Well of COURSE insurance has a part to play in these situations. Just as it does in ALL activities.

Businesses cannot be insured unless they meet certain criteria otherwise they would go out of business and therefore be unable to rehome ANY dogs at all.

They also have a duty of care not ONLY to the animals in their control but their employees and those affected by their actions or omissions ie future owners.

One or two claims could put them out of business.

This is just basic business sense.

As for the statement "no dog is born bad" I am afraid dogs, like humans can be born with or develop mental illnesses etc which make them dangerous.

And it is just BECAUSE the behaviour of dogs moved from kennels to home changes that great care has to be taken, as that behaviour can change for the WORSE just as it can for the BETTER.

I tend to speak as I find and give opinions based on that. As with most things, some I am impressed with others not

Same as me then

As I say, there was a huge furore, and there were plenty of really good knowledgeable people on BOTH sides... all people who worked with problem dogs and were successful, for example.

Just people who had a different viewpoint.


Wys
x

Yes and I believe this was because her methods at that time had been promoted as being the best thing since sliced bread.

As the standard to which all others should be measured, kind of thing.

Very worrying, I agree. Some of the info that filtered down afterwards was worrying too.

Wys
x

Battersea were the ones involved with the dog I saw. I think possibly that he had shown other behaviours to them which were more threatening than anything we saw at the seminar.

I have on occassion looked at a dog in kennels and said that it will bite and have been put through the wringer for saying so. On every occassion I have been right. I have also on occassion when doing behaviour programmes said that IMO a dog should be pts BUT as the rescue is a no kill one then if they feel they want to keep it here are my suggestions on a programme that they could follow.

It isn't nice to know that you are responsible for a dog dying but I have always been willing to take the dog myself to be pts if I am that convinced that it is the right thing to do.I did feel awful that the one time I was bitten(by a gsd), that the dog was pts the next day. Having said that, after he bit me the staff found it impossible to move him from the public are into a kennel and had to sedate him in situ and call the vet out.

Every excuse in the book could be made for him---he was a GSD, he was stressed, he had been left by the owner he adored (who wanted him rehomed because he was threatening his family), he shouldn't have been put in a position where he could bite----etc etc. The fact remains that he did bite and he would have done it again.

It happens----doesn't matter why the dog is doing it there aren't enough homes willing to sign a waiver and take a potentially dangerous animal on.

rune

All mine (except Mojo) have had assessments using this same thing, except it had a sleeve on and built to look like an arm, all never bothered, infact Tess licked the glove
It is done for insurance purposes obviously so the Fostering agency can say they have been assessed to cover thier backs.
IMO it doesn't tell you that a dog will never snap if someone pops thier hand in a bowl, after all they maybe having a bad day

It is one thing working with a problem dog within its family and quite another being able to rehab a dog in a rescue situation where handlers change and nothing is standard and time is at a premium.

rune

Hey, I remember that now - yes, she DID appear to avoid difficult questions!

I asked her why she thought one dog labelled a food guarder was "dominant" and had a hard eye. The eyes were soft, and she had simply stood up on her hind legs to get a cuddle from her kennel worker.

When she spoke to the kennel worker about it, he was very "well we haven't noticed" kind of thing - clearly not wanting to be rude, but at the same time, not agreeing.

She told me she'd come back to that - but she never did.

Probably because the dog was not any of those things...

Wys
x

It's always good to be questioning, over anything, not just dog stuff

I went to a dog assessment talk by the head behaviourist at WG a few months ago. It was very interesting as it was mainly about the dogs coming into the UK from Europe (mastiffy types) and she talked about how they'd had several dogs show aggression after being adopted.

We had to listen to her talk about how she tried to get a large dog with a strong bite off of a kennel assistant. It was very harrowing. Also hear about a child who ended up with I think she said 200 stitches. This was because the person trying to rescue the child had unfortunatley tried to move it out from between the hind legs of the dog, who was stood over it - big mistake

They've got a very strict system now, it was a very interesting talk. They use the assess a hand etc but I suspect it's moved on quite a bit from the original, at least I hope so.

Wys
x

PS I still have the info you sent me on the SS workshop you saw, have never chucked it