Canine tracheostomies have traditionally been performed through a surgical technique (ST). In people, percutaneous dilatational tracheostomy (PDT) has emerged as the primary method of tracheostomy placement in ICU patients due to evidence of a lower incidence of overall complications, shorter procedure times and the ability to be used by non-surgical personnel. To date there are no reports of the use of percutaneous dilatational tracheostomy in dogs.

Aims:
• Feasibility of percutaneous dilatational tracheostomy in dogs.
• Ease of learning, success rate, ease of use and duration of PDT procedure
• Gross complications associated with the PDT technique in dogs

Hypotheses:
• PDT technique can be learned as quickly as ST and within 10 repetitions of the procedure
• When performed by trained novices PDT is faster to perform than ST
• When performed by trained novices PDT causes fewer tracheal injuries than ST