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We have been privileged to interview many leaders in veterinary medicine and the pet space. I’m thrilled to share this latest guest interview with Jonathan Lustgarten, MS, PhD, VMD, CSPO, who speaks about the challenges and opportunities of implementing AI in veterinary medicine. As Dr. Lustgarten points out, AI in veterinary medicine is not new; for example, in radiology. But generative AI has created a hyped up conversation about AI in all aspects of life, including veterinary medicine. He is helping to educate veterinarians on what to look for now and what the future holds. I met him at last year’s VMX and was delighted to get an update from him at VMX 2025. This will be the first in a series of interviews with veterinary leaders working to bring responsible AI to veterinary medicine to improve the workflows in the clinic, the well-being of the veterinary healthcare team, and most important of all, the health and healthcare of our beloved pets.
As I noted in my last blog post in 2000, the world was buzzing about the rise of the Internet. Fast-forward 25 years, and the buzz is all about AI. For several years, I have focused on doctoral research on responsible AI. My research has focused on how strategic communicators use AI responsibly, and now I’m turning to organizational use, specifically in veterinary medicine.
What does responsible AI mean in veterinary medicine? What are AI’s benefits to pet owners? There is much to discuss. We’ve started with Dr. Lustgarten’s interview, and I look forward to diving in and reporting back—along with other news in veterinary medicine.
If you are reading this now and going to WVC, I look forward to reflecting on the many memories of the past 25 years of Goodnewsforpets.com coverage, catching up on your news, and, most of all, covering the news of how AI is transforming veterinary medicine. It’s good to be 25!
See you there or see you online!
#goodnewsforpets25
Something sad and difficult is happening with Lewis: clinical sound phobia. He is suffering. Three months from the onset and diagnosis, he is doing much better with the help of medications, but we have a long way to go. I want to share, for others who are going through this or might in the future, what the recent months have been like for us.
Lewis joined my family in December 2021, and in the next few years we had many thunderstorms and at least eight noisy holidays. I live in a capital city, so we get shows with booming fireworks. Lewis didn’t show fear during these events (with one exception under unusual circumstances). He was happy to accept food after noises, though. Due to long experience with sound reactive dogs, I always deliver good snacks for fireworks and thunderclaps. But if Lewis built up some good associations from that, they weren’t enough.
On January 1, 2025, when the New Year’s fireworks started, Lewis started panting and trembling and seeking comfort. He was in extreme distress. I had no meds for him. We toughed it out with food, when he would take it, and he finally slept, exhausted. I made plans to see the vet.
About a week later, a snowstorm started that lasted a few days, a rarity here. We hadn’t been to the vet yet. Lewis has enjoyed the snow in the past. But at around 7:30 PM the first night, we were out in the yard, and a neighbor close by set off some firecrackers. This video shows the result.
Video shows Lewis standing with his paw raised, trembling, panting, startling to quiet noises, with dilated pupils and extreme tension in his facial muscles.
Lewis not only panicked at the time, but he became afraid to go into the yard, especially at night. During the duration of the snow, he wouldn’t go outside in the evening at all, so sometimes didn’t eliminate for up to 18 hours at a time. And his sound triggers quickly generalized.
I phoned the vet, and we started prescription medications as soon as the streets were clear enough that I could pick them up. I won’t describe the whole meds experience, but many of you know it can take much longer than we wish to get a med or combination that works for a dog. When you get it, it’s priceless, a game changer. But the vet and I are still working on it for Lewis. Writing this in April, he is much, much improved. But he is not his old self.
I also had him checked thoroughly for pain (Lopes Fagundes et al., 2018) by two vets. I’ll keep on top of that. It’s worth noting that he was in the age group where genetic sound phobia typically kicks in, according to Dr. Karen Overall (2013, p. 257).
We kept having bad luck. In February, the city water department excavated the next-door neighbor’s driveway. First, a jackhammer. Then an excavator scraping up pavement and dumping it, booming, into a truck. And of course the truck made backup beeping noises. A new level of trauma unlocked for Lewis. The work started every morning at 8 AM and lasted all day. This went on for four days one week, then two more the next week. Lewis would rarely go outside and was hyper-vigilant when he did so. Indoors got poisoned, too, as he associated the scary noises with being at home. When inside, he’d ask to be taken somewhere by car. He’d stand next to the cabinet where I keep his leash and harness or try to get into the garage when I went out. Or he would simply ask repeatedly to go in another room if doors were closed. I let him, but of course it didn’t help, since there’s no escaping sounds of that amplitude and frequency.
There was a sweet spot around dusk after the workers left and before the still-scary nighttime. Sometimes he’d do his only eliminating for the whole day during that time. Sometimes I had to take him to another neighborhood to get him to go.
Lewis was also terrified the next time we had a thunderstorm, and from then on. In my sound webinars, I talk from an acoustic point of view about the difficulty/impossibility of preventing dogs from hearing thunder. This has been brought home to me anew: how desperate we get, as owners, for something, anything, to block that sound. But in almost all cases, you just can’t. When a thunderclap can shake your house, it’s ludicrous to think that an insulated doghouse, a closet, or even earmuffs can make that sound inaudible. This is why owners of sound phobic and other fearful dogs are so easily exploited by companies that sell products with false promises. When we want to relieve our suffering friends; we will try anything.
I also talk about the problems with satiation when using food for ad hoc counterconditioning. This is a big problem for us. In Arkansas, we have storms that go on for hours. We recently had such a day. We knew it was coming. I had about two cups of chicken ready in bite-sized pieces. The first thunder came at 5:30 PM. I had medicated Lewis ahead of time, but he was still reacting. Not as severely as in the video above, but still upset and frightened. I gave him a piece of chicken for every thunderclap for more than 60 minutes, but after that, I had to slow down. It was just too much food.
If you have studied Pavlovian conditioning, you know that it’s important to establish a 1:1 association between the conditioned stimulus (in this case, thunder) and the unconditioned stimulus (food). The clearer the association, the better the transfer of the response you get to the originally-scary thing. But you can’t do it cleanly with thunder. There are some horrible challenges related to satiation. First, which thunderclaps “count”? You start off treating for each one, as we know we should do. Then you realize that if you continue to do that, and include the quieter ones, you will be feeding nonstop. So you try to make some acoustic threshold in your mind’s ear, and just treat for “the loud ones.” But this breaks the pairing. And is there really some magic line for the dog between scary and “OK, I’m not quite panicking” thunderclaps? Even if there is, how do we find it?
The second problem is the duration itself. I mentioned in my example that the thunder started at 5:30 PM. As of 1:30 AM the next morning, eight hours later, there hadn’t been a period of even 10 minutes when there wasn’t audible thunder. Then we had two more days of thunderstorms.
It could help if I could start to ask for a behavior and give him something to do instead of waiting for inconsistently paired food. After hours and days of storms, I was giving “consolation chicken,” since all hope of a consistent pairing was down the drain. But moving to a behavior will have to happen later; he’s too upset.
I mentioned that Lewis’ triggers generalized fast. A door slam, a twig falling on the roof, a human getting the hiccups (really!), the unexpected clink of some metal pieces in a box, the excavation, cars revving—all scare him badly. There are still few days without triggers. In the video above, you can see how sensitized he is; he twitches at least twice in response to background noises.
Lewis is already a challenge with handling and husbandry. I still trim his nails by giving him frozen peanut butter on a LickiMat and clipping as fast as I can. That’s where we are with nail trims after three years, even though I’ve taught cooperative foot handling to five other dogs. Last fall, Marge Rogers started coaching me on getting him relaxed and being handled. That was coming along nicely until the sound phobia kicked in.
