completed her certification as a veterinary acupuncture therapist from the Canine Rehabilitation Institute in 2021. She also is an active member of the American Veterinary Medical Association, American Academy of Veterinary Nutrition, American Association of Rehabilitation Veterinarians, and Colorado Veterinary Medical Association   Dr. Lobos currently resides in Boulder, Colorado, where she spends her evenings and weekends practicing as a relief veterinarian. Outside of work, Dr. Lobos is an avid triathlete and marathoner and enjoys fly-fishing, working with sporting dogs, upland game hunting, hiking and camping with her husband and son. Dr. Lobos has a hard charging, 9-year-old yellow Labrador Retriever, Finn, who her family rescued when he was 2 and continues to keep them on their toes! She recently added a Wirehaired Pointing Griffon puppy, Journey, to the mix and is excited for the adventure of training her first bird dog! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dr. Sybille Molle graduated from Veterinary Medicine at the Perugia University, Italy in 2004. After a period of practice in equine medicine and surgery at AEMMECI equine practice in Rome (2001-2005) and at the Département Hippique of the Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire of Lyon, France (September 2008) she focused her interests on rehabilitation and physical therapy of the horse, which led her to become a Certified Equine Rehabilitation Therapist at Animal Rehabilitation Institute, Loxahatchee, FL in 2010. After that date, she completely dedicated her professional activity to the treatment of sport horses focusing on manual therapies and the more innovative techniques of equine physiotherapy, athletic conditioning, and re-education of posture. Curiosity and the desire to discover some additional techniques brought her to attend in 2011 the courses of the Kinesio Taping Association for human patients. After her initial contact, the KTA asked her cooperation to become the first DVM worldwide to be a Certified Kinesio Taping Instructor. Since 2011 she started developing the education program for the application of the Kinesio® Taping Method for Equines. Dr. Molle has been teaching this program worldwide from 2012 until 2016. In 2016 she ended her association with Kinesio in order to expand this educational program with ARI. Dr. Molle has lectured at many national and international congresses in equine rehabilitation including the application of Equine Kinesio Taping and was a guest author of the 2016 Rehabilitation of the Equine Athlete in Veterinary Clinics of North America, Equine Practice. Since 2019 Dr. Molle is a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation

Osteoarthritis (OA, also known as degenerative joint disease) is characterized by the degeneration of articular cartilage that lines the ends of bones inside a horse's joints. OA is the No. 1 cause of poor performance in horses and accounts for nearly 60% of all equine lameness cases. Horses of all ages can develop OA, but what can you do to slow its progression or treat this disease? Two experts weigh in to answer your common questions about equine OA.This episode is brought to you by American Regent Animal Health. About the Experts: Steve Adair, MS, DVM, Dipl. ACVS, ACVSMR, earned his veterinary degree from Auburn University, after which he spent two years in private equine practice and completed a surgery residency at the University of Tennessee (UT). He is a professor in the Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine at the UT Knoxville and is director of the Equine Performance Medicine and Rehabilitation Center. Besides his board certifications in the American College of Veterinary Surgeons and American College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation (charter member of the latter), Adair is certified in animal chiropractic by the American Veterinary Chiropractic Association and is a certified equine rehabilitation practitioner. His primary research areas include equine musculoskeletal conditions, regenerative medicine and equine rehabilitation.Howland M. Mansfield, DVM, CVA, CVMMP, of Summerville, South Carolina, received her DVM from Tuskegee University School of Veterinary Medicine, in Alabama, and completed internships in both general equine medicine and surgery and in advanced equine reproduction. She is certified in both veterinary acupuncture and veterinary medical manipulation. She has practiced along the East Coast over the course of 14 years, in addition to time in Germany providing veterinary care for some of the most elite show horses in Europe. In 2012 Mansfield was named by the South Carolina Horseman's Council as the Horse Person of the Year for her efforts in equine rescue and in combating animal cruelty. She joined American Regent in 2023 as a technical services veterinarian where she can support the welfare of and improve health care for horses and small animals throughout the U.S.

Osteoarthritis (OA, also known as degenerative joint disease) is characterized by the degeneration of articular cartilage that lines the ends of bones inside a horse's joints. OA is the No. 1 cause of poor performance in horses and accounts for nearly 60% of all equine lameness cases. Horses of all ages can develop OA, but what can you do to slow its progression or treat this disease? Two experts weigh in to answer your common questions about equine OA.This episode is brought to you by American Regent Animal Health. About the Experts: Steve Adair, MS, DVM, Dipl. ACVS, ACVSMR, earned his veterinary degree from Auburn University, after which he spent two years in private equine practice and completed a surgery residency at the University of Tennessee (UT). He is a professor in the Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine at the UT Knoxville and is director of the Equine Performance Medicine and Rehabilitation Center. Besides his board certifications in the American College of Veterinary Surgeons and American College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation (charter member of the latter), Adair is certified in animal chiropractic by the American Veterinary Chiropractic Association and is a certified equine rehabilitation practitioner. His primary research areas include equine musculoskeletal conditions, regenerative medicine and equine rehabilitation.Howland M. Mansfield, DVM, CVA, CVMMP, of Summerville, South Carolina, received her DVM from Tuskegee University School of Veterinary Medicine, in Alabama, and completed internships in both general equine medicine and surgery and in advanced equine reproduction. She is certified in both veterinary acupuncture and veterinary medical manipulation. She has practiced along the East Coast over the course of 14 years, in addition to time in Germany providing veterinary care for some of the most elite show horses in Europe. In 2012 Mansfield was named by the South Carolina Horseman's Council as the Horse Person of the Year for her efforts in equine rescue and in combating animal cruelty. She joined American Regent in 2023 as a technical services veterinarian where she can support the welfare of and improve health care for horses and small animals throughout the U.S.

Dr. Sybille Molle graduated from Veterinary Medicine at the Perugia University, Italy in 2004. After a period of practice in equine medicine and surgery at AEMMECI equine practice in Rome (2001-2005) and at the Département Hippique of the Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire of Lyon, France (September 2008) she focused her interests on rehabilitation and physical therapy of the horse, which led her to become a Certified Equine Rehabilitation Therapist at Animal Rehabilitation Institute, Loxahatchee, FL in 2010. After that date, she completely dedicated her professional activity to the treatment of sport horses focusing on manual therapies and the more innovative techniques of equine physiotherapy, athletic conditioning, and re-education of posture. Curiosity and the desire to discover some additional techniques brought her to attend in 2011 the courses of the Kinesio Taping Association for human patients. After her initial contact, the KTA asked her cooperation to become the first DVM worldwide to be a Certified Kinesio Taping Instructor. Since 2011 she started developing the education program for the application of the Kinesio® Taping Method for Equines. Dr. Molle has been teaching this program worldwide from 2012 until 2016. In 2016 she ended her association with Kinesio in order to expand this educational program with ARI. Dr. Molle has lectured at many national and international congresses in equine rehabilitation including the application of Equine Kinesio Taping and was a guest author of the 2016 Rehabilitation of the Equine Athlete in Veterinary Clinics of North America, Equine Practice. Since 2019 Dr. Molle is a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation

Dr. Sybille Molle graduated from Veterinary Medicine at the Perugia University, Italy in 2004. After a period of practice in equine medicine and surgery at AEMMECI equine practice in Rome (2001-2005) and at the Département Hippique of the Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire of Lyon, France (September 2008) she focused her interests on rehabilitation and physical therapy of the horse, which led her to become a Certified Equine Rehabilitation Therapist at Animal Rehabilitation Institute, Loxahatchee, FL in 2010. After that date, she completely dedicated her professional activity to the treatment of sport horses focusing on manual therapies and the more innovative techniques of equine physiotherapy, athletic conditioning, and re-education of posture. Curiosity and the desire to discover some additional techniques brought her to attend in 2011 the courses of the Kinesio Taping Association for human patients. After her initial contact, the KTA asked her cooperation to become the first DVM worldwide to be a Certified Kinesio Taping Instructor. Since 2011 she started developing the education program for the application of the Kinesio® Taping Method for Equines. Dr. Molle has been teaching this program worldwide from 2012 until 2016. In 2016 she ended her association with Kinesio in order to expand this educational program with ARI. Dr. Molle has lectured at many national and international congresses in equine rehabilitation including the application of Equine Kinesio Taping and was a guest author of the 2016 Rehabilitation of the Equine Athlete in Veterinary Clinics of North America, Equine Practice. Since 2019 Dr. Molle is a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation

Today's Topic: Did you know that 1 in 5 dogs experience joint pain and mobility issues?So what can we do when our dogs start exhibiting mobility issues due to injury, old age, obesity, disease, etc.?  And what are the latest trends, technology and methods that are crucial to get our dogs "back in the game"?That's why we invited triple-board-certified veterinarian, certified canine rehabilitation therapist, and the founder of Canine Sports Medicine & Mobility, a one-of-a-kind mobile specialty clinic, Dr. Patrice (Patsy) Mich, to the podcast, to discuss how veterinarians collaborating with human physical therapists led to a greater understanding of how a dog's muscles, tissues, tendons, and ligaments work together in their body, how she doesn't recommending using an Easy Walk harness for long periods of time due to potential injury, how obesity specifically affects the mobility of a dog, the importance of diet, how to use a prosthetic correctly, and so much more!Guest Bio: Dr. Patrice (Patsy) Mich is a graduate of Colorado State University and has practiced in the Denver metro area since 1991.  She is triple board certified by the American College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation (Diplomate ACVSMR), the American College of Anesthesia and Analgesia (Diplomate ACVAA), and the American Board of Veterinary Practitioners (Diplomate ABVP canine/feline practice).   Additionally, she is a certified canine rehabilitation therapist (CCRT) and teaches canine rehabilitation at the Canine Rehabilitation Institute. Dr. Mich calls her work “mobility medicine.”  Her job is to get dogs of all ages and abilities “back in the game.”  Patients are referred for lameness, performance issues, limb deformities, chronic pain, and when surgery is not possible or is unsuccessful. She utilizes a thorough diagnostic evaluation to plan comprehensive treatment that may include medications, supplements, nutrition, physical rehabilitation, joint and tendon injections, and orthotic and prosthetic devices. See her services page for more information.Having practiced as a generalist for 14 years prior to specializing, she has an understanding of primary care and brings that to her collaborative relationship with referring veterinarians.Connect With Dr. Patrice Mich:WebsiteOther Resources Mentioned In The Podcast:Dr. Chris Zink: For Active Dogs!

Piper and Catie Staszak speak with Lynn Jayne of Our Day Farm about being in The Plaid Horse's film, Dual Enrolled and about running a top business while having a daughter that is a leading junior equitation rider. We also talk with Dr. Lauren Schnabel about tendon injuries and stem cell research. Brought to you by Taylor, Harris Insurance Services.Hosts: Piper Klemm, publisher of The Plaid Horse and Catie Staszak Guest: Lynn Jayne is the owner and trainer at Our Day Farm in Elgin, Illinois, where her students have won at every major horse show. Lynn has been active in the governance of our sport, serving on dozens of committees over the years and is a former member of the USHJA Board of Directors and the National Hunter Jumper Committee.Guest: Dr. Lauren Schnabel is an Associate Professor of Equine Orthopedic Surgery at North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine and is also an Associate Director of the Comparative Medicine Institute at NCSU. Dr. Schnabel completed her Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine, Large Animal Surgery Residency, and PhD at Cornell University under the mentorship of Dr. Lisa Fortier and is board certified in both the American College of Veterinary Surgery and the American College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation. Lauren's research focuses on stem cell immunology, use of biologic therapies to treat musculoskeletal injuries and diseases, and advancing equine rehabilitation protocols.Title Sponsor: Taylor, Harris Insurance ServicesSubscribe To: The Plaid Horse MagazineSponsors: Purina Animal Nutrition, Alexis Kletjian, America Cryo, Nikovian, Saddlery Brands International, Show Strides Book Series, Online Equestrian College Courses,  and American Equestrian School

Cynthia Otto, DVM, PhD, DACVECC, DACVSMR, is a diplomat of the American College of Veterinary Emergency Critical Care and the American College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation. She's a professor of working dog sciences and sports medicine at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine. She's also the Director for the PennVet Working Dogs Center at of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine.

