Shelter Journal 12/5/13

Gumdrop! Never had him out before but he was really great. Nice, not much jumping, loves to catch tennis balls, walks around in the pool, takes treats nicely, knows sit. He does chomp for toys if you hand them to him but that was the only thing I saw that will need a little work. Fantastic boy.

Photo from SDDAC

Crouton! This puppy is getting kind of out of control. It sucks that he's been growing up at a shelter. He is *so* obsessed with toys that I could not get any attention from him at all until I'd picked them all up. Then he spent several minutes looking for toys or something else to do. He's extremely playful, active, curious, and adventurous. He knows sit and down, but was so worked up and full of energy that he was paw swiping and smacking my hand when I offered treats.

My photo, now on SDDAC

Nina! Very anxious to get out, and jumped against the kennel door which slammed hard into my head. The perks of volunteering! I'm fine, she calmed down enough I could get in her kennel. She's strong on leash but walks much better on the way back after being able to run around a bit. In the yard she was so excited she even mounted my leg (general excitement can be expressed that way, it's not necessarily sexual). She had zoomies several times. Ones she'd calmed down I asked her to sit a few times. She takes treats really nicely.

Hennessy! Very jumpy on the kennel door which I don't want to reinforce further, so I turned my back to him and waited for him to stop jumping. There was a bit of stop and go but I managed to open the kennel while he was keeping all 4 feet on the floor. He pulls on leash and is a little rough taking treats, but is really playful with toys.

Photo from SDDAC

Last I got out a new dog, she's listed as a husky mix. I see husky and lab. She's been named Bree. Very sweet girl, wanted to play with the dog next to us in the yard, didn't want to chase toys, seemed to enjoy being brushed and petted.

Photo from SDDAC

And that was it for a short day!

Higgins update: I'm driving Higgins to the rescue foster home on Monday. I'm excited for him!

Shelter Journal 12/3/13

Gonna blaze through this, and post what I can remember!

Sally was first, two older ladies have gotten her out and said she's been hard to handle. Biting and tugging on the leash. One was there and had gotten Sally out earlier so I said let's get her out together and see how she is with me. Sally was completely fine with me but was fixated on trying to grab the leash in the other lady's hand. Once she put the leash down, no problem. Sally does seem a bit more stressed than normal but is still doing pretty good. She's been at the shelter since July.

All the housebroken dogs had been out so I started searching for dogs I hadn't interacted with yet.

Roper! Male pitbull, about 3 years old. He came when called, could be  housebroken or it could just be typical male marking as to why he peed so much. He seemed friendly with other dogs and didn't try to fence fight with the dog in the yard next to the one we were in. He was also not very jumpy and was pretty good on leash.

Photo from SDDAC

 

Next to him is Arthur, who I didn't get any pictures of. VERY handsome blue pitbull. His eyes are no longer red as shown in the photo. Doesn't seem to know any basic commands and was very mouthy when taking treats, so I mostly worked on teaching him to take treats nicely and lick for them instead of putting my whole hand in his mouth.

Photo from SDDAC

Then was Stanley. Older guy, listed as being 6 years old and quite grey around the muzzle. Man was he STRONG. I haven't had a dog pull like he does, it was like he'd been trained for nothing but weight pulling his entire life. Even with my padded leash (which is a life saver) my hands were both hurting. In the yard I was throwing toys for him. I threw, threw, threw, one after another to keep him running and burn off some energy before asking for anything.Once he was calming down a bit and had pottied a couple times I asked him to sit first before throwing a toy. That's when the alligator came out. Leaping up and snapping his jaws shut with a clack trying to grab the toys. I held the toy high above and straight out so he wouldn't jump on me. He jumped up on me a few times anyway during our session. I would wait for him to stop leaping, and then throw the toy and praise regardless of if he sat or not. He needs some patience and to learn that the way to get the toy is by waiting, not leaping and chomping. He was doing ok for a first lesson!

Then I went to put him back in the kennel. In the row, one dog had the feeder knocked out and Stanley rushed over, snapping nastily through the gap. Being on leash, this was maybe 1 second. I made a mental note to write up a behavior form describing it. He didn't want to enter his kennel so I walked in first, and he followed. I had grabbed a frozen Kong for him, I took his leash off with the Kong in front of his nose and then rolled it to the back of the kennel as I tried to sneak out. Something I often do. But he ignored it and instead jumped up on me, and grabbed my hand for a split second with his mouth as he tried to muscle his way back out. I used my body to force him back in, I got the leash back on, and tried again to wiggle out but to no avail and he was getting increasingly more freaked out and stressed, and alligator snapped at me a couple more times but didn't make contact. I lead him back out to the concrete area by the interaction yards where I knew a volunteer was. She was leashing the dog she'd had out. Perfect. I told her to please go tell one of the staff ladies that I a dog I was trying to re-kennel was trying to bite me. She put her dog back and walked into the office.

Meanwhile I kept Stanley moving, as when I stood still he started leaping. I walked him around a yard, still on leash. When I saw one of the ladies coming I exited. He jumped up and snapped on the inside of my forearm, nipping me hard. Staff lady didn't see as she was coming up a slight ramp and watching her steps. I explained to her what he was doing and showed her my wrist and hand, and just then he jumped and snapped her on the arm too. She was wearing a loose jacket but still felt his teeth and let out a gaspy "auw!" I followed her back to his kennel, as did the other volunteer. She got in the kennel with him and we were the backups with leashes ready in case he managed to get out. But he didn't. Staff lady then examined my wrist and hand, and because he technically punctured skin on my hand (though my wrist looks way worse) they have to do a rabies test on him. After this kind of behavior a dog at a shelter is going to die. He has zero chance. He has shown aggression toward people, even coming from a place of stress and I'd even call it panic to some degree. Not a mean intent, but he bit me twice and staff lady once. Though he may not be a "mean" dog, and despite him actually nipping, a dog experiencing so much stress that he lashes out like that is not mentally and emotionally doing well and it is inhumane to keep them alive at the shelter, suffering, in agony. I went and got a Caution sign to put on his kennel, though staff lady said he would be moved soon anyway. She said she would get the paperwork started to document the bite and do a rabies report.

