Maybe.
Love, warmth, and happiness.
And everything you want to know about your pets.
Right here on Pet Connection.
With your host, Dr. Bernie Pouquet.
Hi, I'm Dr. Bernie Pouquet and welcome to my animal hospital.
Today on Pet Connection, we're going to be talking about how to introduce a young, active
dog to an older, established dog and a whole lot more.
And what we're going to emphasize is not so much what to do as what not to do.
It's going to be very interesting, so stay right where you are.
I'm going to be right back.
Coming up, breeding parrots in captivity.
Talking about snakes as an alternative pet and the facts about worms and your dog.
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This one just lets it talk, talk, talk.
And this one's a quiet one.
My mother talks, too.
Ruby, they're looking absolutely healthy.
They're plump.
They're active.
You must have a secret formula here somewhere to take care of these dogs.
Well, I like to feed my females the puppy food and give them the extra protein.
It's for the extra protein, isn't it?
Well, you're doing a good job.
You're doing a great job.
Now, how old are these two?
They're three weeks old.
Okay.
Were there only two in the litter?
Just the two.
Is that the kind of litter you usually have, though?
No, I generally have five.
Five.
On an average?
Is this the lowest you've had these?
Five for share food.
Oh.
And more for other dogs.
How about worms?
Do these guys ever have worm problems?
I've never had no problems with worms at all.
You're lucky.
That's unusual.
And it really is unusual because worms are a common problem.
But with me today is Mary, and she breeds German Shepherd dogs, and she's doing a wonderful
job of it.
But it's unusual for them not to have worm problems, because worm problems can be quite
common.
And what do we mean by worms?
Well, that's where the hook really is.
We don't just mean worms.
We mean intestinal parasites.
So you do have the worms, but you also have something called protozoans.
These are single-celled organisms that can cause problems as well.
Now, how can you tell a dog has worms?
Well, you can't.
Like, for example, these are likely not to have worms simply because they're healthy,
they're plump.
Dogs with the worms will sometimes be pot bellied, although not always.
They tend to be thin.
They eat, eat, eat, but they don't seem to put on any weight.
Maybe they have loose stools from time to time, occasional vomiting.
They're poor doers.
But none of those are specific for worms.
And so we have to do a stool test to check for that.
Now, let me just give you a little lecture, if I might, OK, a little lecture on what we
talk about when we mean worms.
Well, let's talk about worms.
The most common one is called roundworm.
And I have a sample here, a bit disgusting.
And these are, they look a little like spaghetti, don't they?
And this is the most common type of worms called roundworm.
And yes, it can affect people if you don't wash your hands after handling dogs that have
this.
And it can cause a lot of destruction.
Well, I'm giving the lecture this time, OK?
And it can cause a lot of destruction to dogs.
And so we want to get rid of that.
And it's fairly common, like I said.
There's also a worm called a cape worm.
And these you can see.
Just like you can see this worm, you as an owner can see cape worm because they look
like little rice particles around the hind end.
And they get those from ingesting fleas and lice.
There's also hookworm.
And hookworms, you don't see.
They're on a microscope.
You see those under a microscope.
And they can cause bloody diarrhea.
They can cause anemia and can be quite significant.
And then there's a rare type of a worm called whipworm.
Now, there's also protozoans.
And I touched upon that.
These protozoans, something called giardia, something called coccidia, they can cause
a lot of havoc to even death.
And this again brings up, as you well know, the importance of a stool test that even in
your situation, where I think you do deworm them anyway, don't you?
Yes, I do.
Yeah, even in that situation, you still want to have a stool test taken because you want
to know, did the medicine work or did it not work?
Do we have to repeat it?
And are they also not only worms, but protozoans as well?
These guys, you do everything right here, so it's wonderful.
And it doesn't look like they do have worms.
But again, you brought that stool sample in, so we'll check that out.
What a talker.
Did you know that in ancient China, it was common for wealthy landowners to keep a small
dog up each sleeve and another in their lap to keep warm during the winter?
It must have given a whole new meaning to the term frostbite.
