countrypaws
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Posts posted by countrypaws
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I've been using Frontline Plus consistently for the last year and a half, but yesterday I found over 20 ticks on my grey. No difference in application technique, so I'm pretty sure Frontline isn't working anymore. We haven't been to the dog park/wooded outdoor areas in half a week so I don't think they're a brand new occurrence. I saw one flea on him last week but I didn't recognize what it was until this weekend.
I just went out and bought a Seresto collar to give it a try, but I'm having a really hard time figuring out how tight it needs to be -- Greyhound necks are so long and weirdly shaped. Any advice? Does it need to be really tight? I feel like the more I tighten it, the more it's just going to slide up his neck. Does it need to be higher up, like below his ears?
Twenty ticks!? Holy cow, that's a tick farm! You know, we've just found Frontline to be less effective in recent years. We see tick after tick attaching even a few days after application.
The instructions on the Seresto collars say to tighten the collar so that you can insert two fingers between the collar and your dog's neck. We have our collars behind their normal Martingale collar on their neck, closer to the tail. We want the medication to spread via the natural film on the dog's skin backwards to the rest of their body. The collars take 48 hours to really be effective but last for eight months. Reports on their effectiveness seem to be stellar, with no adverse reactions and very high rates of effectiveness.
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For those of you who use them, I assume you get the large size for your greys? They seem so huge...can someone post a photo with their grey wearing one so I can see what it looks like? We've been considering these also, as I hate using Frontline on them (it works, but hate the thought of poison absorbed into their bodies). We mainly need it for fleas.
Yes the sizes available are "Small dog, below 18 lbs" and "Large dog, 18 lbs. or more" so the greyhounds are in the "large" category. The collars are quite long to accommodate German Shepherds or other big dogs so they'd require us to trim the ends off the collars for the greyhounds.
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Appreciate all the good feedback. Our Seresto collars are on and we'll keep you posted. It takes them 48 hours to reach full effectiveness.
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There is nothing a greyhound eats at the racetrack that will poison them. When we bring them into our homes we really need to "dog proof" their new home to protect them. They will eat toilet paper, ant traps, grass, poisonous plants, plastic, wash cloths, wood, anti-freeze, envelopes, anything they can try to eat. (We're not even mentioning chocolate, grapes or the things that we know can poison dogs.) I have had foster dogs eat the edge off a window sill. Needless to say, these items don't digest well and can kill from the damage they do inside.
Owners need to constantly look at things in their home and greyhound-proof it to make sure their greyhound can't get to things they shouldn't eat. Our female grey loves to eat anything she can get, so we muzzle her with a poop guard muzzle when we leave the home just to protect her. from herself. We don't like to do that but it keeps her safe.
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This year the ticks in our area of Pennsylvania have been off the wall, perhaps from our mild winter. We'll come home from our daily walk and pull two or three ticks off of us, let alone the dogs. We are going to try the Seresto flea and tick collars on our four greyhounds. We have heard good things about them. But each of our dogs has different sensitivities.
Frontline just does not seem to work as well lately, as we have seen ticks moving about or even beginning to attach on dogs which have been treated. We have never liked the idea of making our greys eat these nasty insecticide chemicals to ward off fleas and ticks.
Does anyone have any experience using Seresto collars on greyhounds, good or bad? Do they seem to repel fleas and ticks? While they seem expensive, if they last for eight months they would really be a bargain.
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I can only say that in a perfect world there would always be someone to take the dog who bites someone in the face and causes thousands of dollars in medical bills. In Pennsylvania the dog who bites a human is actually required to be euthanized and the brain sent to Harrisburg for analysis.
That said, even if someone will take this dog, does the adoption group want to risk a lawsuit for a second bite? That's the risk they take. Picture a lawyer in a $1 million lawsuit asking the adoption group president, "Do you mean that this dog bit someone in the face and caused terrible injuries and you still placed her again with a family?"
I heard from a major adoption group recently that they have had their insurance cancelled in the last week or two and they don't know where to turn, even though they've never had a claim. I am trying to help them find some other insurers. My insurer is considering cancelling their dog event insurance. Never had a claim in 11 years. This is a huge ethical dilemma for adoption groups. While all of them would like to take the greyhound back and find a wonderful home for her and make flowers bloom and make life wonderful for all, they just can't always do that. I know from working with groups on this very issue with numerous dogs from Ohio to New York and Pennsylvania.
