Happy News for Arlo

At the final hour, the volunteers found a rescue group who were willing to take a chance on Arlo and he got to go home with one of our volunteers. Because of liability issues, most rescues were afraid to take on a dog that showed even the remotest sign of potential to bite. It sounds like Arlo is having a bit of separation anxiety now that he's home, hopefully the volunteer will be able to work through these issues with him. He'll be taking Arlo to an aggression specialist soon, so we'll then have a better idea if he truly has fear aggression.

Report on Gabe

When I returned home from work last night, I was not in the best of moods, after all that had happened at TLAC. My husband greeted me at the door and told me that Gabe's new family called and left a long voice mail telling us about how well he is doing and how much they love him. (But he accidently deleted the voice mail!) They also sent a picture, which was captioned:

"Our new baby Gabe! Resting on my new king size bed after a good run."

Seeing him lying on the bed wearing the walking harness cracks me up. He's probably exhausted from pulling her down the street for the last 3 miles.

Another euthanasia today

We received this email last night from staff:

I made the decision to euthanize Sampson (A501475, was in kennel 3) this evening because he jumped the exercise pen fence and attacked another dog who was bieng walked back to his kennel after surgery. It took 4 staff members 5 minutes and many desperate efforts to get Sampson to let go of the other dogs neck and head. The victim dog went home with his adopter shortly after with treatable injuries, but due to the severity and tenacity of the attack, I removed Sampson and requested that he be euthanized.

I have to note this one because staff did recently promise to give us a week's notice before euthanizing a dog. However, after the incident with Derby did not produce any options, they probably thought that this would be the most humane decision. There's certainly no point in putting a dog in a stray kennel, where no one will interact with him, if he's going to be euthanized anyway in a few days.

It's still a little bothersome to have received no other explanation for why they didn't give us the week's notice after all of the trust issues were discussed so vehemently the other night. Anyway, there could be a really good reason for it and I don't plan to challenge any of it, I just thought I should document it.

Update on Arlo

Ugh, this is a hard one to write.

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.

Arlo and Derby

Well, I'm happy to report that staff has kept their word and has given us prior notice of a dog's euthanasia and a week to find a way out of the shelter for that dog.

Sadly, in just two weeks, we've already had two dogs who have qualified.

The first was Derby, who did not make it, I'm afraid. (Staff has not followed up on him with us, but I am assuming that no news is not good news.) He attacked and really hurt another dog. He had just made it into the adoption program, so the volunteers had no information yet about him and unfortunately, the poor guy did not have any advocates.

The next is Arlo (the dog pictured), who is a favorite among the volunteers. Arlo jumped a 4-ft fence last week and "attacked" another dog. We haven't received any details on the attack (details have been requested, but nothing has been provided yet), except that neither dog was hurt. He has since acted nervous on two occasions, growled and snapped at a vet tech, and put on an "aggressive display", barking and lunging at a staff member who walked by his kennel.

Both staff and volunteers are in agreement that Arlo is stressed at the shelter and his behavior inside of the kennel is deteriorating. Outside of the kennel, he is a laid-back, friendly lab. Inside of his kennel, he is highly reactive.

However, volunteers think that he is just stressed at TLAC and will be a different dog outside. He is a perfect gentleman on trail walks on Town Lake. He walks perfectly on the leash and is friendly to all people and other dogs. We've put up flyers everywhere and have posted his story on Craigslist and, luckily, are receiving lots of interest.

Staff, on the other hand, has labeled him an "aggressive" dog and seem to be communicating that to all interested adopters.

I haven't personally spent much time with Arlo. Of course, volunteers spend far more time with the dogs than staff does, so I generally trust their opinions a little more than staff's.

We received an email from staff today and one of the points said:

The behavioral reality is that a dog who has used aggression in the past is very likely to use aggression in the future, and we are not sure what might trigger Arlo to use aggression, so his aggression MUST be taken seriously, and anyone interested in trying to live with him must understand that this will be on-going for him -it won't just "go away" once he's comfortable and loved in a home.

Professional Behaviorists agree that "working with" a dog that has shown aggressive behavior is not about stopping the dog from being aggressive, but about managing the dog so that it is unable to hurt anyone, and hopefully not given any additional opportunities to practice aggression or to see that it generally works to get the dog what it wants. This is an important distinction to consider.

I have a dog who loves to start fights with other dogs. We had to see an aggression specialist, Lee Mannix, at one point. He told us that she was not aggressive, but was a "school-yard bully". I'm going to try to summarize what he told us about her issues and aggression: The fights were loud and dramatic, which is usually just a dog putting on a good show, not being aggressive. True aggression, with the intent to hurt, usually happens very quickly and quietly.

