Lacking In Social Graces
by admin
… that is how the Vet politely described LC’s behavior problems.
The Humane Society and AARF are no kill organizations. The only time they euthanize an animal is when it is in the animal or organization’s absolute best interest. Determining when that best interest is, can be a heart-breaking and extremely difficult decision. The only certainty is the pain that will accompany doing it or the consequences that will come from not doing it soon enough.
LC
Weeks before “The Incident”, I had concerns about LC’s behavior. She was showing some dog aggression, it resulted in several trips to the Vet for minor injuries (including one visit herself). Somehow, I was always able to excuse the behavior. At first, I thought it was food aggression. So, I was very careful never to feed her around the other dogs. Food aggression can be trained away and I thought we could deal with it. Then, I thought it was kennel aggression, so we moved her kennel to the other side of the room. Then, I thought it was toy aggression. We stopped playing ball around the other dogs. Each adjustment seemed to work, until the next thing came up. She did great for weeks at a time and then out of nowhere something would set her off. When the encounter with Tuck happened, however, there was no longer denying it…. LC is simply too dangerous to be around other dogs.
LC and Her Favorite Thing In The World - A Tennis Ball
I came to this conclusion with a very heavy heart. I knew that this left us with only three options. We explored all three options in depth. Here is a quick summary:
Option One: We find her a home with no other dogs. A home where she would never visit the dog park, stay in a kennel, go to a pet store, walk down the sidewalk where she may run into other dogs, or any of a million other places that normal dogs go. I am certain that there is a perfect home out there for her. But, how do we find it? Even if we do find that home… what kind of a life is that for a pet or a pet owner when she can’t be around other dogs? What do we do with her in the meantime while we wait for this may-not-exist perfect home? There are no available foster homes with zero dogs in them. Let’s face it, if you foster dogs, you like them… and you probably have at least one of your own. She is currently staying in our basement, getting less attention than she would like and still at risk of running into other dogs. We can’t do this forever.
LC on "her" side of the fence.
At a loss, we decided to ask the primary Vet at the Humane Society for advice (she volunteers her time to FHS). I will call her Dr. G. She happens to be our family Vet as well. I highly respect her opinion and I know she will always be honest with me, even if I don’t like what she has to say. She goes the extra mile to save every animal and has a special place in her heart for rescues… even using her valuable kennel space at her practice to place homeless animals in an emergency. Let’s just say… she is a great Vet!
Dr. G met LC and agreed that she was a lovely dog. She asked me to create an adoption poster to hang in her clinic and give her two weeks to contact everyone she knew that might be able to handle a “special needs” dog. She admitted that chances were slim, but asked that we give it one last shot.
Last week, we took Tuck to have her stitches removed. Dr. G was shocked at how bad the injuries were and seemed more convinced than ever that we needed to proceed with the tough decision. She had no success finding her a home in her Rolodex of reliable pet owners. Dr. G made a statement that really hit home for me: “It is one thing to adopt a dog that develops these behaviors. It is another thing to adopt out a dog that we know has these behaviors.”
Pawing at the ball.
Option Two: We find an amazingly talented trainer, money to pay that trainer and an owner willing to work with her forever on this issue.
With just an inkling that LC might have what it takes to be a “working dog”, we took her up to Shiloh K-9 Training. They ran a series of tests on her (more about our visit there to come in another post) and determined that she demonstrated some of the behaviors necessary to excel in the field. Unfortunately, her drive was not strong enough. Had we found her at six or eight months of age, before any basic training had been done, she likely would have been perfect. Sadly, she just didn’t fit the bill. (I guess this was really option four, but it was such a slim chance that I didn’t count it.)
Adam and Valerie, the owners/trainers, spent a great deal of time showing us some basic training methods and giving us suggestions. They were optimistic that we could work with her to ease her dog aggression. However, it would require extensive training and funding that doesn’t exist. Even at its best, training would result in aggression that was “controlled” rather than “fixed”. Furthermore, the training would be quickly forgotten without an owner dedicated to keeping it up. That leads back to all of the problems of option one.
Option Three: Peaceful Departure
This is obviously the last resort option and one I have hoped to avoid. Unfortunately, with all other options exhausted… it is all that is left.
Bird!
[…] morning we took you to the Vet’s office for the last time. As we drove, you licked the tears from my face and tried to heal my sorrow. This made me laugh […]