Lots of people say "Oh I'd love to take this dog in...if my husband wasn't sick or my kids were older or I had a fenced yard or my cousin Tara was available to babysit or my house were bigger or my Maisy wasn't so old." (Sorry, no points if you don't actually adopt the dog.) But the fate of these biting dogs is often the same. When push comes to shove, it's hard to rehome them. What's in it for the adoption group besides considerable liability? You may not know that or it may seem harsh to you, but few adoption group presidents (people who actually face this issue) would disagree with me that this is a very difficult issue. That's why we own two greyhounds who caused very serious facebite injuries from two different regional adoption groups. None of this is speculation, just a bit of reality that folks need to know.
Same is often true with greyhounds on Craigs list or in shelters. Lots of people wring their hands and send out dozens of emails to "help this dog," yet most of them cannot seem to help transport, can't foster, and can't get the dog into a legitimate adoption group. I am so grateful for the folks who actually are willing to help pull these dogs from shelters, transport them, and take them in, as we do. And these dogs haven't even bitten anyone.
Just saying...
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Just to add a note of realism here, the likelihood of this dog being rehomed by her adoption group is unlikely. She has caused a serious injury to the owner's face for an unknown reason. The group would have to reveal this information or be liable for great damages if there's a reccurrance. Who's standing in line to adopt a "vicious" dog who doesn't know her history? Adoption groups today are struggling to find liability coverage without any claims. Unless some gracious person steps forward, and they rarely do, this dog is likely to be euthanized ... so that the group can continue to help all those dogs who haven't bitten anyone.
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Maybe this dog just accidentally bit its owner, causing a bruise. That's not nipping. And if it were nipping, if the dog is excited into these behaviors by activities like running in the house, and the house has young children, do you really want to risk a bite to a child whose face is just about mouth level to this dog?
Really?
It is water over the bridge to categorize a dog as aggressive or not aggressive or sweet. or inquisitive or happy. Who cares about what terms someone wants to apply to a dog, once a child loses an eye because the owner misjudges a situation, as is easy to do. MuttonHoney allowed her greyhound to go nose to nose with a strange dog at a dog park. No experienced greyhound owner would recommend that. Lawsuits result from that sort of unintended interaction every day.
My point is that one can get a trainer or not, or call the dog aggressive or call the dog normal, just doesn't matter. Arbitrary judgements are of no interest to me or to most trainers. Good safety practices are important.
I would not put a new greyhound unmuzzled with no biting history with small children. Most adoption groups won't even adopt to families with small children. This does not mean the specific dog is vicious or aggressive or sweet or mean. It means the adoption groups are smart enough to know that there's significant liability when you place a new greyhound with small children. Greyhound are used to hours alone in their crates, not the antics of loud, running little humans.
Get twelve dog trainers or fifteen opinions GT that this dog represents no danger at all to small children, that danger does not change. Compound that with any owner who takes chances with the potential situations in which their dog is placed unmuzzled, the risk of an issue or injury grows greater.
I have a couple well-behaved gentle greyhounds (and two who came to us due to a face bite) and I see no need to allow any of them unmuzzled with children. There are times I will not put my face near their mouth. Why would I even think of risking a bite or injury to a child? Why would I do that?
Arguments for trusting a greyhound like this without a muzzle with small children are what I would label as an inductive fallacy: a hundred successful interactions cannot prove a proponent correct, one nasty bite can prove him or her horribly wrong.
There is no upside to risking a relatively new greyhound -- even with no negative history -- with small children without a muzzle
No upside. No positive outcome. None. Zero. If the dog nips or bites an owner he knows well or gets a child-sized dog on it's back, even to play, the risk from that unmuzzled dog with a small, active child is even worse.
Please keep this greyhound muzzled around children, please. Stay safe.
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Most owners fail to own the behavioral issus of their pets. It's great that Helen is at least asking questions. I agree with Trudy that this dog can't be allowed on your bed or other furniture period, at all. he's claiming ownership of your space, which is a sign that Marty lacks respect for you.
They are very willing to look to a medical issue or the pet's past or anything before they look at their own behavior which may unwittingly reinforce the unwanted behavior.
This is bourne out when people return a dog to a greyhound group saying that "the dog is this" or "the dog does that." What they leave out is that the dog was crated for 12 hours a day, or the owner was extremely nervous aroudn the dog and inconsistent in how the he/she treated the dfog, and on and on.
Most dog behavior derives from the dog's environment and the interactions with humans. If humans expect no boundaries for a dog, the dog won't have any boundaries. Calm environments and calm humans engender calm dogs.