The handling practice is on hiatus since he’s too sensitive for much training. But he also gets upset if I do his nails the old way, whereas before, he didn’t care for the handling but didn’t seem to mind the actual clipping.
A similar thing happened with Clara, even though she was such an easier dog than Lewis. She was relaxing through Dremeling at three years old, but then she got Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. She was in pain. I made the mistake of trimming her nails during this period and it was very hard on her. Although she was always cooperative, we never got our relaxed nail trimming back again, for her whole life.
Each dog teaches me new things. I wish, for Lewis’ sake, he didn’t have to be teaching me about this.
Lewis’ condition is like Zani’s in that he is convinced that if he could leave the house (out the front, not the back), he could escape the triggers. I wish it were so! And both have/had a more severe response to their trigger sounds than Summer, who was afraid of thunder, but probably not phobic. Ad hoc counterconditioning helped Summer immensely. After Zani was stabilized on meds, structured desensitization and counterconditioning helped her to an amazing recovery. But her triggers had acoustic aspects that made them much more amenable to successful DS/CC.
Lewis has the toughest situation, with clinical phobia to thunder and fireworks that quickly generalized to many other sudden sounds and even objects associated with them. For instance, because one time some metal pieces settled in a box on the coffee table and made a “clink,” we have to be careful about cardboard boxes now.
Medications (ongoing and situational) and ad hoc counterconditioning have both helped. Lewis also profits from physical and verbal comfort. His first response when a sound scares him is to creep over to me or my partner. He often buries his head between my knees. He has access to places to hide, but isn’t interested. After his initial response, he wants to stay in sight of his humans, but not usually cuddly close. I can tell how upset he is by observing which location he chooses in the den.
I use sound masking to manage the acoustic environment. It can make such a big difference, and especially helped during the neighborhood excavation. Because of that, I figured out a trick for masking that may help some of you. I’ll publish that in a separate post.
Here’s an antidote to all the sad photos. We are still managing to have some fun during this adjustment and recovery period. I will keep you posted.
Lopes Fagundes, A. L., Hewison, L., McPeake, K. J., Zulch, H., & Mills, D. S. (2018). Noise sensitivities in dogs: an exploration of signs in dogs with and without musculoskeletal pain using qualitative content analysis. Frontiers in Veterinary Science, 5, 17.
Overall, K. (2013). Manual of Clinical Behavioral Medicine for Dogs and Cats. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Copyright 2025 Eileen Anderson
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Are you in the process of breeding your dog, or do you already have a pregnant dog at home?
Whatever may be the case, you’ll need all information about the canine gestation period and what to expect. A week-by-week dog pregnancy calendar is an essential tool that will help you stay informed of what is happening in all stages of your dog’s pregnancy.
While having a new litter is super exciting, it’s completely natural to feel a bit anxious about caring for a pregnant dog! Luckily, dogs are very self-sufficient and know how to handle pregnancy and give birth on their own. However, you should know what to expect and be prepared to help in case of an emergency.
The average length of canine pregnancy is 63 days, but depending on the breed, dogs can be pregnant from 58 to 68 days. Compared to people, dogs are pregnant for a very short time, so you need to know in advance what to expect to support a healthy pregnancy.
QUICK TIP: Start preparing early for your newborn puppies. They most definitely can come earlier than expected as was the case with 3 out of 4 of Raven’s litters (the 4th litter was 1 day late). Check out our whelping checklist for supplies you might need for whelping a litter of pups.
Below, you will find a comprehensive guide through all nine weeks of canine pregnancy, from the moment your dog conceives to the actual delivery.
Whether you are trying to get your dog pregnant or you already have a pregnant dog at home, congratulations! Caring about a pregnant dog and raising the puppies are the most exciting things you are going to experience as a pet owner. With the help of a canine gestation calendar, you’ll be able to track your dog’s pregnancy week by week and be prepared for a due date.
Within the first seven days, after the mating has taken place, ovulation and fertilization happen. During this process, the fertilized eggs will travel down from the uterus to get implanted into the uterine wall. Knowing when your dog is ovulating can help you create an accurate canine pregnancy calendar and predict your dog’s due date.
Bear in mind, that ovulation is necessary for successful breeding, but it can be hard to determine whether your dog is ovulating or not. However, you can track your dog’s heat cycle to confirm ovulation.
Most dogs don’t show any signs they are pregnant this early on, but pregnancy will create hormonal changes within your dog’s body. While you won’t notice any physical change, some dogs may experience morning sickness. However, this is fairly rare, and most dogs don’t behave or appear any differently.
At this stage, you should continue to feed the best dog food and exercise, and play with your dog the same as before she became pregnant. Furthermore, there is no need to include any nutritional supplements at this point, unless your vet says otherwise.
During the second week of your dog’s pregnancy, the developing embryos slowly start to grow. At this point, the embryos are still very small and don’t need many calories for normal growth and development. Therefore, you can continue feeding your dog the same as before and don’t have to change her diet in any way.
From this point on, you should measure your dog regularly and keep a close eye on her weight. Your dog’s weight should remain the same or increase by no more than 10 percent until the end of the fifth week of pregnancy. However, if your dog starts to lose weight, the puppies may be in danger, so call your vet right away and take your dog for a checkup.
These are still the early days of the pregnancy, so you can continue exercising and playing with your dog as you did before. Furthermore, you don’t have to make any changes to your dog’s grooming and bathing routine just yet. There is also no need to add any nutritional supplements at this point if none were prescribed by your vet.
During the third week of your dog’s pregnancy, the embryos will start to take root inside the lining of the uterus. Inside this protective membrane, they will receive all the nutrients necessary for proper growth and development. At this stage, the puppies are less than one centimeter long, so you won’t notice any significant change in your dog’s overall appearance.
You should continue to feed and exercise your dog as before, and you still don’t have to change any aspects of your dog’s regular routine. However, some dogs start to have a bigger appetite around this time, so monitor your dog for an increase.
If your dog seems more ravenous than before, you can increase her portion sizes a bit, to satisfy the needs of the growing puppies. Note, that it’s too early to make any major changes in your dog’s diet at this point. So, if your dog seems hungrier than usual, a slight increase in food won’t hurt, but don’t exaggerate.
The fourth week of the dog gestation calendar is the time when things really start to happen! At this time, an experienced breeder or a vet will be able to confirm the pregnancy by gently palpating your dog’s abdomen. Please leave this up to experts as you could injure your unborn puppies if you don’t know what you’re doing.
Furthermore, your vet will also be able to do an ultrasound, so you can get a rough idea of how many puppies your dog will have.
Therefore, you should take your dog to the vet by the middle of the fourth week, even if she looks completely healthy. Besides checking the mom and telling you what to expect in terms of litter size, your vet will also be able to spot any developmental deformities in the puppies.
By the end of the fourth week, the puppies will grow to around one and a half centimeters long. Their faces will start to take shape, and they will also start to develop eyes and a spine. And since the fourth week is one of the most formative stages of the pregnancy, the puppies are at the highest risk of sustaining developmental abnormalities.
At this stage of your dog’s pregnancy, you should start to limit rough play and strenuous activities that can put puppies at risk. While you shouldn’t stop exercising your dog altogether, you will have to be extra careful. So instead of taking your dog for a morning run, opt for a long walk and avoid high-intensity exercises.
Now is also the time to talk with the vet about your dog’s changing dietary needs. Your vet may suggest supplements that will support your dog’s delicate state and recommend different foods.
By the fifth week, embryogenesis—the first stage of gestation—ends and the second one begins. At this time, puppies start to form organs and gain weight quickly, and are from now on called fetuses. The good news is that, from this point on, the puppies are less prone to sustaining any developmental issues.
During this week, puppies start to develop individual toes and their claws and whiskers also start to grow. They will also develop their male and female organs, so your vet will be able to tell you the genders of the puppies with an ultrasound.