So, we stopped taking her to dog parks and started exercising her...a lot. My husband takes her on 6-10 mile bike rides every day. He takes her to the green belt all the time (off-leash) and she never starts fights anymore. I think she had frustration of not being able to run (we thought we were great, taking her on 2 long walks every day, but she's a border collie mix and needs to stretch those legs). Once she got what she needed, she was fine.

So, I have to wonder, is Arlo truly aggresive, and his aggression will need to managed for the rest of his life? Or is he acting out at the shelter and will be different in a home environment?

I take dog aggression very, very seriously. It would be terrible for the public and TLAC's image to adopt out a dangerous dog. However, it doesn't seem like there's anyone at TLAC who has in-depth experience with aggresive dogs. I wonder how much of the decision is based upon how scary a dog seems to a given person on a given day, as opposed to an expert making that decision based on science.

Gabe was adopted today!

Gabe and I hung out at TLAC this weekend, hoping to meet someone who would want to adopt him. We were just about to leave yesterday, when a woman saw him playing so well with toys, that she stopped us to meet him. She came over today with her husband and is just crazy about him. They have officially adopted him, but haven't taken him home yet. That's going to be really hard for me. I stopped fostering a few years ago because it became too hard.

I know that this couple will be good for him, though. She doesn't work right now and is looking forward to continuing with his training. She is also a jogger, which he needs.

They are scheduled for lots more training with Lee Mannix next week, so I'm pretty sure that the timing will work out perfectly. The day of tutoring he had with them last week, by the way, did wonders for him. He no longer reacts much in the car. He cries and growls a little when he sees another dog, but the insane barking is gone. He's still pretty bad out on walks, though. I told the adopters all about him and that it will probably be a long time before he will be able to jog with her at Town Lake, but they seemed up for the challenge.

So I'm a little sad, but I'm more relieved that he has a home now, since I leave in under two weeks.

Gabe update

I've had Gabe for about 6 weeks now. We had 3 private lessons with Lee Mannix about 2 weeks ago. When he first met Gabe, he told me that I'll be as trained as one of his interns by the time I'm finished with him. But the little guy is incredibly smart and is picking this up really fast. Lee was surprised at how fast he was learning to relax when other dogs came near, instead of going crazy. At home, certain behaviors, like jumping on me or barking at my other dogs to get them to play have completely ended. In fact, he quit doing those after just one time-out.

Outside, at my house, is a different story. He still barks at everything. I'm just not getting through to him. I understand that if a dog knows to do something in one situation, it will not automaticallly translate to other situations. I know that you have to teach a dog to do that behavior in many different situations before they can generalize. He was perfect at the trainer's, but he's just not getting it at home and I'm at a loss for what I could be doing better.

It's frustrating because I'm leaving town in a few weeks for a long trip and I just want him to be "fixed" so he can get adopted by then. I'm sure that this attitude is what is slowing down his progress. If I can figure out where he can go when I leave, if he's not adopted by then, I will probably be much less stressed about it. If my only option is to put him back in the shelter (and possibly face euthanasia while I'm gone), I'll have to cancel the trip I've been planning for years. I'm working with tlac staff on this now.

Tlac staff, by the way, have been incredible. They've reimbursed me for $235 of training costs (which is only a fraction of what it would have cost if Lee hadn't given us such amazing deals). They've been really supportive and thankful the whole time. I get to take Gabe on tv next Friday (hopefully he won't be a holy terror). I usually get the feeling that they aren't crazy about volunteers putting so much time into just a few problem dogs, but I haven't felt that way at all in this situation.

Gabe is at daycare today with Lee Mannix. Daycare at Lee Mannix's isn't like doggie daycare at other places. The day is spent on training and working on the dog's specific issues, rather than just playing with other dogs. Hopefully, this will help us all figure out how I can teach him not to react when outside at my house. We also have 3 more lessons coming up and he's enrolled in a 6-week group class after that (which may have to be postponed if he's not adopted because I won't be in town to take him).

Lee Mannix and his trainers have all been amazing, too. They've given us really, really cheap training and have gone out of their way to make this work. And if Gabe needs even more training, one of their trainers started Schrodi's fund, to help pay for training for dogs like Gabe.

So, everyone has been incredibly helpful and Gabe has learned a ton in the last few weeks. If I didn't have this damn deadline looming over my head, I'd probably be viewing this situation completely differently.