I once heard an owner say, "My dog gets up on my lap and pees on me. But he loves me." He may love you, but he definitely does not respect you. Dogs, like people, respect quiet, calm leadership.
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Do you have small children, other dogs or a noisy environment? Where does your dog sleep? Where do you sleep? What food do you feed? There are so many potential things here I wouldn't know where to start.
Some dogs decide they don't like where they are. One way they say this is to pee and or poop inside just after they have been walked. They can do this to show they don't like where they are.
I do not know this dog and I have not seen your dog in your home, but this is one aspect you may wish to look at.
Our Jasmine came to us four years ago after peeing and pooping all over her home. They would walk her or allow her out into the fenced yard and she'd come inside and pee or poop. Came to find out they had two small children and two tiny barking dogs and Jasmine hated it. Noise, activity and craziness.
After four years she's never had an accident in our house. None. Calm dogs, quiet house, one long walk every day.
Many adoption groups remove a dog immediately when he/she acts like this.
Just saying that environmental issues which you may not be able to see could be a factor.
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I see a few responses which talk about this dog not being "aggressive," in their opinion.
I usually tell people that if there's no blood or body parts, it's not aggression. The application of the term aggression is not my term or my concern here.
I focus on the danger that a biting dog presents to children or other animals. The owner does not talk at all about air snaps. The owner does not describe nitting behaviors. This is not "regripping on tug toys." Let's not minimize what's going on here. Let's not pretend that all greyhounds do these behaviors. They don't.
Instead the owner has talked about bites ("closing her teeth' on you) and "pinning" a dog on her back and being "at her throat." These are dangerous behaviors. The owner has also said that the dog is "aroused' by activity or excitement, even someone running in the house.
I have seen my own normally calm dogs be triggered by a squeal from another dog (with whom they have lived in harmony for years) and go after them ferociously in a clear attempt to kill that dog. Only our intervention stopped that attack. We saw years of calm behavior be triggered by primitive pack behavior to attack the weakest. I know of situations where two males have gone after each other at a Meet & Greet and had grown men punching the dogs in the head again and again but could not separate them. (Better technique is to slide your palm under the collar and twist, choking the offender.)
I love to see every dog adoption be successful. I root for new dogs to assimilate to their new homes. But we need to remember if a dog is sweet as pie 99% of the time, and bites people 1% of the time, you have a potentially dangerous dog and a liability nightmare. You need to protect those who can't protect themselves. I say this as a person who personally takes greyhounds into his home who bite people in the face and are scheduled for euthanasia. We work with the worst of the worst in terms of greyhound behavior, and so we just need to operate very careful as we help to make these dogs into success stories.
Because children are loud and active creatures, and completely unaware of dog training or dogs who are triggered to bite by activity, or the dangers of strepping on a tail or hugging aggressively, I strongly suggested in a previous post that this dog needs to be muzzled to prevent a potential tragedy. I would do this with a new dog even without this clear history of biting or going after another dog. I do it with all my new dogs.
I am glad that MuttonHoney is willing to take some responsibility here in seeking dog training and monitoring her dog's behavior, but it's critical to use a muzzle in any situation where a child or another animal could be at risk with an easily-aroused dog. These dogs have big teeth which can kill or injure in a heartbeat, and a muzzle will go a long way to protect everyone while you work through the issues.
I don't care if folks think this dog is aggressive or not; just please protect everyone in the meantime.
Larry
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The exercise is a key component. Tired dogs are good dogs. That said, there are other underlying issues here, none of which a distant stranger like me could even speculate on. Just please muzzle her around children, even if you are present. These dogs are quicker than a rattlesnake when triggered and there's nothing you can do to intervene when there's close contact and an incipient bite. There's nothing wrong with seeking input but the dog is in your house now and people need to be kept safe. Just be judicious about protecting people in your home while you explore your options. I hope things can work out but please stay realistic while you limit the dangers.
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I started to write a long response but something happened and I lost it. Suffice it to say that while we are not dog trainers, we take in hounds which bite people and which would otherwise be euthanized. We work with a lot of dogs. We test them and muzzle them and take nothing for granted. We have only failed to help one of the many biting dogs we took in.
Daisy is dangerous to you and your son and all his friends. He has bitten you and your husband ("closing her teeth" on you is a bite, especially if it causes bruising, though the effects are irrelevant. The bites will get worse.) She has attacked another dog (completely your fault for putting her in this situation in a dog park with a strange dog).