At this stage of the pregnancy, the puppies will start to put on weight more quickly, so your dog will start to gain weight considerably as well. Consequently, you will need to start feeding your dog more and adjust her diet accordingly. Instead of two main meals, start feeding several smaller meals to your dog.
Depending on your dog’s current diet, now might be the time to change her food to one specially formulated for pregnant dogs. If you have any doubts or questions regarding your dog’s food, consult your vet. Your vet will be able to tell you how much food she needs at this stage of pregnancy and might even recommend the best food for pregnant dogs.
During the sixth week of your dog’s pregnancy, the growth and development of the puppies start to speed up. At this point, the puppies will get their distinctive features and their bones and skeleton start to become solid.
This is the time when your dog’s belly will become larger and her pregnancy will become apparent to everyone. If you haven’t changed her diet till this stage, you will have to do it now. Start feeding your dog with high-quality dog food formulated for pregnant dogs, to avoid nutrition and calorie deficiency.
Some dogs have a decreased appetite during this stage, due to the discomfort caused by the pregnancy. However, your dog will need a lot of calories from the food to support the still-growing puppies. If your dog experiences a decrease in appetite, start feeding several smaller meals or leave food and encourage free feeding.
At this time, you should also consult your vet and see if your dog’s diet should be supplemented in any way.
Seven weeks into the pregnancy, the puppies will start to develop hair and their bones will solidify even more. At this point, your dog may start to shed hair from her belly as she is getting ready for the big day. If this happens, don’t be alarmed—this is normal behavior for dogs as they prepare to give birth.
The seventh week of a dog pregnancy calendar should be marked as the time you start preparing for the birth of your new puppies. This is the best time to set a whelping area for your dog! Choose a quiet place away from foot traffic, where your dog will feel safe and comfortable bringing her new puppies into the world.
Keep in mind, that your dog will be inside her nursery a few weeks after she gives birth, so choose a room you won’t have to use anytime soon. The designated birthing area must be warm and easy to clean. If you don’t plan on breeding your dog often, you can use a simple cardboard box and blankets as a whelping box.
By the eighth week, the puppies’ skeletons should be formed completely. At this time, your vet can do an x-ray to confirm the exact size of the litter. However, this procedure may be too invasive and it’s really up to you and your vet to decide whether it’s necessary or not.
From this point on, your dog can go into labor at any time, so make sure that everything is prepared. Now is your time to make any final adjustments to the whelping area and to see if you have everything you need.
By the end of the eighth week, your dog will begin lactating, which is a clear sign that she’ll go into labor soon. Most dogs start lactating a week before labor, thus giving you a good guess of when the puppies will be born.
To make your dog more comfortable during whelping, you may consider trimming the hair around her nipples and rear quarters. This will keep the mess at a minimum and make the birthing and nursing process a lot easier for your dog.
At this point, your dog might start whelping at any time, so be ready to welcome the new puppies. Your dog will start nesting in her whelping box and might become restless and anxious as she prepares for birth.
You can start measuring your dog’s temperature if she allows it, since a drop of 1.8°F means that the labor will start soon. However, don’t do this if it will stress your dog out or make her uncomfortable in any way.
And once your dog goes into labor, try not to show any signs of stress and just be there to provide comfort and support. Remember, most dogs know what to do and can manage everything on their own. To put your mind at ease, you can notify your vet that your dog started whelping and have him on standby in case your dog needs any help.
Most dogs will have a noticeably larger belly approximately 40 days into the pregnancy. At this point, it will become clear to everyone that the dog is pregnant. From this point onward, a dog’s belly will continue to grow daily until the time of whelping.
We didn’t start seeing obvious pregnancy signs with Raven’s first litter until the final week before delivery.
The average due date of a dog’s pregnancy is 63 days after mating, but this can vary by several days. In most cases, a dog pregnancy lasts between eight to nine weeks. If you know when your dog mated, you can easily calculate her due date and use a dog pregnancy tracker to mark all stages of pregnancy.
A healthy pregnancy in dogs ranges from 58 to 68 days with an average of 63 days. So if everything is as it should be, your dog will give birth to puppies within the first week of the third month. If you want to know your dog’s expected due date, you should record the exact day of the mating and get ready to welcome the new litter.
A dog’s gestation period, on average, lasts for 63 days and is measured from the day the dog ovulates till the day she gives birth. However, depending on the breed, a dog’s pregnancy can last from 58 to 68 days. It’s completely normal for some dogs to give birth a few days earlier than the average 63 days and for others to be a few days late.
Dogs can whelp 54 days into the pregnancy, but this is considered an early delivery. Dogs who carry too many puppies for their size go into early labor, but unfortunately, these puppies rarely survive. On day 54, puppies still don’t have a sucking instinct and rarely survive without adequate veterinary care.
If you suspect that your dog is showing signs of going into labor earlier than the expected due date, call your vet for advice. You should make all the necessary preparations for an early delivery to be on the safe side. And if your dog starts to give birth early or shows signs of distress during delivery, call your vet right away.
Whether your dog is already pregnant or you are planning to breed her, the dog gestation calendar can help you estimate your dog’s due date. A healthy canine pregnancy can last from 58 to 68 days, but the average delivery date is 63 days after mating. The most important stages of a dog’s pregnancy are:
Knowing what happens through all stages of canine pregnancy will help you understand the needs of a pregnant dog and her growing puppies. And with the help of a dog pregnancy tracker, you’ll know exactly what to expect when your dog is expecting!
Have you ever had a pregnant dog?
Did you keep a dog pregnancy calendar to help track your dog’s pregnancy milestones?
Tell us about your experiences in the comment section below.
UPDATE: This post was originally published on July 24th, 2022. We periodically update blog posts with new experiences and information to keep them as relevant as possible.
Check out more of our favorites on our New Puppy Checklist.
Andrea Davis, Chief Executive Officer Viticus Group
“Our expansion to Nashville marks a significant milestone for both the veterinary and human healthcare industries,” said Andrea Davis, chief executive officer, Viticus Group. “For nearly a century, we’ve been at the forefront of hands-on training and education from our home base in Las Vegas. Now, with this new location, we’re broadening our reach – creating even more opportunities for professionals to advance their skills, build their confidence and shape the future of their practice. We are here to stay with the Vegas lights and look forward to the Nashville sights!”
With its flagship WVC Annual Conference continuing in Las Vegas, Viticus Group remains dedicated to providing unmatched continuing education while building its second home in Nashville. The new facility will be a cutting-edge bioskills training center designed to provide advanced hands-on education for veterinary and human health professionals. In addition, the upcoming conference, the first new national veterinary continuing education conference in more than 40 years, will introduce an experience that will match the energy and level of continuing education that WVC participants expect, expanding Viticus Group’s legacy of delivering premier continuing education and networking opportunities. Specifically, with the concentration of veterinary professionals in the geographic areas near Nashville, the accessible and centrally located city provided a logical choice to create an additional home for Viticus Group.
To stay updated on Viticus Group expansion plans, visit viticusgroup.org and join the Alert List.
Source: WVC News release
Check out our guest interview with Dr. Anthony Pease, Viticus Group Chief Medical Offer, for more!
Hands-On Lab Learning Center Expansion Leads to Two WVC Conferences
Most of us know the harm that tools such as shock and prong collars can cause. But I worry that our focus on tools causes less dramatic aversive methods to go under the radar.
We do talk about some aversive methods not associated with tools. Things like molding, where a dog is forced into position. Scaring dogs with noises. Kicking or hitting. But you know what is discussed very little?
