On 4th October, with the global theme IVSA Paklihawa where I am acting as SCoVE Coordinator celebrated “World Animal Day 2020” through a webinar on: “Canine Companionship: Behavior Management and Clinical Care”. This webinar mainly focused on the ways how human and dog bonding can be strengthened deeper and the clinical assessment of dogs with the veterinarian.

 Here is short brief of the program highlights.

1. Ms. Abhilasha Sharma is a well-renowned Dog Trainer and Behaviorist. After her short introduction, we proceeded to the questionnaire segment of the program. According to the speaker, the idea of training a dog is limited. Both pet and its owner need training for proper welfare of animal. Animals (dogs) are not capable of taking decision so owner have to be trained about animals. The motive of training pet owner is to help them look at their pets as a companion/ friend rather than some source of entertainment.

 Ms. Sharma gave a brief idea about Canine Behavior. Dogs, being a social animal, need people and dogs around them. They should not be bought and just kept in the cage all the time. They need interaction with us. The way we keep our dogs inside our home has direct impact on their behaviour. Lack of proper care and management results in behaviours like hyper aggressiveness, destructiveness, etc. Such behaviours may not be detected easily on early stages but become quite noticeable when they reach their maximum point.

 Training dogs and their owners is effective to control behavioural problem as well as to develop skills in pet dogs. Training of each dog may differ with others. Or it can be said that dogs are trained as per needs of their owner. For example, some owner, who are mostly busy on their jobs want their pets to be super calm when left alone for long period of time. Whereas same training is not needed for a dog whose owner can regularly attend their pets and play with them. So, based on the time an owner should spend with their pets, dogs are trained differently.

 Well-balanced diet should be provided to dogs as per their need. According to speaker her pet diet includes 30% crabs, 40-50% proteins (egg, meat, organs), other foods like vegetables, fruits, Pumpkin seed etc. Management of stray dog aggression problem is very challenging because the cause of their aggression is not same as pet dogs. Stray dogs show aggression to defend their territory as they live in a pack/group and mostly inside their own territory. Also, speaker had talked about handling problem of pet dogs by many veterinarians. Veterinarian doctors treat dogs well medicinally but they are also lacking the way of treating dogs behaviorally. Hence everyone relating with animal (dog) need to have knowledge of behavior and management of dog.

 2. In the second session our second speaker was Dr. Tikaram Khanal.  He is a veterinary clinician in Valley Animal Clinic, Kathmandu. The speaker started the session on the topic “Companion Health Assessment” by giving a brief introduction on companion animals as; companion animals are those animals kept for human company rather than working or any other purposes. Companion animals in Nepal are dogs, cats but primarily dogs occupy the larger population.

Being a veterinary doctor, he believes animal welfare is a matter of equal concern in the clinical field as well. However, vet practitioners in Nepal are lagging in this aspect and the scenario needs to get better. Animal welfare addresses the needs of animals like proper nutrition, veterinary care, human animal relationship and many more. The performance of the animal also depends on the effort we put on to make them feel safe and happy. The behavioural issues like fear, anxiety and aggression which are mainly encountered when the doctors try to restrain the animals during the treatment rather than trying to make them physically and mentally relaxed surely creates problems during the diagnosis. So, it is of utmost importance to keep animal in low stress environment or in possible comfort zone so that they behave naturally which would aid in evaluating the health issues of animals accurately.

He continued the session by picking up the most challenging aspect to a clinician i.e., conducting a physical examination - its approach and overview. Since a proper physical examination can only detect the minor abnormalities before they turn into serious problems, it is essential to follow an effective protocol of examination which initiates with keeping the complete description of animal such as breed, age, sex and other distinguishing characters. The second important step is history taking and regarding this a veterinarian should always double check on the details provided by the owner and have a very clear idea of what's going on. Likewise, observations on general appearances, body condition and hydration status would also help in the prompt diagnosis. Furthermore, the speaker elaborated his presentation giving a general idea on demonstrating vital signs of animals which are temperature, mucous membrane color, heart rate, capillary refill time and respiratory rate.

 He pointed out how important is to have the knowledge on normal physiology of animals before jumping into the physiology of diseased ones. Along with it, he addressed all the parameters essential to a practicing veterinarian. Thus, the session got more intriguing by the speakers thorough explanation on every single procedure on vital signs. Finally, the webinar was concluded addressing some queries from the audience and responding to them in every possible way.

 The program was interactive and informative and lasted for almost 2 hours. There were about 50 participants in the program who enthusiastically listened all the speakers till the end.