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.