Bet you thought this was going to be about dogs' haircoats, didn't you? No, not this time. I feel the need to talk about homeopathy and how useful it can be in treating dogs' health problems. In the general American population, there seems to be very little understanding of and a great deal of resistance to this interesting type of alternative medicine. Many people think it has to do with herbs or that it's some kind of Chinese medicine. Nothing could be further from the truth. It was actually developed in Germany only about 200 years ago in a very systematic and scientific manner. In the 1800s, it was even the medicine of choice in North America! And today it's widely used and prescribed in many parts of the world, including Europe. Luckily, holistic doctors and veterinarians in the U.S. continue to make it available for people who value its safety and effectiveness.

Over the holidays, one of my young relatives had a nasty cold that was making him feel miserable and irritable, so I offered his parents a homeopathic cold remedy to give him. They just rolled their eyes and laughed and wouldn't even entertain the idea or discuss it. Then last night, I was speaking to a holistic veterinarian, and she told me that when it came time for her to decide which type of alternative treatment to specialize in, she chose acupuncture over homeopathy because she knew how resistant people are to it—yet she uses it all the time on her own kids. Imagine—people are less resistant to having needles poked into their bodies than to taking homeopathic remedies! What's going on here?

Sunny and Dexter have both received homeopathic remedies for eye irritations, sprains, and infections.

The "hair of the dog that bit you" is an old English expression stemming from an old idea that if you got bitten by a rabid dog and then put a little of the dog's fur into the wound, you wouldn't get rabies. A more recent variation on that still used by some today is that if you wake up with a hangover, you should drink a little of the beverage that got you drunk the night before in order to feel better. In the modern medical world, we have vaccinations and allergy shots, both of which introduce a little tiny bit of the offending substance in order to create immunity against it. Well, homeopathy has a lot in common with these "like cures like" treatments, but it differs from the "hair of the dog" treatments in that it actually works, and it differs from the allergy shots and vaccinations in that it doesn't produce harmful side effects.

Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, a German physician and the brains behind homeopathy, discovered in the early 19th century that if you gave quinine, the treatment at the time for malaria, to a person without malaria, that person would develop the symptoms of malaria. So then he started experimenting (on himself and his human friends) with other substances to see what effect they had on a healthy person and whether they would counteract the same symptoms in an ill person. Since some of the substances that he wanted to test were toxic, he decided to dilute them by quite a lot, and to his surprise, he discovered that while losing the toxic side effects, they also became much more potent in their healing capacity! He also inadvertently discovered that the homeopathic remedies worked better if they were vigorously shaken each time they were diluted.

So what you have are remedies made out of all kinds of substances (mostly plants and minerals, but some animal products as well), diluted tens and hundreds and thousands of times over, and vigorously shaken. These remedies are made into tablets, pellets, granules, and liquids—most of which contain not even a single molecule of the original substance! OK, that IS weird, but what they do contain is some kind of "memory" of the substance, whether it's electrical or magnetic or something else—no one knows exactly how it works.

But what we do know is that it definitely does work. It even worked on cholera and typhoid back in the day. I myself have been using homeopathic remedies on my dogs prescribed by vets or selected on my own for more than 20 years, and sometimes the results can be truly thrilling in their quick resolution of symptoms. Other times, there is a more gradual improvement, but the beauty of homeopathy is that even if the wrong remedy is chosen and the results aren't what you want, there won't be any side effects. So what have you got to lose? If you've tried everything else and nothing has worked, or if the only other treatment option is something harsh and laden with side effects, homeopathy is certainly a better choice. There's no harm in trying. And if you get the right remedy, you could have a spectacular permanent cure.

Choosing the right remedy is best left up to a veterinary homeopath, because it can be pretty complicated. There are thousands of remedies, and the chosen one will reflect not just the dog's immediate symptoms, but also the dog's overall temperament, manner, and constitution. You can find a homeopath by going to the Web site of The Academy of Veterinary Homeopathy or to the American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association. These homeopaths practice "classical homeopathy," and many of them will work with you over the phone.

On the other hand, there is a more relaxed (albeit controversial) approach, in which several remedies known for helping with a particular ailment are combined into one product, labeled according to the health issue (such as "cough" or "hayfever"), and sold to the public in this form at drugstores or health-food stores. The idea is that one of the remedies included in the product will do the trick. This isn't ideal and usually doesn't result in a lasting cure (it just helps to manage or alleviate a health problem), but the advantage is that it's readily available without a vet appointment.

The one thing about homeopathic remedies is that they are very delicate. Keep in mind that the active part of the remedy is made up of energy of some kind, so it's easily deactivated. Because of this, homeopathic remedies should never be handled (you have to get them from the package directly into your dog's mouth, possibly with the aid of a spoon), they should never be given to your dog within a half hour of eating or drinking, and they should be kept away from electrical fields and strong odors, especially mint, eucalyptus, and tea tree oil.

Homeopathy is safe, humane, effective, and fascinating—why not read up on it a little and then give it a whirl? You might find that you have discovered an exciting new treatment option for your dog's health woes.