Dining Out: Restaurants for Dogs!

From special menus for canine companions to food trucks and even tasting menus, some restaurateurs are pulling out all the stops for pets.

(Article by Christina Morales, NY Times, April 20, 2023)

To celebrate the 10-month anniversary of the successful spinal surgery on Jagger, her goldendoodle, Cat Torrejon-Nisbet didn’t buy him the traditional rawhide dog bone. Instead, she paid $15 for a light pink, rose-shaped dog pastry made with antelope heart from Dogue, a canine restaurant in San Francisco.

Dog owners like Ms. Torrejon-Nisbet are frequenting an increasing number of restaurants across the country that offer separate menus for their four-legged family members. Dog menus have become the new version of children’s menus at some restaurants. Pet parents can now order their dog a steak or Alaskan salmon with steamed rice. The dog can wash that down with a nonalcoholic “beer” made of pork broth, or a bowl of Dög Pawrignon made with wild-caught-salmon oil.

Other restaurants have gone a step further, catering exclusively to dogs, from custom canine birthday cakes to food trucks serving chicken nuggets and burgers. At Dogue, dogs eat a fine-dining tasting menu.

Kelly Lockett, 32, of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, has taken Benji, her mini schnauzer mix, to several New York restaurants with dog menus, including Judy Z’s in Greenwich Village. “He gets so happy, and he enjoys spending time with us and not spending time home alone,” she said.

In San Francisco, Jason Villacampa, 40, has treated his corgis, Tony and Captain, to the tasting menu at Dogue four times. It costs $75 per dog, with complimentary sparkling water or mimosas for the owner.

On a recent visit, Mr. Villacampa said, the chef, Rahmi Massarweh, explained the dishes the dogs were about to eat, detailing which local farm provided each ingredient and how each meal was prepared. He served bone broth tableside, and put the finishing touches to plates like mosaic chicken, thin strips of white meat wrapped in nori, layered together and cooked in a water bath. Mr. Massarweh, a chef for 20 years, trained in French cuisine at Le Cordon Bleu in San Francisco.

“Pets are members of our family, and we equally want to feed them that way,” said Ron Holloway, who owns Woofbowl, a food truck based in Dumbo, Brooklyn, that caters to dogs. Mr. Holloway and his wife, Solo Holloway, a former biochemical and electrical engineer, started the mobile restaurant after making more nutritious meals from scratch for their French bulldogs, Latto and Dino. Mr. Holloway, a military veteran, and his wife, a Cambodian refugee, adopted the dogs as part of his treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder.

Just as some people celebrate their birthdays or holidays at restaurants, many dog owners do the same for their pets. Owners order custom cakes — like one shaped as a ramen bowl for a Shih Tzu named Ramen — from businesses like Maison de Pawz in New York, a dog bakery and catering company where they can choose from flavors like peanut butter, Funfetti, coconut, spiced apple or carob (chocolate is toxic to dogs). The dense cakes are made with buckwheat flour and coconut oil, and though humans can eat it, they probably wouldn’t like the taste, said Mei-i Zien, the owner of the bakery.

Ashley Marino, who lives on the Upper East Side, is planning to take Henry, her Maltipoo, to a birthday brunch at the Wilson later this month. She’ll probably order him his favorite dish, chicken with baby vegetables in a dog bowl, and he’ll later eat a bacon- or banana-flavored cupcake. (She hasn’t decided which.)

“I want to experience this with him,” said Ms. Marino, 37. She and her boyfriend celebrate birthdays with brunch, and would like to do the same for Henry. “It sounds so ridiculous to say out loud. It’s just nice to take him out and treat him to something. We’re all enjoying this together.”

When Joey, a Yorkshire terrier, visits New York City, his owner Rachel Choi, 25, usually takes him to socialize at a dog park on the Lower East Side. But Ms. Choi said he makes it clear, with his whining at the entrance, that he doesn’t want to be there. He wants to go to Boris & Horton, which has air-conditioning, to enjoy a peanut butter cupcake and have other people pet him.

“He just seems to have a bright mood there in a way that he doesn’t have anywhere else,” she said.

Can you read your dog's emotions?

