Headed for Greener Pastures!

Since I’m moving out of the midwest… my blog name doesn’t really apply now, does it?

Please follow me at my new blog!

This blog will self-destruct in t-minus 14 days.

Temperament Versus Behavior

There’s a lot of confusion about temperament versus behavior of dogs. According to W. Handel in his article, “The Psychological Basis of Temperament Testing”, temperament is “the sum total of all inborn and acquired physical and mental traits and talents which determines, forms and regulates behavior in the environment”. So temperament is the trait, behavior is the action.

Temperament testing comes under a lot of fire from factions within animal welfare. Certain tests are disparaged as being “designed to fail” dogs in shelter environments. I disagree. I’ve seen these tests performed in shelters and the pass rate far, far outweighs the failure rate. The primary issue I have seen is not with the test itself, but with the skills of the evaluator. The tests try to provide objective criteria for determining the behavior the dog is exhibiting, but many times the behavior is very nuanced and it takes a skilled evaluator to identify.

Where temperament testing does fall short in shelter environments is recognizing that some traits aren’t incorrect for certain breeds. For example, some breeds have a high protection instinct and lower bite inhibition which might predispose them to failing resource guarding tests such as food bowl, rawhide and toy tests. The same is true with dog reactivity. This is not abnormal for terrier breeds. This doesn’t necessarily make the dog “bad”. This means that the new owners of these dogs must understand the traits of the dog they are adopting which could lead them to exhibit those behaviors.

It’s absolutely possible to modify the behavior of the dog with training and proper handling. For example, my dog Ellie is very shy and nervous. Whether this is a result of genetics or the fact that she was a Katrina dog is impossible to say. What I can say is that left to her own choices, she acts very timid and fearful. She failed the American Temperament Test Society‘s temperament test. However, she passed the AKC’s Canine Good Citizen® test with flying colors. Why? Because in the CGC, she takes all her cues from me, her handler. We have worked hard to build her confidence on the leash and she looks to me for guidance on how to act in certain situations. In the ATTS test, the dogs must decide how to react without any verbal or visual cues from their handler.

The challenge comes in because most adopters and the general public views resource guarding towards people and dog reactivity as undesirable and abnormal. It’s very challenging to find an adopter who is willing to accept those traits and work with the behaviors that may result. With limited resources and countless other animals who exhibit behaviors that are “acceptable” to the public, shelters and rescues have to be realistic about what temperaments and behaviors they can accept.

Well Meaning Rescuers are Damaging the Pit Bull Breed

I try very hard to avoid bashing the work that other rescue groups are doing. I know that I don’t want to be hung out to dry for my opinions about things, and the way we run Mended Hearts. There’s usually a lot more to the story than what appears on the surface, so some of our decisions may not make sense to the casual observer.

However, there’s one area where I and other Pit Bull rescuers cannot keep silent. It’s absolutely CRUCIAL given the recent damage to this breed’s reputation by careless owners that rescuers understand the correct temperament of a Pit Bull type dog. There are rescuers out there who are doing more harm than good by allowing Pit Bull type dogs with behaviors that belie an incorrect temperament to be placed for adoption.

Now, I realize that we can’t be certain of the breed of a rescue dog. There are breed standards that most Pit Bull rescuers are familiar with, but frankly, many breeds begin to look suspiciously like Pit Bulls as they continue to produce mixed breed offspring. However, would the average person say the dog is a Pit Bull – then it will probably be labeled as one. Annoying, but what do you do?

A correctly temperamented Pit Bull is very human friendly. As I like to tell people, there are no strangers to my dog Joe. Everyone is his best buddy upon introduction. Doubt me? I invite you over. He may pee on your shoes he’ll be so excited to meet you. He may lunge at you in his overzealous effort to rub himself against your legs, but he will never lunge at you in an aggressive manner.

