BSL, Little People and Saving America's Dog from being banned.

The past couple weeks have been a whirlwind.  As we enter winter months group classes in the park have wound down and we have been picking up more private sessions than anything.

A couple weekends ago we were at the St. Louis Pet Expo. It was my first huge expo and while it went well, events like this is a huge amount of stress for me. Seeing dog after dog in choke, prong and shock collars is rough on me. Seeing those dogs on tight leashes going nose to nose with random dogs they don't know is even more stressful.  I saw small dogs snapping at large dogs, and large dogs getting yanked and cranked on their leashes. Yes, I needed a shutdown protocol after all that.

I did get to talk to Shorty Rossi of Animal Planet's Pit Boss show though and meet a lot of people who want to remove BSL in Missouri towns.

Shorty, Hercules and me at the St. Louis Pet Expo

The next day one of the people here who had adopted a husky contacted me. They wanted to know if there way any way I could help a family in Missouri. The family lives in a town where there is a breed ban and they had been given a week to remove their dogs from the town. The dogs were rehomed and the family is doing everything possible to try and get the ban lifted. 

There is a reason BSL (Breed Specific Legislation) doesn't work. People who own pit bulls and pit mixes who use them for bad will simply just house them in a basement or where they can't be seen. Meanwhile, the families who have well behaved dogs, who have never hurt anyone or anything are ripped apart and have to rehome their family member. BSL doesn't punish bad owners, it punishes the good owners who have done nothing wrong. 

The cost to maintain BSL is very expensive. Animal Control Officers are constantly having to go on calls burning up fuel in their trucks, being paid after hours, and if they take a dog who is CLEARLY not a pit bull, then they have to fight a very expensive legal battle. Most owners, even who have done nothing wrong will simply hide the dog. Now you have a person who doesn't want to break the law breaking the law. The city now has to pay to euthanize healthy dogs. For every shot they use, every turning on of a gas chamber it costs money. Training is expensive for officers and animal control officers. 

To identify a pit bull dog is very difficult. Even people who have the breed can't agree. How is Animal Control and Police Officers supposed to identify a pit bull? What percentage of pit mix makes the dog fall under the ban law? Is every square boxy head going to be confiscated? Where does it stop? So a lab who is bulky will be banned? Most dogs are mutts and they obviously don't come with a pedigree. And DNA testing? DNA is not all that reliable. I've seen dogs who look like pit bulls and the DNA comes back that they are part Papillion. 

BSL started to stop dog bites. Responsibility stops dog bites. Education stops dog bites. Leash laws and Spay/Neuter stops dog bites. Banning an entire breed that can't even be recognized on sight does NOT stop dog bites. It's not the dogs who are dangerous, it's the person holding the leash (or in a lot of cases not holding the leash) is the danger. It starts with education and showing the public that these dogs are not demons. 

Talk to your councilmen. Show them your well behaved dogs. Talk to your community. Get out there and educate people! Bring in trainers who can show what fun a well trained pit bull can be. Teach your dog manners so when out in public the dog isn't a hot mess. And NEVER EVER bring a dog to a rally or an event who has the potential to be a headline in the making. I KNOW they can be good dogs! I see it ever day with clients, shelter dogs, and friend's dogs. 

Now, if you would like to see the dogs from Florissant, MO that have been removed from the city you can go HERE. And I caution you about EVER taking a banned dog into a city that has a breed ban. When I was trying to save two dogs in my breed neutral town here in Illinois, the Animal Control Administrator said to my client "If it was any other breed, we wouldn't be having this talk". Those two dogs are dead. 

Now, for fun....go to Pick The Pit and play the game. I got it right on the first try, but as the statistics state, the average is 9 tries to get it right! Leave a comment here on the blog and let us know how many tries it took you! 

Worst Idea Ever

So, upon my nightly cruising of the internet I found an ad on Facebook that caught my eye. "Register your Emotional Support Animal". My first response was pretty typical of me..."What the heck is an Emotional Support Animal???" Then I realized what I was looking at.

It is a website that allows you to register your dog as a "service" dog and then buy certificates for it. I am floored by this! I have a friend who is a very nice all around guy who has a dog who he has had to fight to keep because of her breed and she helps him with his PTSD. He's a former Afghanistan Vet and she soothes him. The hell he has went through to keep her because of her breed has been insane but it has worked out. To see a "company" basically selling certificates just makes me queasy.

Dogs who are untested, unproofed, and basically not setup for success at being a service dog can now be a service dog. Wait! That makes no sense! This is a liability waiting to happen. This is a chance for the humans once again to screw it up for the legitimate service animals who are working their rears off for their humans.

Ever wonder why so many places don't allow dogs? It's things like this that cause that. The website is in no way affiliated with the ADA and I suggest that if you want a service animal you have your dog tested, trained and skilled in the ability they need. Otherwise, don't screw it up for everyone else!

Here is a link to the site should you wish to pelt them with rotten tomatoes...or just tell them they are going to ruin a good thing for so many deserving people! http://www.servicedogregistration.org/ Oh, and should anyone ever tell you "Fill out this webform and your dog can go anywhere it wants for free" is full of crap!

</Rant off>

Misunderstandings can kill a dog

This past week has been pretty crazy around here. Last Wednesday I got a call that a dog I had assessed and worked with a bit had been impounded for killing a cat. The family was going to pay the bail to my knowledge and life was going to go on. Well, needless to say, things never go as planned!

