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Friday, March 29, 2013

A Tawdry Tid-Bit

Every issue of every trade magazine has a "Tip" section.



In veterinary medicine we refer to these as "pearls". I always read this section, it's my equivalent of the funnies. I have learned some incredibly helpful insightful items from this collective collaboration of learned tricks of our trade. The tips are submitted by other readers and are in general inexpensive craftily created item to help us keep organized, efficient and safe.

When reading today's Veterinary Economics I saw that the 'tiny tip' that was submitted had a picture of a set of ear protection muffs associated with it. When I read the tip that corresponded to the picture i was disappointed to read the reason this tip was submitted.

"Recently our cages were full and every dog seemed to think they had to bark. Some were pretty high pitched, which made it even worse. So, I brought my ear muffs for shooting to the clinic. They worked great! I could still hear the phone yet my ears didn't hurt when I was done."

Argh! There are so many things that bother me with this statement.

"Dogs don't seem to think that they need to bark." They bark because they are stressed, excited, anxious, bored, frustrated, want attention, need something, etc. Not because they seem to think they need to...Is this kennel person ignoring a dogs need?

I was just talking to my kennel person about barking dogs. A barking dogs to me is a dog begging for something, it is a child crying for something, and those needs are not to be buffered out with ear plugs. How is that you not ignoring a patient?

If you are running a kennel that houses so many dogs that you cannot adequately care for them then scale down to a manageable size.

The March 2013 edition of Veterinary Economics.


Maybe the tiny tip should be to keep a happy kennel? My tip for that is lots of exercise, attention, and stimuli. 

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