A correctly temperamented Pit Bull has a high bite inhibition. I hardly ever see Pit Bull type dogs fail a ressource guarding assessment. Most are so eager to please ANY human, they will give up the resource with very little stimulation. I’ve had my hands on hundreds of Pit Bull type dogs in the last few years – poking them with needles and microchip implanters, clipping their nails, jamming dewormer down their throats – and I’ve never been bitten by one (I have been nailed by a chihuahua and a doxie).

Pit Bull advocates who have worked tirelessly to change the public perception of these amazing dogs are having their work undermined by well-meaning rescuers who just don’t get it. These “Pit Bull advocates” are further DAMAGING the breed’s reputation by putting incorrectly temperamented dogs up for adoption. Worse – they are putting people at risk of being hurt.

I know they love this breed. I do too. It absolutely kills me when I have to euthanize a Pit Bull because it shows a low bite inhibition or isn’t well socialized towards humans. Yes, it’s the fault of HUMANS that these dogs are incorrectly temperamented and display inappropriate behavior (come back tomorrow for a post about the difference). Humans failed them by breeding them poorly, and socializing them poorly, and now these dogs have to pay the ultimate price. Placing them on the adoption floor isn’t helping them. It’s creating a dangerous situation which can further damage the breed as a whole.

Lost and Stray Animals Belong at Animal Care and Control

I receive a lot of emails and phone calls from people wanting help with a stray animal they have picked up. Assuming the animal was found in Indianapolis/Marion County, I always direct the Good Samaritan to take the animal to Indianpolis Animal Care and Control. This is frequently met with mild disgust that I would suggest such a thing and is invariable followed by “but I don’t want this dog/cat to be put down!”

I am adamant about taking strays/lost animals to Indianapolis Animal Care and Control for a number of reasons.

1. The animal’s best chance at being reunited with its owner is at the city shelter. Any owner who is actively searching for their pet is going to visit Animal Care and Control. We’ve had two “strays” picked up recently that were found MILES from their home. If someone had taken the animals to their home and simply placed signs at the pickup location, the owners would never have found their pets.
2. Our Animal Control is seriously underfunded, and Good Samaritans and rescues are masking the true number of homeless animals in Indianapolis by keeping them out of the shelter system. To revamp and appropriately fund animal control and our municipal shelter, we need an accurate count of the homeless pet population.
3. The honest truth is that not every dog is adoptable. I have a limited number of foster homes and every animal that comes into foster becomes a surrogate pet. If that animal is deemed to be unsafe for adoption, it’s a heartbreaking situation for the foster and me when we have to euthanize that dog. Say what you want about temperament testing, but with limited resources and lots of animals without homes, I need some criteria for determining the adoptability of an animal. It’s bad economics to hold a dog for 4 days in a home to find out that it doesn’t meet our placement criteria. In that time, perfectly healthy and stable dogs have died due to lack of space.

Surrender to Indianapolis Animal Care and Control is not an instant death sentence. By law, IACC must hold stray/lost pets for a minimum of 4 days to give an owner the opportunity to claim it. Frequently, animals are held much longer than that.

The exception to the 4 day rule is when the animal has a serious medical ailment such as a broken limb or other injury which cannot be treated by the shelter staff. Not that those animals are immediately euthanized either – the rescue coordinator calls rescues like Mended Hearts Indy and others to see if they can take the animal, in which case the animal information is documented in the Animal Control system and photos are posted.

The only lost/stray animals that may be euthanized on intake are ones where it would be a kindness to let them go, such as a very severe injury where the animal is in a lot of pain and recovery is unlikely.

Animal Care and Control may not be the ideal place for an adoptable animal, due to low adopter traffic, high stress for the animal, and potential disease transmission. This is why I tell Good Samaritans to email me the animals intake number and we’ll do our best to evaluate the animal for rescue or network with other rescues to get it out. However, it’s the right place to take a stray/lost animal.