Dogs are “really good at reading our emotions,” says one expert. But we’re not so good at reading dogs. Many misinterpret what their dogs are saying. Dogs are always communicating with us. Not listening can lead to behavioral issues,

Here is some interesting information about dog behavior:

How to recognize signs of distress

One key mistake people make is that they often miss signs that dogs are stressed or anxious — often a precursor to aggressive behavior. According to the experts, a stressed-out pup may show she’s scared by licking her lips, yawning, lifting a front paw, shedding hair, scratching, shaking, panting or pacing. His eyes can change too. A phenomenon called "whale eye" is often a sign of doggie distress. This doesn’t mean that every time your dog pants, yawns or lifts a paw, he’s on the verge of a breakdown. Dogs pant when they’re hot, too. Some dogs, such as pointers, lift their front paws when they pick up a scent. Yawning can also mean, of course, that your dog is tired.

To understand what a dog’s body language and behavior are saying, “you have to look at the dog’s whole body, and you have to think about the context in which you’re in,” said psychologist Sarah Byosiere, director of the Thinking Dog Center at CUNY Hunter College in New York City. So if your dog is panting but he isn’t hot or winded, or if your dog is yawning but not seemingly tired, yes, he could be stressed. And especially if you’re seeing a constellation of these stress behaviors at once, that’s a good sign that your pup is uncomfortable, Dr. Byosiere said.

If your dog is out of sorts, what should you do? First, try to figure out what might be causing his discomfort, said psychologist Angie Johnston, director of the Boston College Canine Cognition Center and Social Learning Laboratory. Are you in an unfamiliar place? Is your dog meeting new people or dogs? Once you have an idea as to what might be making your pup uncomfortable, “pull back from that activity,” she said, and see if those anxious behaviors dissipate.

Tail movements are another thing we think we understand but typically don’t. “The most common misconception, by far, is that tail-wagging definitely means the dog is happy,” Dr. Johnston said. If a dog’s tail-wagging is fluid and relaxed, then yes, she’s probably content, she said — but if the tail is wagging only slightly, and seems rigid, then it may be a sign that she is about to be aggressive. Research suggests that when a dog’s wagging tail leans more to the right, she’s happy, but if it leans more to the left, she’s feeling hostile.

How to manage a dog’s social life

Many of the mistakes dog owners make revolve around how they handle their social interactions. We often don’t recognize the signs — panting, stiff tail-wagging, lip-licking, yawning — that a dog is uncomfortable around other people or dogs and needs help. Responding to their cues might mean asking other people to give your dog space. Maybe it means leaving the dog park and going home. “Probably the worst thing to do is to not do anything,” Dr. Byosiere said. If you don’t step in, you’re also increasing the risk that they could become aggressive.

One reason we make these errors is that we tend to assume dogs are more extroverted than they really are. “People who love dogs love to meet new dogs. But not all dogs like to meet new people or dogs,” said Brian Hare, an evolutionary anthropologist at Duke University who founded their Canine Cognition Center. If you want to meet a dog, first ask her owner if it’s OK — and respect them if they say no. If the owner says it’s OK, approach the dog slowly. Stop a few feet away, kneel or crouch down, and see if the dog approaches you, Dr. Hare suggested. If he doesn’t — and especially if he looks or walks away — take that as a sign that you shouldn’t get any closer. If you see some of the distress signals mentioned earlier, that’s also a sign that he’s feeling nervous and that you should back off. And don’t approach a dog with your hand outstretched, Dr. Hare said — this can trigger aggression in dogs that have been mistreated, and it could lead to a bite. Instead, hold your hand out in a fist, or don’t extend a hand at all.

Don’t anthropomorphize your pup

The experts told me that we often attribute our dog’s actions to feelings they’re not really having. Dogs often lick faces because they’re hoping to get a taste of what you recently ate, said Evan MacLean, an evolutionary anthropologist and comparative psychologist at the University of Arizona. (This stems from the behavior of young wolves, who lick the insides of their mother's mouths so that their moms regurgitate food for them to eat. Which explains why dogs do gross things like eat people’s vomit.)

Another mistake we make is assuming that dogs like the same things we do. When a pup rolls over, he doesn’t necessarily want a tummy rub — it could be that he wants some space. Also, the guilty expression you see on a dog’s face after he has done something “bad” is not really a sign that she feels sheepish — she’s probably just responding to your anger. “Dogs show this look as a response to their person’s behavior or tone, not to their doing something we consider wrong,” said cognitive scientist Alexandra Horowitz, who directs the Barnard College Dog Cognition Lab.

Ultimately, dogs understand us far better than we understand them, Dr. Johnston said. Over thousands of years of domestication, they’ve become “really good at reading our emotions,” she said, but “I don’t think that it’s worked as much in the other direction.” To do right by our beloved canines, we really need to get to know them — and their weird little cues.

Source: NY Times article by Melinda Wenner Moyer.. (Published May 12, 2022. Updated June 12, 2022). https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/12/well/dog-behavior.html

Does Your Pet Need Therapy?