She is dangerous because 1) she is a bounce and you don't know her history; (they never tell you the full history, even if they know it); 2) she bites and attacks both people and dogs; 3) You have not yet trained yourself to become an astute dog observer and watch for patterns in this dog's behaviors. Many people just adopt perfect dogs and never have to acquire this skill. 4) you are relatively uninformed as an owner and have no idea as to how to handle this dog or what triggers these behaviors or how to stop them.
Eight year olds tend to be loud and energetic, so if these are triggers for a dog in your home, that's a big concern. You must muzzle this dog when she's around your son or other children. If she bites you because you don't know about her triggers, that's on you. But please protect your son and his friends while you're going through your learning curve.
The jury is out on whether this dog can fit into your household but I'd say right now the odds are against it. You need a lot of help to move forward while risking the safety of your child. Please be open to the fact that this girl may not be a good match for your family. And be totally honest with your adoption agency, should they contact you back. (They may know more than they are saying.) But please muzzle this dog when she's around kids. Biting dogs only get worse until something changes in their people, their behaviors and/or the dog's environment.
You don't want one of your son's friends to lose an eye because you ignored all these warning signs.
Larry
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We have a national greyhound event refrigerator magnet calendar with the names, dates, and the website addresses for each event which we give out at many of the East Coast events. It has information on the all larger events from February to October. You can pop it on your fridge and not have to search around for the date or the website of upcoming evcents.
If you'd like us to mail you a 2017 refrigerator magnet event calendar, just email your name and snail mail address with Calendar in the subject line to admin@GRtB.org
You may also sign up for informational email updates on the home page at www.GRtB.org. You may unsubscribe at any time.
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We just spoke with Dr Mason at Penn. She was wonderfully kind in explaining her study.
The study is summarized thusly:
We are actively recruting patients for a pilot study to determine the safety and efficiacy of a new bacteria based vaccine to stimulate an immune response against osteosarcoma and prolong survival in dogs with bone cancer. Only those dogs with a histological diagnosis of osteosarcoma and who have undergone limb amputation and standard chemotherapy (4 doses of carboplatin) for the treatment of osteosarcoma will be eligible for inclusion in the study. In addition, only those patients whose tumors express the target antigen "Her-2/neu" will be eligible for inclusion in this study.
The entire study can be found here:
http://www.vet.upenn...92/Default.aspx
They are looking for 18 patients.
Our Caesar is not currently a candidate because we have chosen not to do an amputation of the leg with the tumor, and the study focuses on removing the primary tumor to test the vaccine after four rounds of carboplatin. They also require a histology report to make sure the tumor is a type which produces the Her-2 antigen.
Our good news is that Caesar's tumor is gaining back bone density which was not there in the original Xray. We have him on a high protein diet with occasional turkey necks to up his calcium intake and after four weeks his tumor gained bone density. My vet says none of those dietary measures should do a thing to the tumor, but something is working.
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Well, we're going to try to slow it down with chemo but the disease always wins and we know that. How he is feeling and doing will be our guide. We just felt that his quality of life being 11 and having to start over as a tripod would be too stressful for such a sweet boy. We start chemo Friday. Susie called the vet to schedule the chemo and had to hang up, she was crying too hard. She came outside wher eI was working sobbing and I was sure Caesar had broken his leg. Turns out she just couldn't talk about him to the oncology office.
We are beginning a journey we never asked to take, but we will be with him each day. I know he knows how much we love him. He knows things before we do. He's taught us so much.
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Caesar,11, is our heart dog, our first greyhound, and a happy, happy boy. We discovered a lump on his right rear leg Saturday, had an X-ray Monday and saw an oncologist today. She feels it is osteosarcoma and has been developing for 4-8 weeks. We didn't want to put him through a biopsy procedure.
I can't see amputation as an option to make an 11 year old greyhound learn how to walk again in his last months. Call it a quality of life issue. We may try chemotherapy. Our oncologist vet is recommending three week alternating intervals of Adriamycin and Carboplatin. I thought we might do two chemo treatments and take another exray of the tumor in eight weeks to see how it has changed. Treatments are about $550 each. I think two would tell us if we're having any effect.
We'd welcome the experiences of those who have gone through this.
Larry B.
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You really need to have your pup on a leash when he is learning how to interact with other dogs. Running loose at a dog park with unknown dogs of all sizes is a lawsuit and vet bill waiting to become all yours.