Join us for the latest episode of Rehab Lab with Dr. Julia Tomlinson where we discuss multi-modal rehab techniques and how she gets her patients back in motion. "Dr. Julia Tomlinson BVSc MS PhD DACVS CCRP CVSMT is the Managing Director of TC Rehab and is a board-certified specialist in rehabilitation and sports medicine (Diplomate, ACVSMR). Dr. Julia was the first such canine specialist in the state of Minnesota and is a pioneer in the field of canine sports medicine and rehabilitation. She is responsible for founding the American Association of Rehabilitation Veterinarians (AARV) in 2007 and is a past president of the American College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation (ACVSMR). Dr. Julia earned her veterinary degree from the University of Liverpool, England. She practiced equine sports medicine and surgery (DACVS equine surgery) prior to pursuing her interest in working with small animals and so brings skills from the world of horse sports. Additionally, she obtained her master's degree in ultrasound of the equine sacroiliac joint which generated skills she uses today in diagnostic imaging of muscles and tendons. Dr. Julia has a PhD in physiology from NC State, where she studied pain medications, and she is also a Certified Veterinary Spinal Manipulative Therapist (animal ‘chiropractic' equivalent). Dr. Julia co-edited the textbook 'Physical Rehabilitation for Veterinary Technicians and Nurses' published by Wiley, lectures nationally and internationally at conferences for veterinarians and performs work as a consultant in musculoskeletal wellness for the pet food industry. She also continues to remain an active member of the International Veterinary Academy of Pain Management. Dr. Julia's special interests lie in sports medicine, healthy aging and management of chronic pain." x

Janice Huntingford, DVM, DACVSMR, CVA, CVPP, CCRT, CAVC, is a 1984 graduate of the Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph, in Guelph, Ontario. She is certified in chiropractic, acupuncture, rehabilitation, and pain management. Huntingford is the owner and medical director of the Essex Animal Hospital, Canine Rehab and Fitness in Essex, Ontario Canada. In 2015, she became a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation and in 2018 she received her Masters in Traditional Chinese Veterinary medicine.  Huntingford is a consultant for the VIN Rehab/Sports Medicine/Chronic Pain Board and lectures nationally and internationally on a variety of topics including rehabilitation, pain management, and geriatric medicine. She has co-authored several textbook chapters on rehabilitation and published a number of peer-reviewed manuscripts. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time on her farm/winery with her chef husband, Harold,  her pugs, cats, and horses, a few adult children, and her beautiful new granddaughter, Alina!

Matt Brunke, DVM, DACVSMR, CCRP, CVPP, CVA, is a native New Yorker, having grown up in New York, New York. He received his BS in animal science from Cornell University in 2000 and his DVM from Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine in St Kitts, graduating in 2004. He received his certification in rehabilitation in 2008 from the University of Tennessee Certified Canine Rehabilitation Practitioner program, and now teaches for that program. He completed the practice experience pathway for the American College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation (ACVSMR) in 2017 and passed ACVSMR boards in January 2018. As an ACVSMR diplomate, he believes in a big-picture, practical approach to his patients and enjoys both orthopedic and neurological cases. When not at work, he enjoys running with his dog Penny.

This week on the Cone! Dr. Andy Roark calls us world-renowned veterinary orthopedist Dr. David Dycus to ask about a case. “Hey David, I have a 6m.o. Labrador retriever who the owners say is stiff in the morning when he gets up. What's causing this? Should I blow it off? Should I give it some time? How do YOU treat that?” Links: Dr. Andy Roark Swag: https://drandyroark.com/swag About Our Guest: David Dycus, DVM, MS, CCRP Diplomate, American College of Veterinary Surgeons - Small Animal Director/Chief of Orthopedic Surgery, Nexus Veterinary Bone and Joint Center Medical Director, Nexus Veterinary Specialists (NVS) www.nexusvet.com Co-Founder/Co-Director, Veterinary Sports Medicine & Rehabilitation Institute (VSMRI) www.vsmri.com Editor: Dustin Bays www.baysbrass.com @Bays4Bays Twitter/Instagram

Dr. Pedro Rivera was born in Munich, Germany. He was raised in Puerto Rico, and attended Purdue University for both his undergraduate and veterinary degree. After graduation he returned to Puerto Rico to practice, then moved back to Indiana to work in private practice before starting the Healing Oasis Veterinary Hospital in Sturtevant, Wisconsin with his wife Michelle in 1993. Dr. Rivera earned a certificate of completion from the Options for Animals Veterinary Chiropractic program in 1998. He also completed advanced training at Options as well. He has also studied Chiropractic Neurology from the Carrick Institute and is a Fellow of the American College of Functional Neurology, the only veterinarian to do so. He is also a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation. Dr. Rivera and Michelle established the Healing Oasis Wellness Center in 1998. The school has both a Veterinary Spinal Manipulative Therapy as well as a Veterinary Massage and Rehabilitation programs that are nationally accredited. Dr. Rivera is also on Faculty at the Veterinary Chiropractic Learning Centre in Ontario, Canada as well as the Backbone Academy for Veterinary Chiropractic and Healing Arts in Sittensen, Germany. He also has extensive experience as both a national and international speaker. Please enjoy this conversation as Dr. Rivera and I discuss his upbringing, education at Purdue University, early years in practice, and his experience in teaching Spinal Manipulative Therapy and Rehabilitation to licensed professionals for over two decades. 

If you’d like to support the podcast and all the work that I do then you can! Just head on over to patreon.com/comealongfortheridepodcast and sign up. From as little as a cup of coffee a month, you can help me keep this podcast going. There are many tiers that you can choose from and if everyone who listens gave only $5 per month, it would make a massive positive difference to me.There is a tier in there for a small business subscription just like the one Peter Papp took up from Peter and the Herd, this is the one where your business gets a mention each week on the podcast. Peter works with equine behaviour and trauma recovery. Equine communication. Human and horse relationship building. Peter has had communication with my mare Gypsy, who is the mare with me in the podcast picture and he was spot on about everything so I can highly recommend his work personally. Click here to connect with Peter and the Herd.It’s great to be bringing you another episode and I’m very happy to say we will be more regular again from here on in. The wonderful Lauren Arcay from Canada has joined the team and is doing the reaching out to guests for me and the podcast. The relief and joy I have of seeing a booking for a podcast interview come through into my emails is the best. So thank you Lauren for all you are doing it is so appreciated.In this episode, thanks to Lauren, I speak with Dr Sue Dyson. When I interviewed Dr Ann Bondi from The Saddle Research Trust she suggested I speak with Sue and I’m so glad that we found the time to speak with her because oh my she is out to change the horse world in a wonderful way. She has developed a tool on how to recognise the 24 behaviours indicating pain in the ridden horse.And she is backed by all the science you could possibly ever need.I could read out all Dr Sue Dyson has achieved in her lifetime thus far but it would probably take me 20 minutes to get through it all, and I’m not exaggerating! I’ll shorten it somewhat to give you an idea.Sue is a qualified vet who went on to specialise in clinical orthopaedics and lameness and poor performance in horses. Sue has been awarded fellowships PhD’s and is a Founding Diplomate of the European College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation.Sue has lectured internationally and published widely on equine orthopaedics and diagnostic imaging. She has published more than 310 refereed papers in scientific journals, relating to lameness and diagnostic imaging in the horse.Sue is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the Equine Veterinary Journal, Equine Veterinary Education and acts as a regular peer reviewer for a large number of journals.Sue was been a long-standing member of Council of the British Equine Veterinary Association and is a past President. She has also been a long-standing member of the Board of the World Equine Veterinary Association and Vice-President.Sue has been awarded far too many prizes to list and has been made an honorary member of Societa Italiana Veterinari Per Equini (SIVE), Italy. Sue was inducted into the University of Kentucky Equine Research Hall of Fame.Sue also holds the Instructors and Stable Managers Certificates of the British Horse Society (BHSI) and has competed at advanced level in both horse trials and show jumping, producing horses that have subsequently competed successfully at the Olympic Games and World Equestrian Games. She is a former veterinary advisor to British Eventing. Sue is veterinary advisor to the Saddle Research Trust and to Moorcroft Equine Rehabilitation Centre.And that folks, is her CV cut down to about 5%.Sue as you can see is not only a vet but she is an accomplished horsewoman who knows that to find the real issue with a horse you must do the basic check that most vets do then you have to see the horse ridden to see if the rider has any biomechanical issues that are effecting the horse, then she may even ride the horse herself to see if those issues are still present with a balanced rider like herself.Sue’s tool that she has created will save you money on vet visits, it will give you an educated opinion for your vet to consider, and it may even help to educate your vet on how to deal with pain in horses.Sue has created a tool that we as horse owners need as we know there is an issue with our horse but no vet can find it. Well this tool can.I hope you enjoy this talk and I really hope you can spread the word about Sue’s creation as horses all over the world will benefit if you do.To connect with Sue herself you can email her sue.dyson@aol.comTo see the Ridden Pain Ethogram course click here© Copyrighted Tracy Malone

Dr. Rosemary LoGiudice and Dr. Natalie Marks discuss how together veterinarians can combine efforts to utilize traditional medicine in conjunction with integrative medicine.  And how Dr. LoGiudice, a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation is able to sometimes utilize her expertise using today’s technology with telemedicine, addressing the current reality […]

Your horse’s head, face, and mouth comprise sensitive nerves, bone, and soft tissue. While many of us focus on saddle fit, bridles and bits often get overlooked as a cause of discomfort. Bits can cause mouth pain and injury, and research shows many nosebands are adjusted too tight to the point of cruelty. Is your horse wearing the right bit and bridle?Join our host, Michelle Anderson, as she interviews Dr. Hilary Clayton, Professor and Mary Anne McPhail Dressage Chair Emerita at Michigan State University. You'll learn about the importance of bit and bridle fit, how different types of bits fit and work in a horse's mouth, how to measure the tightness of a noseband, and much more! Dr. Hilary M. Clayton is a veterinarian, researcher and horsewoman. For more than 40 years she has performed innovative research in the areas of locomotor biomechanics, lameness, rehabilitation, conditioning programs for equine athletes, and the interaction between rider, tack, and horse. She has published seven books and more than 200 scientific articles on these topics. Clayton served as the Mary Anne McPhail Dressage Chair in Equine Sports Medicine at Michigan State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine from 1997 until she retired from academia in 2014. She continues to perform collaborative research with colleagues in universities around the world. Clayton is a charter diplomate and past president of the American College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation. She is an Honorary Fellow of the International Society for Equitation Science and has been inducted into the International Equine Veterinarians Hall of Fame, the Midwest Dressage Association Hall of Fame, and the Saskatoon Sports Hall of Fame. She is a lifelong rider and has competed in many equestrian sports, most recently focusing on dressage in which she trains through the Grand Prix level and has earned U.S. Dressage Federation bronze, silver, and gold medals.

About Dr. Chris Zink: Previously named Veterinarian of the Year by the AVMA, Dr. Chris Zink is an award-winning author of numerous books and co-editor of the first ever book on Canine Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation, Co-Founder of Avidog-Zink Ventures, and a world-renowned expert in canine sports medicine and rehabilitation, with over 125 titles in Agility, Obedience, Conformation, Tracking, Hunt Tests, Barn Hunt, Nosework, Coursing, and Rally on dogs from the Sporting, Hound, Working, Terrier and Herding groups. Dr. Zink was also instrumental in establishing the American College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation as the newest specialty in veterinary medicine. Dr. Zink discusses the Fit for Life program with Laura. The program was developed in response to seeing a lot of dogs with a lot of injuries, combined with the knowledge that being at a certain weight and fitness level can help prevent these injuries. Dr. Zink started to see that most people have no idea that dogs need to be conditioned and fit just like humans do to improve their health spans. There's a lack of focus on our dogs' healthy weights - added weight has a lot of negative effects for dogs - it affects everything about our dogs' lives, including leading to things like increased chance of arthritis, which affects mobility issues. Laura and Dr. Zink discuss the importance of starting your dogs right - chubby puppies are set up for a lifetime of trouble, so it's important to start conditioning and health monitoring young. Fit for Life outlines many low-impact exercises that you can do at home with little effort; Dr. Zink gives an example of a rear-leg strength exercise that's featured in the program. Laura and Dr. Zink talk about the importance of repetitions and how you can use reps to get to overload. Fit for Life lets you know how to observe your dog as it exercises, so that you know when they are getting to that ‘overload' point. Getting to overload is the important thing, not the number of reps or the amount of weight. Dr. Zink then gives the background behind the Fit to be Tied program and how important it is that breeding dogs be fit. The program applies specific criteria to each stage of the breeding process (what you should and shouldn't do). While you want your breeding dogs to be fit, you don't want them as thin as you would want a performance dog. In short, why is conditioning important? 1: Dogs that are weak are more likely to be injured, and injuries are expensive. 2: Fitness equates to longevity - who doesn't want their dogs to live longer?

In part 2 with Dr. Evelyn Orenbuch, she looks into collaboration within the veterinary world and how it helps to have a business model of sharing technology and ideas, as well as sharing her animal recovery experience, clinical insights, and her success with the PiezoWave2 modality. Dr. Orenbuch is a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation. As a DACVSMR and a member of the first board of directors and former president of the American Association of Rehabilitation Veterinarians, she is a leader in the field of veterinary rehabilitation medicine. Dr. Orenbuch has helped set the standard for what veterinary rehabilitation medicine should be. Enjoy!