Extinction. Specifically, operant extinction of a positively reinforced behavior. An experience that can be so unpleasant to the learner it can provoke violence (Azrin et al., 1966) or depression (Huston et al., 2013; Ramnerö et al., 2016).
Here’s a definition:
The extinction operation is the discontinuation (cessation) of reinforcement as a consequence of a given behavior, leading to a decrease in the frequency of that behavior. — Mayer et al, 2018, p. 30.
A previously reinforced behavior yields—nothing. No consequence. The classic human example is a suddenly nonfunctional beverage or candy machine.
Tools such as shock and prong collars are used almost exclusively in positive punishment and negative reinforcement protocols. Extinction of a positively reinforced behavior is not an event associated with their normal use. But the experience of extinction can be anything from annoying to frustrating to devastating.
There are varying intensities, for lack of a better term, of extinction. When a trainer shapes behavior there will be episodes of extinction, in which a previously reinforced approximation is no longer reinforced. But the more skilled the trainer, the fewer and more uneventful these are. A good trainer makes it plain through the environmental setup and their actions what the dog should try next. I.e., how they can continue to access reinforcement with slight changes to their behavior.
Sometimes we train a new behavior to access the same or similar reinforcement as a problem behavior. No matter how kind and thoughtful we are, our goal is to extinguish the problem behavior in that context. But good planning and providing a clear path to reinforcement for the dog can help soften the experience.
But contrast these carefully designed plans with, for example, the commonly recommended method to ignore dogs who jump up without giving them any clue about what to do instead. Many people have discussed the inefficacy of this method, including me. But besides being ineffective, any abrupt change like that can be unkind. (Depending on how this plan is implemented, it very likely incorporates negative punishment as well.)
Alanna Lowry, DVM, and wonderful, “naughty” Flynn were hamming it up in the adjacent photo. But it is no fun for most dogs to have their human completely ignore them.
That’s the kind of extinction scenario I am focusing on in this discussion: a previously reinforced behavior that is no longer reinforced at all. A complete cessation of reinforcement with no alternative offered. The dog has no ability to remedy the situation, i.e., access that reinforcer again.
This happens not only in training, but in life.
Noting quickly: there also exists extinction of negatively reinforced behavior, so-called escape extinction. I may write about this in the future.
Here is an extreme example that I hope none of us would ever do. Let’s say that every evening you have a play session with your dog. You make several preparations for this. You may change your clothes. Perhaps you’ll grab some treats from a jar. You may get some special equipment and set it up.
You make all the preparations, grab your dog’s toy, and head for the play area. Your dog is accompanying you—excited and ready for some fun. You’ve started the familiar launch sequence. But when you get to the area where you normally play, instead of starting the play, you put the toy out of the dog’s reach and sit down and look at your phone. You ignore your dog.
It’s painful for me to even imagine this because of how hard it would be on my dog. He would try different things to engage me in play for a while. I would be able to see the effects of the extinction process in his behavior as his behavior began to vary. I would likely see frustration-related behaviors if I let it go on too long (Bentosela et al., 2008; Jakovcevic et al., 2013). In other words, fallout.
If I did that every day (completely stopped playing with him after setting up to do so), I wonder how long it would take before he stopped trying to play with me? Again, this is sad to think about.
In the photos below, Lewis’ Jolly Ball, a favorite toy, is hanging in the tree behind me. He is using a variety of behaviors to remedy the situation. This is typical of an extinction process, where the variability of behavior increases. It is a diluted extinction burst.
I call it diluted because was not a true extinction event. I cherrypicked the photos out of a quick 60-second video. I did not consistently ignore Lewis. I interacted with him between these shots, and I put some peanut butter on the tree to set up that shot. It was still excruciating for me to do, to slightly confuse him and to delay the fun for 60 seconds. Of course we played heartily with the Jolly Ball afterward.
There is a lay term for this activity: teasing. “Look! Here’s this thing you want but you can’t have it.”
It worries me that suddenly ceasing to reinforce a behavior that had been reinforced in the past would not break any stated guidelines about force free training I’ve seen. Although they are acknowledged as problematic in the Hierarchy of Behavior-Change Procedures and in the LIFE model, professional organizations don’t seem to cover them in their requirements and position statements and they are not a frequent topic of discussion for individual trainers.
We are technically not doing anything to the dog at all. Not touching him, not scolding him. Yet—it can be cruel.
I made that example extreme to focus on the potential harm. but this type of thing happens in smaller ways. It happens when we suddenly change routines. Here’s a real example from my life with Lewis.
Lewis eats most of his breakfast out of a food toy. But for several months, I broke up his breakfast period with a training session. He got to choose when to switch. I went in with a handful of 15–20 higher-value kibble pieces. I made myself available and waited for him to take a break (good matching law exercise), then we’d have a quickie training session. Then he went back to his food toy.
Over the months, I noticed that we had a hard time in those sessions. He was jumpy and mouthy. He seemed conflicted, likely because of having to leave one food source for another. Duration behaviors such as front-paws-on-a-platform, shown in the top and adjacent photos, were extra difficult. The adjacent photo is from one of those sessions; the top one was posed much later. See the difference?
I had done this mid-breakfast training with Clara before, but she was a different dog with a different history with me. She moseyed over to play with me, then moseyed back to her food toy. It took me way too long to perceive the negative experience for Lewis.
After I noticed, I decided to stop our mid-breakfast training session.
I put some thought about how to break our routine in the kindest way possible. Even though the session seemed stressful, he would eagerly approach me when it was time and gobble the food. So he would notice its absence for sure.
What were the cues for this interruption? An obvious one was my entering the hallway where he eats. So if I stopped coming in, would he stop “expecting” the session? No. Another part of the cue was time. Not time of day, but the amount of time elapsed from when he started eating. Somewhere around four minutes. I could not prevent the passage of time. So I couldn’t prevent the little period of extinction where he would perform anticipatory and approach behaviors like looking up from his toy or coming to the gate where I would normally enter. Those were the behaviors that would no longer be reinforced if I ceased the mid-breakfast session.
Was this going to be grueling for him? Not likely. To anthropomorphize a bit, the human parallel would be something like, “Well, I guess we aren’t doing that anymore. Damn. I liked that food. Oh well, I’ve got this other food to work on.”
But making a plan and softening this change provided good practice for me to learn how to handle more intense extinction scenarios that might come along.
To eliminate the training session, I planned to fade the cues by softening them or moving them, and to decrease the amount of the special kibble (but not to zero).
Here are the steps I took.
My final behavior is to come in when he is about finished with his food toy (which I have always done anyway), hand him a couple of pieces of the special food, then help him retrieve any pieces of kibble he can’t get. The last is part of our normal routine.
My first example with the play session may have seemed overblown. And my example of fading the interruption in Lewis’ breakfast may seem insignificant.
But I want to practice thinking about this, working out the problems to prevent unpleasantness in my dog’s life. My thought processes will help me if something bigger comes along.
Whether it’s in training or in life, whether it’s planned or sudden and unavoidable, don’t ever forget about the hurt of extinction. If it’s necessary to discontinue a regular activity your dog enjoys, soften the blow in any way you can. And if you have a training credential, ask your accrediting body whether extinction without differential reinforcement is worth addressing in guidelines and position statements.
What kinds of extinction scenarios have you noticed with your dog, either in training or daily life? What happens when there is a cue for a behavior and there is no reinforcement available for that behavior anymore? This can include some very sad scenarios, such as a breakup or a death in the family. (In the future, I hope to write more about the loss of Clara. It hit Lewis hard.) But there are so many less intense things that happen: schedule changes and the like. How does your dog handle them? How do you help your dog?
Azrin, N. H., Hutchinson, R. R., & Hake, D. F. (1966). Extinction‐induced aggression. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of behavior, 9(3), 191-204.