When a dog starts to fixate on another dog in an inappropriate way, you can correct him with a tap or a pat on the hip when he's next to you on leash. If you see the tail go up and a fixated stare at the other animal, then he's getting worked up to be dominant or aggressive. Learn to read these signs long before there's an airsnap ... or a bite. Dogs have a clear set of signs and signals which they use with each other and we just have to get better at reading them.
But allowing your greyhound loose with small dogs is a really bad situation and will end up costing you in the end if you don't keep your dog safe. When a small dog runs it can trigger his prey drive in a way that makes him want to run down and bite the small dog. There are situations where cats have lived with the same greyhound in the house for years, but the first time he sees the cat run across the yard he strikes and kills the cat.
Or your dog could run so fast that he irritates a previously calm German Shepherd or Black Lab who chases and bites your dog's thin, brittle fur as they run and costs you $720 in surgery costs and a Penrose drain.
And depending upon local laws, your dog could be branded as a "vicious" dog if it attacked or killed a smaller dog and could be confiscated and euthanized. All for a romp at a dog park? Hardly worth it.
Find a fenced area of your own and avoid the dog parks if other dogs are there.
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Our dogs are odd about moving once on the bed. Sometimes one will lay in my spot when it's bedtime. I pat the middle of the bed between where our feet are and Caesar moves right down where I pat. Sometimes he has to be asked twice if he is especially warm and comfortable. Homer moves partway down so there's room. He just doesn't seem to understand as well. These habits just grew over time without any concentrated training. If they both are on the bed, Homer gets down. (No room for two dogs and us.) He looks really nervous until I ask him to get down and he just hops down. Seems to know the drill.
Another oddity is if I put my hand under either of them to get them to move a little, they get upset and hop down right away off the bed, even if I just wanted them to move a foot. But if we get under the covers and move them by pressure with our leg or body they adjust and they are fine with it.
Pack leaders often control other dogs by physical presence. They block the other dog from where he wants to go. No barking, no biting just physical blocking. I find that a handy tool to keep them where I want them without saying a word. They seem to understand it. Get next to them and gently move into them. They adjust. Nothing threatening.
We got new leather furniture and made the decision to keep all dogs off them. We have a new greyhound mix, Bailey, who had been sleeping on our fabric couch whenever he wanted for about three months. First time he jumped up on the leather sofa we said "No' on a loud voice and pushed him off onto the floor. He waited a moment and hopped back up, and we said "No" again and made him get down. He was confused and a little frightened at first due to the sudden change. That was two weeks ago and since then he has looked at the couch a couple times, but we say "No" and he goes and curls up on a pillow. He seems very bright and gets the change.
He now seems comfortable on whatever floor pillow is available. We are enjoying our new leather furniture with no dog scratches...at least for now.
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I think you are wise to err on the side of caution and assume Kevin was getting aggressive or possessive or territorial with his gestures,whether he growled or not. My approach is always to say you are off the bed if you show any unpleasantness.
Many dogs will growl at a human coming to take up space on the bed at one time or another, especially new dogs or dogs new to bed sharing, but we have chosen not to tolerate it and not to allow the dog on the bed until he learns that the bed is ours and he enjoys the privilege at our pleasure.
I think you also have to be careful not to send mixed messages. Giving Kevin a GasX "treat" after he may have growled at you to get him off the bed is a mixed message. I would not reward a dog who had just exhibited aggressive behavior. We make our dogs get off the bed if they show any signs of being territorial and that's it. No trading, no negotiation, no treats, get down now. Just a firm voice and pointing at the floor usually works for us. Our two males are very meek and respectful about getting on the bed, and get down immediately when asked. That's the only way I could live with a bunch of greyhounds.
I also think that dogs who are sleep aggressive or snap at movements in the night just are not good candidates for bed sharing. I think we have to realize that not all dogs are snugglers -- or at least safe snugglers -- or bed-sharers, and accept that.
One of my saddest greyhound experiences was a female greyhound that took over her owners bed and growled and snapped at her more and more until the dog would not allow her owner in the bed. So the owner slept elsewhere and gave up her bed to the dog. Eventually this greyhound became intractable, snapped and bit anyone who came close, and had to be euthanized.
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I assume they cultured the aspirated fluid?? Perhaps the organism was not sensitive to the clavamox hence the recurrance. I would have thought foreign body too.
Yes, they cultured the aspirated fluid for a number of days and found a form of strep. (I need to get the full name from the vet.) The antibiotic knocked down the swelling and tenderness very fast, maybe 48 hours tops, and we continued for about 10 days, but after a couple weeks hiatus in treatment it came back. The Dr said the only other case like this he saw was a dog with a piece of razor blade wedged in his jaw which kept (understandably) getting reinfected. That's why we thought foreign body...
