Lala Human Dog Coach

05/08/2025

Can you help?

29/07/2025

I have been reading about the affect of parasite treatments entering our rivers and other bodies of water, but never thought about dog hair poisoning wildlife. I use diatomaceous earth and neem oil on my dogs. You can buy this combination from Dogs First. Thanks to The Mutty Professor for this post…

PLEASE RECONSIDER GROOMING YOUR DOG WHILST OUT ON WALKS (or in the garden!)

This - along with letting them swim in waterways - could be killing wildlife.


It's that time of year when you see random distributions of dog fluff out on walks.

Kanita is also blowing her coat, and Mohawk has been having a big coat change too recently. There's something very satisfying about gently pulling those loose tufts of hair out. If you know, you know.


I don't blame people for thinking that it's easier to groom a super floofy dog outside to save covering their house in hair- BUT if that dog receives anti-parasitic treatment, this may be harming wildlife.

A study in the Netherlands detected two active substances used in routine pet anti-parasitic treatments in the nests of great t**s- who had collected hair in order to build their nests.

Another study by The University of Sussex found that screened nests contained 17 out of 20 insecticides screened for. 100% of nests contained fipronil and 89% contained imidacloprid.
A higher number of unhatched eggs and dead chicks were associated with higher numbers of chemicals present in the nests (with dog hair being used to build the nests by the birds).


Many of these chemicals in these treatments are thought to be harmful to birds. It is also thought that they are damaging to insect populations (including bees) as well as contributing to pollution of waterways and damaging aquatic ecosystems - contributed by people letting their dogs swim in ponds, lakes, streams, rivers etc.


If you routinely use parasite control medication on your dog please do not let them swim outdoors (especially soon after treatment) and avoid grooming them outside (or bag up the hair as you groom).

There are some suggestions that oral medications are less damaging, but they don't just sit in the digestive system. They are transported around the bloodstream- which supplies nutrients and oxygen to the whole body. Toxins leave the body via excrement, urine, sweat, hair and skin cells- albeit predominantly via the former two.

Whilst topical treatments pose a greater risk - especially soon after treatment- it cannot be assumed that there is no negative affect from oral treatments. The research identified that dog hair is linked to bird deaths and that specifically states that dogs owned by volunteers donating nests received parasite control via collars, spot on and tablets.
Chemicals from Nexguard and Bravecto were not screened for in the study and thus are not ruled out as safe nor established as harmful (to birds).


The recommended frequency of use of these products continues to be called into question, as is the risk of adverse side effects in pets!

Veternarians are being encouraged to prescribe them based on risk to the individual.
Assessing individual risk is not easy for veternarians to do in the time that they have, so you can help your vet help you by intensively reading information on these products rather than administering them every 1-3 months in blind faith that it's the right thing to do and without consequence.

Our wildlife is in decline and if we care about nature- we all need to do our bit.

That may include reviewing the specific medication you purchase from your vet or you may decide to use them less frequently, such as treating as needed or seasonally (instead of across the year).
You may delay letting your dog swim post treatment for as long as possible, or consider alternative prevention such as worm counts, flea combing or natural repellents (although do note, some ingredients in these could still be toxic to some species of wildlife).


Again, whether to treat or not should be down to INDIVIDUAL RISK. What poses a risk to individuals in one area may differ to others elsewhere.

But it's also your personal choice and I want to make it clear that this post is NOT telling people to NOT treat their pets but simply to be aware of the potential impact of such treatments and to adjust our habits (swimming, grooming outside) accordingly.


Are there other things that damage the environment? Of course.
But this is a page about dogs, so content will be relevant to dogs.

You can use the fact that XY and Z also harm the environment as a justification for doing nothing, or you can consider whether there are small changes you are able to make. The cumulative effect is what causes these issues to escalate, and thus the cumulative effect is also capable of making some positive change.


Note: If you don’t use anti parasitics on your dog & groom them outside, then the hair may be beneficial for the birds. However, do consider that grooming products and other medications may pose a risk - should you use these.

These were the resources linked into the comments, but Ive opted to bring them here for ease. Within some of these you can be linked to the research on this topic and you will find much more detail on this emotive topic.

https://www.sussex.ac.uk/broadcast/read/66973

https://www.veterinaryirelandjournal.com/small-animal/359-cat-and-dog-parasiticides-and-the-environment

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969725000737?ref=pdf_download&fr=RR-2&rr=908a988c1c6d63c1

https://www.songbird-survival.org.uk/post/veterinary-drugs-found-in-bird-nests/

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/243875/toxic-flea-tick-treatments-polluting-uk/

https://www.pan-uk.org/garden-birds-are-being-poisoned-by-pet-flea-treatments/

https://www.broads-authority.gov.uk/looking-after/managing-land-and-water/water-quality/flea-treatments-and-their-impact-on-water-quality

https://www.kentwildlifetrust.org.uk/blog/flea-treatment-toxic-to-wildlife

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/feb/23/flea-treatments-cats-dogs-environmental-hazard

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7738705/

https://www.bva.co.uk/take-action/our-policies/responsible-use-of-parasiticides-for-cats-and-dogs/

https://www.bsava.com/position-statement/parasite-control/

24/07/2025

We are in San Francisco until the first week of October now. We were going to drive to Newark (for our flight to Milan) but decided to take it SLOW in SF instead.