In this episode, I interview the fascinating Dr. Cindy Otto is an associate professor and veterinarian with specialty certification in both Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care and Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation. She has worked in the Emergency Service at the University of Pennsylvania MJ Ryan Veterinary Hospital for over 20 years. She has been a member of FEMA’s Pennsylvania Urban Search and Rescue Task Force 1 from 1994-2010. She is a certified trick dog instructor (CTDI) and has been training dogs for the past 10 years. Most recently she has founded the Penn Vet Working Dog Center and serves as the Executive Director, where she oversees the science-based program to raise and train dogs for detection work. Penn Vet website https://www.vet.upenn.edu/research/centers-laboratories/center/penn-vet-working-dog-center Show Sponsors: FORD K9 LLC.   www.fordk9.com Attend any one of our classes or seminars.  Ford K9 now offers the new CSDT (Certified Sport Detection Dog Trainer) classes.  We offer Level 1 and Level 2.  Becoming a CSDT will help you develop as a trainer and become more familiar and efficient as a trainer working with all types of dogs and handlers wanting to join in the great sport of scent detection. Ford K9 also offers Handler and Trainer courses for those working professional detection dogs such as Explosive, Firearm, Narcotic, Mass Media and Cell Phone Detection. We are offering Seminars of Cognition for Handlers and Trainers in SAR/HRD as well as Wildlife Conservation K9 Teams.  Contact us for more information at www.fordk9.com SHOW YOUR SUPPORT for K9s TALKING SCENTS PODCAST you now have all kinds of gear for you guys from Shirts, Hats, Mugs and more just got to www.fordk9.com and click on the ONLINE STORE

Dr. Evelyn Orenbuch gives an overview of her animal recovery experience, clinical insights, and highlights her success with the PiezoWave2 modality. Dr. Orenbuch is a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation. As a DACVSMR and a member of the first board of directors and former president of the American Association of Rehabilitation Veterinarians, she is a leader in the field of veterinary rehabilitation medicine. Dr. Orenbuch has helped set the standard for what veterinary rehabilitation medicine should be. Enjoy!

Dr Fearnside graduated from the University of Sydney with first class honours in 1995. After working in rural practice for a few years, he completed a surgical internship at the Northern Sydney Veterinary Specialist Centre followed by a small animal surgery residency and specialist training program with the now Queensland Veterinary Specialists. On completion of his training, Stephen was appointed as the Head of the Small Animal Department at the University of Sydney Teaching Hospital at Camden and in 2004 he was awarded his fellowship in small animal surgery from the Australian and New Zealand College of Veterinary Scientists. He is the first and currently only Australian practising Veterinary Specialist to become a diplomat of the American College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation in the canine field. Steve now works at the Small Animal Specialist Hospital in Sydney. His specialty areas include surgical diseases of the spine, wound management, advanced orthopaedics, neurosurgical patient rehab and management of musculoskeletal injuries in sporting and working dogs. Topics include: How did Dr Fearnside end up as a Veterinary Specialist. The importance of rehabilitation in osteaoarthritis. An insight into Steve’s favourite cases. Common presentations of cases of osteoarthritis and how vital it is to have a management plan. The benefits and limitations of joint replacements. A holistic approach to arthritis management in dogs that are not surgery candidates. Dr Fearnside takes us through the 3 pillars of managing arthritis and his approach to each of them. Steve explains therapeutic laser therapy and how it works. Which supplements should we be using before the onset of arthritis and which supplements can help to manage arthritis. The challenges of getting pet parents to adhere to a management plan. The role of regenerative medicine in the future. You can find Dr Fearnside at the Small Animal Specialist Hospital (SASH) in North Ryde and Tuggerah. 

In today's episode we talk to Dr. Maarten Oosterlinck from Belgium. Dr. Oosterlinck graduated from Ghent University in 2004 and has gained extensive experience in equine orthopaedics and surgery at the department of surgery and anaesthesiology. He is a member of the faculty of veterinary medicine of Ghent University. Dr. Oosterlinck earned his PhD on the use of pressure plate analysis for the objective evaluation of equine locomotion in 2011. He went on to perform a residency and in 2014, he passed the qualifying exam of the European College of Veterinary Surgeons. In 2018, he became diplomate of the European College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation. In this episode, Dr. Oosterlinck talks about several of the research projects that he has been involved in, including: pressure plate gait analysis, lameness, canker, and the split toe shoe. Dr. Oosterlinck has published on a variety of equine orthopaedic and surgical topics in peer-reviewed journals, and he lectures regularly at international courses and conferences. He is a scientific editor for Equine Veterinary Journal and a member of the editorial board of The Veterinary Journal and Equine Veterinary Education. In his current position as a postdoctoral staff member, Maarten's daily clinical work is focused on equine orthopaedics, gait analysis, podiatry and surgery, while enjoying clinically orientated research, and lecturing and consulting about various topics in his field of expertise.  

Dr. Lyon testified at the Public Hearing on the Welfare of Racehorses in New York State before the Senate Standing Committee on Racing, Gaming and Wagering and the Senate Standing Committee on Domestic Animal Welfare on Wednesday, June 5, 2019. Dr. Lyons graduated from Tufts University Veterinary School, is an equine veterinarian, and is the founder and director of The American College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation, Homecoming Farm, Inc. According to her testimony, race track veterinarians have abdicated their authority as medical professionals. These veterinarians do not perform physical examinations, make diagnoses, nor develop therapeutic plans. Race track veterinarians simply deliver drugs at trainers’ request. For example, giving an anti-inflammatory drug to a horse is appropriate treatment but only if it's in the context of that horse resting. What you can't do is give that drug and then say, "Keep training. Keep racing," but that's what happens at these tracks. Dr. Lyons has had owners' horses come to New York racetracks from her practice in Florida or Kentucky. Many of these horses had numerous drugs given to them within days of arriving. Drugs are not used therapeutically, which is illegal, and which absolutely contributes to the completely unacceptable development of injuries. She advocates for a new type of CT-scan, developed for humans, that can detect tiny fractures not seen on an X-ray, to be used at every race track on every racehorse to identify preexisting conditions and to avoid breakdowns. The American College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation, Homecoming Farm - http://www.acvsmr.org/

Darryl Millis is passionate about diagnosing canine arthritis in its early stages. Millis, a professor at the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine in Knoxville, is a board-certified small animal surgeon and a founding charter diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Physical Rehabilitation. He has been in the field of canine physical therapy for more than thirty years. Sandra Harbison sat down with the doctor whose work has been instrumental in improving the practice of orthopedic treatment and rehabilitation of dogs.

Join our host, Michelle Anderson of TheHorse.com, as she interviews Dr. Kevin Haussler about equine back pain during April 2019's Ask The Horse Live, a live event that focuses on your horse health questions. Dr. Haussler is an associate professor at the Colorado State University (CSU) Orthopaedic Research Center, where his research focuses on the equine neck and back. During this hour, you'll learn about what causes horses to experience back pain, how it’s diagnosed, and how to make your horse more comfortable.Kevin K. Haussler, DVM, DC, PhD, Dipl. ACVSMR, graduated from The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine in 1988 before completing a small animal internship. To further his training in conservatively managing spinal-related disorders, he pursued human training at Palmer College of Chiropractic-West and completed a veterinary chiropractic certification program in 1993. He completed his PhD, focusing on spinal pathology and pelvic biomechanics in Thoroughbred racehorses, from the University of California, Davis, and then studied equine spinal kinematics at Cornell University. While at Cornell, he directed the newly formed large and small animal Integrative Medicine Service. Currently, Dr. Haussler is an associate professor at the Colorado State University (CSU) Orthopaedic Research Center, where he’s involved in teaching, clinical duties, and researching. He is a charter diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation and a course instructor for the Equine Rehabilitation Certification course, co-branded by the University of Tennessee and CSU.

In this episode, Langdon Fielding walks hosts Peter Cappelli and Dan O'Meara through the life of a professional horse veterinarian!Dr. Fielding grew up in Mill Valley, CA and his first job was at Miwok Stables in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. He led guided trail rides throughout the Marin Headlands as well as Mount Tamalpais and the Point Reyes National Seashore.Dr. Fielding attended college at Harvard University where he rode for the equestrian team (jumping). He attended veterinary school at the University of California, Davis where he was classmates with both Dr. Catherine Jacobs and Dr. Jason Errico. Dr. Fielding then completed a large animal internship at Texas A&M University. After returning to California, he completed board certification in both the American College of Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care as well as the American College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation. Dr. Fielding began working at Loomis Basin Equine Medical Center in 2003 and is currently one of the owners along with Dr. Diana Stolba and Dr. Catherine Jacobs.Dr. Fielding has continued riding throughout his life. In addition to the college equestrian team, he completed the 100 mile Tevis Cup at age 17 and then again in 2010. Dr. Fielding currently rides a couple of days each week but always wishes that he could spend more time in the saddle.Professionally, Dr. Fielding is dedicated to research and learning in the veterinary profession. He has over 30 research publications on topics including electrolyte and fluid therapy, emergency medicine, endurance horses, and neonatal foals. He is the co-editor of Equine Fluid Therapy, the only textbook focused on fluid and electrolytes in horses. Dr. Fielding is currently pursuing an MBA through the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Fielding’s goal is to bring high quality veterinary medicine to as many horses as possible.Learn More about Loomis Basin Equine Medical Centerhttp://www.lbemc.com/ See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Summary: Leslie graduated from Colorado State University’s Veterinary School in 2006. She completed a rotating internship in small animal medicine in Albuquerque, NM then became certified in canine rehabilitation with a focus in sports medicine. She is now a resident with the American College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation. She also helped to create the Certified Canine Fitness Trainer (CCFT) program through the University of Tennessee's NorthEast Seminars and taught it for two years. Leslie is involved in the agility world; she has trained two dogs to their Agility Dog Champion title — their ADCH — and one to ADCH Bronze, an Agility Trial Champion title and a Master Agility Champion title. Multiple dogs have qualified for Cynosports, ASCA (ask-a) Agility Finals, and AKC Nationals. In 2017, she competed with Stig at European Open Tryouts. Most recently she competed with Ghost and Stig at the UKI US Open where both dogs had top ten placements. Next Episode: 2/8/2019 with Loretta Mueller

