Dogs Create Packs, Not People !

I was sitting with a friend listening to the discussion on animal storage pending adoption. The No Kill director was using the example of how dogs form packs because they are social/pack animals. This was justification for putting more animals in a kennel. Dogs create their own pack, it is a process of selection.

At first glance you might think this is a pack, wrong, it is a group of dogs enjoying the water and being good canine citizens with one another. Events like this work because, if arousal becomes an issue, someone can walk away. I have studied dog behavior for many years, read extensively and tried to keep an open mind. The Social Lives Of Dogs authored by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas; explains in beautiful detail how dogs faciitate the process. There are hundreds of books on how to introduce a new dog, it is a time of caution and supervision. To throw dogs or cats together in a shelter situation is not following nature; it is spitting in the face of everything known about animal behavior. I have been in homes where one dog is not wanted by the others. It is a lonely life for the one ostracized, and the humans are often to ignorant to see what is right in front of them.
One case involved a breeder friend of mine, nice person, loved the dogs, but thought the one young bitch was "aloof" she " didn't mingle" .............That girl had been given her walking papers by the rest of the pack, and she knew it. She was trying desperately to stay the hell out of their way. Luckily there were 5 acres to the play area, so the other dogs made their selections and the low ranking bitch slunk around the edges. It was heartbreaking to see. I asked about kenneling and how that went, my friend assured me that in the pen, the behavior was the same. the male gave a hard stare and the little girl crawled around the edges. Had this been in the wild, the pack would have run her off, but in the domestic setting the bitch was trapped. Finally after a good deal of talking my friend agreed to placing the dog in another home, transfer was to be the following week. Before we could get her out of there the pack did attack her. She sustained critcal injuries. A hard lesson for my friend and the little dog. This bitch was a litter mate to some of the other dogs there, she wasn't some strange dog thrown in the mix. she just didn't make the pecking order. The young dog went straight from the vets to the new home where she lived until her death from old age last year. Imagine the stress of a shelter setting and multiple dogs per kennel and you can see this is not a good picture; often dogs brought in together will fight when trapped in a small space.
It is dangerous for anyone to promote double kenneling to satisfy their own agenda and shows a true lack of knowledge and respect for their charges. We can and certainly do introduce dogs , but the pack and who is the buddy, is really decided by the dog .

Book Reviews And Opinions....

Another blogger suggested "One At A Time" written by Diane Leigh and Marilee Geyer. I contacted the Library and they didn't find a copy, but the county shelter where I volunteer had one available for me to study. There isn't anything new for a person who has worked at a shelter, and yet I know this book belongs in every shelter's book rack. My first thought was the Vet's office, let the general animal owning population take the " tour" .

Fortunately my brain kicked in before I had to much time to play with that idea. This is a book that deserves to be read, not just cruise through the pictures and feel sad for a moment. I don't think the enormity of the situation can be felt in a visit or three......

I have a friend who is very wealthy, she takes her kids to the soup kitchens to serve food at the holiday times. Her goal is to teach them empathy & that homeless people have feelings. She wants them to know the value of each life and to share some of the experiences that people without a home live with. Small problem....... much like a recent plan where teens slept over night in a box for the same reason. When you can walk away from the problem at the end of the day; you cannot relate to the people who can't. There is no escape clause in the minds of the people caught up in any homeless situation. So when people waltz into the shelter for a couple of hours a week and think they have a plan; they don't.

