Doggy Death Panels
Is This Dog Dangerous? Shelters Struggle With Live-or-Die Tests
The 10- to 20-minute tests, developed by behaviorists and tweaked by practitioners, ask two basic questions: Will the dog attack humans? What about other dogs?
Evaluators may observe the dog react to a large doll (a toddler surrogate); a hooded human, shaking a cane; an unfamiliar leashed dog or a plush toy dog.
But these tests have never been rigorously validated.
Dr. Bennett’s 2012 study of 67 pet dogs, which compared results of two behavior tests with owners’ own reporting, found that in the areas of aggression and fearfulness, the tests showed high percentages of false positives and false negatives. A 2015 study of dog-on-dog aggression testing showed that shelter dogs responded more aggressively to a fake dog than a real one.
Janis Bradley of the National Canine Research Council , co-author with Dr. Patronek of the analysis published last fall, suggested that shelters should instead devote limited resources to “observing the many interactions that happen between dogs and people in the daily routine of the shelter.”
But Kelley Bollen, a behaviorist and shelter consultant in Northampton, Mass., maintained that a careful evaluation can identify potentially problematic behaviors. Much depends on the assessor’s skill, she added.
In fact, no qualifications exist for administering evaluations. Interpreting dogs, with their diverse dialects and complex body language — wiggling butts, lip-licking, semaphoric ears and tails — often becomes subjective.
Indianapolis Animal Care Services , which admitted 8,380 dogs to its municipal shelter in 2016, is often overcrowded and understaffed, yet faces intense scrutiny to save dogs while protecting the public. Last year it euthanized 718 dogs for behavior, based on testing and employee interactions. The agency consulted Dr. Bennett, a shelter specialist, to better manage that difficult balance.
Even as she demonstrated assessments for staff members, Dr. Bennett noted another factor that renders results suspect: the unquantifiable impact of shelter life on dogs.
Dogs thrive on routine and social interaction. The transition to a shelter can be traumatizing, with its cacophony of howls and barking, smells and isolating steel cages. A dog afflicted with kennel stress can swiftly deteriorate: spinning; pacing; jumping like a pogo stick; drooling; and showing a loss of appetite. It may charge barriers, appearing aggressive.
Conversely, some dogs shut down in self-protective, submissive mode, masking what may even be aggressive behavior that only emerges in a safe setting, like a home.
Little dogs can become more snippy. But no matter what evaluations may show, they always seem to get a pass. “I’ll warn, ‘He nips and snarls,’” recounted Laura Waddell, a seasoned trainer who does volunteer evaluations for Liberty Humane Society in Jersey City, N.J. “And I get back: ‘I don’t care! I’m in love!’”
One way to reduce kennel stress, Ms. Sadler, the shelter consultant, said, is through programs like hers, Dogs Playing for Life, which matches dogs for outside playgroups. Shelter directors say it is a more revealing and humane way to evaluate behavior . The approach is used at many large shelters, including in New York City, Phoenix and Los Angeles.
The most disputed of the assessments is the food test. Research has shown that shelter dogs who guard their food bowls, as Bacon did, do not necessarily do so at home.
The exercise purports to evaluate “resource guarding” — how viciously a dog will protect a possession, such as food, toys, people. Common-sense owners wouldn’t grab a dog’s food while it is eating. But shelters worry about children.
Dr. Bennett suggested that Bacon’s bite of the fake hand didn’t necessitate a draconian outcome. With counseling, she said, a household without youngsters would be fine.
The shelter workers dearly wanted to save Bacon. But they were so overwhelmed that they did not have the capability to match him appropriately and counsel new owners.
So Bacon remained at the shelter for several weeks, waiting. Finally, Linda’s Camp K9 , an Indiana pet-boarding business that also rescues dogs, took him on. He settled right down and recently was adopted. Linda Candler, the director, placed him in a home without young children, teaching the owners how to feed him so he wouldn’t be set up to fail.
“His potential made him stand out,” Ms. Candler said. “Bacon is amazing.”
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More people looking for a dog should use adoption from shelters. That is the only way to minimize this.
Shelter life can be difficult on dogs. Our no kill shelter adopted out over 800 dogs and cats last year, more than they took in. We have a regular group of people that work with the dogs giving them a ''human'' sense and helping with the stress of the shelter.
shelters are difficult places, when i got my last dog from a shelter, i saw some people hurrying out of the viewing area. they could not tolerate the barking crying and all around commotion in the cages. you can just see the desperation in some of these animals eyes
Mankind cannot even act as surrogate custodians of animals without totaling failing.
Apparently not.
Humans walked upright, and noted that the top dog was indeed canids. They hunted, raised young and lived in packs unlike any other large predator, and even unlike our ancestors. The pack was a great model for human tribes, and probably gained credence for that reason as we attempted to make our way. Then when we finally reached a point in our co-evolution canids willingly became part of our pack, to the point of allowing us control of their evolution. They watched our flocks. They protected our families. They were loyal beyond belief. They became man's best friend. Then we tortured and murdered them.
This is our shelter dog, Bo. We've had him a bit more then a week and he seems to be coming out of his shell. For the first few days every time you tried to pet him he would flatten on the floor and duck, like he was expecting to get hit. He was picked up as a stray and is a bit thin, but we'll fix that.
What a sweetie!
Hello Bo!
I named him Boris, but my wife kept calling him Bo for short and now that's all he answers to. Blast!
He likes Sally, though she usually ignores him, but Molly seems to be waiting for us to take him back. Especially when he gets in my lap, where she thinks only she belongs.
Lol; jealous nellies everyone of them...
:~)
So glad you guys got to add him to the home.
I see that daddy loves his new baby! He's a cutie, Randy!
And just a tad spoiled too. I think he is finally realizing just what he's gotten himself into.
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What are we supposed to bare with you?
I'm cute beyond comprehension. I'm a great protector as well and I love ''Greeenies'' do you have one for me?