High Drive Workers

What the general veterinary community can learn from the working dog population and their health care needs.

While practicing as an emergency and critical care veterinarian, Cynthia Otto, DVM, received a call that would change the trajectory of her career. The call was from a disaster response group asking if there were any veterinarians who could help a team of search dogs with medical advice. Through that partnership, Dr. Otto discovered a natural connection between emergency medicine and disaster response.

Once she moved to the University of Pennsylvania as a faculty member, Dr. Otto joined up with a newly formed Federal Emergency Management Agency Team, Pennsylvania Task Force One, by assisting as a medical specialist for the dogs. She provided medical support and even deployed during natural disasters such as Hurricane Floyd.

The FEMA team also responded to the 9/11 attacks. It was during the 9/11 deployment that Dr. Otto began to ask herself several questions related to the health care of working dogs. What was the impact of this kind of work on the dogs both physically and behaviorally? What kind of support did they need from veterinarians? Were these dogs unique? What were the medical concerns that veterinarians needed to consider?

Those questions drove what would become a 15-year AKC Canine Health Foundation supported study of the working dogs of 9/11. It also solidified Dr. Otto’s commitment to the working dog community. She and other University of Pennsylvania faculty became more and more involved with teaching canine handlers first aid and other basic care required at the intersection of emergency medicine and disaster response. “But it became apparent through all of this that we needed more science,” she said. “We needed clinical expertise that really focused on the working dogs.”

For about a decade, Dr. Otto and fellow academic researchers searched for the best approach toward building and staffing a research training education center. In 2012, the university purchased property ideal for the center, and a generous donation helped kickstart the program. They opened the brick-and-mortar space of the Penn Vet Working Dogs Center on 9/11 as a tribute to the working dogs of 9/11.

“We name all of our dogs after dogs that responded to 9/11, were part of our study, or victims of 9/11,” Dr. Otto said. “We look at 9/11 as an opportunity to take something that was horrible and turn it into something that can advance the health and well-being of working dogs.”

Unique needs

What Dr. Otto has concluded from her research and clinical work is that the veterinary community needs to think about working dogs as their own unique population. “Lives depend on these dogs,” said Dr. Otto. “So, the impact of what we do with them and for them has a greater reach.”

These unique considerations include the strenuous physical requirements of the dogs, the intense behavioral requirements of the dogs, and the deeply formed relationships they have with their handlers. Veterinarians must also factor in the environmental and occupational hazards the dogs experience.

The breeds most commonly used in this area are based on preferred behaviors for working dogs. “Generally, we’re talking about high drive dogs,” she said. “They’re highly motivated to do work and incredibly energetic.”

Working dogs are ramped up a lot of the time and highly arousable because of the high energy necessary to get the job done. But the ideal dog is one that can actually turn it off and relax, Dr. Otto said. Not all working dog breeds can do that. “Particularly when we’re talking about the Belgian Malinois, which are ramped up almost all the time. But even the Labradors that we work with are really high energy. These dogs are coming out of hunting lines, and they go, go, go. There are genetic things based on the breeds that we’re dealing with that we need to factor in. There are also physical wear-and-tear considerations.”

These dogs are often so driven to work that they sometimes don’t have a sense of self preservation. Heatstroke is one of the biggest concerns for working dogs because they will often continue to search or work until they collapse if handlers do not intervene.

Because of this, pain management is critical in the care and well-being of working dogs. Due to their “go-forward-at-all-costs” mentality, some working dogs won’t show pain as obviously, Dr. Otto said. Handlers can help in this regard due to their close relationships with the dogs. A handler may have a better sense if his or her dog is in pain. “We have to be very attuned to the handler for any kind of subtle changes in the way the dog moves or works for anything that might indicate pain,” she said. For instance, if a handler reports that his or her dog is not jumping into a vehicle like usual, the cause might be back or hip pain rather than stubbornness or some other behavioral issue.

The other important consideration is the way working dogs are examined by veterinarians. They’re examined with their handlers nearby, so they’re usually still highly alert and in work mode. “A traditional orthopedic exam on one of these dogs, which means laying the dog on its side and moving its joints around, is not going to happen,” Dr. Otto said. “There is no way an attentive police dog or search dog is going to relax enough to let you lay them down and move their joints. If you did, you still wouldn’t know anything because the dog would be so tense.”

Veterinarians must examine working dogs with an emphasis on functional movement – evaluating whether they’re walking or resting in ways that would indicate pain. “They may not act like they’re in pain, but they may sit in a way that is not what we would call a square sit,” said Dr. Otto. “They might be sitting floppy, or their leg might be out to one side, or there might be something a little bit off in the way they’re holding their bodies. They may not cry out in pain or drag a leg, but they might have some subtle change we can detect.”

Faculty and staff at the Penn Vet Working Dog Center are advocates of cooperative care and low stress handling. They work closely with the handlers. “When we’re talking about rehabilitation, fitness, conditioning, strength building, return to work – these are all things that we do with therapeutic exercise. But we’re not doing it, the handlers are. So, we’re teaching them how to work with their dog to accomplish the strength building and the return of function that they need.”