Oreo started this blog for the committed few, the ones who keep going back even when their hearts are to the breaking point. The girl is not to fond of cliche ( think bumper sticker ) mentality. Society throws a little piece of itself away every time it turns its back on a fellow creature. We do know, not every animal abandoned is going to be adopted, & sometimes the most a shelter worker or volunteer can offer is a kind word, & in a world filled with broken promises what does that mean ? We hear people say " limited admission" as though it didn't hurt that shelter worker to turn that animal away. The workers in a limited admission facility work for the same goal on a different path. It hurts to say no, " I don't think we can help you" they know what they are really saying. Every rescue operation, whether they want to admit it or not is a limited admission . Some specialize in "hard to place" as if that made them a touch more virtuous, their only little sin is to discriminate against the healthy and stable. Even Oreo thinks that is a poor use of resources, and she knows she would get knocked out in the first round if common sense were used. Open admission shelters are not more caring than limited, they too have guidelines to follow, their guide lines are, everybody in for a shorter period. Either way animals will continue to die until we deal with pet overpopulation. There is no silver bullet, no wonderful farm where old pitbulls go to romp through the meadows; and so long as people continue to believe there is, we will keep having litters.

Final request from Oreo, the only thing she disagreed with in the book was the use of "Guardian" in place of "Owner" People own animals, they buy them or adopt them, sometimes they find a stray and take it in; but they own that animal. We certainly wish all owners were guardians but guess what folks, they aren't. And putting a caring name on the person in charge of that animals fate will not make them a good caregiver. Just a thought from the old dog.....

Pictured is Oreo last Summer on her favorite chair with her favorite ball, just hangin' out.

Rufus is sick of me filming him!!!

Oreo Update..Good News, Sort Of.....

You can hardly see the old girl in this picture. The leg is pretty shot, but not torn through. This was taken just a week ago and I think she feels pretty good. Loves to finds a dappled piece of shade to nap in. The vet really did not want to do the surgery because of her age, and the fact she does poorly with anesthetics..well actually 20% of him wanted to give it a shot, but the other 80% didn't think it was in the best interest of her long term happiness. so she can go back to her beloved Canyon and be the Happy Camper she has been for the past eight years, just stay on the Rimadyl, I am very grateful that it is working for her. we had her Aunt and it didn't help her at all. so this is good news for us. We will go in in groups of 6 ( all being rather small women) and if we need to cart her out on a blanket we can do that too. How wonderful to have her back in her natural habitat. We will keep her on a 30' drag line so she doesn't fly up the slope chasing a shadow, but all in all very happy news...... We know the reality of her situation and the hurt that will come when the Rimadyl no longer brings her comfort, but dogs live in the moment, and the whole of the quality of their life is in the moment. Here comes some happy moments Oreo !! For all the caring emails and e-cards we thank you. The trips to the dog parks are over though, no rough and tumble thats for sure, but her love has always been the trails, and I think she seems to prefer the Canyon to the Rose the last year or so, yep we can do that...For all of the rest of you out there struggling with vet bills, you can do it. We thought our back would break for sure the round before this one, it was up to $140.00 a month just for the eyes, now an additional$60.00 for the Rimadyl, and yet things seem to come our way to help us get through. Some one orders a set of her greeting cards or needs their house cleaned. Something good always seems to happen, just at the right time. I look at some folks and they are so sour, you need to look at things from the angle of "doing with what you have' versus "doing without". This day with our old Girlydog is all we need for now, and we are growing alarmingly fond of mac & cheese, yep a good life...

Happy Mother's Day, & Blessed Be Ye....

I hope on this wonderful day we can come together and find the harmony and joy we all deserve. Pictured, Burley's Dogs Mama and another sibling . Let us go forth and work to be sure that puppies are born into a home, as is always the case with these guys.
And work tirelessly to provde an enivironment of learning and love as we struggle to place the existing puppies in permanent homes. I believe by spay / nueter and education & using all the tools at our command, we can place more dogs. But first we have to get honest and understand that sadly, for reasons not entirely their own, many dogs are not adoptable, and we need to triage and get the focus on the ones we can help. We have made a mess by by spreading our nets to wide and saving to many that didn't have a prayer for adjusting. I love them all, but part of that loving is knowing when a false promise is a cruel joke. I am sitting here surrounded by my 3 big guys and feeling a true gratitude to be at a stage of my life where I can help with a solution....

Crate Training...When And Why ?