Summary: Sarah Stremming, founder of The Cognitive Canine and host of Cog-Dog Raido and her partner, Dr. Leslie Eide, join me to talk about their latest addition: Watson, a 6-month-old Border Collie puppy. Next Episode:  To be released 9/21/2018. TRANSCRIPTION: Melissa Breau: This is Melissa Breau and you're listening to the Fenzi Dog Sports Podcast brought to you by the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy, an online school dedicated to providing high-quality instruction for competitive dog sports using only the most current and progressive training methods. Today we have two guests joining us, for the first time ever: Sarah Stremming, of Cog-Dog Radio and the Cognitive Canine, and Leslie Eide. Longtime listeners are undoubtedly are already familiar with Sarah, but let me share a little about Leslie. Leslie graduated from Colorado State University’s Veterinary School in 2006. She completed a rotating internship in small animal medicine in Albuquerque, N.M., and then became certified in canine rehabilitation with a focus in sports medicine. She is now a resident with the American College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation. Dr. Eide also helped to create and teaches some of the classes to become a Certified Canine Fitness Trainer (CCFT) through the University of Tennessee's NorthEast Seminars. Like Sarah, Dr. Eide is involved in the agility world. She has trained two dogs to their ADCH Agility Dog Champion title and one to ADCH Bronze, an Agility Trial Champion title and a Master Agility Champion title. Three of her dogs have qualified and competed at USDAA Nationals with multiple Grand Prix Semi-final runs. And today, these two lovely ladies are here to talk to us about puppies, especially one in particular … . But we’ll get to that. Welcome back to the podcast, Sarah — and hi Leslie! Pleasure to “meet” you. Sarah Stremming: Hi Melissa. Leslie Eide: Hi Melissa. Melissa Breau: To start us out, Sarah, can you just remind listeners how many dogs you have now and who they are? Sarah Stremming: I have two Border Collies. Idgie is 9 years old and she’s my main competition dog right now. And Felix is 3 years old, and he’s in training and just keeping me on my toes. Melissa Breau: Leslie, would you mind sharing the same intro for your dogs, including the newest addition? Leslie Eide: My oldest is Brink, a 12-year-old Border Collie, and he right now is champion of holding the couch down. Next would be Stig, my 7-year-old Border Collie, who’s the main competition dog right now and who most of my online training videos have in them. Next is Ghost, my 5-year-old Australian Shepherd, and she is quickly trying to surpass Stig as the main competition dog. And then finally the puppy, Watson, is 6 months old and 1 day, and he is a new Border Collie. Melissa Breau: So, it’s Watson I really wanted to talk about today. Leslie, would you mind sharing a little on how you wound up with him? And why him … even though that meant bringing him over from Japan? Leslie Eide: It just kind of happened. I didn’t go out looking for a Border Collie and saying, “Japan is the place to get him!” I actually met Miki, who is sort of his breeder but not really, a couple of years ago at Cynosport, which is the USDA agility national competition, or international competition, but it’s always held in the U.S. One of her dogs had something happen to him, and I worked on him at the event and he did really well, and we became Facebook friends and stayed in contact. Last year, she won Grand Prix with her dog Soledea. And Soledea, the weird part about it, actually belongs to someone else. She just competes with her. She announced that Soledea was having a litter, and I had been looking for, I don’t know, probably had my feelers out for about a year, looking for a Border Collie puppy. I really liked Soledea, so through Facebook I was like, “Hey, I’m sort of interested,” and she was really excited about it. When the puppies were born, I many times thought it was too much trying to get a puppy from Japan, and everything you have to go through, and blah, blah, blah, blah. I kept saying, “No, no, no, no,” and finally she said, “I’m getting the puppy to L.A. Make sure you’re there to go pick him up.” And I was like, “OK.” So that’s how it ended up getting a puppy from Japan. It all comes back to the world of sports medicine, and that’s how you find puppies. So a little bit of fate in a way of it was just meant to be, despite all the odds. Melissa Breau: Sometimes, when it’s meant to happen, it’s just meant to happen, and it doesn’t matter how many times you say, “Well, that’s pretty complicated.” You end up with the puppy. Leslie Eide: Yeah. Melissa Breau: I know Sarah has talked a bit about him on her podcast and you’ve both blogged about him a little bit. My understanding is that you guys are doing things a little … for lack of a better word … differently than other agility handlers or even dog trainers might with a new puppy. Can you share a little bit about your approach thus far with him? What are you working on, what have you worked on? Leslie Eide: For me, it’s not much different than I would say I’ve raised my other puppies. I’m maybe what you would think of as a lazy trainer. I’m more about building a relationship than necessarily having a list of things I have to accomplish — “He’s this old, he must be able to do these ten things.” I just let everything happen in a more organic manner of he shows me he can do it, and then I say, “OK, I’m going to reinforce that.” An example is I had him at the agility trial this weekend. He hopped on the measuring table and … we’ve never worked on “stay” a day in his life, and because he was willing to stand on the table, I took the opportunity to say, “Hey, I can reinforce this,” and got some really good training in when it was again more organic of him telling me he knew he was ready for it, rather than saying, “He has to know how to stay by a certain age,” or “He has to be able to know how to wrap a wing jump by a certain age,” that kind of thing. Sarah Stremming: For me, more what I do with Watson is teaching him how to be a dog in this house, and how to go out on off-leash walks — as everybody knows I’m pretty into — and providing him with lots of environmental enrichment. I just want to make sure that he maintains this delightfully optimistic personality that he has. I know that you had Julie Daniels, I think just last week, and she talked about optimism. I loved it. I like that word for describing what he is, because it’s not like he doesn’t have any fears, because they all do. That’s not real. That’s not realistic. It’s more that when he encounters something novel, his first guess is that it’s going to be good for him, and I just want that to stay there, because if that stays there, then agility training is a piece of cake. If you’re not trying to overcome fear of other dogs, or fear of strangers, or fear of loud noises or weird substrates or anything like that, agility training is not that hard, especially for a pretty seasoned competitor like Leslie. I think both of us feel pretty confident in training agility skills and also handling. Not that we can’t improve and that we’re always trying to improve, but for me, I want him to maintain that really optimistic outlook on when something new is happening, he’s game to try it. Leslie Eide: I guess I would add, goes along with what Sarah was saying, is I also want him to learn what it’s like to be a dog in my life. So, like she said, being able to live in a household with lots of dogs, but it’s also about getting used to our schedule. I’m a busy person and usually work 12-hour days, and while he may get to come with me to work, he also has to realize there’s going to be some really boring time at work where he just has to sit and chill. And that happens at home too. So that’s really important to me that he doesn’t necessarily get upset or get stir-crazy or all upset when he doesn’t have something to constantly do. Border Collies are definitely busy, smart dogs, and so learning what our life is like, and not necessarily doing things out of the ordinary while he’s a puppy, and then suddenly, when he’s grown up, being like, “OK, now you’re an adult, and you just have to live with how our life is,” but rather teaching him how to handle it when he’s young. Sarah Stremming: You said, “How are you guys doing stuff differently?” I think that is the primary component, because most sport people that I know, especially in the agility world, really, really want their puppy to have tons and tons of drive to work with the handler. I’m not saying that’s bad. We want that too. But they tend to go about it in a way that seems really imbalanced to me, and the dog experiences isolation/boring-ness or super-exciting training time. That’s not how we live. I guess if your dogs all live in kennels and they come out to train multiple times a day, then you could pull that off. But we both want our dogs to be free for 90 percent of their time. We just don’t want them to be crated, kenneled, etc., for large portions of their lives, so they have to learn how to just hang out early on. Melissa Breau: I don’t remember if it was the blog or the podcast, but I feel like I remember something one of you at one point put out about planning to hold off on teaching certain skills until he’s a bit older. I was hoping you could talk a little bit about that too. What skills are you holding off on, maybe, and sharing a little bit of the reasoning. I know we’ve talked about it a little bit already. Leslie Eide: I think mostly the blog was relating to agility skills, and that a lot of times we start teaching the foundation movements right away with a puppy, like wrapping a wing, groundwork. You’re not necessarily putting them on equipment or doing anything like that, but everything that you are teaching them in some way relates to eventually an agility skill, including convincing them to tug with you. That’s a big thing of “They have to tug,” and it goes from there. Those things I think will come. I’m not going to push for them too soon. That’s kind of going back to the story of working on a stay on the table this past weekend. If he shows me he’s ready for something, then I’ll take advantage of it, but I’m not going to push him ahead of his comfort level. I’d rather him be comfortable with everything, be happy with playing with me, and know that good things come from me and that we’re going to do fun things, rather than taking it straight to an agility focus. Melissa Breau: I’d assume the two of you have had a pretty big influence on each other, and your approach to dogs and all that good stuff, over the years. From the outside, at least, it seems like you’re essentially taking all Sarah’s developed with her Whole Picture approach and applying it to Watson. Sarah, is that accurate? And for those not as familiar with your approach, can you give us the down and dirty version of what I’m talking about? Sarah Stremming: I would say that’s accurate. The Four Steps to Behavioral Wellness is what we’re talking about. That would be communication, nutrition, exercise, and enrichment. The communication front — that’s just training. That’s just having a positive-reinforcement-based training relationship with the dog, where you give the dog a lot of good positive feedback all the time. Nutrition is kind of self-explanatory, and Leslie’s a vet, so I pretty much defer to her in that regard with him. Exercise — I like free exercise. He certainly goes on leash walks, but the leash walks are more about learning how to walk on a leash than exercise. Again, I defer to Leslie in the exercise department because her field is sports medicine. You definitely don’t want to be overdoing it with a puppy at all, and he would like to be completely wild and run and run and run all day long, so we have to talk about that. The enrichment piece is really big for me. We do lots of things for him to shred. You should see our house. There’s cardboard shreds everywhere. So just giving him things to shred, feeding him his meals out of a slow bowl, we have all kinds of little kibble-dispensing toys around, lots of chew bones, things like that. So just making sure that his brain is exercised, his body is exercised, he is not confused, he is communicated with appropriately, and that he is fed well. That’s what we’re trying to do. Melissa Breau: Leslie, I’d guess your background’s had a pretty big influence on your general approach, right? How has your experience as a vet and a canine rehab specialist influenced your views on this stuff and led you to take this approach? Leslie Eide: It’s maybe changed it a little bit, but not much. I’ve always been a little bit more laid back with my approach with puppies. I’ve always had this belief that puppies should get to be puppies and experience their puppyhood, and not just be thrown into intensive sport training right from Day 1. Maybe that’s a little bit of backlash from my own experience of being thrown into competitive swimming as a 5-year-old and doing that for most of my young life, and everything was about training and being really serious. I also would say, from the vet side of things, I think there’s a lot of injuries that can happen when they’re young, and by pushing things and doing stuff repetitively that causes problems at a young age, or maybe they’re not as visible at a young age, but then they show up a little later in life and can definitely cut their careers short. I want to be successful, but I also want to do it for a long time, and not just a year or two and then have to give it up because they’re hurt for some reason. Melissa Breau: We’ve talked quite a bit about what you’re NOT doing. So I’d love to hear … I know you mentioned a little bit of leash walking. I’d imagine you’re doing some other training with him. What ARE you focusing on as far as training goes with Watson right now? Leslie Eide: Well, Sarah’s trying to teach me how to teach him marker cues. We’ll see how that goes. So we definitely have that going on. He gets the basics of “sit” and “down,” and again, most of it is capturing offered behavior, rather