Gail Fisher, All Dogs Gym & Inn - The perfect place for pets and their people

If you heard about it, I know you were horrified to learn about the dog shot by his owner, and left tied to a tree to die. As awful as the original story was, it became even sadder when the dog’s owner stepped forward the next day and told his story. I had been envisioning a cruel, heartless person, and found myself feeling compassion and some small understanding of what the man was trying to do—misguided and ill-conceived though it was. There are so many disturbing aspects to this story—a tragedy for everyone, the dog, the owner, and the family. There ma be some who won’t agree with my expressing compassion, but I believe he truly loved his dog, and was trying to do what he thought was best for him. Sadly, he could not have been more wrong.

Here’s the story: Buster, a 5-year-old pit bull, had an escalating bite history, and his owner was concerned for his children. Having decided to euthanize his dog, he envisioned a way he thought would be least stressful for his dog—if it had worked out. Buster was highly stressed at the vet’s, and relinquishing him to a shelter would also have been tremendously stressful. So the owner took Buster for a walk in the woods—something he loved—and tried to kill him quickly and humanely. I truly got the sense that the owner was (misguidedly) trying to do what he thought was best—allow Buster to enjoy a run, and then quickly put him down. But his plans went horribly and inhumanely awry, and he lost his nerve, abandoning his dying dog.

But it isn’t the owner’s misguided behavior that I want to focus on. I want to write about his options long before he shot his dog. I am not absolutely opposed to euthanizing a dog based solely on behavior, but I am 99.99% against it. If there is a way to manage and improve a dog’s behavior—through training and/or behavior modification, possibly including medication—I’m for seeking solutions—trying everything before making the ultimate, irreversible decision.

In Buster’s case, action could have been taken a year ago, when Buster first started trying to grab ankles and hands when the family was getting ready to go out. Instead of addressing this behavior—talking to a trainer for a start—they ignored it. As the behavior escalated, they developed management strategies, locking Buster in a room so they could leave, but this didn’t deal with the behavior. Then about a month ago, Buster bit his owner’s wrist, requiring stitches. Their veterinarian diagnosed him with “separation anxiety,” and put Buster on Clomicalm, an anti-anxiety medication that is part of a two-pronged approach to treating it.

I don’t know if the veterinarian also recommended behavior modification and training, but I hope so. Novartis, manufacturer of Clomicalm, clearly recommends what they refer to as the “Clomicalm Plan”—medicating the dog to relieve his stress levels so that the dog is able to learn from a positive training approach. In other words, drugs are not a cure—they are just one part of the treatment. Unfortunately many veterinarians don’t stress the importance of working with a behavioral trainer, or if they do, many owners ignore it.

Without specifically addressing it in a non-punitive, positive way, problem behavior won’t change—as Buster’s escalating behavior demonstrated. After a month on the drug, Buster bit the son’s leg, and concerned about his younger daughter’s safety, his owner made the decision to put him down.

There are many lessons to be learned from this story, the first is that owners can and should ask for help from a professional trainer to deal with their dog’s undesirable behavior. In the vast majority of cases, there are solutions—often simple, easy-to-implement ones. If your dog is doing something you don’t like, even something dangerous such as biting, call a reputable, positive trainer. If you love your dog, you owe him at least that much. There are more lessons to be learned from this story. More next week.