Oreo has always been oppposed to crate training, and yet the picture to your left would speak in favor of it from time to time. Over the years we have figured out that nothing is learned by agreeing with yourself. So we have asked a friend who is experienced in shelter work with a training background for his knowledge and reasons for support. He is currently serving actively in the Animal Control Field Services arena, and finds crate training to be valuable in rehoming issues or in dealing with the "growing pains" of pet ownership. We do crate our dogs during travel for safety purposes, and we maintain a covered kennel area in case of an emergency ( fence blowing down etc ) I use it as a potting area. After having it for 35 years I still haven't had to put a dog it it, but I feel like a better steward for providing it. I am becoming aware that a crate could be useful in rehoming, and with some behavioral issues a novice dog owner could find themselves in. I still feel if you have to crate all the time you aren't ready for a dog yet. The text in brown is the lovely article offered up for the site.
I believe the lack of awareness of, or misunderstanding about, crate training is in fact a tragedy. I say this because the most common reasons people “fall out of love” with there dogs, and then surrender them at shelters, can be resolved by the proper use of a crate. Two common reasons for owner surrender of dogs are destructive chewing and/or housebreaking problems. I certainly don’t fault people for not loving a dog that has these problems. I myself would find it difficult to love a dog that does his/her business all over my house, and I likely wouldn’t care much for a dog that chewed up all my things either. But the simple reality is that these are common problems for most dogs and their owners; and they can be resolved by the use of a crate. Housebreaking and chewing problems for dogs is as natural for a dog as potty training and thumb sucking issues are for children; they are perfectly natural issues. But if a dog owner doesn’t solve these problems they are not likely to keep the dog, which means they’ll likely dump the dog on the local shelter to deal with. When you consider that in most communities, that 50% of abandoned or surrendered dogs are euthanized; you can see we are talking about a potentially life threatening issue for the dog.
As a dog trainer, in years past, I spent a great deal of time explaining the benefits of crate training to dog owners with these typical problems. Generally, the first obstacle to overcome with the dog owner was that they think putting a dog in a crate is cruel. In a perfect world this might not be the perfect situation, but it certainly is not cruelty. Consider that a child, for about the first 2 years of its life, spends almost all of its time in confinement. It is either in a crib, playpen, highchair, car seat or some other containment device. So why should have so much difficulty understanding that containment of a dog is cruelty? In fact, virtually all dogs love their crates. Like most humans, we have are favorite place to sit at the dinner table, our favorite chair when watching TV or “our side” of the bed. Like most humans, dogs are creatures of habit and therefore actually prefer to lie in their crates even when they aren’t being put in their by the owner. I have had many dogs that had to be forced into their crate the first two weeks, like a child having to be forced to sleep in its own bed, only to find the dog going into the crate on his own a few weeks later; so don’t make judgments by the dogs initial reactions to it.
So, when you are not able to supervise your dog, especially during the housebreaking/chewing phases of a dog, generally about 6 months, use a crate; you just might be saving its life.
The daring young puppy in the commode is a very young Burley Dog..

Needed : Continuing Adult Education.