This little fella is a milk snake, and as you can tell, it's just gorgeous, really,
really beautiful.
And it's not understandable why people would want to make these into handbags and shoes
when they're so beautiful in the wild like this in real life.
And with me today is Sean Waite, who's the curator of a local serpentarium and very well
equipped to help us today with the discussion on snakes as pets.
Do they make good pets, Sean?
Well, not in the true sense of the word pet, Doctor.
You know, they don't show affection like a cat or a dog would.
However, these particular snakes here are very unaggressive animals and very interesting
animals to keep.
And very gentle, too.
I noticed there's one around your neck.
If you hadn't noticed this.
What kind do you have there, Sean?
This is a Florida pine snake.
It's a rather large, robust constrictor from Florida in the southern eastern United States.
Yeah.
Make good pets?
Yeah, actually.
They're a little nervous, a little high-strung snake, but they do make good pets.
Well, you know Sean's been said over and over and over and over.
And that is, you know, certain myths and misconceptions about snakes.
As a curator at the serpentarium and all these people coming through, do you still find
still the same old misconceptions?
Yes, we still see people who think snakes are slimy and all snakes are bent on attacking
humans and stuff like that, which just is not true.
They're very dry, almost like a piece of leather to touch.
And certainly snakes do not attack men.
Even venomous snakes, if you leave them alone, are not going to go out of their way to attack
men.
They'd rather be left alone.
Exactly.
Now this milk snake here, that's fairly popular.
What about, if you give me a hand here, I'll hold you this.
I'll get the lid for it.
Now this kind here, what kind is this?
That's a very popular snake in the pet trade.
You'll see that one quite often.
It's known as a corn snake, which ranges through a...
Show me your hand there.
All tied up, are we?
They love me.
It's a simple fact.
You mentioned a corn snake.
I know, I see quite a few of these.
Probably the most popular type.
One of the most popular pets in the pet business, they do very well.
They have very easy maintenance to keep them alive in captivity.
They do very well.
They're very unaggressive animals.
Now what do you have to feed snakes?
They're rodent feeders.
Pretty well, all snakes are carnivorous.
And most of them will eat fine on rodents, mice and rats.
And now you don't give a whole mouse to a little guy like this?
Oh yeah, all snakes swallow their prey whole.
Even this one, you have to give small ones, obviously.
No, he'll take full grown mice.
He'll take two at a time.
This guy here?
Yeah.
Amazing, doesn't look like he can get into that mouth.
Their jaws unhinge and separate.
They have very elastic skin and they swallow the prey whole.
Okay, so we've seen a corn snake here.
Now what do we have here?
Again, I'll ask you again to give me a hand here.
Another hand.
This is a very interesting, cute little snake from South Africa.
You won't find these in the pet business too often.
But in Africa they're quite common, actually.
It's called an African house snake from the genus Lamprophis.
It's a very beautiful little snake, a little constrictor.
Sort of almost fills the same niche a corn snake would in the United States as it does in Africa.
Now if somebody's obviously considering these as pets, I mean all these snakes, is there a lot to learn about them?
There is quite a few things to learn about snakes.
You shouldn't just blindly buy a snake and put it in a cage and hope for the best.
There are certain requirements that have to be met.
There are a variety of good beginner books on the subject that should teach you everything you need to know about keeping milk snakes.
What do you recommend to people who are thinking of getting snakes?
For one thing, they're not like some other animals. Snakes are fairly long-lived animals.
Ten to fifteen years, and even up to twenty years, long-lived animals.
So it can be a long-term commitment.
You should learn about them.
And certainly the problem of getting live rodents can always be a problem too.
It's a bit of an aesthetic thing too, thinking of it.
Are you feeding these rodents live?
Some snakes will take only live, and most of them will all take fresh killed.
I'll help you get that one out. What kind do you have there?
This snake here is a Russian rat snake from Lower Russia in the Ukraine.
It's a real black beauty.
Usually these have yellow stripes on them, but this one is very unique and has very faint yellow markings on it.