than setting out as a training session of “OK, we’re going to learn this behavior.” We do fitness exercises, so I have my building blocks that I use to make all my canine fitness exercises. So starting to work on ones that are appropriate for him, like learning targeting, front paw targeting, rear paw targeting, being comfortable getting in an object or on an object, like a box or a disc or something like that. And then a lot of new experiences still. Most recently, over the past couple of weeks I’d say, I worked to introduce him to the underwater treadmill so he can start getting some exercise in that, since that’s a really easy way for me to exercise him at work. Melissa Breau: That’s so cool. Leslie Eide: Going places, we went to the beach for the first time, he goes to shops and meets people, he goes to agility trials and hangs out. Like I said, at agility trial learned how to do a stand-stay on the measuring table. So I’m the anti-planner. I don’t set out with “We’re going to learn this.” It’s more see what happens and go from there. Sarah Stremming: For me, the things that I need to teach him are things that make him easier for me to manage in a house with six dogs. We’ve recently started working hard on all the dogs are trained to release out the door by name, and so I want Watson also to know that with everybody else. So we’ve been working on some very early iterations of that. And things like the best stuff for puppies is not on the counter or the kitchen table. The best stuff for puppies is on the ground. And body handling, so handling your feet, and looking in your mouth, and accepting passive restraint, as is so important for all of them to learn. Things like that are more my focus with him. Leslie Eide: I would say something that’s really big is playtime, too. That’s not necessarily something like a skill we’re teaching, but just making sure that playtime happens every day in some form. Melissa Breau: Are there skills that you think get overlooked that you’re making sure to cover right from the start? You mentioned handling, you mentioned play skills. Anything else on that list for you? Sarah Stremming: I do think body handling gets overlooked, but for me, especially within the sport of dog agility, I think a lot of people start out with puppies ringside, watching agility, trying to “teach them” to be cool waiting their turn. And then what happens is at a certain age the puppy notices what’s going on in the ring, and they start to wiggle and scream and not contain themselves. And then, depending on the trainer, the puppy might get a correction, or the puppy might be removed from the arena, or they might try to distract the puppy with food, or I saw a competitor once basically just hit the side of her puppy with a tug toy until the puppy decided to turn around and latch on the tug toy instead of squeal at the dogs in the ring. For me, again, it’s an answer of what are we omitting? But it’s about the teaching him the skill of waiting his turn before we ever ask him to wait his turn. The early, early iterations for that, for me, look like feeding all of the dogs a little bite of something, and I say their name and I feed them, and then I say their name and I feed them. Watson is trying to eat everything that I’m feeding, but he doesn’t get anything until I say his name and then feed him. So he’s bouncing around and being ridiculous, and all the other dogs are sitting and waiting, and eventually they go, “Oh, this isn’t that hard. When she says my name, I get to eat.” Just like what Leslie was talking about, they show you that capability when they have it. It’s kind of like a 3-year-old child only has so much self-control, and I really feel that way about puppies too. They only have so much ability to “wait their turn.” So teaching him the skill of waiting his turn way before we ever ask him to wait his turn is a big one for me that I think people maybe don’t overlook, but go about it in a way that I wouldn’t. Leslie Eide: For me, it’s relationship. He can train, and he knew how to do that from pretty much the moment I got him, but he didn’t necessarily know that I was a special person to him. So, to me, it’s about building a relationship before asking him for a list of skills that he needs to be able to do. Definitely, training can help build that relationship, but I think it’s also just one-on-one time, especially when there’s a large number of dogs in the household. And it’s about snuggles and play and that kind of thing. Melissa Breau: Obviously we all TRY, when we get a new puppy, to do everything right, and there’s definitely nothing more stressful than that feeling. But inevitably something goes wrong. We’re out and about and another dog barks and lunges at the puppy, or kids come flying at the puppy’s face, screaming, and they scare the bejesus out of him. Have either of you had to deal with any of those types of moments yet? And if so, how did you handle it? Is there prep work you’ve done, or things you do in the moment … or even afterwards, stuff you do for damage control that you can talk about a little bit? Sarah Stremming: We honestly haven’t had anything big that I have experienced, but there have been things that he saw and went, “Huh, I’m not sure about that.” Like, we had him in this little beach town after running on the beach and there was a lot of construction going on, and so there was a jackhammer going into the concrete, and he wasn’t sure if that was what should be happening, and I can’t blame him, really. What was important for me, and what I usually tell people to do, is as long as the puppy is still observing the thing, allow them to continue to observe the thing. So he looked at it until he was done looking at it, and then he turned away from it, and then we all retreated away from it together. I think what people try to do instead is they try to distract the puppy away from it with food, or they try to make it a positive event with food, or they try to drag the puppy towards it, maybe, or lure the puppy towards it, and it’s best to just let them experience their environment from a distance that they feel comfortable with. He really hasn’t had any huge startles about anything. I tend not to let him see a lot of people unless I know them, because he is going to jump on them and I don’t want them to be a jerk about that. He did meet one strange dog that I hadn’t planned on him meeting once on a walk. And that dog — I actually posted a video of this on the Cognitive Canine Facebook page — that dog was inviting play before Watson was ready, and he scared Watson a little bit, but not terrible. What was amazing was that Felix walked up and intervened, and then the dog played with Felix. Watson still stayed there, and then he was like, “OK, I can tag along if there’s three of us, but I don’t want to be the center of attention.” If he had run away, let’s say that dog had really scared him and he had tucked his tail and run towards me or something, if the puppy is coming to me looking for shelter from whatever it is, I always give it to them. So I would have absolutely picked him up and just allowed him to look at the dog from a distance. But I tend not to try to involve food in those moments unless the dog is trying to approach. Let’s say, when Felix was a puppy, he saw a fire hydrant, seemingly for the first time, and decided that it was monster. I let him look at it as long as he wanted to the first day he saw it, and then we walked away. And then the next day, he looked at it and he wanted to sniff it and approach it, and I fed him for that. And then the third day, he was like, “Oh, here’s the thing. Feed me.” And I was like, “OK, good. Done. Here’s one cookie, and now I’m never going to feed you for that again because it’s over.” I think people freak out, and if you freak out and they’re freaking out, then we’re all freaking out, and it’s not a good thing. Leslie Eide: Yeah, he really hasn’t had anything, but I completely agree with Sarah. And I’m pretty good about it, again, going along with not planning everything. I’m pretty chill about everything, so when he reacts to something, I’m not going to feed into it by being like, “Oh my god.” It’s about, “Cool, dude. Check it out. I’m not going to force you into anything. We’ll just stand here. If you’re comfortable staying here looking at it, then that’s where we’ll stay.” If food comes into play, it’s for when he turns around and looks at me and says, “OK, let’s go.” It’s more of a reinforcement of choosing to be back with me and go on with me on our whatever we’re doing, not a reinforcement for necessarily … Sarah Stremming: Which we would do if the thing was exciting, too, not just if it’s scary. It’s “Choose me over the stuff in the environment that interests you.” Melissa Breau: I’d love to end on a high note. Can each of you share one piece of advice for anyone out there with their own puppy, hoping to raise a happy, balanced dog? Leslie Eide: My piece of advice would probably be something like, “It’s all going to be OK.” We all can make mistakes, and luckily dogs are very forgiving, so don’t beat yourself up if something bad happens or you make a mistake. There’s lots that you can do to bounce back and still have a perfectly wonderful puppy. Sarah Stremming: I think mine is really similar to yours, in that I would say … Melissa, you had mentioned we’re all paranoid about doing everything right and that’s really stressful. So my piece of advice would be to embrace and accept that you will not do everything right. Embrace and accept that you will screw something up at some point and that you’ll survive, and if you’re paying attention, you’ll learn, and that will in the end be a good thing too. I seriously look back on every puppy and go, “Yeah, could have done that better, could have done that better.” All of us do that, and that’s fine. Embrace it and run with it. Melissa Breau: For folks out there who are interested in following along as Watson grows up, what’s the best way to do that? And where can people who want to stalk — or at least follow — each of you, where can they go to stay up to date? Sarah Stremming: The first question, where can they follow Watson, we are running a subscription to a blog just about Watson. It’s called “Puppy Elementary,” and you can find that by clicking the Puppy Elementary tab on my website, which is thecognitivecanine.com. Again, you can follow me at thecognitivecanine.com. That’s where I blog. I also have a podcast called Cog-Dog Radio, and of course I’m on Facebook with The Cognitive Canine and Cog-Dog Radio, and just me, so that’s where you can find me. You can find Leslie at work — all day, every day! We are teaching our course together … is it next term? October? Jumping Gymnastics, for FDSA, together, so you can find Leslie there too. But your website is thetotalcanine.net?Leslie Eide: Yes. And Facebook. I’m on there. My business-y type page is The Total Canine, which has a Facebook page, and then the website is thetotalcanine.net and it is “canine” spelled out. And my real work is SOUND Veterinary Rehabilitation Center, and it’s on Facebook, and the website is soundvetrehab.com. Melissa Breau: Where are you located again, just in case somebody is in your area and wants to come look you up? Sarah Stremming: About 40 miles north of Seattle, but the SOUND Veterinary Rehab Center is in Shoreline, Washington, which is just north of Seattle. Melissa Breau: One last question for each of you — my new “last interview question” that I’ve been asking everyone: What’s a lesson that you’ve learned or been reminded of recently when it comes to dog training? Sarah, you want to go first? Sarah Stremming: Mine is exceedingly nerdy. When I told Leslie what it was, she was like, “Oh God.” It’s to remember not to stay on lesser approximations for too long. In real words, plain English, basically that means to progress as fast as possible. So don’t wait for perfection before moving on to the next thing that you’re going to be reinforcing. I’m always shooting for low error rates, high rates of reinforcement, I like nice, clean training, and because of that, sometimes I can stay on approximations that are not the final behavior for a little bit too long because I get a little bit too perfectionistic on those, and it bites me every time. I was recently reminded of it in Felix’s contact training. Melissa Breau: I’ve never done that. Sarah Stremming: I know, right? I think it’s the sickness, honestly, of people who are really obsessed with training just get way too fixated on the details. But anyway, that’s mine. Leslie Eide: I think I’m going to pick one specifically to make fun of Sarah. Sarah Stremming: I expect no less. Leslie Eide: In that it’s something that I never do, but she probably really wishes I would, and that’s take data. Sarah Stremming: Leslie never takes data. Leslie Eide: No. Sarah Stremming: I take data on everything. I always say that if we could put us together, we’d be a great trainer, because I’m too detail-oriented and nitpicky, and she’s too freeform. Leslie Eide: Yeah. Sarah Stremming: Which is why together, with Jumping Gymnastics, I think we do a nice job teaching together, because we do come from both of those different sides. Melissa Breau: Thank you so much, ladies, for coming on the podcast! And we managed upon a time when both of you could join me, so that’s awesome. Thank you. Sarah Stremming: Thanks for having us. Leslie Eide: Thank you. Melissa Breau: Thank you to all of our listeners for tuning in! We’ll be back next week talking about details with Hannah Branigan to talk about prepping for competition and more. If you haven’t already, subscribe to our podcast in iTunes or the podcast app of your choice to have our next episode automatically downloaded to your phone as soon as it becomes available. CREDITS: Today’s show is brought to you by the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy. Special thanks to Denise Fenzi for supporting this podcast. Music provided royalty-free by BenSound.com; the track featured here is called “Buddy.” Audio editing provided by Chris Lang. Thanks again for tuning in -- and happy training!

