Nicole Wilde New Dog Search Begins, But What Happened to The Moment of Zen?

On my the website of accumlated blogs, where most dog trainers there make a little spit up lodge in my throat, Nicole Wilde happily reports BEGINNING her search for a new dog since Mojo died in September 2008. Wait though did we forget a little moment of Zen that happened after Mojo died?

Now Nicole's previous problems with Zen the puppy German Shepherd, as reported in this linked blog, was that as an experienced and renowned dog trainer (or thought so by some IMO very niave people), she was caught unaware by the activity level of a German Shepherd puppy. She was also alarmed that when unmuzzled and having an injured claw removed that the puppy made a move for the veterinarian (I must have missed the memo that dogs can not feel NOR should not react to pain). I know, shocking and clearly an unbalanced dog by those two reportings or "excuses".

Now Nicole Wilde is on the hunt for a new victim, er dog or puppy. If only an alert could be sent out to rescues who are going to be thrilled to have her scope out their dogs/puppies, sigh. Here is the advice that I will be sending out to her:

1. Please consider NOT getting a dog and/or puppy if you do not have the time and energy to spend with him.


2. Please communicate to the shelter what your needs are. They could have a normal puppy with normal energy that may be too much for you. English Mastiff puppies are the closest that I have seen with a low energy threshold. Don't expect them to come clean, if you don't come clean with your limitations.


3. Since you are a professional, please make a decision soundly so as to not further traumatize another rescue dog like Zen. Knowing that he was having a hard time with relocating so many times, it was totally irresponsible of you to take him. While you might think you did him no great harm, who knows where he went next and how that further bouncing around affected him.

Also you might want to scan through all my blog posts tagged "before you adopt".

Thanks,

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The Disappearing Collar Mystery OR Collar Quality

Gigi (female APB that boards here), Jack (my Doberman boy), Robert (my lovely husband), and myself were on a beautiful woodsy fall walk. Gigi had on her metal choke collar and was dragging a lead just in case we ran into someone. These are our woods back there, and every now and then a hiker or hunter is passing through.

So Gigi and Jackie are playing in the woods having a great old time as usual. Gigi is one of Jack's favorites, when I notice there is no leash or collar (metal) attached to Gigi anymore. She hadn't yelped or acted stuck once. The collar fit properly and snugly (in other words not an easy collar to slip off, even with human hands). The only thing I can think of is that one of the links must have worn and the collar just snapped off in the woods!!

Luckily, this is a dog that has been trained, so we weren't worried about a flight risk or anything. In fact, I should have just pocketed the collar and leash on the walk since she is so well behaved. I just like to have the leash handy with her due to her past experiences. That way I can be more relaxed if I stop and talk to someone, unexpectedly.

Had Gigi been in a stressful city situation where she normally does not do well OR this had been a green dog, this would have been BIG trouble. The collar that Gigi had on had been purchased from a pet store in Portland. The thing about buying from pet stores, in general, is that though they carry these collars, they aren't very knowledgeable about the importance of selling quality. Herm Sprenger is a name normally associated with collar quality in these types of metal training collars. The chains are formed well, and prongs are smoothed out. The cheap imports that many retail pet supply stores buy are from china, and who knows what kind of metal they may be made out of. If you are going to use these collars, please educate yourself on the brands to use, and the metals that are used. It is pretty rare for a collar to snap like this (and like I said, that is the only thing that I can envision happening since she was in our sight the whole time). By the way the price differential between a quality metal training collar and a cheap collar is not enough to sway the informed consumer. It's quality in the performance as well as the stability and material uses. If you have ever tested a substandard collar against a Herm Sprenger, you will know that what I say is true.

Perhaps once the leaves clear, I will find Gigi's collar and leash LOL. Until then, the case of the vanishing collar will remain a mostly unsolved mystery.

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Happy Fifth Birthday Leon (10/18/2004)

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Photographic Friday

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Articles on the American Temperament Society that Reference BSL

http://www.atts.org/ is where you can find out information on the ATTS test.

Stop BSL's Article which mentions ATTS

Dog Bite Org's Article which talks about ATTS

Rios Pitbull Article-Last Article Mentions Temperament Test in Types of Testing (also info on types of aggression, the people that developed temperament tests)

ASWA Newsletter With Article (scroll down) On Someone's Actual Experience With the Test I found it interesting that this person reported that the scoring is 0-10. If you get no zeros, you pass the test. I don't know if I would find that particularly relevant, unless I saw the actual score of the dog (or I should say average cumlative score of the dogs), and not just whether they passed or failed!!

Jim Engel's Article on ATTS-He talks a lot about the concerns that I have, and was one of the earlier supporters of the test. He also talks about the history of the test.

ATTS discussed as an alternative to other more concerning temperament tests.

Here are the initial concerns that I had about the test being used now as a general public temperament in an attempt to fight BSL or assume insurance companies can/will use this information wisely in the future:

1. If failed, it puts the blame on the dog and NOT other contributing factors. Worse yet, it puts the blame on the breed.
2. A test where you can only fail by getting a zero on a 0-10 scale does not impress me. I also don't like pass/fail tests. I used to take those in college to get the credit, and not need to worry about the grade.
3. The statistics provided to the public, and if this same breakdown is all that is provided to insurance companies is way too vague. I would really prefer it more if information such as whether the dog had previous training, the total of the test score, and other information was provided.

I hope you find these articles as informative as I did. I tried to provide every view that I could find without biase. I don't even know that I have a biase, what I do have is a thought process and need to know whether I am truly furthering something or hurting something now or in the future before following the herd.


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Hunting Season

For those of you that live in places where hunting can take place very close to your home, it's time to start locating your "orange" gear. All the humans and dogs here have orange vests (and in my case a hat). We actually have a tree stand located 10 feet away from our property line.

Find out about the hunting regulations in Maine using this link. This information and fishery and wildlife contact numbers can also be found on our webpage under the links section year round.


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