Bentosela, M., Barrera, G., Jakovcevic, A., Elgier, A. M., & Mustaca, A. E. (2008). Effect of reinforcement, reinforcer omission and extinction on a communicative response in domestic dogs (Canis familiaris). Behavioural processes, 78(3), 464-469.
Huston, J. P., de Souza Silva, M. A., Komorowski, M., Schulz, D., & Topic, B. (2013). Animal models of extinction-induced depression: loss of reward and its consequences. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 37(9), 2059-2070.
Jakovcevic, A., Elgier, A. M., Mustaca, A. E., & Bentosela, M. (2013). Frustration behaviors in domestic dogs. Journal of applied animal welfare science, 16(1), 19-34.
Mayer, G. R., Sulzer-Azaroff, B., & Wallace, M. (2018). Behavior analysis for lasting change, fourth edition. Sloan.
Ramnerö, J., Folke, F., & Kanter, J. W. (2016). A learning theory account of depression. Scandinavian journal of psychology, 57(1), 73-82.
Copyright 2024 Eileen Anderson
a Guest Post by Cat Topia
For cats, the right environment and mental engagement are crucial to staying healthy and happy. Just like humans, cats need more than food, water, and shelter—they need mental and physical enrichment to truly thrive. Without proper enrichment, cats can experience boredom, which may lead to serious health issues. Let’s explore ways owners can add extra enrichment into their lives, such as through a catio.
Enrichment for cats is more than entertainment; it’s essential to their well-being. In the wild, cats are natural hunters, driven to explore, hunt, and interact with their environment. Indoor cats, however, don’t have the same outlets to exercise these instincts, leading to potential boredom, stress, and even health issues.
Think of it like this: if you could never access the outdoors—no sun on your face, no sounds of nature, and no fresh scents of changing seasons—you’d likely feel restless, even anxious. Similarly, without engagement, your cat can become mentally and physically stifled. Providing enrichment, then, allows them the chance to engage in natural behaviors, reducing the negative effects of a restricted lifestyle and promoting both mental and physical health.
Without sufficient enrichment, cats can develop a range of behavioral issues, including:
Providing regular, engaging activities helps prevent these issues, making for a happier and healthier pet.
A catio (an enclosed, outdoor cat patio) is one of the most effective ways to provide both physical and sensory enrichment. For indoor cats, a catio offers a safe way to experience the outdoors, complete with fresh air, sunlight, and a variety of sights and smells. Here’s how a catio contributes to enrichment:
If a catio isn’t feasible, there are still plenty of ways to enrich your cat’s life:
By providing adequate enrichment, cat owners can help prevent a range of behavioral and health issues, giving their cats a happier and more balanced life. From a simple scratching post to a full catio, there are enrichment solutions for every space and budget. Remember, a well-enriched cat is a happy cat, and with some creativity, you can create a stimulating environment that keeps your feline friend active, engaged, and content.
I first learned of the “peak-end rule” when I read Daniel Kahneman’s book, Thinking, Fast and Slow. I thought it was interesting and could relate. Years later, when Clara died, the reality of it hit me.
This post reflects my state of mind immediately after I lost Clara. My perspective has widened over time and the pain has softened. I am not sinking into fixations or deep regrets. I gave her a good life. The concepts I discuss in this post are part of what helped me through my initial grief. I hope they will help others, as well.
Bucket lists. A favorite last meal. A peaceful, painless death, surrounded by loved ones.
It is natural to want the best for our beloved pets at the ends of their lives, as we have throughout them.
Yet, after losing Clara, I noticed something in myself. I had a focus, almost an obsession with her last hours, her last day, her last week. Even her last couple of years. And I have seen this focus in many others.
It has a name: the peak-end rule.
The peak-end rule is a cognitive bias that causes us, when looking back on an experience, to focus on two things: the most intense part of it and the end.
I’m not saying that these things aren’t important. But the peak-end rule can—and has been shown experimentally to—cause us to de-emphasize, even ignore long periods of pleasure and happiness. The same with long periods of moderate pain, when flanked by more extreme pain.
Here’s a scientific definition:
The peak-end rule . . . asserts that, when people retrospectively evaluate an experience (e.g., the previous workday), they rely more heavily on the episode with peak intensity and on the final (end) episode than on other episodes in the experience — Alaybek et al., 2022.
A related effect is called duration neglect.
. . . we define [duration neglect] as little or no independent effect of duration on retrospective evaluations of affective episodes. — Fredrickson & Kahneman, 1993.
This is the flip side of the peak-end rule. We devalue duration in comparison with the peak and end of an experience, even if the peak and end are very brief compared to the total experience.
Research has shown evidence for duration neglect when we recall both pleasant experiences (e.g. vacations) and unpleasant ones (medical procedures).
Here’s an article with a good discussion of both the peak-end rule and duration neglect.
The peak-end rule has been shown to apply to retrospectively assessing the happiness of a life (Kahneman, 2012, p. 387). So here I am, after Clara’s death, noticing the peak-end rule while thinking over her life.
I have all these regrets relating to “the end.” They were very intense in the days after Clara died. In retrospect, this happened to varying degrees with my other dogs as well.
I wish I had given Clara a few more potato chips on her last night on earth. I gave her one, but she wanted more. What I would have given her had I known! And I kept thinking of it on the day she died. Why just ONE damn potato chip? Luckily, Ruth was more generous, and gave her three or four cheese crackers. I asked Ruth that day, after Clara was gone, how many she gave her the night before. I wept in gratitude about those crackers.
But Clara had great food her whole life. Good nutrition to the best of my ability, but also wonderful treats, wonderful variety, very high-value foods. Homemade dog treats. People food. A grilled lean pork chop for her lessons. Fast food chicken sandwiches for training on the road and whipped cream pup cups. And since we moved here in 2018, after we eat, Ruth gives the dogs tastes of our suppers or other fun food that’s safe for them. She does this every day.
Clara has had food that other dogs might only dream of, over the duration of her whole life. And I’m fixated on that one potato chip.
Out of all my dogs, I had the most warning that Zani was reaching the end of her life. She had a probable diagnosis of lymphoma, but she was still feeling good for a few weeks. We had time for a mini-bucket list. But you know what I focused on after she passed? My timing at her euthanasia. I was too late when I offered her some ice cream.
It was a blessing that I could be there at all; it was the height of COVID, September 2020. It was also a blessing that she wasn’t scared at the vet. She walked in with the tech in her jaunty way, eager to find people to visit.
But when the moment came, we were in a rush. I wasn’t fast enough with the vanilla ice cream I had brought in a thermos. Zani looked at it, then the sedation kicked in and she fell asleep. I still think about that ice cream. Is it about me and my fantasy of her perfect passing? Mostly. I still hope that she got enough of a whiff of the ice cream to have a happy feeling on the way out.
But I have some sweet memories from Zani’s last days. There was the fun mini-trip I took with her four days before she died, many yummy meals, and the special chews that Debbie Jacobs sent us in the nick of time. Zani got to chew one on her last day, about an hour before her appointment. I am so grateful for that.
This one is not about the last moments, but the last years. I have a huge regret that I did not continue my training fun with Clara after Lewis came. He exhausted me. I wasn’t even able to do much of my own work for a long time. Luckily, Clara still had her walks. I had been walking her and my partner’s dog daily since April 2021 (then Lewis, starting in 2022). I am so grateful for that, and proud that I walked them so consistently. But Lewis dominated my time. Clara’s training games (and the trick title work) ceased abruptly. I feel guilty.