So it's almost pure black.
It's a very placid snake.
You also should point out the misconceptions about the tongue.
The tongue is not a stinger like a lot of people think.
The tongue is used for the sense of smell.
The bifurcated tongue, or forked tongue as they call it, picks up smells in the air and takes it and transfers it to a thing called the Jacobson organ, which sorts it out.
So it's actually a way of smelling around them.
It's a way of smelling. They have a fantastic sense of smell.
They look beautiful.
You walk into a room with a mouse and they'll smell it.
Is that right? They can smell things on your hands as well.
What do you recommend? Do you recommend them as, if I can use the term, pets?
Pets, yeah, loosely used.
They do make good pets if, like I say, if you get the proper species and you maintain it properly.
And a lot of the, certainly things like, these are all good because they're all sort of temperate climate animals.
And so they can be kept in a warm bedroom with just a small wattage light bulb and do very well with a water bowl and a hide box.
A hide box is essential for things like this.
But the important thing here is read up on it, read up on it, learn as much as you can, and then you may just have a perfect companion if you can get past the misconceptions and the myths.
They really are very gentle animals.
Beautiful and really, really interesting animals.
Well, thank you again, Sean. I appreciate it.
You're welcome, Doc.
Keep up the good work.
Will do.
Coming up, a visit with a parrot reader. Stay tuned.
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You pretty much just want to put some flavor in it.
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And you puree the red pepper, and you add that to the sauce.
You pretty much just want to put some flavor in it.
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Music.
Sit, sit, sit, sit.
Good dog, good dog.
Oh yeah, you're a good dog too.
What that illustrates is how to introduce a young dog to an older dog, okay?
Now you sit too.
Now what we have here is an illustration of introducing a young dog to an older dog.
And there's two assumptions you want to make before you introduce them.
And that is that, first of all, this little guy here has been properly socialized.
So from the age of about five weeks until about 12 to 14 weeks,
it has learned to live with other dogs.
If it's never seen another dog, then it's not properly socialized,
then what I'm going to tell you today wouldn't help.
The other thing is that, as you saw, that the older dog is obedience trained,
so we can get control of the situation.
And as you saw here, Fran, like, you know, these guys have been together, what now?
Three weeks.
And you'll see these little arguments from time to time, won't you?
And you know what that is?
Somebody's trying to establish dominance over the other one.
And so this one says, I want to play, I want to play.
This one says, leave me alone, I'm the boss, rawr, rawr, rawr, rawr.
And that's okay.
And you notice you and I didn't make any attempt to separate us.
Right.
You know, we just simply said, okay, let them at it, let them work it out.
Now, when we first introduce these two,
we always advise people that one of two situations will occur.
First of all, when you introduce them, we have them both on a leash only.
We try to make the experience as pleasant as possible.
And then when we introduce them, depending on the response,
if the response is good, initially we reward them.
Oh, good dog, good dog.
They both get a good dog, you separate them, you give them food treats,
you just make it a very pleasant experience.
If the response is not pleasant, let's say more likely the older one will try to sort of get bossy.
Well, when that happens, you sort of do what I did, no.
Now, you're not yelling, you say, no, I don't want this.
Hey, come on, you guys, get along.
You say, no, sit.
That sitting and staying is redirecting.
And that brings something in their minds, oh, I remember this order.
And they sit, and now you have a reason to reward them.
So you now have made that a very pleasant experience, right?
And if you keep those points in mind, they'll get along like real good friends, just like that.
You guys really do like each other, don't they?
Yeah.
Music.
Hi, I just finished feeding my cockatoos.
My name is Peter Mosted, and I'd like to show you our building where we breed paratite birds.
The building is basically divided into three sections,
a section for cockatoos, a section for amazons and macaws, and a section for African greys.
Now, you will notice all these little windows both on my right and on my left side.
The reason for that is that we are being able to observe the birds without them seeing us.
All these little windows will have one-way glass, so I can see them and they can see me.
The advantage of that is that we see behaviors that normally you do not see.
