For almost eight years I worked in shelters – three private shelters and one municipal animal control agency. Later, I was on the board of directors of one of the largest humane societies in the country. I’ve seen every aspect of pet overpopulation, shelters, adoptions, rescue, animal cruelty investigation, leash law violations and enforcement, humane education and warm fuzzy puppies that lick your face and tickle your nose. I’ve seen adoptions go right and adoptions go horribly wrong. I’ve seen just about every wrinkle you can come up with to deal with this horrendous cultural problem. After I gave my heart and soul to the “humane movement” for those very difficult years, I got out, kinda. I started fixing dogs retail after being completely unable to help them, wholesale. Continue reading →

Note: Harley was a purebred Golden retriever. I didn’t make him up. I was the shelter manager in this tale. I remember clearly which kennel he was in and the various scenes presented here. i.e. It’s not a fantasy. It’s the reality that few people realize. Oh, I should mention that I am the person who very reluctantly killed him. There wasn’t really any “death row” – merely my subjective decision on any given morning. We kept him three weeks – far longer than any other dog I remember.

At two years of age, Harley was in the prime of his life. He could expect many more years of service to his master. Then one day his life changed – his owner died in a car accident. Harley’s owner had left specific instructions for Harley’s future. He was to go to the owner’s brother, Tim. Tim had other ideas. Tim was going through a divorce. Harley went to the pound. Continue reading →

A recent edition of the Behavior Analyst (the general magazine of the Assoc. for Behavior Analysis International) suggested new avenues and professions for behavior analysts. One of the fields mentioned was animal training with a focus on dog training. The article paints a picture that is wholly inaccurate. Dog training is a business driven by dog owners. No one cares about theoretical or intellectual achievements that do not benefit clients and their animals. Unless you own a million gallon tank and a selection of whales and dolphins, those “accomplishments” are moot points. As plumbers must know how to fix a leak, trainers must know how to stop unacceptable behavior, often immediately. That is the rub. Behavior analysts do not know how to stop behavior and almost universally oppose the logical, evidence-based tool of choice – punishment. (As proven in their own literature. Ulrich, Wolfe and Dulaney, JEAB, 1969, Punishment of Shock Induced Aggression…you can Google it and read it yourself)   Continue reading →

The other day I was working with a Dorkie – half Dachshund and half Yorkie. This little guy is territorial, fearful and aggressive…a perfect mix of the two breeds. When I first met him, he charged me at the front door. I dropped my soft brief case right in front of him and he turned and ran in the opposite direction, screaming as if he was being killed. After that experience there wasn’t any way he was going to warm up to me. Well, not exactly. I knew what he needed to jump start our relationship. I had the owner put him on a six-foot leash and then I sat on the ground. I took the leash and he hit the end of it like a tuna – trying to get away from me. Then I did something I have done literally thousands of times. I pulled him about two feet toward me. I waited a bit and did it again. I did it one last time so that he was touching my legs. Then I let him run to the end of the leash, where I started the process again. Continue reading →

“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson.

“The only completely consistent people are the dead.” – Aldous Huxley

There you have it. Consistency isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, for a very good reason. Life is dynamic. Things change. To be successful, complex organisms have to have the ability to adapt their behavior to circumstances. This fact illustrates the need for two types of variability if survival is the game. First, there is learning a new behavior. You are wet and you need to get dry. You scrape your skin with the curved rib bone of a deer you killed yesterday and use it like a squeegee. Once the use of a flat blade to scrape water off your skin is one of your skills, the second part of learning takes place. When confronted with a novel situation, do you use an existing behavior or learn a new one? Sometimes slightly modifying an existing behavior does the trick and sometimes something entirely new is required. Often, if you stick to old solutions you may die for lack of variability. Nature doesn’t like one-trick-ponies. Continue reading →