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Julia Logan Western Australia Phone : 089453 9637 after 6 pm Email : ckcs@bigpond.net.au
This is pretty common in Cavaliers, usually those with shorter muzzles, but not necessarily. It's called the "Cavalier snort" and is caused by an elongated soft palate - not sure how much anatomy you know, but this is along the top inside of the mouth. The tongue and palate stick together (because the soft palate is too long and flexible) and the "snorting" sound is the vibration of air rushing between those two body parts. You might be able to google "elongated soft palate" and see a picture. I find a couple of methods are good for fixing this (other than surgery, which some vets will do if you're not careful!). 1) as the dog is snorting, place your hand (between thumb and forefinger) gently over the muzzle and push the muzzle down. The dog should have it's nose lower to the ground than the back of it's head. This forces their tongue to the back of their mouth and they "gag", breaking the cycle of the snort. or 2) put your fingers over the nostrils of the dog. This forces the dog to breathe through it's mouth, and again they have to use their tongue and the cycle is broken. or 3) when all else fails, I stick my thumb in the dog's mouth and push the tongue down (not back). Again, this breaks the seal between the tongue and palate. Whichever method you use, give the dog at least 15 seconds to get their breath back, calm down and return to a normal breathing pattern before going any further. I have trained one of my dogs - pretty much the only one here who snorts - to stop this without my physical intervention, by telling him to "calm, be caaaaaaaalm, shhhhhh, caaaaaaaaaalm". It's quite common for this to occur either during excitement (as you mentioned,
when the harnesses come out) or when the air is cold and the dog is exercising
(so is often confused with asthma). The dogs can be trained not to get so
excited when the harnesses come out, by getting them out, then sitting down for
a cuppa. The dog is excited at the prospect of a walk, not because the harness
is out - so if you help them break the association between the harness coming
out and going for a walk, this will calm them. Then after the cuppa (or other
normal household activity), calmly pick up the harnesses and put them on the
dogs. Again, sit down, turn the TV on or something and wait a few minutes,
before calmly walking the dogs to the door. Even excitement at this point might
set the dog off. Again, stop and do something else. It takes a while to break
this habit and isn't nearly as endearing as your doggy jumping up excitedly at
the thought of having some fun with it's master, but will help fix the snorting
problem. With time and persistence, and occassional retraining, the dogs should
eventually take to the harnesses calmly. Use the same principles whenever the
dogs snort - stop, fix and calm.
This information was kindly provided by: Cherilyn Alport Chelport CKCS - Where Wholecolours are the Whole Story www.geocities.com/chelportcavaliers/ South Australia |
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