We’re staying in The Castro District, and found this tiny but lush park to hike up the hills to!

Ted loves the hills, but also the garden bench!

14/07/2025

This is extremely hopeful news. My dog, Ted, was neutered at 2 years old, just before he was adopted. He is still fearful. I am going to look into this…

I’M ON TESTOSTERONE REPLACEMENT!
🥜New Study Shows Testosterone Therapy May Help Neutered Dogs Feel Better🥜
A new veterinary study found that giving testosterone, Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT), to neutered male dogs may help correct health and behavior issues caused by hormone loss (not so shocking to doctors that practice functional wellbeing: lifelong hormones matter!).
NO ONE IS AGAINST STERILIZATION (please read that again, before you comment); it’s the updated surgical techniques that vets need to learn to sterilize AND preserve crucial hormones.
When males have their go**ds 🥜 cut off as puppies (vs. a sterilizing vasectomy) they lose their supply of lifelong testosterone, and then what happens?
“Spayed and neutered dogs have been reported to have a higher incidence of obesity, urinary incontinence, urinary calculi, atopic dermatitis, autoimmune hemolytic anemia, hypoadrenocorticism, diabetes mellitus, hypothyroidism, immune- mediated thrombocytopenia, inflammatory bowel disease, hip dysplasia, cranial cruciate ligament rupture, aggressive and fearful behavior, cognitive dysfunction syndrome, prostate adenocarcinoma and transitional cell adenocarcinoma. Musculoskeletal issues may be especially significant for large breed dogs gonadectomized before they have finished growing, as bone physeal closure is delayed,” says reproductive expert Dr. Michelle Kutzler, DVM, PhD, DACT, Professor of Theriogenology (all of her statments are backed by studies, of course, link to Dowoadable PDF of research also in comments).
This group of symptoms is sometimes called “spay-neuter syndrome,” and in this most recent study, researchers gave weekly testosterone injections to neutered male dogs for 90 days. They tested different doses and monitored the dogs closely.
What they found:
* The treatment was safe, even at high doses.
* Testosterone levels returned to normal, without side effects.
* Hormone imbalances improved, especially the levels of a hormone called LH, which rises after neutering and may be linked to certain cancers.
* The dogs’ general health, behavior, and lab values stayed stable or improved (like Homer’s!).
This is the first published safety study using HRT testosterone injections in neutered dogs. It gives veterinarians a starting point for helping dogs who may be struggling with life after desexing 🥳!
Why it matters: This research offers hope for dogs who suffer from hormone-related issues after being neutered. Hormone replacement—when done safely and under veterinary guidance—can improve quality of life in a way we haven’t been able to offer before— I know because I’m doing it for my neutered rescue dog, Homer (who, at 17, needed this therapy to bring him back to vigor 💥).
I advocate vets learn different sterilization surgical techniques for this very reason: vascetomy and hysterectomy remove reproductive potential without compromising endocrine balance, but until these newer techniques are taught in vet schools (hopefully y’all have signed my petition begging vet schools worldwide to teach these simpler alternatives, link in comments), we’re left with learning more about HRT for pets. I’m so grateful to the Parsemus Foundation for investing in this critical research (link to the study in comments); when we know more we can do better 🙏🏼. Read my comments about females, cats and vets that offer alternatives in the comments ⬇️.

03/07/2025

Dog equipment purchases can be confusing for many dog lovers. Please read this post for excellent information…

This is a repost(ish) but well worth repeating. Many of you have heard me harp on harness fit time and again. Having spent decades evaluating harness fit in working dogs of all types with thermal imaging (as well as having years of working and active dog experience combined with a strong biomechanics knowledge base) using front-clipping or "Gentle Leader" type harnesses only guarantee more structural stress in active dogs that makes for more work for me and other chiro/sports med colleagues. PLEASE only use harnesses that fit with proper ergonomics! [NOTE: I've tweaked the English & syntax in the added-on description below so it might read a little differently.]

"All dog owners should know this fact! A harness like this is a terrible injustice to your pet!! AVOID USING THIS TYPE OF HARNESS !

In a dog's forward movement, a harness with a tape that crosses its chest from side to side hinders it in the same way humans would bother going hiking with an elastic band holding their arms. Physiological movement of the front extremity is prohibited. Just like rubber would inhibit the pendular movement of our ARMS.

Thanks to the "Study of Canine Movement at the University of Jena", we now know that in the dog, the center of rotation of the front limb is at the top of the scapula, but in the human the center of rotation in the arm is in the shoulder (head of the humerus). Jena's study demonstrates, among other things, the importance of scapular movement for dog locomotion. Now we understand the importance of taking into account the free movement of the dog's shoulder when choosing a chest harness.
That means there SHOULDN'T be bands across the scapular (orange) area, and they shouldn't cross the chest side to side either.

From the point of view of biomechanics and physiotherapy, it is recommended not to choose getting harnesses that have a strap that goes through the chest laterally, or that have straps that touch or press the scapula.

Always lean towards harness models with ERGONOMIC design, to allow maximum freedom of movement for your dog, improve his well-being and safety during his walk.
Source : REAL CEPPA"

16/06/2025

If we weren’t moving to Italy, we would be applying for this beautiful girl, Linda…