*EDIT: If you absolutely refuse to take the animal to IACC, at minimum please file found animal reports with every shelter in the Indy area – this includes Hamilton County Humane, Humane Society of Indianapolis, Southside Animal Shelter and consider Greenfield-Hancock Animal Management, Hancock Humane, Morgan County Humane, etc. Dogs especially can travel very long distances (we transported a lost dog from Indy found in Kokomo!).

Loving a Blind Dog

It will be 1 year in February that I officially adopted my blind dog, Ray, although we rescued him in Aug 2010. You can read a little bit about Ray here.

Ray is my second “special needs” dog. He is completely blind. His pupils are fully dialated with no pupillary response, suggesting full retinatl detachment. Whether from injury or illness we don’t know. I sometimes think he may be able to see light gradient… but last night he reminded me that he truly is blind. We left the mop bucket in the path from the bedroom to the patio and he ran smack into it!

This dog is incredible. The fact that I forget I have a blind dog should attest to how he has overcome his handicap. After he’d memorized the layout of our house on the 2nd day, we even asked our vet to confirm his blindness. We frequently move the location of his crate and rearrange the furniture in our house. He often only needs a day to adjust. I’ve watched him play with other dogs in the living room, zooming around, course correcting at the last second to avoid hitting the coffee table. It’s incredible.

Ray is an amazing dog. He potty trained almost instantly and adapted to the house rules quickly. He has the most perfect dog manners I have ever seen. He has brought out a playful streak in our traditionally standoffish dog, Ellie. He teaches rules and boundaries to puppies and new foster dogs with patience and consistency. Don’t get me wrong – if you start it, he’ll finish it, but he never starts it. His corrections are absolutely perfect.

The thing that cemented Ray in my heart is the joyful abandon in which he lives his life. I can only imagine the fear that he experienced as a stray, but his transition into an amazing pet was quick and thorough. He was willing to trust us within hours of meeting us. He runs full force into things (mostly things I forget are right in the path of blind dog!) but just shakes it off and keeps going — course correcting for the next time. He has learned to adapt to his disability and it never gets in the way of playing, running or snuggling (which he is an expert at). He chases the other dogs around the yard and bedroom, jumps and tussles.

Don’t get me wrong, we’ve had a few of what I like to call “Blind Dog Catastrophes”, such as when Ray almost knocked me out jumping into our bed, but the few bumps and bruises are worth the sincere merriment this dog carries and shares.

I have never known the deep, absolutely unconditional love that was possible until I met this dog. Being with him reminds me to play hard, love hard and sleep hard. He taught me that it’s okay to run full steam towards something you want, even if you might get battered along the way. Most of all, he taught me that every moment is an experience to be savored and thoroughly enjoyed.

Sometimes Euthanasia is a Kinder Choice

As you can imagine, I receive a lot of phone calls and emails from people who need to give up their animal for one reason or another. Sometimes they are moving and didn’t plan ahead or don’t care enough to take their pets with them. A lot of the requests are because a dog is exhibiting some behavioral problems they don’t know how or don’t want to manage.

I don’t take owner surrenders as a general rule. Instead, I am willing to expend my time and energy trying to find solutions so people can keep their pets. Sometimes it’s as simple as referring them to a low cost clinic, or the food pantry, or offering some free training advice. Frankly, I wish those efforts were more successful. But I digress.

There are times that I’ve actually suggested to people that they euthanize their animals instead of attempting to rehome them. I know that sounds callous, but really I’m considering the most humane outcome for the animal.

I receive a lot of calls about aggressive dogs – most frequently aggressive towards other dogs. This behavior isn’t abnormal, especially for certain breeds, and it’s managable if you are willing to make the effort. Many people are not willing or able to manage it. They don’t want to crate and rotate, or they refuse to have a dog they can’t take out in public, or they live with their parents who are demanding the dog be gone.