SUMMARY: Sue Yanoff graduated from Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine in Ithaca, N.Y, in 1980. After three years in private practice, she joined the U.S. Army Veterinary Corps. While on active duty, she completed a 3-year residency in small-animal surgery at Texas A&M University and became board certified by the American College of Veterinary Surgeons. She retired from the Army in 2004, after almost 21 years on active duty. After working for a year on a horse farm in Idaho, she returned to Ithaca to join the staff at the Colonial Veterinary Hospital as their second surgeon. She then retired from there in December 2009 — her on-call schedule was interfering with those dog show weekends! The following month, she started working for Shelter Outreach Services, a high-quality, high-volume spay-neuter organization. About the same time, Sue joined her colleague, a physical therapist and licensed veterinary technician, to start a canine sports medicine practice at the Animal Performance and Therapy Center, in Genoa, N.Y. The practice is limited to performance dogs. That means that’s basically all she does these days, performance dogs, so she knows her stuff. She also teaches a class on Canine Sports Medicine for Performance Dog Handlers here at FDSA. Next Episode:  To be released 6/29/2018, featuring Julie Symons, talking introducing handler scent discrimination.  TRANSCRIPTION: Melissa Breau: This is Melissa Breau, and you're listening to the Fenzi Dog Sports Podcast brought to you by the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy, an online school dedicated to providing high-quality instruction for competitive dog sports using only the most current and progressive training methods. Today we’ll be talking to Sue Yanoff. Sue graduated from Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine in Ithaca, N.Y, in 1980. After three years in private practice, she joined the U.S. Army Veterinary Corps. While on active duty, she completed a 3-year residency in small-animal surgery at Texas A&M University and became board certified by the American College of Veterinary Surgeons. She retired from the Army in 2004, after almost 21 years on active duty. After working for a year on a horse farm in Idaho, she returned to Ithaca to join the staff at the Colonial Veterinary Hospital as their second surgeon. She then retired from there in December 2009 — her on-call schedule was interfering with those dog show weekends! The following month, she started working for Shelter Outreach Services, a high-quality, high-volume spay-neuter organization. About the same time, Sue joined her colleague, a physical therapist and licensed veterinary technician, to start a canine sports medicine practice at the Animal Performance and Therapy Center, in Genoa, N.Y. The practice is limited to performance dogs. That means that’s basically all she does these days, performance dogs, so she knows her stuff. She also teaches a class on Canine Sports Medicine for Performance Dog Handlers here at FDSA. Hi Sue, welcome back to the podcast! Sue Yanoff: Hi Melissa, it’s good to be back. Melissa Breau: I’m excited to chat. To start us out and refresh our memories a little bit, can you share a bit about the dogs that you have at home now? Sue Yanoff: Yes. I have two Beagles. The older Beagle is almost 13, and she’s retired from everything except hiking and having fun. She’s a breed champion, she has her UD, her Rally Excellent MX MXJ and TD. My younger Beagle, Ivy, is 6. Most people know her from FDSA classes. She’s also a breed champion. She has her MACH. She recently finished her CDX and we’re working on Utility. She has her Rally Novice and a TD. Melissa Breau: That’s a lot of titles there, lady. Congrats. Sue Yanoff: Thank you. Melissa Breau: So we went back and forth a bit before this call on topics to talk about today, and I want to start out by just talking about some of the basics. What is the difference between a sports specialist and a regular vet? Sue Yanoff: In veterinary medicine, in order to call yourself a specialist, you have to meet certain requirements, and that includes completing a residency in whatever area you’re a specialist in, passing a very long and difficult certifying examination, and being board-certified by the specialty board that oversees your specialty. So if you’re a specialist in internal medicine, it’s the American College of Veterinary and Internal Medicine. If you’re a specialist in surgery, it’s the American College of Veterinary surgeons. So to call yourself a specialist, you have to be certified, board certified, by one of these specialty organizations. Now, a lot of people can be very good at something and not have gone through all the requirements of being able to call themselves a specialist. But a sports specialist basically is somebody that has extra training and experience in that particular area. Regular veterinarians might be very good at sports medicine, but they can’t call themselves a specialist. But, in general, regular veterinarians are general practitioners and they have to be good at everything, so it’s very hard to be good at everything and specialize in any one area. I used to be a general practitioner, I have a lot of respect for general practitioners, I couldn’t do what they do, but that’s the difference between a regular vet, a general practitioner, and a specialist. Melissa Breau: One of the things I’ve heard you talk about a little bit before is this idea of a good sports medicine exam. What’s really involved in that? What does that look like? Sue Yanoff: A good sports medicine exam, like any good exam, starts with a patient’s history. It’s very important to get a good history because a lot of times we don’t have a history that a dog is lame. We have a history that the dog’s performance is deteriorating. Their times are little slower, they might be knocking bars or popping weaves. Sometimes they might be a little reluctant to jump into the car. So it all starts with a good history, which takes time. And then a sports medicine exam involves examining the whole dog and not just one leg. When I was an orthopedic surgeon, I often would just examine the leg that the dog was lame on. We knew which leg was a problem, I’d examine that leg, say, “Here’s the problem, here’s what we need to do,” and that was the extent of the exam. With a sports medicine exam, I examine the whole dog — the neck, the back, all four legs, even if I know which leg the dog is lame in, which oftentimes we don’t know which leg the dog is lame in, so I examine the entire dog. As an orthopedic surgeon, I would mostly concentrate on bones and joints. For a sports medicine exam, it’s really important to look at the muscles and tendons and ligaments, which often are injured. So it’s just a different way of doing the exam. It’s much more complete, it takes more time, and to do a good sports medicine exam I think you need more than a 20-minute office visit, which is often difficult for general practitioners to do. Melissa Breau: A lot of the time, people have a dog that comes up lame or has an ongoing issue and they aren’t really sure what the cause is. We talked a little about regular vets, they might even take their dog to that regular vet, and the vet does what they normally do, they get an “all clear,” but they’re still seeing signs of pain. I guess what stood out to me from your last answer was this idea that maybe it’s a little more subtle when we’re talking about a performance dog. Handlers may notice the more subtle signs of pain. What should they do in that kind of situation? How can they find out what’s actually going on? Sue Yanoff: There’s two ways to handle that. Oftentimes the regular vet doesn’t find anything because, it’s as you say, it’s very subtle, or they’re actually not looking in the right place. And oftentimes dogs will get better with what I call “the standard conservative treatment,” which involves restricted activity, no running, no jumping, no playing with other dogs, no training, leash walks only. When I say “restricted activity,” I usually mean a lot more restriction than most people think. And then put them on some type of pain medicine, anti-inflammatory medicine. I like to use NSAIDs; non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are a good first start. Oftentimes with a minor injury, if you treat them with restricted activity and NSAIDs, they will often get better, so there’s nothing wrong with handling the situation that way. But if they’re still seeing signs of pain after doing that, then they really need to seek out a specialist to find out what’s going on. When I say “a specialist,” I usually mean somebody who is either a board-certified surgeon that does a lot of orthopedics, or a board-certified sports medicine vet — and we’ll talk about what that means later — or somebody that has some advanced certification and training in sports medicine and rehab. We would like to hope that one of those specialists can do a good exam and try to pinpoint what the problem is, because, as you know, you’ve also heard me say, we need a diagnosis. Again, there’s nothing wrong with treating generically for a minor injury, and a lot of dogs will get better if you do that. But if they don’t, we really need to have a better idea of what’s going on, what’s the diagnosis, what are we treating, and are we treating it appropriately. Melissa Breau: What if the dog is given a diagnosis and a treatment plan, and the treatment plan just doesn’t seem to be doing the trick? The dog doesn’t seem to be getting any better. Sue Yanoff: In that case, if the diagnosis is not correct, which happens — it even happens to me, and I could give you an example of a case that I sent for referral a few weeks ago — or the treatment plan is not appropriate … I find what’s more common is the clients that I see, if they have been to another vet, or even another specialist, they have not been given a diagnosis. I often will ask a client, “What did your vet say is wrong?” and they say, “Well, they didn’t really say.” So that’s a problem right there. If they’re given a diagnosis, that’s great. Oftentimes my clients aren’t even given a diagnosis. And if the treatment plan doesn’t seem to be helping, either we’re not treating them appropriately, or — and this happens much more commonly with pet owners — they’re not following instructions. So if I ask you to rest the dog and restrict them, and you’re not really doing that, then the problem might not get better. Melissa Breau: Do most dogs recover from sports-related injuries? What does that kind of “recovery” usually look like? You just talked a little bit about what you mean when you say “rest a dog.” Do you usually recommend rehab of some sort? Can you talk a little bit about how all that works? Sue Yanoff: Sure. That’s a good question, several good questions. In my practice, yes, most dogs recover from sports-related injuries. Now, there are some things, like if it’s a chronic degenerative disease like arthritis or lumbosacral disease, then the dog is not ever going to recover fully. We can only manage the symptoms. But for muscle and tendon injuries, and even for fractures and some things like torn cranial cruciate ligaments, yes, dogs absolutely can recover from sports-related injuries. In our practice there’s three phases of recovery. The first is rest and restricted activity. We need to allow the injury to get better. We need to allow the injury to heal. During this phase of healing, we basically don’t do anything more than have the owners do short leash walks a couple of times a day. So there’s minimum stretching and minimum p.t. and not a lot of strengthening activities. And then we will recheck the dog, and if the owner thinks the dog is doing better, and we don’t find as much pain as we felt on the first exam, then we will go to the second phase of treatment, which is rehab. This is where you put in your stretching and your strengthening exercises and your increased activity to build up the dog’s endurance again, and that progresses as the dog progresses, and that’s tailored to each dog. I should say, during the initial stage of treatment we will do modalities like ultrasound, if necessary, or more commonly laser or massage and mobilization and things like that. So the first phase is treatment, which is basically restricted activity, the second phase is conditioning, where we start to increase the dog’s activity with the goal to get them back to normal activity, and then the third stage is what we call retraining, and this is where we give the owner a program to get the dog back to competition in their sport of choice. That can take anywhere from three to twelve weeks, depending on what the injury is and how long the dog has been restricted and other things like that. Melissa Breau: For that three to twelve weeks, you’re just talking about that last phase, right? Might take three to twelve weeks for training. Sue Yanoff: Yes. The last phase might take three to twelve weeks. So if you have a dog with an injury like medial shoulder syndrome, the post-operative recovery period is twelve weeks, and then probably another eight to ten to twelve weeks of conditioning and rehab to get them back to normal activity, and then another ten to twelve weeks of retraining to get them back to competition. That is one of the injuries that takes a long time to get back to competition, but certainly it’s possible. A lot of the dogs that we treat, when they get back to competition, they’re better than they ever have been because they are in excellent condition, they’re very well trained, the owner knows a lot about warming up and cooling down, and a lot of them go back to very long, successful careers. Melissa Breau: That’s awesome. I want to shift gears a little bit. I know that I’ve heard you say on numerous occasions that pain in general is undertreated in dogs. Why do you think that is? Why does that happen? Sue Yanoff: I think it’s because dogs can’t whine and complain like people can. And a lot of dogs don’t show strong, overt signs of pain. There are ways they can tell us subtly, but a lot of people don’t know what these signs are and don’t really think that they’re causing pain. I’ve had a lot of clients say, when they bring the dog to me, “Well, I don’t think he’s in pain,” and I can tell you right off that if your dog is limping, 99.9 percent of the time it’s because of pain. It interests me that people know that their dog is limping but don’t think they’re in pain, because I can tell you from experience with me, when I bang my knee or stub a toe, I limp because it hurts, and when it doesn’t hurt anymore, then I stop limping. So if the dog’s limping, it’s because of pain. But oftentimes the dogs that I see are not limping, but there are other, more subtle signs, and we often find pain when I examine the dog. I’ll move a joint in a certain way and the dog will react, or I’ll push on a certain place on the spine and the dog will react, and the reaction can be anything from something very subtle, like if they’re panting, they stop panting, or they’ll lick their lips, or they’ll look back at me. Occasionally I’ll have a dog that will yelp or whine or try to bite me, which is great, because then I know for sure that they’re in pain. Melissa Breau: There aren’t many people who would follow “try to bite me” with “which is great.” Sue Yanoff: Yeah, right. Usually, I can get out of the way fast enough, because I haven’t been bitten yet doing a sports medicine exam. I can’t say that for any other type of exam. But we miss signs of pain, and then it’s not treated because, again, people think, Well, she’s not in that much pain, so she’ll be OK. What I was taught in vet school — and I graduated 38 years ago — is, this was common back then, is, “We don’t want to treat the pain, because if we treat the pain, the dog will be too active.” There’s even veterinarians and people that believe that today: Let’s not treat the pain because we don’t want them to be too active. But we know that’s not true. Anybody that has a high-drive sports dog, or even a dog that wants to chase a ball or chase a squirrel, they’re going to do it whether they have pain or not, and then worry about the pain later. That’s why I think that pain is undertreated in dogs. It’s either not recognized, or people don’t think it’s that important. Melissa Breau: What’s your approach? How can you tell if pain is the problem, and then what do you usually do about it? Sue Yanoff: My approach is, if the dog is coming to see me, whether they’re limping or it’s a performance issue, it is very likely due to pain, and it’s likely due to pain because of an injury. As I said, there are a few things that will make a dog limp that’s not due to pain. but that really has nothing to do with sports medicine. So limping is an obvious sign of pain, crying and whining, obviously, or shifting the weight off the leg, or stiff when they’re getting up. Those are pretty obvious things that people can observe in their dog at home. But then there are some less-obvious signs that people might not notice, like if your dog normally stretches a lot when they get up in the morning, and they’re not stretching as much as they used to, that could be a sign of pain. You know how when your dog shakes the water off of them they shake their whole body? Well, some dogs will shake half their body, and that might be a sign that the body part they’re not shaking is painful. They might come out of their crate a little slower, they might be reluctant to go up and down stairs, they might not want to play as much with the other dogs, they might be more grumpy with the other dogs, they might have a slight personality change. In my webinar Chronic Pain, I listed nineteen signs of pain in dogs, and there’s probably more, so I think sometimes handlers need to listen to their dogs. Certainly performance issues can be a sign of pain, and we’ve discussed this before. A lot of people will blame a dog’s reluctance to jump, or going around a jump, or not listening, to being naughty and they try to fix it with training, but it could be that the dog is painful and that’s why they don’t want to do that thing. Melissa Breau: I know if I over-exert myself, I tend to get a little bit sore, and I’ve certainly seen my own dogs, if we do something a little over the top one day, they might be a little less … Sue Yanoff: Active. Melissa Breau: Yes, or sore, the next day. So I’d assume it’s the same for dogs. If a dog is just a bit sore, or seems a bit sore the day after a trial, at what point do you start to worry that it might be something more serious than just that? Sue Yanoff: I think it’s something that has to go on for a while. All of us have had dogs who were out hiking, or after a trial, and they’re favoring a leg, or they’ll step on something and yelp and hold their leg up and then they’re fine, and the next day they’re fine, and that’s OK with me. Or if they’re a little bit stiff and sore the day after trial, especially if they’re a little bit older, especially if it’s a four-day trial, then I would just rest the dog, give them a day off, and if they’re fine after that, then I wouldn’t worry. But if they continue to show problems, if the soreness continues, as we talked about, or if performance deteriorates, or if it comes and goes, so you rest them for a day or two and then they’re fine, and then you go back to normal activity, and then in another week or so, or a month or so, the same thing happens, and then you rest them for a few days and then they’re fine, at that point either they’re not getting better, or if it comes and goes, that’s when you should maybe look further. Melissa Breau: You recently gave a whole webinar where you talked about pain management, and you talked quite a bit about some of the drug options that are out there. What do you wish more handlers knew when it came to pain meds? Could you share one or two things that come to mind? Sue Yanoff: I know a lot of people are reluctant to give their dogs pain meds, and I think those are mostly people that have high pain thresholds and so they don’t take pain meds themselves until it’s really, really bad. I have a very low pain threshold. I’m a wimp, so if I have pain or soreness, I’m taking drugs. And I assume that all dogs are like me, that they’re pain wimps and they need meds. Now there are some dogs that we all know, Labs and Border Collies come to mind, that they can have a lot of pain and still will do their thing because they’re so driven. But just because they will doesn’t mean they should, and just because they seem to tolerate the pain well doesn’t mean they should. So I think what I would like the handlers to know is just because you wouldn’t take pain meds for certain pain doesn’t mean that it’s OK to not give your dog pain meds, because I think we need to address their pain, since they can’t tell us how bad it is. The other thing I want people to know are there are more drugs out there than NSAIDs. NSAIDs, I think, are really good drugs, but some people are scared because they can have serious side effects — not often, but they can. But I want them to know that NSAIDs for most dogs are great, that there are several different NSAIDs available, so if one NSAID doesn’t help your dog, or your dog has an adverse reaction to one NSAID, there are other options. One thing we talked about in the webinar that if people didn’t take it might not know: there’s a new NSAID available for dogs called Galliprant, which has a lot fewer side effects than the NSAIDs that we have been using. Melissa Breau: If somebody has been listening to all this, or they have a dog that’s injured at some point and they think the dog might benefit from seeing a sports specialist, what’s the best way to go about actually finding one and then getting an appointment? Sue Yanoff: There’s three different types of veterinarians that you might want to see, if you need somebody with more training and experience than your general practitioner. The first is a board-certified surgeon. This is a veterinarian that has been certified by the American College of Veterinary Surgeons, who has the training required to meet those certification requirements. Surgeons are trained in orthopedic, neurological, and soft-tissue surgery. Once they finish their residency and go into practice, they might specialize in a particular area like orthopedics or neuro, but we’re trained in all three. So if you want to find a board-certified surgeon who has a special interest in orthopedics or sports medicine, then you can find somebody like that. You can get on the website of the American College of Veterinary Surgeons and find a specialist. I would recommend that you find a specialist who specifically states that they have an interest in sports medicine and has several years experience, because the more we practice, the better we get, because, to tell you the truth, I’ve learned the most from the diagnoses that I’ve missed and referred for a second opinion and go, Oh, I didn’t know that was a problem. Now I know. The second type of specialist is a board-certified sports medicine vet. This is a veterinarian that has been certified by the American College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation, and again, my recommendation is to look for somebody that has several years experience in the specialty. And for the sports medicine specialty I kind of like it if you find a veterinarian who actually does some sports with their dogs, because I think you get a whole different perspective on sports medicine when you actually do some of these sports. The third type of veterinarian, who can’t really be called a specialist but has some extra training in sports medicine rehab, is a veterinarian who has a certification called CCRT, which stands for Certified Canine Rehabilitation Therapist. This is somebody that has some extra training through online classes, through three weeks of in-person classes, and while the training is not as extensive as a board-certified specialist, at least they have some advanced training. The point I want to make is just because somebody is a specialist doesn’t mean that they’re good at what they do. You would think that they would be pretty good, but not always, and just because somebody is not a specialist doesn’t mean that they’re not good. So if you have no place to start, those are good places to start. I like for you to get recommendations from somebody who has seen the sports medicine vet, whose dog has been treated successfully, and start there. But if you don’t have a recommendation from somebody, then I think looking at the websites of American College of Veterinary Surgeons or American College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehab, or finding a veterinarian with a CCRT certification is a good place to start. Melissa Breau: Excellent. I’ve got one more question here for you, Sue. I’ve replaced the three questions at the end of every interview with a new question for repeat guests, so as a final question I want to get back to dog training. What’s a lesson you’ve learned or been reminded of recently when it comes to training? Sue Yanoff: I like this question a lot because I have probably ten answers for that. But having just come back from the FDSA camp, I think the lesson that came to mind first and I think is very important and that is foundation. That’s getting back to the foundations. Whether you’re having trouble with something or whether you just want to have an easy training session with your dog, get back to the foundations. Melissa Breau: Excellent. Thank you so much for coming back on the podcast, Sue! Sue Yanoff: Thanks, Melissa. It was fun, as always. Melissa Breau: And thank you to all of our listeners for tuning in! We’ll be back next week with Nancy Tucker to talk about behavior change and why it can be so hard. If you haven’t already, subscribe to our podcast in iTunes or the podcast app of your choice to have our next episode automatically downloaded to your phone as soon as it becomes available. CREDITS: Today’s show is brought to you by the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy. Special thanks to Denise Fenzi for supporting this podcast. Music provided royalty-free by BenSound.com; the track featured here is called “Buddy.” Audio editing provided by Chris Lang.