This is a reasonable regret, more than a bias. We stopped doing something she loved. But feeling extra bad about it is an example of both the peak-end rule and duration neglect. Clara has gotten more of my time and attention than any other dog. We lived for each other. That never stopped. She has been on outings and gone places the others never have. For seven years, she had two fun lessons a week with a great trainer. We usually went to a shopping mall (ice cream!) or a beautiful park for a long walk.
She got my best training self for ten years. And high value treats and much, much play. But because I stopped training with her for two years (with a few exceptions), and because it was during our last years together, I feel this guilt. If there had been a hiatus of a similar period, but in the middle of our lives together, I would have regrets, but the loss likely would not loom so large.
I stopped walking the dogs for two weeks last summer after I sprained my ankle. I hated it for them. But since it wasn’t at the end for Clara, it doesn’t horrify me to think about. She got three more months of walks after that. And it’s a blessing to me that her last one was extra sweet because it was drizzling rain. That was her favorite kind of walk.
A happy walk after a rain in May 2024
Hemangiosarcoma just snuck up, so I don’t know that I could have done anything better. But I feel awful, of course, that her last hours on this earth were painful, and she was in a foreign place. No idyllic euthanasia at home after a perfect bucket week or month. But it helps immensely that I was with her at the very end, that I was the last thing she saw before she sank into peace. And it WAS peaceful. So much better than Cricket, who fought, and Summer, for whom I wasn’t present.
Perhaps Clara was in as much pain, if I can compare, after her spay when she was a teenager. They let her come home the same day, because of her extreme fear. She was hurting. But I haven’t thought of that in years. It was not at the “end.”
Do I seem callous for comparing these things? I am not undervaluing any of her pain. Just noting that her last morning “feels” like the worst to me. But I don’t know how it felt to her. And she is gone now, leaving me to think about her life.
Another regret, and this one didn’t even affect her, only me. But it feels somehow like it affected her. I bought a GoPro, largely to get some candid shots of Clara and record the dogs on their walks. Clara reacted poorly to having a phone camera pointed at her for her whole life; I was hoping she would not do so with the GoPro. I got it about four days before she died. I didn’t know what was coming. I didn’t set it up in time.
I almost deleted this example, since it feels in really bad taste to have the privilege to buy such a camera and then whine about not getting to use it. But I include it because it’s another example of bias. Because of my ankle sprain in June, I stopped using my phone to make videos of Clara’s walks. I needed to watch my footing better. I have many videos of Clara on walks. And while there are probably other three-month gaps in that set of videos, it specifically hurts that I don’t have any for her last three months.
Kahneman talks about the “experiencing self” and the “remembering self” and their vastly different perceptions of situations and events. The remembering self is the one that values peaks and ends. The experiencing self. . . experiences. It’s the one living in the moment.
I’m thinking about my living dogs now. Lewis and my partner’s Chihuahua mix, Choo Choo. Many people who have just lost a dog will say to others, “Hug your babies today, give them treats.” Some will say to act as if every day is your pet’s last day because you never know if it might be.
I ran that last one through my mind in the present and my experiencing self said NO WAY. Give Lewis a whole bunch of potato chips? EVERY NIGHT, because it might be his last night? No. The “treat them as if every day were their last” idea doesn’t cut it in many ways. Health. Nutrition. The dangers of too much fat and salt and the harm that can come from unbridled treat food. The risks of exhaustion or injury if you focus on play or intense activities. What an interesting idea, to try to make every day a peak. Because that’s what the idea boils down to. But it was an instant No when I thought about it. Out of the question.
I spell this out because it was interesting to have my experiencing and remembering selves come smack up against each other. I was regretting Clara’s one potato chip at the same time I was refusing to do something that might prevent that regret with Lewis.
I’m surprised that there is not a lot of written discussion about this. Grief over losing a pet is becoming more recognized and affirmed by society, and resources for this type of loss are burgeoning. The peak-end rule can aid understanding of why some things can hurt so badly.
There is one significant exception to the silence on this topic related to pets’ lives. Veterinarian Mary Gardner, in Treatment and Care of the Geriatric Veterinary Patient, focuses on the peak-end rule in the context of euthanasia. After discussion of the rule, in a section titled “Endings Matter,” she advises vets on the ways they can help not only the pet but the pet’s guardians by making the euthanasia experience as calm and peaceful as possible. The book has thoughtful instructions on how to speak to the guardian about the process, the order of events, and more. She ends the section with these words:
Although our pets are a part of our stories (an important chapter), their own lives are a story. And in stories, endings matter most. So make the most out of the end and make it good — Gardner and McVety, 2017, p. 338.
I’ve related a lot of sad moments and regrets in this post. But the point behind them, and my impetus for sharing, is that knowing about the peak-end rule helped me put those things in perspective.
I understand more than ever why bucket lists can be such a good thing. Not only for the dog, but for the person. Having memories of the extra-special times near the end of our dogs’ lives can be sweet. The ones I described for Zani above were not dramatic. Many people do much more unusual things. But ours were enough out of the ordinary that the memories shine for me.
I now have a weapon against my regrets and sad memories. I’ve delineated some of my regrets above. (That is not a complete list.) I have kept the painful images and memories of Clara’s last hours private. But I’ve learned that we can honor duration, even if that doesn’t come naturally. We can remind ourselves of the thousand fun walks or trips our dogs had even if they missed one their last day.
Rather than focusing on the dramatic “peaks,” which stand out in our memory, and rather than trying to make peaks every day, we can be present and constant with our dogs and mindful of their happiness. Our experiencing selves can do that, and we can remind our remembering selves of it.
I would never ever dismiss or devalue the events near the ends of our loved ones’ lives, good or bad. But it has helped me immensely to consider the rest of Clara’s life. It was long, it was calm, it was safe, it was happy. I made it that way, and I can feel peace in that.
Copyright 2024 Eileen Anderson
Alaybek, B., Dalal, R. S., Fyffe, S., Aitken, J. A., Zhou, Y., Qu, X., Roman, A., & Baines, J. I. (2022). All’s well that ends (and peaks) well? A meta-analysis of the peak-end rule and duration neglect. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 170, 104149.
Diener, E., Wirtz, D., & Oishi, S. (2001). End effects of rated life quality: The James Dean effect. Psychological science, 12(2), 124-128.
Fredrickson, B. L., & Kahneman, D. (1993). Duration neglect in retrospective evaluations of affective episodes. Journal of personality and social psychology, 65(1), 45.
Gardner, M., & McVety, D. (Eds.). (2017). Treatment and care of the geriatric veterinary patient. John Wiley & Sons.
Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Müller, U. W., Witteman, C. L., Spijker, J., & Alpers, G. W. (2019). All’s bad that ends bad: there is a peak-end memory bias in anxiety. Frontiers in psychology, 10, 1272.
Zenko, Z., Ekkekakis, P., & Ariely, D. (2016). Can you have your vigorous exercise and enjoy it too? Ramping intensity down increases postexercise, remembered, and forecasted pleasure. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 38(2), 149-159.
Editor’s Note: Viticus Group (formerly Western Veterinary Conference) was “the conference where it all happened” — where Goodnewsforpets.com was launched 25 years ago. We were thrilled to visit with Dr. Anthony Pease, Viticus Group’s Chief Veterinary Medical Officer, at this year’s conference in Las Vegas to not only celebrate Goodnewsforpets anniversary but also talk to Dr. Pease about the exciting news of building a second Oquendo Center-type hands-on learning center in Nashville plus the launch of a second WVC conference in 2026.
First, congratulations on this huge news. What can you tell us about the decision to launch a new learning center PLUS a national conference in Nashville?
Thank you. We have found that the Viticus Group’s Oquendo Center is the only place outside any academic institution offering a standalone hands-on training facility for the veterinary profession. Here, we can teach all the state-of-the-art techniques and things that you may not have picked up in school or never got to practice enough to feel comfortable. Some examples are fracture repair, soft tissue surgery, and all that sort of stuff.
