Has anyone seen the show Shelter Dogs on HBO? I am sitting here in tears right now. This show is horrible. It's at an animal shelter in NY. This black cocker spaniel is on here now. They kept poking this dog with a plastic hand while it was eating out of the food bowl. The dog was very good and kept eating for a few minutes and than finally walked away. The lady just kept chasing it around with this hand. Next they gave the dog a slice of pizza. They poked it with the hand a couple of times and the dog ignored. After a few more times the dog started growling. A couple of more pokes later, the dog started biting. Well, of course it did. I would have bit the hand myself. They than took the dog and euthanized it. No wonder so many dogs are euthanized each year. They're poking the h**l out of these poor dogs with plastic hands and than when the dog gets testy they just kill them. I never knew it was this way but this show has really shed some light on the situation. Now I can completely understand that the dog couldn't be adopted if say, when they first started poking the dog when it was eating out of it's bowl and it started biting but poking it for a half hour and than it bites? That's just ridiculous and I don't know of any well-tempered dog who you could poke for a half hour and just take it. Okay, Tucker would but that's about it. If something ever happened to my WHOLE family and my dogs ended up in shelters none of my dogs would be adopted. Toby would walk away from the hand for a bit but even after a half hour he would get testy. Zoe would be okay a few times with the food bowl, she doesn't like to eat dog food that much, but once they started with the pizza, that would be it for her too. All of my other dogs wouldn't deal with that plastic hand poking at them more than a couple of times. I also think that dogs know the difference in a real hand and a plastic hand and I think if they used a real hand half of the dogs that are euthanized wouldn't be euthanized. Sorry for all of this, I just have a totally different look at shelters after this show.
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Saving just one dog won't save the world, but it surely will change the world for that one dog. -Richard C. Call
We don't ahve HBO, that is true, you annoy a dog tooooooo much he will want to protect itself. My poodle sasha was get put down too. No doubt. Rufus would cower off in a corner and Lilly would bark asking whats up with you!!!!!!!!!!!!!! In a playful manner.
I dont have HBO and have not seen the show...But..I would bet it is not even close to the real thing they try to represent. I bet so many "good" dogs are put down that we will never know. I dont know what we would do with the surplus of dogs if they were not put down....I have no answer for that. I Personally think it is much better then when I was younger...With the information about altering and many more informed owners it is better as far as I can see...I used to see packs of dogs roaming free and that hasnt been the case any more. Rairly do I see a dog roaming the roads and even more rare is seeing one hit on the road. I am very glad we have made even the smallest bit of head way in this subject. I dont know why they poke and prode the dogs with fake hands until they do in fact bite...other then they try to see how much it will take or maybe they want to push it until it is infact aggressive so they can distroy it. Seems they would do it in the begining and save the time of poking and all..but it might be a way of justifying jobs in the organization too. I have seen much more uglyness with shelters then good in most cases. In my area it is so behind the times that it is scary. The Animal Control officer used to sell the dogs to class B dealers for cash..and of corse the cash never made its way to the line items on the budget..Seem it just featherd his cap. When confronted in person, at council meetings and in the newspaper he claims the money went to paint his truck...well..the years of selling them at $6.00 a piece would net you lots of money he cant account for. but...no one in our area seems concerned..When I helped the fledgling Human Society start in my area doing fundraising, computer work and correspondance and more...They just thought the HS Founder was just an excentric old lady...but she almost single handedly drumed up enough to buy outright the building they now use. It has been revenated and still most animals are in foster homes away from the premise. The crazy thing is they rescue now from the dog pound and if you call to see if they can take an animal they say no..so what are your coices..THe original founder is not in charge any more and I have also stepped away because of differences. I caught 2 black kittens in the coldest part of winter here and they were starving and freezing to death. WE caught them and tried to take them and they refused them...so they had to go to the dog pound...where they most likely got put down..But My idea is it is much better then dieing a slow miserable death of starvation, elements, desease or abuse.
I did watch this show. The lady who ran the shelter did keep pushing the cocker once she notice that he growed when she when for his pig ear with the plastic hand. I felt like she kept pushing him to make her point to her staff that she was right. You will notice that she did not bring out the video camera till she had the dog so aggitated that it was bitting anything that came its way. All they had to do was tell adopters that the dog was posive of his treats and not to bother him then. The dog did not bit when she checked his teeth, or when she messed with his food while he was eatting. It was all about her being right in this case.
But you have to admit that in the long run she is doing a lot more for these dogs, than most shelters would. And she does seem to care.
Did they ever think that the dog might be afraid of a plastic hand? I know Oscar would be lery of a big fake hand. Kinf of strange looking. But I think they should give the test only for a few minutes. You can only pester a dog for so long before they give you attitude.
they did the food bowel test first and the dog didnt pay to much attention to the hand. When the dog gave a tiny little growel as it went for the pig ear, she started pushing, and agetating(sp) the dog, then got her camera out and video the dog as she poke it with the hand, and the dog was going nuts. This was the only video her staff saw and they keep saying how right she was. The dog walk in with its owner and the minute she saw the dog she was going to put it down, just because it had been thru many homes in the two years it had been alive.
Was it a pig ear? I wasn't listening very much. I was listening to my daughter and watching at the same time. I thought it looked like a slice of pizza. Oh Well! It doesn't really matter. The point is that she kept pestering this poor dog to the point where it had no choice except to do what it did. You are right. She did not video tape until she got the dog to bite and growl. She was also really pushing to have the old dog put to sleep when there was nothing wrong with it. I don't see anything wrong with dogs getting a little agitated if you go for there food. Two of mine would get extremely agitated and growl at me if I put my hands near their food bowls while they ate. My kids are 6 and 1 and they were taught right from the beginning not to go near the dogs while they eat. It was easier to do it that way than to teach them which ones they could and which ones they couldn't. I think they need to do different tests to deem them adoptable or not. I don't think food aggression is a big deal. I have a house of 6 dogs. All of my dogs eat together, except Tucker, he's not food aggressive, he just wants everyone's and he tries to shove them away, he's separated because the other dogs get aggressive with him, and I'll have to say that I've never had a problem. My dogs have never been in a fight. Zoe gets testy with me but no one else. She just plays to rough. We had a hard time for a bit with her because she's so dominant but she's starting to learn her place. I just don't see where food aggression is such a big deal that the dog has to be euthanized. I don't see where food aggression is a big deal at all. Why can't you just label a dog food aggressive the same way you label it dog aggressive or cat aggressive?
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Saving just one dog won't save the world, but it surely will change the world for that one dog. -Richard C. Call
yeah it was a pigs ear, and you know how dogs love those things, and this poor pup probably never had one in its whole life, or at least not in the last few weeks, so yes it will protect a special treat. The dog did nothing when she went for his food. She could have given him a milkbone and seen what he did with that first, that way she would have know it was just the type of treat she gave him.
She was pushing for the older dog to be put to sleep, and they did have to because she developed heart fauilre and an enlarged spinle sp?
Yeah, but she was pushing for the old dog to be put to sleep before the heart failure. Her reasoning was that the dog looked depressed. Everybody else was saying that the dog was perfectly healthy and was NOT going to be euthanized. She was like well sometimes I just can't stand to look at the dog. He looks so sad. After the dog got heart failure she finally got her wish.
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Saving just one dog won't save the world, but it surely will change the world for that one dog. -Richard C. Call
true.. the youngest person on her staff begged and was given more time to look but she had to it herself, she wasnt going to help in anyway....I think the poor old dog just gave up, her own of 12 years had died and no one wanted her, least of all the one person who should have helped.