Whether it’s rehabilitation or any other form of traditional care, veterinarians want to determine the impact of the treatment options on the dog’s ability to work. If they are sedating the dog, do they need some time to recover from sedation before they go back to work? What’s the impact of medications that they’re using on the dog’s performance, function, and comfort level?

Growing population

There are a lot of guesses as to the working dog population. Dr. Otto said 80,000 is probably a reasonable estimate, but the number is hard to nail down, because it all depends on one’s definition of a working dog. According to the American Animal Hospital Association, working dog categories include those that are used for protection and scent detection. These working dogs are most often in law enforcement, but there are more and more opportunities in the scent detection realm, such as conservation areas of identifying invasive or endangered species.

As the working dog population expands, so too does the need for more veterinarians trained to care for them. Earlier this year, the AKC Canine Health Foundation (CHF), in collaboration with the American Kennel Club (AKC), announced the launch of the AKC/AKC CHF Canine Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation Residency Program. This program is designed to increase the number of specialists trained to meet the unique needs of athletic and working dogs, as well as all dogs in need of rehabilitation. This program also supports advancing evidence-based practice in the field of canine sports medicine.

CHF released the first call for applications from veterinary colleges with approved sports medicine and rehabilitation programs in February, with applications due in May. Each proposal was to be reviewed by a panel of CHF leadership and subject matter experts and the chosen institution – selected sometime this summer – will receive $100,000 annually to support a three-year residency. Interested veterinary professionals will apply through the Veterinary Internship & Residency Matching Program in the spring of 2025 and start their residency training in July 2025.

The specialty of Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation is a fairly new one in veterinary medicine, said Dr. Stephanie Montgomery, CHF’s CEO. However, there’s a high demand for it, and a lot of populations such as working dogs or performance dogs would benefit from more veterinarians trained in this specialty. Even when it comes to pet dogs, there’s more and more interest in ways to be involved in keeping them healthy and active.

“This is an integral part of canine health care, and we want to support growing the discipline and promoting evidence-based practices,” Dr. Montgomery said. “This includes training tomorrow’s veterinary specialists who will help our dogs recover from injury and be at their peak athletic performance.”

Scope of work

While those specialists may be a few years away from contributing to the care of working dogs, the Penn Vet Working Dog Center is one of several well-established providers and pioneers in the field. The Penn Vet Working Dog Center provides clinical care, conducts research, and offers training and educational programs to the working dog community.

Through the Sports and Performance Medicine Service, veterinarians evaluate working, sporting and even companion dogs for mobility problems. They provide hands-on evaluations and diagnostic imaging to try and pin down what’s preventing a dog from being comfortable in the way it moves.

“We sometimes talk about our service as medical orthopedics, because most people are familiar with orthopedics,” Dr. Otto said. “But orthopedics is orthopedic surgery. For our group, we want to take care of those cases that are not surgical but are having mobility issues. It might be managing osteoarthritis, obesity, or even chronic neurologic conditions.”

If there’s a police dog not doing its job, the Penn Vet Working Dog Center team can use its performance and physical assessments to determine whether it is related to a medical, behavioral, or training problem. They take a team approach with the handler to find the cause of the issue, and then help to either get the dog on track and back to work, or determine if it’s time for the dog to retire or find a different career path.

The Penn Vet Working Dog Center also has a return-to-work program that has been particularly valuable for police agencies. While rehab is a natural next step for a cruciate surgery to increase the rate of success, rehabbing for a companion dog is not the same as rehabbing to the level of being a sporting or working athlete. “Think of your average football player,” said Dr. Otto. “He doesn’t go to surgery, rest and then head straight back on the field. He must build back up his strength and endurance. The same is true for working dogs.”

The return-to-work program is not just for orthopedic conditions. One of the center’s first entries in the program had GI surgery, and thus lost conditioning while recovering from the surgery. Through the program, the care team created a specialized plan for the dog to regain the appropriate strength needed for its job so that it didn’t get injured shortly after heading back to work.

Crossover to the companion world

Some of the things the veterinary community learns from working dogs can be applied to all dogs. For instance, one CHF-funded study that examined how dogs are treated when they overheat has takeaways for companion dogs as well. “You can imagine a working dog could be out on a hot day, and if they start to overheat, what’s the best way to cool them down?” Dr. Montgomery said. “Certainly, that applies to our pet dogs too. While some of the conditions that working dogs are in might be more common to them than a pet dog, what we find would be still applicable to pet dogs as well.”

Dr. Otto said the first and most obvious crossover is the benefit of movement for all dogs. Their physical health and well-being require regular physical fitness and mental engagement. “One of the main reasons that dogs are euthanized is because they can’t get up and can’t get around anymore,” Dr. Otto said. By implementing physical fitness and conditioning, keeping dogs strong and keeping them moving, veterinarians and pet owners can minimize the risks for arthritis.

“That’s important for all dogs – not just working dogs.”

Working Dog Practitioner Program

The Penn Vet Working Dog Center has developed a RACE approved certificate program for veterinarians, veterinary technicians and students. The Working Dog Practitioner Program was created for practitioners committed to providing the most advanced care to working and performance dog clients. The program consists of modules, three days of hands-on learning, several electives and preceptorship. For more information, visit workingdogpractitioner.com.