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Eugene

(61,592 posts)
Mon Jul 31, 2017, 07:11 PM Jul 2017

Is This Dog Dangerous? Shelters Struggle With Live-or-Die Tests

Source: New York Times

Is This Dog Dangerous? Shelters Struggle With Live-or-Die Tests

By JAN HOFFMAN JULY 31, 2017

Bacon, a cream-colored retriever mix, took a behavior test recently at an animal shelter here. He flunked.

Bounding into the evaluation room, Bacon seemed like an affable goofball, ready for adoption. But as he gulped down food, Dr. Sara Bennett, a veterinary behaviorist, stuck a fake plastic hand attached to a pole into his bowl and tugged it away. Instantly, Bacon lunged at the hand, chomping down on it hard.

Shelters have used this exercise and others for some 20 years to assess whether a dog is safe enough to be placed with a family. For dogs, the results can mean life or death.

“If you failed aggression testing, you did not pass go,” said Mary Martin, the new director of Maricopa County animal shelter in Phoenix, which takes in 34,000 dogs annually. Between January and June 2016, 536 dogs were euthanized for behavior, most because of test results.

But now researchers, including some developers of the tests, are concluding that they are unreliable predictors of whether a dog will be aggressive in a home. Shelters are wrestling with whether to abandon behavior testing altogether in their work to match dogs with adopters and determine which may be too dangerous to be released.

-snip-


Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/31/science/dogs-shelters-adoption-behavior-tests.html
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Is This Dog Dangerous? Shelters Struggle With Live-or-Die Tests (Original Post) Eugene Jul 2017 OP
Sounds like an easy way to get rid of dogs. dem4decades Jul 2017 #1
Not all dogs are adoptable. PoindexterOglethorpe Jul 2017 #2
Maybe the dog just didn't like the plastic hand grabbing its food. femmocrat Jul 2017 #3
Let me tell you a story. Stonepounder Jul 2017 #4
Thank you for sharing this! Phentex Aug 2017 #6
I'd flunk that test too. FoxNewsSucks Jul 2017 #5
Good thing they don't use that at my house. grantcart Aug 2017 #7

PoindexterOglethorpe

(25,746 posts)
2. Not all dogs are adoptable.
Mon Jul 31, 2017, 07:49 PM
Jul 2017

There is limited space inside shelters. Even more limited space in the no-kill shelters, who often simply farm out their killing to other shelters.

The sad fact is that there are far more dogs (and cats) than there are homes for. A decade ago when I did volunteer work at an animal shelter, they had an informational poster that said for every single cat and dog to have a home, every family would have to take in three cats and seven dogs, or maybe it was four dogs and five cats. Whatever the exact numbers, it was more than two of each. More than could realistically be adopted. I can never quite figure out what those who so vehemently oppose kill shelters suggest as an alternative. How many cats and dogs have they taken in?

The other sad fact is that too many people are irresponsible owners, who don't spay and neuter. I recall more than once our shelter having to explain to a potential adopter that no, we would not adopt out an animal that was not already spayed or neutered.


femmocrat

(28,394 posts)
3. Maybe the dog just didn't like the plastic hand grabbing its food.
Mon Jul 31, 2017, 08:43 PM
Jul 2017

Doesn't seem fair to base it on one test.

Stonepounder

(4,033 posts)
4. Let me tell you a story.
Mon Jul 31, 2017, 09:01 PM
Jul 2017

We are volunteers for a national rescue group. We got a call a couple of years ago from our state coordinator asking if we would be willing to take in a diabetic dog who was being surrendered to rescue for biting his owner so badly that she had to go to the ER for stitches and the dog was placed in a one-week home quarantine. We already had a diabetic dog, so, with some trepidation, we accepted.

We met the soon-to-be-ex owner in a parking let and met Cooper. After signing the necessary papers, we called Cooper over to our car. He jumped in without hesitation and never looked back. The next day we received a delivery from Chewy's I set one of the bags of kibble on the kitchen floor and Cooper curled up next to it. Later that day I happened to walk past Cooper and dog dog food. With a snarl he lunged at me and almost took a piece of my leg.

Cooper spent his days and nights in the kitchen - his choice, not ours. He would come out and socialize if we called him, but then go back to the kitchen. He also had a thing about paper. He would get a piece of paper from somewhere and guard it, finally eating it. And woe to anyone, human or canine who came close. We both got bit a time or two - nothing serious, but enough to break the skin.

The first thing we discovered was that a) his previous owner did not keep to a regular schedule for his insulin, and b) evidently had never worked with a vet to determine the correct dose. Cooper was getting approx 7 units of insulin whenever his previous remembered. Turns out the correct dose is 14 units twice a day.

There were other behavioral issues that needed to be addressed. The paper guarding thing, his learning to trust us, teaching him it was OK to be with us in other rooms of the house besides the kitchen. It didn't happen overnight. It was a year before we were really trusting with Cooper around people he didn't know well. Even though he was a rescue and we thought we were only going to foster him until we found the right 'forever family', we ended up adopting him. By the time we were comfortable that he could settle in we a new family, we couldn't let him go.

Cooper has been with us for two years now and has turned into an absolute 'love puppy'. He is almost always in the same room with us, sleeps at the foot of the bed at night, is always up for a cuddle. He is one of the smartest dogs I've ever met, learning new things at a pace that is almost frightening.

Any shelter would have put him down without a thought. Rescue gave him the chance to become the dog he really wanted to be. Unless there are physical/neurological reasons, there are damn few bad dogs, only bad owners.

grantcart

(53,061 posts)
7. Good thing they don't use that at my house.
Thu Aug 3, 2017, 09:07 PM
Aug 2017


I would have been put down already.


When I was 4 years old they called a family meeting and we went to the front lawn. We were lined up and our troublesome dog "Trouble" was brought on a leash (I don't think my parents were effective dog trainers).

We were told that a family that had a big farm wanted Trouble and he would be very happy there. I loved the dog but I had to concede that the list on the bill of indictments was long indeed, always escaping the fence and destroying our beloved (by some) flower garden.

The car came and in a second the dog was gone like a quick pick up of an undercover agent going to checkpoint Charlie. Well I was sad but understood that it was family business and family business wasn't for the weak. The family could only survive with and iron will and a large number of wooden spoons that would be available when necessary for the three boys. It wasn't personal, it was business.

As I was looking at the station wagon going off to the farm I warmed to the idea. Farms seemed like a fun place to be, lots of places to go and hide for a few hours.

My oldest brother must have been reading my mind, he came over to me and said "you better watch yourself, your next".

I wondered if they would place me at the same farm with Trouble.
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