Summary: Sue Yanoff graduated from Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine in Ithaca, New York in 1980. After three years in private practice she joined the US Army Veterinary Corps. While on active duty she completed a three-year residency in small animal surgery at Texas A&M University, and became board certified by the American College of Veterinary Surgeons. She retired from the Army in 2004, after almost 21 years on active duty. After working for a year on a horse farm in Idaho, she returned to Ithaca to join the staff at Cornell Veterinary Hospital as their second surgeon. Sue retired from Cornell in December of 2009. After all her on call schedule was interfering with those dog show weekends. The following month she started working for shelter outreach services. A high quality, high volume spay neuter organization. About the same time Sue joined her colleague, a physical therapist and licensed veterinary technician to start a canine sports medicine practice at the Animal Performance and Therapy Center in Genoa, New York. The practice is limited to performance dogs, and now she's joined the team here at FDSA to teach a class on canine sports medicine for performance dog handlers. Next Episode:  To be released 9/22/2017, featuring Cassia Turcotte — we'll talk about positive gun dog training, and her upcoming class on channeling dog's natural instincts for high level behaviors while they are in drive. TRANSCRIPTION: Melissa Breau: This is Melissa Breau and you're listening to the Fenzi Dog Sports podcast, brought to you by the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy, an online school dedicated to providing high quality instruction for competitive dog sports using only the most current and progressive training methods. Today we'll be talking to Sue Yanoff. Sue graduated from Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine in Ithaca, New York in 1980. After three years in private practice she joined the US Army Veterinary Corps. While on active duty she completed a three-year residency in small animal surgery at Texas A&M University, and became board certified by the American College of Veterinary Surgeons. She retired from the Army in 2004, after almost 21 years on active duty. After working for a year on a horse farm in Idaho, she returned to Ithaca to join the staff at Cornell Veterinary Hospital as their second surgeon. Sue retired from Cornell in December of 2009. After all her on call schedule was interfering with those dog show weekends. The following month she started working for shelter outreach services. A high quality, high volume spay neuter organization. About the same time Sue joined her colleague, a physical therapist and licensed veterinary technician to start a canine sports medicine practice at the Animal Performance and Therapy Center in Genoa, New York. The practice is limited to performance dogs, and now she's joined the team here at FDSA to teach a class on canine sports medicine for performance dog handlers. Hi Sue. Welcome to the podcast. Sue Yanoff: Hi Melissa. Thanks. Melissa Breau: I'm looking forward to chatting. I think that most of the students who have been with FDSA for any period of time have probably seen your dogs in one class or another. But for those that haven't, do you want to just tell us a little bit about the dogs you have now, and what you're working on with them? Sue Yanoff: Sure. My older beagle is Charm. She's 12 years old. She's a breed champion. She has her UD, her rally excellent, MX, MXJ, and TD. She's pretty much retired from performance right now, but I am still doing tracking with her, and would like to get a TDX on her. And then my younger beagle, Ivy, who has been in a lot of Fenzi classes is six years old. She's also breed champion. She finished her mock last year. She has her rally novice title, and a TD, and she has two legs towards her CDX. Melissa Breau: Well congrats. Those are some seriously impressive stats, especially with beagles. Sue Yanoff: Thanks. Melissa Breau: So how did you get your start in dog sports? What got you started there? Sue Yanoff: A beagle. Between my sophomore and junior year as an undergraduate here at Cornell, I went home to visit my parents, and I also went to visit the vet I used to work for when I was in high school, and there was a little beagle puppy with a cast on his hind leg coming out of anesthesia, and I picked him up, and I cuddled him. I said oh I want to take this puppy home, and they said well you can because his owners had him for just a couple of days and then their little boy broke his leg, and they were going to pick him up from the vet that afternoon, and take him to the animal shelter. So some phone calls were made, and I got the puppy and took him back to college with me, and I didn't know anything about dog training. I had never heard of crate training, so I would just leave him in my apartment, that I shared with two roommates, while I went to class, and of course he destroyed things, and did all the naughty things that puppies do. So I thought I need to do something, and I enrolled him in the kindergarten puppy class at the local dog-training club. That's how it got started, and I ended up getting a CDX on that dog while I was in Vet school, and that got me started in dog sports. Melissa Breau: Wow. So to go from, you know, never having done anything dog training wise before, to a CDX. That's pretty impressive Sue. Now I'd imagine being both the sports dog handler and the vet has led to some pretty unique insights into each field. How has being involved in both influenced your views in each of those? Sue Yanoff: Yeah, that's an interesting question. As a dog trainer all my dogs have, at one point in their careers, been injured, and I know what it's like to have to restrict your dog's activity. You can't train them. You can't show them. It's very frustrating, and so as a vet when I have to tell a client okay you can't train, you can't show, you have to restrict your dog for weeks, or months sometimes, I know how frustrating that can be, and how hard it can be, but I also understand where they are coming from so I think I can see it from both sides. Melissa Breau: Is there anything in particular about veterinary medicine that sports handlers often just don't understand? Sue Yanoff: Yeah. I don't think it's just sports handlers. I think it's a lot of people. Veterinary medicine is a science, and the decisions that we make have to be based on science, and not just what people think, or what they heard, and so when you're making a decision about what the best diagnostics are for a condition, or how best to treat the condition, it has to be based on a series of cases, not just on what somebody thinks, and I go a lot based on what I learn at continuing education conferences, and what I read in the veterinary literature. Because papers that are published in peer reviewed journals are scrutinized to make sure that the science behind the conclusions are valid. So while, you know, it's fine for somebody to say well I did this with my dog and he did great. What I want to make my decisions on is what worked well for many dogs, dozens, or hundreds, or thousands of dogs, and not just something that might have worked for your dog where we don't' even know if the diagnosis was the same. So I think I want people to know that veterinary medicine is a science, and we have to make our decisions based on science. Melissa Breau: I think that, you know, especially with the internet these days it's very common for people to turn to their favorite local forum, and be like well what should I do, but… Sue Yanoff: I know like let me get advice from everybody, and I know it's hard to make decisions when it involves your dog and you're emotionally involved, and that's one of the reasons I want to teach this class, to give people information that they can use to make those hard decisions. Melissa Breau: What about the reverse? Are there things about sports that you think most vets just they don't understand? Sue Yanoff: Oh yes. Yes there's a lot. Unless you're a vet who's involved in this thing, most vets don't understand the time and the effort, and the emotion, and the money that goes into the training, and the trialing that we do. They don't understand the special relationship that we have with our dogs when we put the time and effort into training them. I have had dogs that were wonderful pets, and I loved them but I never showed them for one reason or another, and there is a different relationship when you accomplish something special with that dog. So I think that's important thing. The other thing that most vets don't understand, and might not agree with, but I have had some clients where we have diagnosed an injury, and said okay we need to restrict activity, and do the conservative treatment route, and they say I will but my national specialty is next week, and she's entered in whatever class. Or they say I have a herding finals coming up in two weeks, and I really want to run her in those trials, and I'm okay with that if the dog has an injury that I don't think is likely to get much worse by doing a little more training, or trialing, then I'll say okay. Well let's do this in the meantime, and when you're done with your national or with your specialty or whatever, come on back and we'll start treatment. So I think a lot of vets would not understand that point of view, but I'm okay with it as long as I don't think that it's going to do serious harm to the dog, and as long as the owner understands that there's, you know, a slight chance that things could get worse. Melissa Breau: I think it's really kind of interesting that you focused a little bit on performance dogs. So I wanted to ask about what led you to that, I guess, to focus on that. Was it your own interest just in the being involved with sports when you joined the practice in New York? Sue Yanoff: Yeah. No. It's my own interests. I'm mostly retired. I've retired from three different jobs now, so I don't have to do this sports medicine stuff to make a living, and to pay my mortgage. So I became interested in it when I joined the practice at Colonial Veterinary Hospital about the same time my colleague Lynn joined it. She's a physical therapist. She was a physical therapist for people for 20 plus years before she decided she wanted to work on animals, so she went to vet tech school to become a vet tech, and get some animal education. And I remember when I first met her she said to me well what do you think about physical therapy for dogs, and I thought I don't know anything about it. So the more I learned about it, the more I realized how important it is, and I did a lot of reading, and I went to continuing education about sports medicine, and about the same time, like a few years later, the American College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation was getting going so the whole topic of canine sports medicine was getting more popular and people were learning more about it. So the more I learned about it, the more I liked it and of course since I did dog sports, I understood what's involved in dog sports. So when Lynn and I started this little practice, we did see pets for the first year or two, but then we said you know what, we don't want to deal with people. Performance dog people, in general, their dogs are better trained. They're better behaved, which make it easier to examine them. Not all of them but most of them. They're definitely more committed to doing what needs to be done to get their dog better. So they are more willing to put the time into it, and the work for treating, and rehabbing the dog, and the money that it costs to get their dogs better if the need surgery, or other treatments. So, you know, when Lynn and I started seeing more and more animals we said okay, we're not doing pets any more. We're just going to work on performance dogs. Melissa Breau: Now I want to talk a little bit about your upcoming class. So in some ways it's the first of it's kind here at FDSA. Do you mind sharing a little bit about what students can expect to learn? Sue Yanoff: Well basically the goal of the class is to, in the words of a friend of mine that I was discussing this with, is to make people better consumers of healthcare, for their animals. I want to give them information about the various injuries that the dogs can get, and how they are diagnosed, and what the treatment options are, and what's the best chance to get them back to competition. I want them to understand the importance of a good sports medicine exam. When I was a surgeon when I saw an animal for an injury, or a lameness, I would examine the leg that was lame. Most of the time, we knew which leg was lame and I would examine that leg and tell them what surgery I think the dog needs, and that was that. With a sports medicine exam, I examine the whole dog. At times I don't even know which leg is lame, because the owner doesn't know which leg is lame. We come with a history of knocking bars, or popping weaves, or not being as active, and they think there might be something wrong, but they're not sure. So it's a totally different type of exam from when I just did surgery to now doing sports medicine. So I want people to understand that, and I just want them to be able to make informed decisions if and when they have to deal with an injury. Melissa Breau: I'd imagine it was probably pretty hard to decide what things to fit into the class and what things were kind of beyond the scope of what you could cover in those six weeks. So what are some of the common types of injuries that you'll be discussing in those six weeks? Sue Yanoff: Yeah. It was really tough. When I started writing lectures, I had no idea how much material I was eventually going to cover. So people can go to the website to look at the course summary to see what we cover from week to week. But three of the common injuries that we see in sports medicine are injuries to the muscles and tendons of the shoulder, the biceps and supraspinatus specifically. Injuries to the iliopsoas muscle which ten or so years ago I never heard of, and now it's a very commonly diagnosed injury. And then, also talking about cranial cruciate ligament injuries because just based on a recent thread on the Fenzi Alumni Facebook page, there's a lot of information out there about cranial cruciate ligament injuries, and some misinformation. We have a whole lecture just on cranial cruciate ligament injuries to give people, you know just the basic facts of what's based on science. What's not based on science. What the options are, because there's always options. There's no one best way to treat almost anything. So those are probably the three most common things that people know about that they'll learn. But there's a ton of other stuff in the class. Melissa Breau: Now I know that the syllabus mentions prevention a little bit, and I wanted to know if you could talk for a minute about the role that prevention plays when it comes to these types of injuries. You know, how much should sports handlers focus on preventing problems? If you can, even beyond that, are there skills that they should teach that would make dealing with these kinds of problems, should they occur, easier before there's ever actually a problem for them to be worried about. Sue Yanoff: Yes. Well prevention is always best, and as far as preventing injuries in dogs the bottom line is that we don't know what we can do to prevent injuries. Everything that we know is based on the human literature, and some horse literature, but there are no studies in veterinary medicine for dogs as to