[nagdu] some advice

[Tami Kinney]

Yeah, living with a rescue/rehab dog and using every tool in my own box
and a few other people's just to unscrew her from what people did to her
has given me some similarly harsh opinions. Well, resurgence of anxiety
based move back toward fear aggression due to arthritis pain means we
have pretty much made the decision to send her on sooner rather than
later. We've been enjoying our last few months with her, keeping the
pain managed as best we can and giving her that happy, safe, loved life
DD promised her when she rescued herself by coming to live with him. She
still mostly has happy times, although we have to up her pain meds
pretty frequently because when she's not having pain, she wants to run
like a puppy... We did discuss using a crate to enforce rest or letting
her remain in a little pain to stay in bed and allow the strain to heal,
but... Her fragile psyche would suffer, so it's not really quality of
life for her. Also, if that fragile psyche snaps... Someone else might
suffer. So I'm going through another phase of wanting to track down the
people who treated our sweet love hound so badly and do some pretty
medieval things to them. And that's just while I'm still being nice!
Gr.... 

I will add that reading her file from the Humane society does show that
the vet who put her back together after the tangle with the dump truck
did some pretty impressive work. And they did the best they could in the
context of Oregon resources and culture... There was quite a while when
I first knew her that I wondered if they did her any favors there... But
the past three years, at least, she has been happy, healthy, coddled,
learning to play and to watch the world go by instead of going
hysterical and loud over it... She still barks for fun, and she sure is
loud, but it's a different bark. And she still likes treeing her
squirrels, who like being treed, but she can enjoy them quietly. Unless
they throw things at her to get her to bark and give them more
entertainment. /lol/ 

Anyway, I'm in favor of giving possible dog adopters temperament tests
and having them evaluated by teams of psychologists and... Probably this
will never become policy, since it is really extreme and not even a
little practical. Just my own 'tude showing. /smile/ Then I go to the
dog park and watch people with their rescue/rehab dogs doing wonderful
things with them and remember that sometimes humans ain't all that bad. 

Tami

On Sat, 2011-09-10 at 10:08 -0400, Larry D. Keeler wrote: 
> I know.  Its just seems unfair!  If dogs were folks, they would be sent to a 
> psychiatrist or something.  I sometimes think the humans responsible for 
> ruining a perfectly good dog should be the ones that are put down.  My 
> little Pez is from there.
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Criminal Justice Major Extraordinaire" <orleans24 at comcast.net>
> To: "NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users" 
> <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Saturday, September 10, 2011 7:17 AM
> Subject: Re: [nagdu] some advice
> 
> 
> > Hi, Larry,
> > I usually watch Animal Cops shows on a daily basis and the work that the 
> > humane societies do is really good.
> > They do have to put the dog through behavioral tests before it can be 
> > adopted out.
> > There are some dogs that do get put down, not because of the humane 
> > society, but more, because of what their previous owners did to them.
> > No matter how much the behavioralists work with the dog and try, some 
> > problems are too far gone to be fixed.
> > If rescue organizations are willing to step in and take the dog to work 
> > with it as they do have lots of time on their hands, then they will 
> > happily do so in a way where that dog gets another chance.
> > I do give all the humane societies lots of credit for making sure that 
> > each dog ends up with the right family who will love them and care for 
> > them along with making him/her an important member of the family.
> > Many of the stories have been awesome to hear with a great ending and good 
> > success.
> > I grew up with dogs all my life since I was a baby off and on.
> > Of course, my parents taught me how to respect dogs.
> > I know that I always have touched my guides when they were eating their 
> > food and neither became aggressive or annoyed when I did this.
> > I've also practiced feeding my dogs by hand which also increasing exposure 
> > of them eating a treat.
> > More people are adopting dogs these days rather than purchasing one from a 
> > breeder, due to the cost and also, they figure that there are lots of dogs 
> > in the shelters waiting for a great home to come around.
> > If I were able to, I'd gladly adopt one.
> > I did forget to mention that the humane societies do allow people to go 
> > meet the dogs in person along with bringing their whole family and other 
> > dogs if they have one as it is just to see how first dog will get along 
> > with the new one and if dog is able to get along with kids.
> > Bibi and Odie
> > the happy spirited bounty labra wolf
> >
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