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Our nine year old male, Caesar stood next to me on the evening of Saturday, October 16th and I suddenly noticed his entire lower jaw was swollen. There was a large swelling near the center of his upper throat, as well and a lump on the left lower side of his jaw. We assumed it might be a swelling from an abcessed tooth. It was Saturday night.
By Sunday morning the swelling continued and he was visibly uncomfortable. We rushed him to the vet for a weekend appointment ($$).
The vet used a syringe to drain the abcess on his lower jaw and sent a sample of the fluid to the lab. No abcessed teeth. No visible cause for the infection. We put him on Clavamox and brought him home. The swelling was gone and Caesar's jaw was back to normal by Monday morning the 18th. Lab results came back Thursday the 21st and said it was a variety of Strep.
We kept him on the Clavamox for about fifteen days after his offcie visit (about Oct. 28). All was fine until last Tuesday night (Nov. 9th) when his jaw began swelling again. Back to the vet we went and this time he took xrays and gave Caesar something to make him drowsy so he could do a thorough exam of the jaw. Neither xrays nor the exam turned up any sort of foreign body or a reason for the re-activated infection. (We thought if there was an infected splinter or piece of metal in his jaw it could reprovoke infections.) Nothing was there that he could fine.
The Dr. drained and cleaned out the abcess, put about five or six stitches in the abcess wound to close it up, and put Caesar on Amoxicillin. The infection once again seemed to disappear overnight. He's now doing great and will have the stitches out in a few days. For a 9-1/2 year old boy his immune system still seems to respond well. But we worry about a reccurance.
Are these types of soft tissue strep infections common? Is there a specific vehicle for the strep to get into the tissue? We would appreciate any experiences or insights.
Larry B.
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Run free sweet Sobe!
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Every time you write about this boy we get to know and love him a little more. Please know that so many of us are with you and Sobe, thinking good thoughts for you both. Every time we hug our hounds we think of you both.
Hookworms In Yard?
in Health and Medical discussion
Posted
The best remedies for hookworms seem to be to clean the yard of feces every day to try to prevent reinfection. That said, it's an uphill continuous battle in a war which can never really be won.
You can always kill hookworms .. until the next infection.
We treat with fenbendazole (Panacur), 8 grams per dog (60-80lbs.) for three days in a row, wait two weeks and treat again. The second treatment kills the worms leftover in egg or larval form from the first treatment. As far as we know this should take care of any hookworms in the dog. I don't do another hookworm test, as it costs less to just pay to treat the worms again than to constantly test for them ($) and then pay for treatment (more $). And there's no downside for treating the dog with fenbendazole.
Hookworm eggs are very difficult to kill, so reinfections are very hard to prevent The hook worm eggs will over-winter in soil in cold climates and survive in hot summer soil. Please don't think nature will clean your yard. To be sure, you would probably need to remove all the old soil in your yard and bring in new soil to clean all hook worm infestation. Then of course you'd fail as soon as an infected dog pooped again in your back yard (inevitable) or you spilled a handful of the infected soil as you hauled it out the gate. The bad news is, in fact, that there is no approved protocol for killing hookworm eggs and larvae in soil.
Thus dogs can be reinfected by
1) licking their fur and ingesting hookworm eggs;
2) licking their paws and ingesting egg infected soil;
3) eating infected stools on the ground (that's why cleaning the yard is key);
4) stepping on an infected stool and licking the infected paw or having eggs migrate through the skin;
5) migrating through a dog's skin or paws when they lie down on infected soil;
6) eating a portion of an infected rabbit or mouse or another small animal;
We would like to think that the hooks will be gone if we keep our yard clean of feces, do two three-day courses of fenbendazole two weeks apart, and regularly use Heartgard (ivermectin and pyrantal pamoate) which is supposed to control hooks (and other internal parasites) on an ongoing basis. This protocol should usually work.
However in recent years we have anecdotal reports that dogs who are regularly treated with Heartgard have continued infections from Hookworm. This has prompted some dog owners to speculate that the mild doses of ivermectin and pyrantal in Heartgard are merely innoculating the hookworms against the anthelmintic medications and not killing them.
This possibility, combined with the fact that dog feces are always around -- and the fact that we can't really disinfect our back yards, let alone all our walking trails, our friend's yards and the parks we visit -- hooks will remain a constant battle.