Dr. Meisels,

I had the pleasure of dealing directly with Dr. Megan Anderson last week concerning a dog in distress who was brought to the CSAH on an emergency status with many challenging medical and legal guardianship issues.

The dog’s legal guardian is an offender who had recently been arrested by the BSO Robbery Unit. The sergeant, a dog lover, called me Thursday evening last week looking for emergency help for this dog. The dog had a serious neurological condition—chronic—was purportedly heartworm positive, had been vomiting, and was in a very bad state. The dog was admitted and Dr. Anderson received the case.

Dr. Anderson kept me well informed through the night about the dog’s troubling set of medical issues. From the beginning, she explained numerous options, the costs associated, the dog’s perceived pain and risk problems, and offered her sympathetic but fair and objective medical opinion of the dog’s prognosis and general future, if treated for the array of problems. She sought permission for all recommended tests, explaining their value.

The next day she was off duty, but she spent a considerable amount of time at the hospital and on the phone with all parties involved, trying to make sure this depressing and complicated situation was properly handled. Dr. Anderson was doing all of this while having had little sleep and on her time off!

What a dedicated veterinarian she is. What a mature and responsible attitude she displayed. What an impressive sense of duty and work ethic she demonstrated. How lucky we were to have had someone of her professional caliber handling this complex matter. Kudos to her and to you.

Sherry L. Schlueter
Executive Director, SPCA Wildlife Care Center

Classes Are Limited!

Contact A Dog’s Best Friend For Scheduling And Registration Information

954-791-2717 · www.adogsbestfriend.com

Monday Nights · 7:30-8:30pm

Coral Springs Animal Hospital is proud to recommend A Dog’s Best Friend for all of your dog training needs. A Dog’s Best Friend offers puppy training (Puppy Kindergarten), In-Home Training and Group Classes. Their training team has years of experience, training all breeds, specializing in positive and innovative methods. They focus on fun, humane, and effective training methods for dogs and owners, and specializes in solving behavior problems. Their goal is to ensure the best possible dog-owner relationship, building a bond of love, trust and understanding.

Puppy Kindergarten – Why go to Puppy Kindergarten? Puppies are learning all the time, from the moment you bring them home. The first few weeks you spend with your new best friend will set the tone of the rest of your relationship. It’s easy to set up good habits in the beginning, but harder to change bad habits later. Getting your puppy out to see the world while he is still young is very important.

The primary and most important time for puppy socialization is the first three months of life. During this time puppies should be exposed to as many new people, animals, stimuli and environments as can be achieved safely and without causing over­stimulation manifested as excessive fear, with­drawal or avoidance behavior. For this reason, the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior believes that it should be the standard of care for puppies to receive such socialization before they are fully vaccinated.

Because the first three months are the period when sociability outweighs fear, this is the primary window of opportunity for puppies to adapt to new people, animals, and experiences. Incomplete or im­proper socialization during this important time can increase the risk of behavioral problems later in life including fear, avoidance, and/or aggression. Behavioral problems are the greatest threat to the owner-dog bond. In fact, behavioral problems are the num­ber one cause of relin­quishment to shelters. Behavioral issues, not infectious diseases, are the number one cause of death for dogs under three years of age.

Puppy Kindergarten is a great place for you and your puppy to socialize with other people and puppies in a safe environment.

Classes are limited to 8 puppies and owners per week. Puppies ages 8-16 weeks are invited to Puppy Kindergarten. All puppies are required to be current on vaccines and will not be allowed in class without a Health Verification.

Puppies will be taught the following during the six-week program:

·         Early Learning and Motivation

·         Management, Exercise and Enrichment

·         House Manners (Housetraining, Chewing, Jumping, Play Biting, etc.)

·         Socialization, including supervised play for all puppies

·         Touch Therapy (Handling, Quiet Time, Nail Trimming, etc.)