Shelley Smith's two French bulldogs -- Clinton, 4, and Shelby, 3 -- have grown up together, but it doesn't take much for them to tangle. "They'll battle over food, or my attention, and sometimes it gets physical," says Smith, who lives in Big Spring, TX. "We've had our share of vet visits where one or both of them need stitches."

Thankfully, the bulldogs' behavior has gotten better over the last couple years due to the treatment plan crafted by veterinary behaviorist Valarie V. Tynes, DVM. Tynes put both dogs on the anti-anxiety medication trazodone, and Clinton was also put on an antidepressant as well as another drug sometimes used to treat anxiety, Neurontin. Once both animals had calmed down enough, Tynes worked with Smith to craft a behavior plan.

"Some of it was about training me," Smith says. "For example, if Clinton starts growling at Shelby while he's on my lap, I remove myself." But learning specific strategies, such as sending both dogs to their kennels for "time-outs" when they get overexcited, has really helped.

Many pets, like Smith's, have behavior problems that can make life more difficult for both themselves and their owners. A 2020 study published in the journal Scientific Reports, for example, surveyed almost 14,000 dog owners. It found that over 70% reported behavior issues in their pets, like noise sensitivity, fearfulness, separation anxiety, and aggression. "Dogs and cats don't just wake up one morning and decide to make their owners' lives miserable," says Leslie Sinn, DVM, a veterinary behaviorist in Hamilton, VA. "If you see changes in their behavior, there's most likely something that's making them stressed or fearful. Animals can't use words, so their behavior becomes a form of communication." The first step, she says, is to take them to your vet to rule out a medical issue that could be causing or contributing to the behavior. If you've done that and the problem remains, then it's time to seek out a certified pet behavior specialist. Here are some issues they can help with: Aggression This is the most common and serious behavior problem in dogs, according to the ASPCA. It's also the No. 1 reason pet owners seek professional help from an animal behaviorist.There are several reasons why a pet might be aggressive. For instance, they might feel they are protecting their owners, their home, or their toys. They might be fearful. They might even have decided they're higher up on the social food chain than other human family members.

Dogs who are aggressive may become still and rigid. They might move quickly toward another person or animal. They could growl, show their teeth, or snarl. They might nip or bite.

If you notice aggressive behavior in your pet, it's important to seek out professional help to identify triggers and come up with solutions. "Some of the problem is pet owners expecting more of their pets than is appropriate," Tynes says.

If your dog is constantly getting into fights at doggie day care, for example, it may be that they simply find it stressful to be in a busy environment, she says. "We can work with the dog, but we also need to work with their owner to make sure they have realistic expectations," Tynes says. A dog who is aggressive to other dogs, or to strangers, may simply need to be in a well-controlled environment like a fenced-in yard. More concerning are dogs who bite without warning and are unpredictably aggressive.

Separation Anxiety If your well-trained dog has accidents or chews up furniture when you are away, they may simply be anxious about being alone. Shelter dogs are more likely to experience this condition than dogs who have lived with their family since puppyhood. When dogs with separation anxiety are left alone, they may:

• Pee and poop in the house

• Bark and howl

• Chew, dig, and otherwise damage items

• Pace excessively

Mild cases of separation anxiety can be treated at home, often by giving your dog a great treat, like a Kong stuffed with peanut butter, whenever you leave the house. But if your pet is actually hurting themselves when you're gone or can't be consoled by a treat, then it's time to see an animal behaviorist.

The best treatment is to take short, timed departures so your dog gets used to your leaving and returning, says Katherine Houpt, VMD, PhD, professor emeritus of behavioral medicine at Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine in Ithaca, NY. It also helps not to make a big deal when you leave or return. Sometimes, pets also need anti-anxiety medications while doing this treatment.

If your pet has a serious enough behavior problem that they could hurt themselves or others, then you need to see a professional animal behavior therapist, Houpt says. While some pet trainers claim to be pet behaviorists, you need special certification to qualify.

There are two main kinds of certification to look for: Certified applied animal behaviorist (CAAB). They have a graduate degree in animal behavior. They are trained to spot abnormal pet behavior and know techniques to help change it. You can find one through the Animal Behavior Society.

Board-certified veterinary behaviorist (DACVB). These are veterinarians with additional training in animal behavior. They are certified through the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists. Unlike CAABs, they can also prescribe medication. You can find one at the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists.

Source: Excerpts from WebMD Feature on July 15, 2021: https://pets.webmd.com/pet-behavior-21/does-your-pet-need-therapy.