I am pretty bomb proof. At no point did I panic myself or lose my cool, even the moment after he'd nipped my wrist. Mostly I felt bad. I felt- and still feel- so, so bad for the dog. I still took a moment to gather myself and make sure it wasn't just some kind of hormone chemical rush keeping me calm. If he'd flat out attacked me I would have been very upset I think, but all I saw was a stressed out dog lashing out because he didn't want to go back in solitary confinement. Imagine being in solitary confinement for a year and you only see people 15-20 times during the whole year, for around 20-30 minutes each time. The rest of the time you are alone, with nothing to do, just water and food, and listening to nonstop barking. How long before you lost your mind and panicked? I'm sure I'd fight whoever tried to lock me up again too and have a breakdown.

I needed a happy spazzy playful puppy. My day at the shelter was going to end early by my own choice but I needed to end on a high note. Enter Laila.

I washed my hands and went to the office. I spent about half an hour chatting. First about the bite as they got info from me, then just talking. The lady who came out to help said when the other volunteer came in and said someone was having trouble and the dog was trying to bite, she assumed it was one of the older ladies just having trouble with an active, jumpy dog. When she saw it was me she thought "Oh shit, Megan is having an issue?? This is actually serious." The other lady asked if I knew what this means. Yes, I know. Rabies test means the dog will put down, because the test is done using brain tissue. I knew anyway the moment of that nip to my wrist that he was going to be put down because dogs that bite like that cannot be adopted out. They can't. It's a safety issue, it's liability, they can't have that on their conscious to adopt out a dog that is known to behave like that, even if the dog is under a huge amount of stress here. What if he snaps at a child? Or snaps and doesn't let go? I simply frowned and told her "Yeah," and that I felt so bad for him. I asked where he was from, and turns out he was a stray. He'd been at the shelter since October 9th. I don't know if he ever had a good life. He didn't know any basic commands, even sit. He had no idea how to walk nicely on leash. No idea how to play nicely and interact nicely with people. I wouldn't be surprised if he was on a chain in a backyard his entire life. But I'll never know. I will get a call after 10 days to confirm that he did not have rabies. After 2 months in a shelter they would have known by now if he did, so I'm not concerned at all. My hand is fine, and my wrist is more bruised at about the size of a quarter around the darkest purple spot but it's not as bad as I thought it would be and it's not a spot easily bumped. I'll heal, but Stanley is gone forever.

The Stray and the Ad

This afternoon I was taking Higgins down the street to the mailbox, it's a good short distance for an old dog to walk. As we're coming back to my front yard I see a pitbull type white/brown brindle dog with no collar on the corner 2 houses down. I make a kissy sound and say "hey puppy!" and he starts trotting over. I shoved Higgins inside and took the leash off before the dog came up, I've never seen the dog and I didn't want Higgins hurt. I crouch down and he comes right up and I loop the leash around his neck. Gotcha! He's super sweet, didn't struggle or give me any trouble at all. I crack the door open and tell the husband I have a stray dog on my leash and to please hand me my wallet so I can take him to the shelter. I take him to where I volunteer but they say dogs from my zip code have to go to the other shelter. So I take him over there and had to leave him in the car for about 10-15 minutes while I waited to talk with someone.. they need a better front desk, I was so worried I'd come back to a chewed up car or poop everywhere! Would be nice to have a fast check in, or a separate door for animal receiving like our shelter has. Finally my turn, I give them my info and his, where I found him, etc. and they give me a paper and send me around the side of the building to hand him over. I scurried out to the car to find him sitting nicely in the front seat. Got him out and handed him over, and asked if I could be contacted in case he wasn't chipped so I could put up flyers in my neighborhood. She said wait 2 seconds and she'd scan him. She came back and said he has a microchip!! I told her with my luck the dog lives just around the corner from me, and she laughed and said that happens all the time. As I was walking away I overheard her say to the other woman, "That lady handled that dog like he was her own." I took that as compliment to my leash handling skills and confidence. Made me grin! I sure do walk a lot of dogs. I'll probably call back tomorrow or Friday to make sure he was picked up- or at least that the chip info was current.

You can see some old injuries on his back leg ^

Once I got home I was checking my facebook and my friend sent me an ad from CL for a guy selling a husky puppy at 3 weeks old near us. He listed his cell and home number. I texted his cell, and explained my concern for puppies being adopted out that young, and why they need to stay with their mom and littermates. He said the parents are attacking the puppies. Ok, so you hand raise or get help from a rescue! You don't sell them!!! I ended it there (and had a trainer friend call too but they hung up on her) and I called a rescue foundation in that area and they said they'd take care of it. I also sent an email to the staff at the shelter to see what could be done.. I googled his land line so got an address I'd given to both of them. Shelter got back to me and said the rescue had no legal authority so tell them not to go or tip off the guy, they would send an officer from the shelter up there. So I called back and told them that. Whew! Now it's wait and see. If you sell puppies less than 8 weeks old in California, you face a fine of $250. Per puppy. Gonna try to sell puppies that young? I'll send Animal Control to your house! It is severely detrimental to the puppies to be separated so young. Of course sometimes there are special circumstances, but again you will then hand raise the puppies and/or seek outside help such as from a rescue to make sure they are being well socialized and can develop as normally as possible. You. Do. Not. Sell. Them.