Unfortunately, fostering and placing dog-reactive dogs is tough. I only have a few foster homes that are able to crate and rotate to ensure the safety of their family dogs. Our foster homes are already giving so much to saving animals, it’s hard to ask them to take on such an exhausting, frustrating situation. Then, we have to find the perfect owner who has no other animals and who is willing to manage the behavior. That’s also tough, which means the dogs sit in foster homes for much longer than our average.

Dogs who have bitten people are next to impossible. Many times, the dog was reasonable in their bite (in my never-to-be-humble-opinion) but our society doesn’t typically see it that way. It’s tough to find an owner willing to accept a dog with a bite history – and we believe in FULL disclosure. (If you are wondering what happens when people simply lie about bite history – bite inhibition is something we and most shelters test for too.)

It’s nearly impossible to find a rescue that will take either of the two cases. So that leaves the city and private shelters as the only option to “get rid of” the dog. Both the municipal shelter and Humane Society of Indianapolis test for dog-reactivity, human sociability and bite inhibition. Frankly, the economics of our homeless animal population dictate that we have to give up on the animals with issues to make best use of our extremly scare resources.

So the animal is almost certain to be euthanized – after it has spent at least 4 days stressed, scared and alone in a noisy, chaotic kennel environment. And then it dies.

I believe it would be kinder for the animal to die with it’s head cradled by someone who it knows and loves, rather than by a stranger.

It’s not the animal’s fault that they have these behaviors. It’s the fault of humans who bred them poorly, failed to socialize them, and refused to manage through their “issues”. The least we can do is allow them to die peacefully and loved rather than scared and alone.

We ALL Think We Are Right

Ever heard that saying “Opinions are like a——-, everyone has one?”. In rescue, it’s painfully true. We all think we have the right of it. And you know what – in most cases, we’re all correct.

There’s recognizably “wrong” answers to a lot of the situations that come up in animal welfare. I think we can all agree that it’s wrong to euthanize an animal in a way that is painful, ineffective or lengthy. That’s cruel. There are places still using outdated methods of euthanasia, for which I think it’s appropriate that the greater community call them out and demand changes. Is it wrong to euthanize for space or time? I think we can all agree that we’d prefer to live in a community where that wasn’t necessary, but I don’t think we are there yet (I’ll discuss my perspective on the no-kill concept in another post).

What about the issues that arise with less obvious “right” answers like which behavior characteristics qualify an animal as unadoptable? Most groups would agree that people aggression qualifies. How about dog aggression? Food bowl aggression? The “right” answer to these questions depends on your organization.

For example, we don’t take dogs with dog aggression or food bowl aggression because we don’t have the resources to manage it. All of our foster homes have resident dogs, and very few are able or willing to crate and rotate. I can’t take the chance that a foster dog injures a resident animal. Frankly, we can’t afford the vet bills or the potential loss of a foster home. If you have a shelter environment with enrichment staff, then maybe your answers to those questions are different.

How about quality of life questions? I currently have a 10 year old shepherd in my house that is mostly blind, heartworm positive, underweight and not social. Perceptions of “quality of life” will vary by individual as well. It’s my responsiblity to decide for the animals, who can’t speak for themselves, whether allowing them to die painlessly would be a gift. I don’t take that responsiblity lightly, as I believe most animal welfare people do not. The best I can do is follow my heart.

I’ll admit it – I started Mended Hearts Indy because I was frustrated with the policies and procedures of other organizations I had worked with, and I wanted to do some things differently. I’m sure that some of our foster homes and potential adopters have been frustrated with me and my policies and procedures too. It’s inevitable.

The thing is – as we’ve grown this organization and faced greater challenges than just managing the foster dogs in my own home, I’ve learned respect for those organizations that I was frustrated with. We all have limited resources – finances, space and knowledge. I have to make decisions that are right for my organization. I can’t begin to understand the complex factors that affect other organizations – I haven’t been in their shoes.

With rare exception – mostly related to the humane treatment of the animals in our care – I don’t think it’s my right to judge the other animal welfare groups that are working to save lives. I certainly don’t want them judging the decisions I painfully have to make.