·         Puppy Training (Name Recognition, Controlled Leash Walking, Leave It, Sit, Wait and Come)

In-Home Training: Personal instruction is convenient, quick and effective. In-home training will cover the following areas:

·         Housebreaking

·         Chewing

·         Jumping

·         Play Biting

·         General Unruliness

·         Problem Solving

·         Separation Anxiety

·         Aggression

·         Fears/Phobias

Group Classes: Group classes are a cost effective way to have a better behaved dog. Classes are kept small so you don’t get lost in a crowd!

Basic Group Class Training includes:

·         Sit/Stay

·         Down/Stay

·         Come

·         Heel

·         Distraction Work

·         Socialization

Beyond Basic Group Class Training includes:

·         Sharpening Basic Skills

·         Further Distances

·         More Distractions

·         Off Leash Control

·         Socialization

Boarding Training: Our boarding training program is very popular. What makes it unique is that we do not have a kennel. Each dog goes home with his/her trainer at night. They are given the personal attention that the trainers give their own pets.

In addition to going on regular field trips for socialization and to learn to follow commands in a distracting setting, in the boarding training program your dog will learn:

·         To come, sit, down and stay

·         To wait at doors

·         To play with his toys

·         To walk on leash-on your left and sit when you stop

·         To ring a pet chime to let you know he needs to go out to potty

·         To sit for attention and stay off of the furniture

Puppies in our Boarding Training program also attend puppy kindergarten to socialize with puppies their age. We specialize in housebreaking puppies and have been doing it for 12 years.

Upon completion of the program we bring your pup home to you and conduct a lesson to begin the process of teaching you how to work with your pup and to get him working for you.  This is followed up with two additional lessons to provide your family with continued support to teach you how to get the most out of your dog and his training. 

It’s difficult for us to express our sadness and feeling of emptiness without “M”.  We so appreciate all the efforts you and your team made to help him along this very difficult journey.  We appreciate your communicating honestly with us and allowing us to spend those last precious moments with him.  We feel confident that you guys did everything you could and were compassionate.

We also were delighted to get the card you sent and the paw print. Thank you for thinking of that. We will treasure them.

We enclosed a picture of “M” so you can see our guy at his best.  We will remember him this way.

We decided to get another little guy to play with our schnauzer who is also feeling the loss of a friend and a playmate. There are so many dogs out there who need a home and we will find one and take him in to begin a new friendship.

Thank you so much for being there for us and never hesitating to do all you could do.

Sincerely,

The “J” Family

Love,

“P”

We want you to know how much we appreciate that you were available for us and “K” when he needed to be put to sleep.  It was a comfort to have you appear and help us at such a difficult time. Thank you for being there on such short notice.

Sincerely,

The “S” Family

Words cannot express our gratitude for your help and compassion with our beautiful girl, C.  She was my baby and although it was time i didn’t think I could let her go.  You are such a special person and the kindness you gave to us in our dork moment will not be forgotten.  Thank you for helping our baby pass over to the where she will always be beautiful and healthy.

The “C” Family

Thank you so much for allowing me to spend a couple of days at Coral Springs Animal Hospital. Everyone was so incredibly friendly and welcoming, and i felt so comfortable while i was there. Even in just two days, i could easily tell you have a beautiful clinic that practices awesome veterinary medicine!! Thanks again for the opportunity to visit.

ML

Words cannot express our profound gratitude for your excellent care of “d”. Thanks to you he is with us and making great strides literally and figuratively! He would not have made it through this ordeal if he had been anywhere else. I am personally grateful for your compassion for us during such a difficult time.

“Dr. K”

Coral Springs Animal Hospital is collaborating with the Canine Rehabilitation Institute (CRI) to offer both certification and CE courses here at our facility. Veterinary and physical therapy professionals will learn how their patients can benefit from the exciting and rapidly growing field of canine rehabilitation.

CRI Courses at Coral Springs Animal Hospital

Introduction to Canine Rehabilitation: November 9-14

The Canine Rehabilitation Therapist: December 5-10

Canine Neurological Rehabilitation: December 12-14

Introduction to Canine Rehabilitation: February 1-6

The Canine Rehabilitation Therapist: March 6-11

Pain Management in Canine Rehabilitation: March 12-13

To register or learn more about these courses, visit the CRI website at www.caninerehabinstitute.com.