Good post from Colan. It referenced a three legged stool and we all know if a stool is to stand; there must be balance. I had been trying to think which component was the more inportant; temporarily losing sight of the fact they must have equal value to stand. Spay/nueter is essential to reduce population and give time to work on the other issues; public education & awareness programs drive the bus for getting them done. If we want the public to make better choices we need to provide better information on every level of dog ownership.
The final leg is, of course, the physical shelter and its staff. We need volunteers to work with staff, not in place of them. The rescues in a very real sense allow the no kill to be halfway believeable to the half way informed. When I was growing up I used to hear
" The Church isn't the building , it's the people in it" Very true for shelters as well. I have seen some shining examples of loving care in buildings where you almost fear for your well being, and some neglect is some pretty fancy architecture; and of course vice versa.
Pulling animals out of shelters for a temporary home hasn't solved the problem and it won't. It does offer more outlets, but the number of homes wanting the animals stays the same. We need to educate shelter staff in breed traits, because it does affect a dogs chances of permanent placement. We must find the courage to say "this dog will not work in the environment you are offering it" We need to make time for the random homecheck, and today with the advent of Google; staff could quietly excuse themselves and as part of the adoption process run the address to see if it was a home or a hotel...... We have people living in motels adopting big dogs for protection. These dogs are getting returned for " landlord" issues. Gee, do ya think? Oreo has maintained all the way, this is not a situation we can adopt our way out of. But, putting in place standards that give a better chance for permanence only makes good sense. When the little old lady in a wheelchair wants a high energy terrier, reference that it is not fair to the dog. If the shelter people don't defend the dog who is going to. Reading the No Kill purists belief that euthanasia is only acceptable for EXTREME pain is frightening. Who are these wackos to determine extreme on any animal ? Animals hide pain, they do it as a survial skill, especially in a shelter envirionment.
Can we get a little common sense and compassion going here ?
1. Reduce production
2. Education of public and staff in animal welfare, and breed characteristics.
3. Support shelter improvements to reduce offsite adoptions, lowering impulse placements.
This Chunkie boy lives around the corner and so far is a sucess story for a rehoming. He got off to a traumatic start, but has landed in a home that can cope with his bully ways, and the new owner is willing to learn how to bring him around. He is a little " mouthy" and not every owner could deal with that as sucessfully as this adopter has.

We Introduce Our Newest Friend " A Bone To The Dog Is Not Charity" ...

8/
Please look to the right and give a welcome to our newest link, it is inspired by a wonderful dog named Rio, and we here at Oreo's think it's great !! In fact we gave it 3 tails up.... It isn't easy to put your feelings and heart on the web, and yet many of us know we are the voice and platform for the long term well being of animals. Giving the answers people don't want to hear is needed and my respect for those who do that here , bloggers and commenters alike is tremendous. This is a place we can hammer out the details and find what we do agree on. Pictured is Lucas, another park buddy and occasional houseguest. I had never really thought Poodles were " real" dogs til I met him. What an ambassador for his breed and dogs in general, my apologies to any fu fu dogs I may have misjudged in the past. we have seen several smaller Poodles at the shelters lately, one has to fear the worst as people lose homes and apartments. According to his owner, they can be a "barky" breed, so keep them in the house, but the small ones do have a pretty fair life span, so a 8 year old toy Poodle could offer years of pleasure to a family not wanting to go through the puppy years.

The Local News.......

Saw on the local blog today, that promotes a certain consultant, 670, at least, dogs were killed in 2007; now why do you think that happened ? Could it be the overpopulation is not a myth ? Could we write a book called Beyond Redemption ? I actually have one started with that as the working title. We don't see or hear how many are killed at the No Kill side of the building, that bothers me. I know things are a little better over there, but it needs to be more open. The rhetoric is toning down some, but the truth was quickly stifled when a couple of the regular blogger types complained about conditions at the shelter on the No Kill side. Read the SF/SPCA website all the way through, they admit that not every dog is adoptable and that they take on space available, after they take from the pound. This not rocket science, somewhere a dog or cat is being turned away or destroyed because there are more animals than homes. To have someone running a circuit giving false hope to people that there is an easier softer way is irresponsible. The choices are tough & not at all what the people in the shelters like to live with either. But if you don't spay or nueter and educate; it is going to go forever. This is not a " one size fits all " world. not everybody can find their pet at a shelter. This little guy is so cute, and I would go absolutely crazy with him boinging off the walls.. his mistress would not want my 185 pounder laying between her and the counter. Different homes have different needs. Just saying" find what you want at the pound" isn't working, people know what they want, and until we start to control the flow of unwanted puppies..... The majority of dogs at our shelters have been Pits and that is not an easy dog to place or store. But Pits are not the problem, to many Pits are the problem. At this point in time the Pits are suffering what Cockers got with Lady and the Tramp and 101 Dalmations. this last fad just has a more sinister undertone with dog fighting and the fear of adopting a fighter. Know what you are getting, read as much as you can about the dog you are considering. If it is a lab mix, make and educated guess about the " mix" portion. Read about what the shelter says it is. Learn, think, resist the impulse, this is a long term committment. Update : I contacted Washoe County Regional Animal Control Services to verify the numbers posted from another blog, the number of dogs put down by Washoe County was 501 for the year 2007. I don't know where Mark Robison got the numbers he quoted on his blog, unless the remaining 169 were euthanized on the NHS side and Mark just blended the numbers for Washoe County, another reason for stopping the
" blended stats"

