Dog Book Review: Pukka’s Promise

 By now, you’ve likely read several book reviews of Pukka’s Promise: The Quest for Longer-Lived Dogs by Ted Kerasote. I’m a little late to the party. It took me a while to read the book (a) because it’s long and (b) because I’ve been busy taking care of Lilly, after her latest setback (antibiotic-resistant infection and sudden inability to walk / stand). Below, I hope you’ll find a uniquely Champion of My Heart look at Pukka’s Promise.

Many thanks to Anna Sacca from FSB Associates for sending me a free review copy of the book. 

All in all, front to back, I like this book and appreciate the depth and research behind discussions of everything that may impact how long our dogs live, including:

• Genetics and breeding practices
• Vaccination schedules
• Chemicals in our lives
• Nutrition
• Cancer
• Spay / neuter practices

Plus, Kerasote favors houndy-labs. My Ginko is lab + greyhound, and goodness knows I love my big buddy (who will be 13 next month). So, we have that in common.

Our Interest in Canine Vaccines

Because of our ongoing life / death struggle after Lilly developed a rare and dangerous adverse rabies vaccine reaction in January 2012, I read the vaccine chapter with interest.

Kerasote read many of the same canine vaccine adverse reaction studies I have. He spoke to many of the same canine vaccine experts. And, he came to the same conclusions for his new puppy as I have for all future dogs in my life.

Kerasote is following the advice of Dr. Ron Schultz from the University of Wisconsin, whom I consider the #1 mind on this issue.

And, I mean Dr. Schultz’s newest ideas on vaccination schedules (in puppyhood especially) as well as use of titer testing pups. Much of what you read online are his ideas from several years ago (particularly about how often to titer test adult dogs).

Many online sites say Dr. Schultz recommends titers annually, but I talked to him just a few weeks ago, and he recommends titering adult dogs every 3 years now.

Something for Everyone

Those of you interested these topics will find something of interest in Pukka’s Promise, but be prepared to have many Sacred Cows of pet care challenged:

• Environmental toxins
• Canine nutrition
• Food ethics
• Canine cancer
• Animal rescue and sheltering
• Spay / neuter practices

My 2 Gripes

In addition to a couple of random alpha dog references that regular readers know how much I hate and a dog training idea here or there that might make you go, “Huh?” I found just a couple of spots, a couple of comments, a couple of opinions that made me crabby.

Shock Collar Dog Training: The first comes in the Dog Speed chapter, where Kerasote turns to a shock collar to keep Pukka from chasing wildlife. As the founder of the “Never Shock a Puppy” campaign, you might think that alone would make my blood boil.

Not true. If you’re going to use a shock collar, which (of course) I don’t recommend, do it the way Kerasote did — as a last resort, done judiciously. Many of my friends have used the same reasoning and technique to protect their off-leash dogs from wildlife.

Sure, I felt a tinge when I read that section, but it wasn’t until Kerasote went on to criticize those of us who oppose shock collars that I got cranky.

He says, “The revulsion in which e-collars are held by some positive-reinforcement dog trainers is a subset of this widespread infantalization of dogs an our unwillingness to inflect the slightest sting upon these surrogate children. The disdain for e-collars by some positive-reinforcement trainers is also a reaction to so many dogs having been dominated and abused for so long. The result has been dogma — negative conditioning in universally bad — and as a result, some people are reluctant to give their dogs any boundaries. Consequently, these dogs don’t mature into adults. They stay children their entire lives and never become their person’s partner and friend.” (emphasis and disagreement mine)

What bothers me most is the fact that these ideas draw upon myths that divide us. In a book that’s so well researched, including many original forays to understand some myth / urban legend or another (like euthanized pets at rendering plants), I was disappointed to see Kerasote trot out old, worn, unoriginal ideas on this one issue.

I saw no sign of interviews with Dr. Karen Overall, Dr. Sophia Yin, or others who might have given some scientific context to the perceptions and use of shock collars in dog training in the 21st century.

Fearful dogs: In this same Dog Speed chapter, just a page or so later, Kerasote encounters a dog who’s handler says is fearful of other dogs. Having only seen the dog on a trail in Boulder, Colorado, for a few moments, he essentially says to the woman that he bets the dog would be OK off leash.

Maybe so. Maybe not.

But, I object to such cavalier attitudes about fearful dogs, as someone who has:

• Worked for YEARS to help a truly, clinically fearful dog cope in the world
• Been subject to all kinds of unsolicited advice and misinformation from people who do NOT know my dog, but think they know everything
• Protected Lilly from countless “friendly” off-leash dogs who’ve chased us, growled / barked at us, and generally harassed us in areas with leash laws

As a community of folks with fearful dogs and those who may also oppose shock collars, I recommend you SKIP the chapter called Dog Speed.

Let me just tell you that it’s essentially about the mental and physical benefits of giving dogs independent time off leash and time to make good decisions on their own. It lowers their stress level, which is good for longevity.

Top 20%, Top 2%, Top 0.02%

Our Champion of My Heart community sits solidly in the top 20% — if not the top 2% — of dog people.

I’d put Kerasote in the fractional top of the top of the top. His community, his lifestyle, his way of living with and caring for dogs isn’t something most people can accomplish.

Nonetheless, I commend his quest to make Pukka’s life as long and as happy as possible, and I appreciate the lengths to which he has gone to get the rest of us information we might be able to use … about vaccinations … about spay / neuter … about nutrition.

You know that pretend game you play, when you think about what you would do with the money, if you won a big lotto prize?

Kerasote has 2 ideas for important studies in veterinary medicine that need big bucks from an independent source (and many years) to do — one on dog nutrition and one on the impact of spay / neuter on dog health.

After reading Pukka’s Promise, I’ve now added 2 line items to my pretend lotto budget.

My two complaints aside, I do recommend you read Pukka’s Promise so that you’re aware of some of the big discussions and debates going on the greater dog world.