Be a responsible dog owner

Date: Tue, 3 Jun 2008 19:14:52 +0000
From: Candace Poutre
Subject: Re: Unmanageable and dangerous dogs

First of all, let me say that I’m sorry to post here, since I’m sure you’d prefer this discussion to be held on the animal-centric chat list you’ve set up. However, I’m a bit dismayed by the general attitudes I’ve been reading in response to Dan’s problem and want to put in my two cents. It’s my first post to the list and I expect I’ll upset a lot of folks with it, but here goes:

First, serious behavior problems in dogs don’t happen suddenly. They result from a series of small but unacceptable behaviors that were not corrected at the time they happened. Despite their common ancestry,
today’s dogs are *not* wolves. They are a completely different, highly social canine species that co-evolved with the human species. Saying that dogs must hunt and kill due to their nature may be a comfortable way of absolving yourself of blame, but it’s not true and does nothing to help the dog. Likewise with saying that the dog was like “that” when you got it and that there’s nothing you can do about it. It’s an easy out for you, but that’s all it is.

When you can do to redeem the situation is be a responsible dog owner. Provide a safe comfortable *secure* living situation for that dog, and yes, by that I mean a fenced-in yard. This bit about dogs needing to run
freely is complete nonsense, the result of transferring your feelings onto the dog and hurting the dog (and possibly the general public) in the process. Dogs need to be with their pack and that should include plenty of time with *you* as the highest member of that pack, not left to fend for themselves and making poor choices in the process.

Letting a dog with no training, social skills or boundaries run isn’t responsible dog ownership; it’s having a *thing*. Dog ownership involves responsibility to a living being and takes commitment and, yes, it takes work. You need to provide the structure, security, training and interaction all dogs require.

Have a behavioral problem you can’t resolve? There are very few problems that can’t be resolved with training, both for you and the dog, and developing the proper relationship. Seek the help of a professional behaviorist and do what s/he says.

Doesn’t work despite your best efforts?

Try something else. No two dogs are alike, any more than any two people are alike. Get on-line, read with the experts say, do the research. Expecting a one-solution-fits-all is probably unrealistic, but there is a training solution out there if you look for it hard enough. Euthanasia is the easy way out of the mess you created, but it’s not the only way.

I do agree completely with Kit and others that dangerous dogs shouldn’t run free. (Of course with the county leash laws, no dog should be running free but that’s another issue for another time.) The public should be protected. So if you’re not interested in working with your dogs or at least keeping them safely confined, then you should have them euthanized humanely—not at a shelter but at home or at a vet’s office, hopefully with you there touching them so that they don’t die afraid in a room full of strangers. Don’t they deserve that much from you?

In that case, I really do hope that your “heart” can’t take having another one; else I would pity the poor dog. I’m sorry if I sound cruel or unsympathetic, but in this case, you’re not the victim and no one is speaking out for the ones that are.

Candace

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