AVMA president clears Santa's reindeer for Christmas flight

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Schaumburg, IL

 — The president of the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) returned this week from a health check-up at the North Pole, declaring Santa's reindeer to be healthy, free of disease, and ready for their Christmas Eve flight.

"I can assure you that all of them are in healthy condition and are all ready to go for Christmas Eve," said Dr. René Carlson, upon her return to the United States.

In addition to supervising all of the business affairs of the association, the AVMA president serves as the official veterinarian of the North Pole. In this role, Dr. Carlson is charged with providing the yearly health exam for Santa's reindeer.

The reindeers' annual exam includes ensuring a health check about a month prior to their Christmas Eve flight to make sure they're healthy and not showing any signs of disease, such as brucellosis, tuberculosis, or chronic wasting disease, that can be transmitted to other animals.

"It's important that they don't have any diseases they could give to other animals during their trip around the world," said Dr. Carlson. "They also need to be healthy, so they're less likely to catch any diseases themselves on that long flight."

Once she determined the reindeer were healthy, Dr. Carlson filled out the official "North Pole Certificate of Animal Export" that provides Santa with the documents he and his reindeer need to travel.

Dr. Carlson will make a follow-up trip to the North Pole prior to Christmas to make sure the reindeers' feet and legs are in good shape to take off and land on the rooftops and that they're still ready for the flight. She'll also perform a nose-check on Rudolph to make sure it's good to glow.

During the flight, Dr. Carlson will be on call in case any emergencies arise. When they return to the North Pole, the reindeer will get one final exam to make sure they didn't injure themselves or get dehydrated on their voyage.

Dr. Carlson's next trip to the North Pole will come in the spring, when she and AVMA President-Elect Dr. Doug Aspros will provide the reindeer with their annual vaccines and perform any blood tests or other procedures that are necessary.

For kids who want to help the reindeer on their journey, Dr. Carlson recommended leaving a plate of graham cracker reindeer cookies, their favorite snack, for Santa to feed them between stops.

Dr. Carlson's role as official veterinarian of the North Pole is similar to many veterinarians around the world who work with livestock and other animals that travel across borders and around the world (even if they do so in a less flashy way than Santa's reindeer). Veterinarians play an integral role in insuring all of the world's animals are healthy, free of disease, and pose no risk when traveling.

 View a short video from Dr. Carlson's North Pole visit

For more information on the AVMA president's role as North Pole Veterinarian, including Dr. Carlson's answers to kids' questions about reindeer, view AVMA's "Reindeer landing" page.

Clinic News 5/16/2011

Speech Given at Bichon Club in Dallas

            Thought I would share with you the speech I presented to the Bichon Club of Dallas, Texas.  This is the second time I’ve made a speech to their club.
            To say the least, I’m a nervous speech maker, but the topic of canine behavior (and especially the behavior of my pack) is my favorite topic of all, and my cousins, Sue and Bob, are proud “parents” of three beautiful Bichons and members of this club.  So, I stepped out of my comfort zone to do this, and was rewarded with some kind words from my audience, my cousins, and my very sweet husband who came to support me.  It was Dave’s idea to include the speech here for you to see.

          From left to right: Gussie, Maggiano, Duckie, Asie, Manicotti, and Yeager  

           Lessons Learned From Our Pack by Dr. Mar Doering

            For those of you who were here for my talk last year, I wanted to give you an update on Asie and the rest of the pack.  First, Asie, as you may remember, is our Australian Shepherd who spent the first few years of his life in a small kennel.  He is fear aggressive/ dog aggressive/ excitable, the wild and crazy member of our pack who taught me more about dog behavior than I learned in 32 years as a veterinarian. 
            Since our last talk, Sue and Bob have met Asie, and, amazingly enough, he is their favorite.  He has made great strides in the last few years.  He has learned to come to me when life is too much for him.  He has finally learned to play and have fun and be a part of the family. 
            He still has his moments.  He is our sentry dog always on duty and ready to protect us even if he has to kill the rest of the pack to do so.  Yet, if I can be there in that moment before he blows I can stop him.  And he truly has embraced the idea of “thank you” for alerting us to that squirrel. Enough.  Now come inside.  And Stop