An Adorable Accident...

A deaf dog with it's head through the speaker opening. Love it, and it is a lucky dog to be a backseat driver....The owners think Dalmation/Pittie and in no particular order, with the best of both breeds from what we see, and yet....... I don't believe anybody set out to breed a deaf dog, using two strong breeds that are both very purpose driven. The chances of doubling up on a problem are much greater than coming out with this charmer.
What will it take to get people to come to the table and admit that accidental breedings happen way to often, & most of the puppies end up at shelters or backyards once they outgrow the puppy stage. Why not nueter the family pet ? We should do a poll for the most common reasons, is it money, do we think we can " catch" them before they mate ( fat chance) How would you, faithful reader end the problem ? I am not a fan of juvenile nuetering, but what is the alternative ? I am asking questions because it is fine to complain, but we need to be working on a solution.
Some areas are doing Mandatory Spay Nueter at 4 months if the dog is physically ready for the procedure.. I would rather see 2 dogs nuetered at 4 or 5 months versus 40 puppies at 8 weeks with poor liver function. We can volunteer to take care of this, or we can keep hoping that a miracle happens and all dogs and cats are born sterile; lets get real!! People have known for a long time we have to many animals, they know how to stop that. So, are they going to do it without legislation ?. The heartbreaking truth is, more unwanted puppies end up in the back of a dump truck, than the back of the car. Look at this face, probably one from a litter of 9 or 10 equally cute puppies, this guy got the home, we have to back off the breeding folks. Send in any success stories you may have heard. We are not going to adopt our way out of this mess, let the quality of life begin with us. The problem isn't mutts vs. purebred, look at this sweetie, he is a purebred mutt. The problem is unnuetered pets.
Oreo and pack approve this message.

Another Day, Another Park...For some dogs....

We did our spring park tour, fun to just load up the van and the dogs and hit all the local dog parks and see friends we have lost touch with over winter. In the midst of the joy of watching all the romping and running my mind flashed back to the " prisoners" the kenneled, confined and lost dogs of our society. I know we are mainly about dogs here, not because we don't care about the cats.....we love kitties, and we are not fond of what is happening to them either; it's just I want to cover one issue well.
We are going through an Eathquake swarm here in Reno, and over 500 quakes in 2 months has to be taking it's toll on all animals, but the kenneled ones must have a deeper fear. There are no indvidual pats on the head for them, or runs to burn off the stress. Just rows of other frightened dogs.. When I go to Petharbor.com and see dogs for zip 89505 at NHS with a year in the system, it is overwhelming. A lot of the old ones are gone now, but there are still many listed that have been in custody that long. If you think of how an animal has no way to express themselves in that environment, just live with the pain and the fear day in and day out. Per our PSA a foster can only be kept 6 months, so if we enforce that it is musical dogs, they come back in shelter for a couple of days and out again. I have seen some improvements in notes with the new dog manager, and I know he inherited a real mess. Lets hope they get it together there and start focusing on the animals they can place and stop with the " Campaign" mentality.
Pictured is the wonderful Oz, he and Oreo have been best friends for 8 years, he is a treasure to the community with his friendly smile and Aussie charm.