These are Good Dogs

James has a problem. Well, actually, he’s got lots of problems but at the moment he’s fighting the leash, big time, a dog acting like a bucking bronco, throwing one leg over the lead, rearing up, forcing the trainer to stop walking and untangle him. That’s a problem.

“James knew nothing about a leash when he came here, his owner never trained him, James was doing very well with training, I don’t know what is wrong with him today,” says Lillian Pollice, a registered nurse with a mission to save dogs on her day off.

Pollice comes to Humane Society of Marion County shelter voluntarily, to train dogs abandoned at the shelter and also to teach other volunteers how to be trainers.

A few simple skills like sit, come and stay on command and walking nicely on lead could save a dog’s life.

“Training gives them a chance,” Pollice says. “A lot of these dogs have issues and problems. Their background includes being abused, hurt, and scared. Training helps reduce the problems. If they are adopted, hopefully the training will help keep them from being returned.”

Yes, it is true. People return dogs they adopt, shedding them like merchandise bought at a store and returned. Dogs and clothes are often returned for the same reason:

“It doesn’t fit.”

We don’t think about it but at some point Mom, in order to make us “fit”, taught us some basic social skills like saying “thank you” and the magic word “please” and not to throw your food on the floor during dinner and ESPECIALLY not when Cousin Martha comes to visit.

For dogs, comparable social skills are walking on lead, being able to sit, come, down, stay on command.

Would you rather walk around the block with a dog who is rude, crude, tugs at the lead, barks at all the dogs and won’t sit when you get to a Stop sign or a dog whose tail is wagging, walks nicely beside you with the lead loose and who sits at both a hand or voice signal?

Ummm, yes, well, that was a no brainer. I’ll take the dog that is trained, thank you. It is a good fit. We could have fun together.

By the way, an estimated five million dogs are turned into shelters each year and 90 percent of the owners say they (the dogs, or is it the humans?) have behavioral problems.

At this shelter the current crop of trainees have pink clothespins on their kennel door, meaning they are in the program. They include James, whom you have already met. James is a Pit Bull mix, about one year old, white with black spots. He’s not trained and plays in his poop. His owner signed him over to the shelter.

There is Haynes, eight months old, a Catahoula hound with lovely mottled colors of black, brown and gray. He was adopted, then returned, his sheet says, “because of family problems” whatever that means.

Zomis, a one-year old Akita mix, is in the program. He digs, chews, and has never been housebroken. Lots of issues here.

Shep is a one-year old hound mix. He’s doing very well with training, getting high marks, even an “excellent” for his come, down and stay. Things are looking up for Shep.

Two Shih tzus that just came into the shelter are Bobo and Missy. Bobo can’t see, he depends on Missy to get around. They’re in quarantine right now because Bobo has an eye infection. The hope is they’ll go into training soon.

Being little and cute should help a lot in getting adopted. The social cruelty of who gets picked to dance based on looks is alive and well in the dog world, just like the human world. But these two are not spring chickens and they must be together, both minuses.

James is not having a good day. He continues to fight the lead, as though he’s never seen it before. Lillian takes him into a fenced area and lets him loose to run off some energy. His brightest moment comes when he throws himself down on a dirt patch and spreads out, clearly happy to be outside, in sun and dirt. It’s a dog thing.

Lillian reluctantly takes him back to his concrete kennel. She is clearly worried he is not doing well with training.

And with good reason. If killing numbers disturb you, don’t read the rest of this paragraph. In the United States six to eight million dogs and cats end up in shelters every year and of that number, three to four million are put to death each year.

Purebred dogs, mixed breeds, turned in by owners, turned back in by adoptive owners, abandoned dogs scooped up by officials or left on shelter doorsteps for employees to find when they arrive at work.

How can you help? Training programs for shelter dogs are an excellent start. Call your local shelters, ask if they have them. Get involved.

No programs in your area? No problem. You are hereby hired to be the lead trainer. Start a program. You don’t have to be a registered dog trainer. Lillian isn’t. Get local dog trainers involved. Get service clubs in schools involved. Get your family involved.

“These are good dogs,” Lillian says “They don’t deserve to die.”

Amen.

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For more reading/viewing:

www.cbrrescue.org is the Chesapeake Bay Retriever Relief and Rescue site. Look under volunteering, they have a good article on why shelter dogs should be trained and how owners are often clueless because they themselves haven’t been trained.
www.Petfinder.org has a lot of links to resources. www.humanesocietyofmarioncounty.com is the shelter where all the dogs in this article currently live. They are up for adoption, with pictures on the Web site of James, Haynes, Zomis, Shep, Bobo and Missy.

Lucy Tobias is a freelance writer and columnist, winner of numerous writing awards. Copyright 2005 Lucy Tobias.

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