anything that's proven to prevent injuries. So we have to just extrapolate from the human literature, but there certainly are lots of things. In fact my sample lecture is my lecture on preventing injuries, and that's a freebie for anybody to go read. But one of the most important things to keep your dog thin and fit, and there's some really good Fenzi classes on canine conditioning. So I think that's important. The other thing that is important that I notice that a lot of handlers don't do because I compete with my clients, I compete with all the people and I can see that they don't' spend enough time warming their dogs up before the competition, and cooling the dog down after the competition. Now for an obedience trial, the warm up is probably not as important as something like field trials, or agility trials, and certainly lure coursing. But I think those three things, conditioning, warm up, and cool down will go a long way to helping to prevent injuries. And then, as far as what they can teach their dog that will help, there's two things. On is to teach your dog to allow a hands on examination, including lying on their side while I examine them. Most of the dogs that I see are pretty good about it. Some of them will, you know, will fuss a little at first, but they pretty much relax into it. But I've had a few dogs where there's no way we can lay them on their side to examine them, and I can barely get in a good standing exam. So it'd be really nice to be able to have your dog do that, and I know that Deb's Cooperative Canine Care class, I'm sure, can help with that. Then the other thing that's important is best gait to diagnose a lameness is a trot, and a lot of my patients either won't trot nicely on a leash. They want to bounce around, or pull, or run. Or they won't trot on a leash next to the owner without looking up at the owner, and that kind of throws the gait off a little. So to teach your dog to have nice straight trot, on leash without looking up at you would be another thing that would make my life a little bit easier. Melissa Breau: I mean I definitely wouldn't have thought of that second one. The first one definitely made sense, having the dog lay on its side and being able to be calm while its examined, but it never would have occurred to me that it would be important to have a forward motion where the dog wasn't looking at you for diagnostic purposes. Sue Yanoff: Right. That's why it's really nice when we get show dogs, confirmation dogs that know this skill. I mean we get the job done, but there are certain things that can make it easier for the dog, the owner, and me. Melissa Breau: Obviously there's a limited amount you can do remotely when it comes to canine medicine, so how are you doing the different levels in the class and what will and won't be covered in class. Sue Yanoff: Right. Well the first thing I want to say is I will not make any diagnoses over the phone or online, and the reason for that is that, you know, in order to give advice on diagnosis and treatment, you have to establish a veterinary client patient relationship, and in most states, at least in New York state, that means you have to see the client, and the dog in person. So while I can answer people's questions, and look at video, and say well you know it could be this, and it might be this, and you might want to get these diagnostic tests, and if it's this then this treatment works, and if it's that, this treatment works. I don't want people to sign up for the class expecting me to diagnose their dog online. So with that said, there's going to be two levels. Bronze which is the typical bronze level, and then silver, and with this new working silver level that Fenzi has, I think that all of the silver spots will be working silver spots because there'll be no gold spots. So it's mainly a discussion class, but I want the silver students to be able to at least post photographs. They can even post radiographs, or x-rays if they want to. If we mutually agree that a video would be helpful they can post a video of their dog, and they can ask any question they want. They can ask general questions about the material. They can ask specific questions about their dog. They don't have to pick one dog. They can ask specific questions about any dog they want to. I want there to be a lot of discussion because I think everybody, me, the silver students, and the bronze students will learn a lot from the discussions, you know as much if not more so than from the lectures. So I'm hoping to have some really active silver students. Melissa Breau: Hopefully, you know, having said that you will now get even more of them, than you would have otherwise. I think that, that will be a real appeal for students to know that you really want an active silver group. Sue Yanoff: Right, and then the other things that they should understand is there's so much material that we could cover, but this class is basically covering injuries, and not specifically hereditary or developmental disorders like hip dysplasia or elbow dysplasia, or OCD. I mean those are common in sports dogs, but that could be a whole class in itself. So I really had to limit some things so we're going to be talking about injuries that they can acquire. Melissa Breau: So maybe in the future if this class does well, huh? Sue Yanoff: Maybe, and when I want to spend another huge amount of time writing these lectures, so. Melissa Breau: You mentioned earlier treatment decisions for dogs can be super hard, you know whether their a performance dog, or just a pet. So I'd imagine that one of the major benefits to this class would be that students will feel significantly more informed when they have those kinds of decisions to make in the future. First of all, would you agree with that? It sounds like from what you said earlier, you would, and then do you have any advice for students who may be facing those kinds of decisions now? Sue Yanoff: Yes. So yes the class will provide a lot of information for the students to help them make better decisions about their dogs medical care, but what they need to know for now, are two things that I think are important. One is to get a diagnosis. It's really hard to make a treatment plan without at least having an idea of what's going on, and general practitioners are great. I have a lot of respect for general practitioners because I was one for five years, but they're not specialists in any one subject. So unless the cause of the lameness is very obvious, you might have to see an expert, and there are two experts that can be used for sports dogs. One is the board certified surgeon, which is what I am, and more, and more board certified surgeons are realizing that sporting dogs, performance dogs, are a little bit different from pets, and so they're dealing with them a little bit better, although there's still some that do what I used to do, just look at the leg. Look at the injury, and not look at anything else. But then this new specialty of sports medicine and rehabilitation, there's more and more vets being trained, and being board certified in that specialty. So that would be another specialist to go see if your general practitioner, you know, is not sure about what might be going on. The other thing is that I'm a big fan of all the therapists that are out there. Massage therapists, and the physical therapists, and the people that do acupuncture, and chiropractic, but if they're not also veterinarians, then they may not be able to make the diagnosis. They could look at things that might be causing the dog pain or discomfort that might be secondary to the diagnosis. But sometimes treating the symptoms is all you need to do, but sometimes treating the symptoms won't cut it. You need to know what the diagnosis is so you know specifically what you have to treat, and we'll discuss all that in the class. Melissa Breau: What I was going to say is that I know this was in the questions I sent over, kind of in advance of our call, but I'm curious…you kind of mentioned some specific certifications. Is there anything out there, or do you have any recommendations if students are trying to find a good specialist or kind of get advice on where to look? Is there any, I guess, any way for them to kind of vet on their own, okay this is a person who really, probably is going to be good for a sports dog versus this is somebody who maybe doesn't have as much of a background in that. Sue Yanoff: Yes. Well I mean both these specialties have websites. American College of Veterinary Surgeons, and American College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation, and on the websites you can look up to see who in your state is board certified, and you can also look up to see what their special interest is. So, I mean, for the sports medicine and rehab vet's then obviously their specialty is sports medicine and rehab. But for the board certified surgeons some of them are more geared towards, you know, sports medicine versus just plain old surgery. The other thing is, you want to, if you're going to see a board certified surgeon, you want to see somebody that deals with a lot of performance dogs, if possible, and you also want to deal with somebody who understands, and agrees with the importance of physical therapy postoperatively, because there are still some veterinary surgeons out there that don't think dogs need physical therapy post op. They just, you know, restrict the activity until the surgery is healed, and then say okay well gradually get him back to normal, and it's like what does that mean, or what do you do. So I truly believe that the surgery is only half of the story, and that physical therapy, post operative physical therapy, guided by a knowledgeable person, and there are certifications in physical therapy for both veterinarians and technicians, where they can get some, you now, advanced training outside of vet school and tech school, on physical therapy. There's a lot of human physical therapists that are now doing veterinary physical therapy, and you know, while I don't know how good they are, you know the Fenzi alumni Facebook page is a great resource if you say okay I need a physical therapist in this area. Can you recommend somebody, or I need a good sports medicine vet or surgeon in this area, can you recommend somebody. The Fenzi Alumni Facebook page is a great resource, and also just talking to friends, and you know it won't hurt to ask your veterinarian what's your experience with this condition, how many have you done, and what's your success rate? People are a little reluctant to do that, but no good veterinarian is going to be insulted if you ask them that, and they should be able to answer. Melissa Breau: I think that's a great piece of advice, just being comfortable asking that kind of question of your vet, or your veterinary surgeon. I mean if you don't ask, you can't know, right. Sue Yanoff: That's true. Melissa Breau: So I wanted to end with the same few questions that I ask everybody that comes on, at the end of the interview. So the first one is, what is the dog-related accomplishment that you're proudest of? Sue Yanoff: Yeah, I thought about it, and it'd have to be the UD on my older beagle now, Charm because Charm is a dog that switched me from you know traditional training to positive reinforcement training, and I had shown her nine times in utility, and nine times she NQ'ed, and people just kept telling me well she's just not putting in any effort. You need to correct her harder, or you need to make her do it. And so the more times she  NQ'ed, the harder I was on her until the final time in utility, I gave her the hell signal and she just sat there, and she basically said nope. I'm done, not doing it. So I thought to myself, there's got to be a better way, and that led to positive reinforcement training, which led to the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy, and after a few weeks off from training, I retrained Charm pretty much all the utility exercises using positive reinforcement, and about nine months later I showed her in utility again, and she got the UD in four shows. So I am really proud of Charm. I feel bad for all the stuff I did to her before I crossed over, but now that I train with positive reinforcement, there's just no comparison. So I'm very proud of Charm for getting her UD. Melissa Breau: Congrats. Sue Yanoff: Thanks. Melissa Breau: So the second questions that I usually ask is, what is the best piece of training advice that you've ever heard? Sue Yanoff: Yeah. Now this is a hard one, because I've been taking classes at FDSA since pretty much Denise started, and there's so much good information, and great advice. But if I had to pick one I'd say it's acclimation, and that is because I've had people tell me don't ever let your dog sniff. Wherever you go new, don't let them sniff. They have to be paying attention to you, like all the time, and it's like you know what. I've tried that with Ivy for a few weeks, and it almost drove both of us crazy. So when I learned about acclimation I thought, yep. This is it. This is the best piece of advice I've gotten. Melissa Breau: And especially I'd imagine with Beagles, that nose, you know. It's a real thing so. The last question is, who is someone else in the dog world that you look up to? Sue Yanoff: Yeah, well it's not anybody that's known in the dog world, because she doesn't teach classes, and she doesn't have a blog, and she, you know, doesn't do anything online. But she's a friend of mine who I've known since college. We met through dogs. When I was getting a CDX on my first beagle, she was getting a CDX on her first keeshond and since then she has been put multiple notches in herding titles, and some agility titles on her border collies, but she's also put multiple OTCHs on her Keeshonds, and all of her OTCHd kees are also breed champions, some of them bred by her. So there's a lot of, you know, trainers out there who have trained another dog other than a border collie, or a golden, or a sheltie whatever to an OTCH, and they do it once, and they never do it again. But Marian has, I think had, at least four or five, if not six champion OTCH keeshonds, and she's got a young keeshond coming up now that just finished her CD with six scores or 199 or above, and one score of 200. So I'm sure that's a future OTCH. So you know, I don't agree with everything she does in her training, but her dogs are really good, and they are happy in the ring, and they love her, and she gets OTCHs on keeshond's over, and over, and over again. So I admire her. Melissa Breau: That is quite the accomplishment. Well thank you so much for coming on the podcast, Sue. Sue Yanoff: It was fun. Thanks Melissa. Melissa Breau: It was fun, and thank you to all of our listeners for tuning in. We'll be back next week with somebody that I've gotten lots of requests for. Cassia Turcotte will be here to talk about positive gun dog training, and her upcoming class on channeling dog's natural instincts for high level behaviors while they are in drive. If you haven't already, subscribe to our podcast in iTunes, or the podcast app of your choice, to have our next episode automatically downloaded to your phone as soon as it becomes available. CREDITS: Today's show is brought to you by the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy. Special thanks to Denise Fenzi for supporting this podcast. Music provided royalty-free by BenSound.com; the track featured here is called “Buddy.” Audio editing provided by Chris Lang and transcription written by CLK Transcription Services.

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