What I’ve loved about being the chief veterinary medical officer of Viticus Group is that my whole role is to build confidence. In general, there’s so much information for veterinarians to learn. When you get out into practice, you’ve trained your whole life, and then suddenly, you’re doing that work every day and no longer in training.
We built the Oquendo Center 15 years ago when WVC needed a place to do hands-on labs during the conference, and then we expanded to an Eastern campus. We have 140,000 square feet of dedicated training facilities here in Las Vegas. We’ve kept going and use it even after the conference. We see about 5,000 veterinary professionals. We even do work with the human health side every year.
How many labs do you offer?
When we have conferences, we usually have about 30 hands-on labs, but more people wanted this type of training, so we went up to 44 hands-on labs this time. Amazingly, we have approximately 1400 people doing hands-on training over the next four days. We realized we couldn’t do enough of it, so rather than trying to build a third building in Las Vegas, we said let’s start going someplace else. Andrea Davis, Viticus Group’s CEO, and I searched, and the location selected was Nashville.
How did you arrive at Nashville as the site?
As part of our strategic plan, when we talked to the Executive Board, we discussed an East Coast expansion, and everyone was on board. That was back in 2023. In early 2024, we started traveling around. We picked out five different areas that we wanted to look at. We just fell in love with Nashville. It just made a lot of sense. It’s seven minutes from the airport. Our center’s going to be seven minutes from the airport. We said this would be great, and we could do hands-on labs, but we’re good at conferences, too. Nashville also has an excellent convention center. We started talking with them, and it probably took another six months to talk through. We don’t want to bring a little regional conference; we want to do a national conference.
How did you land on doing the Nashville conference in the fall?
Back in 2021, during Covid times, we had to move our conference because we couldn’t do our conference in February. We shifted it to September, and many people felt the timing was excellent. It was a nice time to have it towards the end of the year because people were closing out their CE, and maybe they couldn’t get away in January or February. That resonated with us, too. We decided that if we were to do a second conference, we should do it in Q3 or Q4. We decided to do the 2026 and 2027 conferences in August. The dates are August 16 to the 18th, 2026.
Goodnewsforpets.com Editor & Publisher Lea-Ann Germinder with Dr. Anthony Pease, Viticus Group Chief Veterinary Medical Officer at WVC Vegas 2025
How did you decide on the length of the new conference?
We do four days in February in Las Vegas, so we decided to start with three days. But we have our teaching facility, so we’ll probably do hands-on for four days to keep it moving. The idea is that it’s going to be a 170,000-square-foot exhibit hall. It’s going to be everything that you’re used to in Las Vegas, but we’re going to do much more interactive learning, including innovation technologies. It’s pretty exciting.
How did you arrive at the type of content you will be providing?
We want to get the instant applicable stuff for veterinary professionals, whether they are technicians, front office workers, practice managers, or owners of large or small animals. There’s something for everybody.
What was the exhibitor and sponsor feedback you received?
We contacted most of the larger companies’ CEOs and Chief Medical Officers, and they were ecstatic. I think it will be such a great time, such a good time of year for them. We want to say, look, there have been many smaller conferences that spring up, and it’s not what this is. There hasn’t been a major national conference created since NAVC created their conference [now named VMX]43 years ago. At that point, they were the Eastern Veterinary Conference and evolved. The Western Veterinary Conference will be WVC Las Vegas, and WVC Nashville.
WVC will soon celebrate its 100th anniversary. Where are you going to celebrate that centennial?
We’ve been starting work on that. It will be our hundredth year in Las Vegas, and now we will also be in Nashville to have two parties. We will do something celebrating 100 years—where we’ve been for the last hundred years and where we’re going in the next hundred years. Technology like AI, which we discussed earlier, will play a massive part as technology advances. Thinking back to 1928 and where that conference was versus what we’re learning about now, it’s all very exciting.
Thank you, Dr. Pease. We wish you a wonderful opening of the facility and conference in 2026—and we plan to be there!
To stay updated on Viticus Group expansion plans, visit viticusgroup.org and join the Alert List.
This post may contain affiliate links. We may earn money or products from the companies mentioned in this post.
Having a pregnant dog welcome a new litter into the world is one of the greatest things a dog owner can experience.
If you are ready to experience all the joys of doggy pregnancy, you may be wondering: can dogs be too old to get pregnant, and how old can dogs still have puppies?
I was very surprised to discover that dogs are never too old to have puppies!
Yup, you read that right—in fact, there is no such thing as doggy menopause and female dogs go into heat during their whole lives.
However, although dogs are naturally capable of breeding and having puppies well into their senior years, that doesn’t mean that they should.
Pregnancy can be tough even for young dogs that are in their prime, but older dogs are at a much higher risk of health problems and stillborn puppies.
Whether you want a new puppy or you are a breeder thinking about retiring your dogs, it is important to consider the ages of your male and female dogs before breeding them!
QUICK TIP: If you’re going to have a litter of puppies make sure you have all the essential puppy supplies. Our #1 puppy product we recommend you send home with all new puppy owners is the Calmeroos Puppy Heartbeat Toy.
In this article, I will tell you everything you need to know about responsible breeding and dog fertility.
Before I go any further into the topic of when is a dog too old to have puppies, let’s touch on the subject of when is a dog considered to be a senior in need of special care.
Knowing that your pooch is an elderly citizen will help you determine whether it is safe and appropriate for your dog to get pregnant in the first place.
Most dogs enter their senior years when they are around seven years old; however, the aging process is slightly different for small and large breed dogs.
A tiny Chihuahua, for example, is considered a senior when they reach 11 years of age. On the other hand, a giant breed such as a Great Dane is considered a senior by the time they are five years old.
The aging difference between smaller and larger breeds is mainly due to their size. Several studies have confirmed that larger breeds tend to age much faster than their smaller counterparts.
Therefore, how old is too old for a dog to have puppies is directly related to the size of that particular dog.
Unlike people, female and male dogs technically remain fertile their whole lives. However, their fertility and ability to whelp healthy puppies decrease as they get older.
Let’s see at what age dogs can have puppies, starting with male dogs.
A healthy male dog can still sire puppies until very old age. In fact, most professional breeders will retire male dogs much later than their females.
According to AKC rules, you can register a litter of puppies sired by a male dog that was no more than 12 years old at the time of mating.
In practice, most reputable breeders will retire their male dogs when they are between 10 and 12 years old.
However, just because a male dog is over 12 doesn’t mean that he is incapable of siring puppies. Older male dogs are still capable of impregnating females, but they aren’t as fertile as they once were and may need more tries to get a female dog pregnant.
Age is just one of several factors that affect the ability of a male dog to sire puppies. The age at which a male dog can have puppies also depends on the quality and quantity of its sperm.
So, many professional breeders will check the sperm count of their male dogs regularly, at least once a month, to see if they are still capable of siring litters.
Additionally, breeders will check many other things to determine whether their male dogs are too old for breeding and ready to be retired. A low conception rate is another sign that a dog is getting too old to sire puppies regularly.
This means that a male dog fails to get a female dog pregnant during ideal conditions: one mating per day and a completely healthy female.
Furthermore, a breeder may decide that the male dog is too old to sire puppies if their partner continually produces smaller litters, or if the puppies are weak and sick.
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You may be surprised to learn that female dogs don’t go through menopause and can technically get pregnant throughout their whole lives.
This can come as a big shock, especially if you think that it’s safe for your older female pooch to go off-leash and hang out with other dogs in the park.
According to the AKC rules, a dam must not be more than 12 years of age at the time of mating, if you want to register the litter. However, a lot of breed clubs, including the UK Kennel Club, set eight years as a maximum limit for breeding female dogs.