            Also, since we last spoke, we’ve had some big changes for our pack- some good and some sad.
            Our darling boy Macaroni, Asie’s arch nemesis, our dearest, sweetest, most anxious, fearful Foxhound mix got bone cancer.  After a fight to save him, he passed leaving a huge gap in Dave’s and my hearts and in our home.  We became a pack of five which didn’t feel right.  Six is our best number, five is just too few.  We grieved for several months and then started talking about the dog we would look for after the holidays. 
            Then the local shelter called just before Christmas, one day before we were having a huge party with Santa for my clients and their pets at my clinic, and then my staff and families were invited for a party at my home and Sue and Bob were coming from Dallas to join us.  The timing couldn’t have been worse, but they thought they’d found a dog for us, a Foxhound mix.
            I knew exactly the dog I wanted to fit in with the rest of the pack, especially Asie: a low to medium energy, Foxhound mix- a happy, go lucky, quiet boy.  Well, we got a boy and he is happy, but he is the opposite of quiet and he isn’t even a Foxhound.  He’s a Vizsla mix.  He is the highest energy, wildest boy I could imagine.  I knew better, of course, and in retrospect shouldn’t have gone to the shelter that day and should have kept on walking when I got there, but something told me that this goofy guy was the one, my final challenge.
            He has turned our lives upside down, but he has so much to teach me and, hopefully, I will do the same for him if I can get him to listen.  As I told you last year, you don’t always get the dog you want, but if you’re lucky, you will get the dog you need.  With Manicotti, I was stupid and lucky. 
            So these are the most important lessons I’ve learned from and about my pack in the last year and a half since we last spoke.
            Being a pack leader is all about being your calmest, truest self- finding balance in your own life. Dogs' behaviors reflect our behaviors.  They mirror our emotions.  Frustration, impatience, anxiety, anger and my personal favorite- worry.  If you feel them, you bring them to your dogs and they act them out.  The only way to calm my pack was to begin with myself.  So began my journey for ultimate calmness, to become the leader my pack truly needed.  This is the gift my pack was asking from me, and the one I needed to provide. 
            Being brutally honest, I am not the calm person I want to be.  I worry about everything and everyone, and I want to please every single person and pet I know all of the time.  This doesn’t lead to ultimate calmness.  I work on this everyday. I did when Macaroni and Asie needed me most and still do.  When Dave, my staff, my clients and my patients are all happy I am the calmest person I know and bring that to my pack.  Otherwise, achieving ultimate calmness is a challenge.  The beauty of this pack of mine is that they help me to grow and change.  For their sake, I am working to become the best person I can be. 
            And one last thing my pack has taught me- life doesn’t always go the way you plan and you need to be prepared to roll with the punches and/or fights, barks and general levels of craziness and excitement.
            So here’s the rundown on our pack and the lessons they’ve each taught me:
            Macaroni taught me how to calm the highest level of fear and anxiety with my calmness.  I became the one he could turn to when he was afraid: on a walk, with Asie.  He even became a favorite therapy dog.
            Asie taught me and still teaches me that I have to go into every situation with him totally unafraid.  I have to prove to him that I’m strong enough for the both of us.  I can’t yell or shout at his craziness.  I must remain calm.  This even worked with his first introduction with his brother Manicotti- a huge success. 
            Yeager, my big sweet boy, our gentle giant, teaches me how great it is to have a very best and truest friend, yet he still sometimes needs to know that I will be there to protect him instead of the other way around.
            Maggiano is Dave’s girl.  She is filled with love, eats like a horse, her dad spoils her rotten, and sometimes she needs to know that she is not head of the house.  Otherwise, she’s perfect- just ask Dave!
            Duckie is a brat.  He’s a terrier, so he thinks he’s tough enough though he isn’t.  He is constantly trying to control Asie’s excitement, which is a death wish, so he needs frequently to be controlled with a “look” and a finger snap and I have to make certain that he doesn’t get rewarded on demand even though he is awfully cute.  I have him sit before any rewards. 
            Gussie, who came from a puppy mill years ago, teaches me still the virtue of patience.  In the last two years he has just learned the benefits of “coming” when called.  Every walk is a challenge with him, as he digs his little heels in to the ground and refuses to go.  But I attach his leash to Asie’s for extra motivation and it gives Asie a job as Gussie’s dog walker. 
            And our newest addition, Manicotti, is a work in progress.  He is teaching me patience to the highest degree and the benefits of keeping calm in the midst of the greatest storm.  With him I have to embrace the idea of no rewards unless he earns them with a sit.  Our walks have more sits in them than walking time.  But he has taught me once again the virtue of taking five calm steps rather than five miles of him pulling me in excitement.  Also, he has taught me the art and benefits of ignoring.  Ignore excitement and reward calm.
            Manicotti is my new laboratory for learning.  Thankfully he is very sweet and even when I don’t achieve my goal of ultimate calmness in the wake of his goofy self, he forgives me. 
            To recap my rules for the pack:

1. It’s all about the walk for me.  The structured walk, at my side.  Inviting the calm dog outside and back in.
2. No touch, no talk, no eye contact when we reunite until they are calm.
3. A sit before all rewards.
4. Ignore excitement.  Reward calm.  The art of ignoring is a big one at our house.
5. Learn to be the strong silent type.  This is a tough one for me and my New Years Resolution.  Still working on it.  I talk too much.  Dogs share the universal language- silent and inspirational.  A look says it all.  Dogs don’t shout.  Shouting creates a neurotic dog.  The greatest leaders are quiet and inspirational.  Alpha wolves are serene.

            In conclusion, I recommend that if you want to know the type of person you are, at your heart of hearts, go home and look to your dogs.  They will tell you.  For example, look at the Geller girls.  Like Sue and Bob they are beautiful, sparkling, fun loving, happy and open to new experiences.  In contrast, our guys are rough and tumble, like to play in the dirt and look like it, very sweet, very loving, but, sadly, still a little worried with new experiences like this one.  And, if there’s anything about yourself that you want to change, your dogs will tell you how you’re doing.
            According to our pack, it’s never too late to make a difference.

Clinic News 4/21/2011

Bichon Club in Dallas

On April 30th I have been asked to speak at the Bichon Club in Dallas, Texas for the second year in a row.  I’ll be speaking on Canine Behavioral Issues. 

I’ll be sad to be away from the clinic and my own pack for a few days, but I’m honored to be invited to speak on my favorite subject.

Clinic News 3/9/2011

Pups on Parole

Here is an article from Friday's Fulton Sun about the Pups on Parole program. I am very honored to be a small part of this wonderful program.

http://www.fultonsun.com/news/2011/mar/04/vet-volunteers-time-prison-help-inmate-dog-trainer/

Clinic News 1/25/2011

Temple Grandin

            January 22nd was a big day for me and Dave.  We got to see one of my heroes, Temple Grandin, speak at the Missouri Veterinary Medical Association Conference, and she was wonderful.
            You may know Dr. Grandin and her work from the Emmy Award winning HBO movie bearing her name.  I have been reading about Dr. Grandin and her research for many years.  She works mainly with large animals, especially cattle, but her work also relates to the protective, watchful nature seen in herding dogs.  Her research has helped me understand my own “special needs” Australian Shepherd, Asie (see my blog for my challenges with Asie).
            I was honored to see Dr. Grandin in person, and to thank her for making a difference in my life.  I even got an autograph from her for the clinic wall.  The next time you come by, take a look.
            For more on Dr. Grandin and her work check out her books, her movie and her website www.Grandin.com.