Yesterday, a customer went to TLAC to check out Arlo. She spent a lot of time with him and was really interested in adopting him. She went back in the evening and staff asked one of the vets to go interact with Arlo so that the adopter could see his fearful side. It came out, big time. Here's what the lead adoption counselor had to say:
"took man and his toddler to join the wife interacting with Arlo in the big pen (square yard above stray 3). On the way, Dr H happened to be in Stray 3 so I had her walk over with us. Arlo had been easy going and relaxed with the family. Dr H was walking along the fence in a relaxed manner and calling to him in an inviting and sweet way. As soon as he focused on Dr H, his demeanor completely changed. His tail tucked so far under his body it nearly touched his chin. He was shaking and retreated as far away from her as he could. She came into the pen with us and he would not come ANYWHERE near her. She has not even touched this dog before. As she approached him, he retreated, stopping only to snarl or growl back at her. The family was very nervous about his behavior and left. Dr. H and I realized we were now going to have some trouble getting Arlo BACK to his kennel, we asked Victor to come assist (Victor had also not interacted with Arlo before). Arlo became even MORE fearful, snarling and growling whenever Vic approached. Running to the different ends of the yard, he acted trapped, looked hunted, almost feral. At the gates he would bark and growl back at us and then retreat again. I was finally able to lasso him but not after considerable growling, woofing and snarling. It was the first time since working at the shelter I feared I could truly get bitten if I was not extremely careful. Once out of the excercise pen, he practically sprinted to his kennel to get away from Vic and Dr H . I opened the kennel door and he bolted in. Vic opened the guillotine door and he skittered inside. I reached in to get the leash off him and he became VERY tense, his mouth got so stiff, he looked at me sideways, and I was worried he would bite me so I backed off. Vic managed to remove the leash with the metal gate rod, but Arlo snapped, growled, thrashed and bit at the pole several times in the process. We were all shaken up after trying to handle him safely while he was in this state.
It was very hard to see the agonizing fear in his face. I can't help but to liken it to a Jeykl and Hyde transformation. He seemed truly tortured in a way that broke my heart. I feel he is NOT safe for ANYONE BUT STAFF to remove him from his kennel. I also feel it is truly inhumane for us to allow him to live like this any longer.
The family interacting with him decided he is not a good match for their family. They were very scared by the behavior that they saw (they didn't see the re-kenneling or leash-removal) I think ANYONE who sees the way he reacted to our vet staff would be reluctant to take him into their home. I understand he could "just have issues with vet staff" but the dramatic change in behavior and demeanor of this dog indicates to me he is extremely unstable and unpredictable. I truly feel that in this instance, it would be EXTREMELY irresponsible for us to put this dog into our
community."
I don't want this next paragraph to sound like I am criticizing the adoption counselor. She is experienced with dogs and does a great job. However, I do wonder if it's appropriate for TLAC to let an adoption counselor to be leading this kind of experiment and making this kind of diagnosis and not a behaviorist, trained in aggression. TLAC only has a limited budget, so I can see why they do not have someone on staff to handle this. But as a member of our community, I would like to see our city giving TLAC the resources to better make these life or death decisions, and of course, help the dogs with these problems.
But even more importantly and more sadly, the dog they saw last night was not the dog that arrived at TLAC on February 3rd. He passed his temperament test and vet check. His first negative comment didn't come until February 25th. Over the next two weeks, his behavior deterioriated, but no one noticed (or at least volunteers were not made aware of a possible problem). When he finally jumped that fence to fight the other dog, staff took a look at all of his comments and notified us about his behavior problems. In the week since we received that notice, he was given no specialized help or training, but was put in increasingly stressful situations, causing his behavior to deteriorate to a level that has caused staff to say that euthanasia is now the only option.
I feel sick right now. The number of people who have responded to our flyers and Craigslist posting is amazing. How might this situation have ended differently, if his problems were only caught a little earlier or if there was someone at TLAC who could have helped him? I know that there is at least one volunteer who was trying to convince TLAC to allow him to foster Arlo, so he could take him to a trainer and work with him. I'm guessing by this recent email from them that they are not going to allow it. (I can understand their fear of liability issues and releasing dangerous dogs into the public, but on the flip side, it would be incredibly valuable for one of our volunteers to get specialized training in fear-based aggression, especially if he is up for the task.)
Finally, another volunteer posted this in response to staff's email about last night:
BTW, the adopter mentioned in this report called me today to tell me what happened. According to her, they were not frightened by Arlo's behavior, but did feel terrible for him when they saw how frightened he was. She described the vet as giving Arlo a mean look as she approached. The woman felt Arlo was trying to run to her to get away from the staff, which she said "broke her heart." The woman really felt bonded to Arlo, but has a 4-yr-old and felt she should heed your warnings. If they were upset, it was because they wanted to help Arlo but felt they were not in a position to do so.
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