When it comes to nature’s order, female dogs can still get pregnant even if they are older than 12 and remain fertile their whole lives.
However, at this grand age, most female dogs have birthing difficulties, and serious complications are often seen during labor.
When they become pregnant, older female dogs may have trouble giving birth, and seeing stillborn puppies in a litter is unfortunately quite common.
Additionally, older dogs may have trouble producing enough milk to nurse their puppies, who often die if not bottle-fed by their human caregivers.
Due to all these risks and complications, most reputable breeders decide to retire their dams when they are around five or six years old.
To determine whether or not to retire a female dog from a breeding program, the breeders consider the same factors as for male dogs.
The breeder will compare conception rates, litter sizes, the dam’s health, complications during delivery, and the time needed for recovery.
Taking all of these criteria into account can give you a good idea of whether it is safe to continue breeding your female dog or not.
Our Golden Retriever, Raven was a breeding dog. She was retired by her breeder when she was 6 years old at which time we officially adopted her.
If you own a female dog, the most important thing to remember is that she can get pregnant at any time during her life. Although older dogs are less fertile than their younger counterparts, there is still a risk of unwanted pregnancy.
So, you will have to watch your pooch and prevent any unwanted mating or opt to have her spayed if her age and overall health don’t pose any risk for the procedure.
Now that you know that dogs can become pregnant their entire lives, talk with your vet about the best ways to prevent unwanted pregnancies.
QUICK RECOMMENDATION: If you have intact male and female dogs a good way to manage them when your female is in heat is with barriers like pet gates and dog crates. We use these tools to help keep our dogs separate.
If the fact that dogs can have puppies throughout their lives catches you off guard, you’ll be even more surprised to learn that most dogs reach sexual maturity while they are still puppies. You read that right: Your cute, fluffy puppy can have puppies of its own!
Once they reach sexual maturity, male dogs can mate at any time, even every day! Females, on the other hand, can mate only when they are in heat, which usually happens twice a year.
However, some dogs can go into heat up to four times a year, while others will be ready to mate once a year, depending on their size and breed.
Here’s the earliest age a dog can have puppies, starting with male dogs again.
Male dogs generally become fertile earlier than their female counterparts, usually when they are around five or six months old.
Toy and small breeds such as Chihuahuas become sexually mature earlier than large breeds. which become fertile when they are between seven and nine months old.
However, while they are technically able to impregnate a female dog, you shouldn’t allow males to mate until they are physically mature. In most cases, you should wait until your dog is at least one year old to mate him with a female.
Keep in mind that large and giant breeds need more time to fully grow, so you should wait until your pooch is 18 to 24 months old to breed him for the first time.
OUR EXPERIENCE: We’ve purchased from Labrador and Golden Retriever breeders. The breeders we’ve worked with wait until their dogs are around 2 years old and passed all their health clearances before breeding them.
If you decide to use your male dog for siring litters, you will first have to ensure that he is completely healthy and fertile. Your vet can help with that and provide health clearances that your dog is a qualified stud dog ready for breeding.
Once a male dog reaches sexual maturity, he remains fertile his entire life. However, their sperm count tends to be low during the beginning and the end of their reproductive cycle.
That’s why it’s important to wait until your puppy becomes fully grown before first breeding and avoid breeding dogs that are too old.
Unlike male dogs, who can mate literally every single day once they reach puberty, female dogs can breed only when they are in heat.
Female dogs usually reach sexual maturity when they are six months old, but smaller breeds can go into heat as early as four months of age.
Even though they are fertile and able to get pregnant, it’s not recommended to breed female dogs during their first heat cycle. As with male dogs, you should wait until your female is fully grown before attempting to mate her for the first time.
The size and breed of your dog will determine when the best time is to mate your female for the first time. Smaller breeds reach adulthood earlier than their larger counterparts and can consequently become pregnant safely much earlier.
After having their first estrus, also known as heat or season, female dogs usually go into heat every six months until they get old.
However, this time frame can vary from one dog to another and can depend on the size of the dog. Generally, smaller dogs go into heat more regularly than larger breeds and can produce more litters during their lifetime.
The heat cycle is divided into four stages: proestrus, estrus, diestrus, and anestrus. In the proestrus phase, which lasts around nine days, a female dog has a bloody vaginal discharge and attracts males, but won’t breed with them.
The estrus phase also lasts around nine days, at which time the female is fertile and will be allowed to be mounted by a male dog. In most cases, ovulation happens within the first 48 hours of the estrus phase, but this can vary greatly.
The diestrus phase lasts 60 to 90 days, during which time the dog’s reproductive system is under the control of the hormone progesterone.
This phase happens whether or not the dog has gotten pregnant, and some dogs may develop signs of false pregnancy during this stage.
Lastly, the anestrus phase is the time when a female dog can no longer become pregnant and is a period without sexual activity. In most cases, this stage lasts between three to four months.
Although some become fertile much earlier, the AKC rules don’t permit the registration of any litters from dams that are younger than eight months old at the time of the mating.
And while old female dogs can have puppies, the female’s fertility starts to drop after five years of age.
Female dogs that are too young or too old can’t handle the strain the pregnancy puts on their bodies, which often leads to birthing complications, premature labor, and stillborn puppies.
That’s why it is imperative that you don’t start breeding your dam too early or continue to do so when she gets old.
Technically, both female and male dogs can have puppies their whole lives. However, a dog’s fertility drops after the age of seven, and most female dogs can’t become pregnant quite as often as they used to.
The same happens to male dogs, and while they are still able to have puppies their fertility rate isn’t as high as it used to be.
The actual labor is also more difficult and risky for older dogs and is commonly accompanied by complications. Older dogs also may have problems producing milk and nursing their puppies.
The AKC rules don’t allow registration of any litter of a dam that is less than eight months old or more than 12 years old at the time of mating.
Additionally, any litter that is sired by a male dog that is less than seven months old or more than 12 years old at the time of mating can’t be registered with the AKC.
On the other hand, the UK Kennel Club, the VHD in Germany, and many other clubs list the maximum age limit at eight years for female dogs.
A 9-year-old dog can technically get pregnant and give birth to a litter of puppies. However, most reputable breeders won’t breed such an old female dog because of the risks associated with the pregnancy and birthing complications.
However, an older female dog can absolutely get pregnant if mounted by a fertile male during her heat cycle. To prevent any health problems and unwanted pregnancies, keep a close eye on your dog while in heat and consider spaying her.
Most dogs reach puberty and become fertile when they are six months old, although they shouldn’t have puppies until they are fully grown. Small breeds reach adulthood when they are one year old and can safely have puppies if they are done growing.
However, large and giant breeds continue growing until they are between 18 and 24 months old, and they shouldn’t have puppies until they reach adulthood.
A one-year-old Great Dane is still a puppy, and it would be bad for a growing pup to get pregnant and have to take care of a litter of newborn puppies.
Knowing how old dogs can be to have puppies is an important piece of information if you plan to breed your dog at some point in their life.
While technically dogs are fertile and can have puppies their whole lives, older female dogs are at risk of premature labor, stillborn puppies, and birthing complications.
To ensure that your dog’s pregnancy goes well, here’s what you need to remember:
While it is hard to imagine that dogs can have puppies their whole lives, you should be careful not to breed your dog when they are too young or too old.
Before breeding your pooch, talk with your vet and have your dog throughout examined.
Are you a breeder?
Have you worked with or bought a dog from a breeder?
If so, do you know how old their breeding dogs are?
Tell us about your experiences in the comment section below.
UPDATE: This post was originally published on May 10th, 2021. We periodically update blog posts with new experiences and information to keep them as relevant as possible.
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