[nagdu] On Ownership

[Julie J.]

Do any of the programs do criminal background checks?  What about the 
references?  Is a reference letter submitted or are these people called and 
asked questions?

I feel that the programs should use whatever means necessary to assess the 
suitability of a particular person to have a dog and then let them have the 
dog.  If there is some concern that the person won't properly take care of 
the dog, then that person shouldn't get one.  Once the person has the dog, 
it's too late to prevent abuse or neglect.   Ownership or no ownership isn't 
going to change the condition of the dog.

The only way that ownership can influence how people act toward their dog is 
if it's used as a threat.  If you don't do what we say, then we'll repossess 
your dog.  the thing with this approach is that it only works on folks who 
would have taken proper care of the dog regardless of the ownership policy. 
People who do bad things are going to do bad things regardless of the rules. 
An ownership policy isn't going to prevent abuse, any more than domestic 
abuse laws stop spouses from hitting each other.    People who don't commit 
abuse don't do it because of a law, they are non abusers because they feel 
it's the right way to act.

I'd really like to know what the actual reason is for the various schools 
ownership policies.  I've heard obesity, abuse, better follow up, being able 
to place the dog after retirement, better service and all other manner of 
nonsense.  It doesn't make any sense to me.  How does the ownership policy 
affect the school's ability to provide good service?  It smells like an 
excuse to me.

It would be interesting to see solid statistics comparing things like 
obesity rates, abuse, time between a follow up request and the provision of 
service and overall success rates between programs that retain ownership and 
those that don't.  My hunch is that there is no correlation between 
ownership and these items.  I think the better indicator is the quality of 
the applicant screening process, and the quality of the training at the 
program

Julie