AWLA Hawk

Here’s a post sent to us by an AWLA insider who read the front-page article in AWLA’s Pawpourri newsletter about dog evaluations and felt compelled to present a less whitewashed view of those evaluations.

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When a dog is brought into the AWLA shelter, either as an owner surrender or as a stray, a lot happens before it receives a behavior evaluation. It is given a general exam by the animal care staff, and is usually given basic vaccinations (not including rabies) and basic deworming medicines. Then it is put in a kennel “off view.”

The off-view kennels consist of the back half of the cage that shelter visitors see. The dogs may be permitted use of the full run when the shelter is closed. A stray dog is held for 5-10 days before it is evaluated. If the dog is an owner-surrender, it may be evaluated immediately, but is usually given time to adjust to the shelter. The adjustment period may be as short as a few days or as long as a couple of weeks.

During this time before evaluation, the dog is generally not taken outside. This can be torture for a housetrained dog. It will hold everything in for as long as it can, even to the point of making itelf sick. When the dog finally does relieve itself, it will often try to hide it by eliminating on its blanket and covering it up. When it wants to lie down, it then must either lie on the cold hard floor or the soiled blanket.

In the Winter 2010 issue of Pawpourri, on page two it states that dogs are taken for a “brief walk” before their evaluation, and that “a housetrained dog will typically keep their kennel clean and relieve themselves immediately upon going outside.” The short walk consists of walking outside from one end of the shelter to the other. This is not much time to observe the dog’s behavior.

As for relieving themselves, these dogs are not on a schedule. Some have not set foot outdoors for two weeks. They may have just gone to the bathroom when they finally are taken out. They may be distracted by the pure joy of finally being outside after so long. They may be overwhelmed by all the sights and sounds. Certainly, this is a great time to observe the dogs, but the circumstances are so unlike anything these dogs have experienced before, that any information gleaned from this observation must be viewed with a skeptical eye.

The Pawpourri article goes on to say that the dog being evaluated is then taken to the general purpose room. This is usually the case, though sometimes that room is being used and the evaluation is relocated to the staff kitchen/lounge. Both of these rooms smell like food, people, other dogs, and sometimes even cats or other animals.

As anyone who has ever had a dog knows, dogs ‘think’ with their noses. There is a lot of information to be deciphered by sniffing in corners and under tables. There are also huge windows in these rooms, with trees and shrubs just outside. Can anyone say “SQUIRREL!?”

With so many distractions, how can AWLA expect these dogs to focus on a handler they’ve never seen before and to whom they have no connection? Sure, some will. Others, like Barley from In Unsafe Hands, will be more interested in the many new sights and smells around them. Barley’s response during his evaluation does not mean that he was not a social dog.

Max (profiled in the same entry) never even had the opportunity to get out of the kennel. His evaluation was based solely on observing him through the cage door. After more than a week in a cage, with no understanding of why he was there, can you blame him for not coming to the front of the kennel to greet these strangers? Would you joyously greet your prison guards, when you’ve been wrongfully imprisoned?

The article goes on to discuss testing dogs for resource guarding issues and mentions shows on Animal Planet which use an Assess-A-Hand to see how dogs react when the fake hand is repeatedly put in the dog’s food bowl and touches the dog’s face while it is eating.

While it certainly is important to know how a dog responds when food is near, it should be noted that many animal behaviorists don’t believe this type of testing is particularly accurate or useful. The 11-week-old puppy, Alex, was euthanized based on several factors including food-guarding. Is there no one at AWLA capable of training and socializing an 11-week-old puppy? Wht wasn’t Alex offered to any rescue groups that may have been better equipped to deal with his perceived issues?

I believe that Animal Planet was mentioned in the article to give validity to AWLA’s evaluation methods. However, those same shows use dolls to gauge a dog’s reaction to babies and small children? I don’t know any dog that can’t tell the difference between a toy and a human. Thankfully, AWLA does not employ that practice. However, AWLA does use a stuffed cat to test if a dog is cat friendly. I wonder how many of these dogs have been given a stuffed animal as a toy to play with, chew on, and perhaps even destroy. Again, dogs know the difference between a toy and the real thing!

There is so much more I could write in response to the Pawpourri article and perhaps I will at a later date. I do believe that some form of behavior evaluation is useful to get a general idea of a dog’s nature. However, most animals exhibit vastly different personalities outside of the shelter environment. Many of the dogs that AWLA has euthanized recently would have thrived in a foster home and made wonderful pets.