If I were to go around and walk in there, they would all sit like this, straight,
looking at me and say, I never did anything.
It's the old story.
Now I see complete natural behaviors.
These are African grey parrots.
They are native to Central Africa.
This particular pair has been with us for about six years.
A little bit of preening taking place right now.
Often this happens prior to going to nest.
This pair has raised several clutches of babies for us over the last couple of years.
To my right here, we have various species of amazons.
These are double-yellow-headed amazons.
They are from Central America and the northern tip of South America.
These particular birds were both ex-pets, the female is the bird on the right.
This pair has never bred yet, they have been together for about three years.
Past that, the pair of hyacinths, the female is about 14 or 15 years old.
The male is only two and a half.
The female was a wild-caught hen.
The male was domestic raised in Canada.
They have made it, they have late eggs, or she has late eggs.
Unfortunately, she dropped them off the perch on the floor
and we are hoping that they go back to nest again.
The green wings here in this flight is a new pair.
They arrived here about a year, year and a half ago.
They were kept in a very small cage.
So when they arrived here, the first couple of months spent a lot of time just flying up and down.
They are really enjoying this kind of space.
They have a 16-foot-long flight.
All our birds, by the way, are getting sprayed daily.
We just put the garden hose on them and they will come right to the front and really enjoy it.
To my left, we show a pair of hawk-headed parrots.
Hawk-headed parrots are kind of an interesting bird.
The hawk-head comes from Vienna, northern tip of South America.
When they get excited, they have a tendency of bringing all their head feathers out like an Indian headdress
and suddenly the head becomes twice its size.
Yana has done actually a very good job in looking after their wildlife.
What they have done is they have set a quota.
So every year, about 150 birds worldwide will be allowed to be exported.
This way they are securing stock in their own country
and still allowing some avicultures to be able to get some of them.
Tropical birds could make nice pets.
And as you can see, I am enjoying them too.
But consider buying a domestic-raised baby as opposed to a wild-caught bird.
The days are over and you can just go in the jungles and catch wild birds.
Protection for them is needed and necessary.
And the hand-raised babies certainly make a lot nicer pets than those wild ones.
Speaking of wild ones, I hear the racket going on.
I better go and feed some of them before they come out after me.
Music
Okay, that's it.
Dr. Bernie will be right back.
Eating healthy foods like fruits and vegetables, broccoli and beans, it's a good idea.
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Be sure you can eat whatever you want without the embarrassing formation of gas.
Be sure.
It's a food enzyme complex which will give you personal protection from the high price of gas.
Be sure.
Think of it as a good neighbor policy.
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Well, it's letter time again, and this time our letter is from Bob and Fran Becker of Amherst, New York.
Let me rewrite, in 1971 we adopted two female kittens from the SPCA.
One lived to be 21 years old and the other 22 years old.
Also in 1976 a kitten was left on our front porch, and she, another female, lived with us until 16 years old.
Now we miss the companionship and are going to adopt two new females.
The breeder that sells these kittens told us that male cats were better, more affectionate, etc.
We don't know if that's true as we have had no experience with male cats.
We would appreciate your advice.
Well, to be perfectly honest with you, I personally have seen no difference between male cats and female cats when it comes to personality.
I feel really as an individual, kind of a characteristic, they are after all individuals.
Especially if you think of the fact that you are going to have them neutered anyway.
And so my advice to you is examine the kittens, go by the personality, and you can't go wrong.
Send your letters and pet photos to Dear Dr. Bernie, Care of Pet Connection, 49 Ontario Street, 3rd Floor, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5A 2V1.
Sorry photos cannot be returned.
Well, that brings us to the end of another day.
I hope you enjoyed yourself. I hope you liked all the animals and maybe even learned a little bit too.
I'm Dr. Bernie Fouquet and I look forward to seeing you right here on Pet Connection next time.
So in the meantime, bye-bye.
Coming up next on the Discovery Channel, a new generation of chefs bring fresh culinary talent to America's finest restaurants on Great Chefs.
Then, travel the globe for an international feast on world-class cuisine.
Thank you.