Cairn Terrier, Behavior, Health and Feeding

If we were making a list of breeds full of joie de vivre, Cairn Terriers would be on the top of the list. The Cairn is well built, generally healthy, and always up for a bit of fun.

 

Behavior training and the first socialization period 4-6 weeks of age
Dog breeds that are always up for a bit of fun are also those that benefit from consistent exercise and behavioral training. For Cairns, as with all dogs, behavioral training should start early, taking advantage of the first canine socialization period that starts at 4 weeks of age. From 4-6 weeks of age, puppies learn to socialize with other dogs, distinguishing playful posturing from aggression.

Second socialization period, 6-12 weeks of age
During the next few weeks, from 6-12 weeks of age, there is a second socialization period during which puppies learn to socialize with human beings and creatures that don’t resemble its littermates. The greater the variety of people and other creatures the Cairn interacts with during this socialization period, the greater the possibility the pup will learn to distinguish friend from foe.
 
Bite inhibition
Pups normally learn bite inhibition during this period, and those that don’t learn that teeth should not touch human skin are much more likely to be shunned as biters later in life. It is exceedingly difficult to teach a Cairn not to use its teeth to influence the world when it is older.

Learning what to fear
Pups also learn what to fear between 8 and 12 weeks of age. The greater the variety of exposures during this period, the greater the likelihood your Cairn will remain calm when exposed to diverse stimuli throughout life: firecrackers, hand clapping, quacking parrots, the crack of thunder, crying babies, discharging firearms, doorbells.

 

Neural plasticity
The brain is plastic during the socialization period (4 to 16 weeks of age). Neurons are making connections; the brain is growing. The smarter you want your Cairn to be, the more important it is to feed its brain well as a pup. Provide essential fatty acids from fish and flax to promote brain development—60% of the brain is made of fats. Among the best Cairn puppy supplements are those from Nordic Naturals and Designing Health who makes Missing Link.

 

Juvenile period approximately 3-12 months of age
Puppies are in a juvenile period from 3 to 12 months of age, graduating to adolescence with sexual maturity. (Adulthood is achieved when the Cairn reaches social maturity.) Early in the juvenile period is the ideal time to begin structured exposures, such as in puppy class.

 

Second fear period
During the juvenile period, most pups also experience a second fear-acquiring period. As with the first fear period, pups can become frightened by novel sights and sounds. Remain calm; resist the tendency to coddle the Cairn, and maintain a happy, joyful approach to novel stimuli. You can sympathize with your pup for being fearful, but your sympathy should manifest as constructive activity. For example, if uniforms frighten your pet, start by playing with something small, a doll dressed as a postal carrier, and progress to a uniformed scarecrow that hands your pup its high value treats—dried liver, sweet peas, bacon bits.
 
Utilizing the socialization periods to teach your pup, you’ve prevented the biggest health threat, bad behavior. More terriers are euthanized for undesirable barking, biting, and obstreperousness than for all physical illnesses combined.
 
What are the physical illnesses? Let’s consider some Cairn health problems:

Craniomandibular osteopathy (CMO)

CMO is a painful condition that affects the jaw of Cairn pups, usually 4-7 months of age. Rather than having smooth jaw bone (mandible) and jaw joint surfaces, bony spicules proliferate along the jaw. Less frequently, CMO occurs in the skull (frontal and parietal bones), ears (osseous bullae), and long bones of the limbs.

When CMO affects the jaw, it becomes both physically difficult and painful for the pup to eat or open its mouth more than an inch or two. Some pups develop high fevers (up to 104 F), lose weight, even become malnourished.

Fortunately, CMO is often self limiting and many Cairns recover within a few months. Although CMO occurs in larger dogs, including Boxers, Labrador Retrievers, Doberman Pinschers, and Vislas, it is more common in terriers, including the Cairn, Westie, Scottie, Border, and Boston Terrier.

CMO is diagnosed with radiographs, CT scans, and blood tests and treated with NSAIDs for pain (aspirin, Rimadyl, Deramaxx, Echogesic, Previcox, Metacam and Zubrin) but arenot treated with steroids.

Portosystemic shunts (PSS)

PSS is an illness cause with blood vessels don’t develop to carry blood from the intestines to the liver. Normally the portal blood vessels transport blood that is rich in nutrients fresh from the intestines directly to the liver where the nutrients are processed, utilized, or stored. Without normal portal vessels, the body doesn’t have the benefit of liver processing and storage; nutrients are shunted directly from the gut into circulation. Unprocessed nutrients reach the brain in a form the brain is not prepared to handle, and what the family observes is abnormal behavior 30-60 minutes after eating. PSS is definitively diagnosed with x-rays and blood tests, corrected surgically when possible, and treated conservatively with special diets, herb, and supplements (S-adenylmethionine) when surgery is not possible.

Although the Cairn, Maltese, Dandie Dinmont, Pug and Miniature Schnauzer can develop PSS, the Havenese and Yorkshire Terrier are more likely to develop PSS than other breeds.

There is a very similar genetic disease called microvascular dysplasia that, like PSS, involves improper blood vessel transport of nutrients.

PSS and CMO are serious, they are rare diseases. Cairns are far more likely to have behavior problems, allergies, or even luxating patellas.

What to feed your Cairn Terrier?

Cairn Terriers evolved for thousands of years eating fish, poultry, and vermin. They ate root vegies, but did not historically eat avocado, tomatoes, figs, & rice. When offering foods, start first with those that a Cairn’s ancestors ate. Keep protein at 33-50%.Do not feed grapes, raisins, macadamia nuts, chocolate, or onions. When possible, use kibble and dried foods as treats, but not main meal. Whenever you can feed something that can be identified by looking at it rather than by reading what it is from a list of ingredients, you’re increasing the likelihood of making your pet healthy. Consider dehydrating sweet potatoes in the oven and offering them as treats. An entire small dehydrated sweet potato can be offered as chew, replacing one of your pet’s meals. Feed to maintain a lean body, usually 12-14 lb, and your pet should live 13-14 years.

Exercise

Exercise your Cairn off leash at least twice a day. The Cairn was meant to scrabble over rocks and scurfy ground hunting foxes and vermin. It did not evolve to travel long distances or to eat the high fat foods that maintain the dogs that lope along for miles. Do not tie it to your bike and go for a ride. You can ask your Cairn if it would like to swim, but don’t expect it to as it does not have the layer of fat, the hair coat, or the neck that easily holds the head above the waves that are found in dogs who love swimming. However, your Cairn may love the beach.

The Cairn is an ideal dog for having fun, for hikes, tug of rope with the kids, for stopping to smell the roses.

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