Louis, a beautiful American Staffordshire Terrier lost his home in April due to his owner going to jail. He lived with Rocky, a Chihuahua and another mixed breed dog. He lived with a child and was one of those dogs who was patient with the people he came across in his life and just loved to sprawl in the sun. Sadly Louie (as we all call him) needed a place to crash while his owner's family figured out where to house him. No one knows how long his owner is going to be in jail but Louie doesn't deserve to live in a kennel in a facility until that day comes. He hung out with Scott County Dog Rescue until arrangements could be made for him.

This is Louie in the home he went to after his stay at SCDR. He was happy, he was healthy, he was cared for.

Louie doesn't like cats though! That is his only downfall. He socialized with the dogs at SCDR and was fine. He grew up with children and he can tolerate a lot from them even when he shouldn't have to. While in his temporary home his family found for him he killed a neighbor's stray cat that roams outside. This is where the story gets crazy. People said he was running lose. People said he was chained to a tree during it. Everyone had a different story as to how this happened.

There is one more thing about Louie that is bad. He was taught to not like people in uniform. His original owner, the man in jail taught him to bark and growl at people in uniform. It was said that when the police came to seize him for the cat killing he growled and barked at the police officer. That is a learned behavior. He has been taught to do that. So, he must have it retrained. He needs to understand that people in uniform are not bad. And Louie has seen me in uniform. I, though, go in with a different posture. It's loose, friendly and I come with treats to give the dogs. Louie never growled, never barked at me, and in fact he snorted like a pig the entire time.

Animal Control deemed him dangerous because he was "Obviously violent". It was said he was wrestled to be controlled. Louie has bad legs. He limps severely. He has a massive body and his joints are taking the toll because of it. On Friday when we realized the family couldn't pay his bail, we all panicked. We all started leaving messages for the ACO, the Animal Control Administrator, and the State's Attorney office. Louie was going to die Tuesday at 1pm. Somehow we received a stay of execution and was granted a hearing.

Luckily I keep behavior assessments on every dog I do an evaluation on. I took it, my credentials, my references, and a behavior assessment on a dog who IS dangerous who has a very assorted bite history. My training partner, Kayla went with me. This was the first time I brought her with me. She went on the assessment of Louie with me and I felt her knowledge of Louie would help. I also needed as much moral support as I could get. Last time I was in this position, it didn't end well and I felt scared and lost.

It was a fiasco and no one in court could agree on anything other than if Louie could be deemed not dangerous he would be remanded to my custody and I would remove him from the county to a rescue who dealt only with pit bull type dogs. The sheriff though who is the Animal Control Administrator had to make that call though. The ACO agreed to let us see Louie after the hearing. We had a volunteer who has never met him go in first to see if he growled at her. Nothing. Wiggling rear end for attention is what we got. Typical Louie!

Louie after court with me. He grabbed my entire bag of food roll I had chopped up. I can't say I tried too hard to keep ahold of it. The look on Becky's face is priceless though. Kayla removed the bag seconds later from his mouth with no problem.

Wednesday Louie was deemed not dangerous and I took custody of him. We made the long journey north to his new foster home. As soon as he was in our SUV he passed out cold. He had probably spent the entire time in animal control not getting any rest and he was exhausted. He slept the entire 3 hours on my foot.

After we got him there, we bathed him, got him all settled in and he fell back asleep. Louie will now start a journey after his shutdown protocol. The good news for me is that I get to still be in his life. I work with the rescue as their trainer and get to make sure he is ready to go into a home and live a happy and full life. There was a lot of tears, stress, and fears while dealing with this. All in a days work for us here though. I've always said I would do what it takes to keep dogs in a home, I hadn't planned on being ready to walk into a courtroom at the drop of a hat though. I'm glad I keep such good records on the dogs and can help when needed. 

Louie all tucked in and ready to start his new life.

Pitties In Need Kennels has taken Louie on as a foster and he will be available through them for adoption after his shutdown protocol. They can be reached on Facebook or by contacting Rebecca Hill in Kewanee. I can never thank them enough for being willing to take him on. I met Rebecca by chance when I assessed her dogs and her drive to save these dogs as well as do right by them with training made a huge impact on me. Thank you Rebecca!

One small victory!

I lived in Wayne County, Ohio. When I moved to Illinois 12 years ago I never realized that there would be a reason that I couldn't go home again. Wooster, Ohio made that decision for me.

When I moved here I didn't plan on falling in love with a breed that would make travel a little more difficult because they were banned. Alas, love is blind and that's exactly what happened. My parents live in a breed neutral town, but if you want to shop (most of my art supplies came from Wooster) or go out to dinner, you went to Wooster as it was only 15 minutes away.

Last night that changed though. The breed I love can now enter Wooster as they became breed neutral! A huge weight has been lifted! No more do the words "he's mostly lab" have to be said. Any dog can be mistaken for a pit bull, but I see the American Staffordshire in Greyson more than when we got him at 8 weeks. Boxy jawline, large forehead, strong muscular chest. To me, he's just Greyson, but to someone who isn't familiar to mix breeds, at the right angle, we're screwed. But no longer!

Barb Knapic was sent a lot of emails and letters. People spoke out and truthfully she said it best when she agreed last night the ban doesn't work by voting to remove it. It is costly to test dogs and she admitted it herself. Law enforcement and animal control officers have to be trained to know breeds and how many in cities with bans are even trained? Greyson has the fur of a lab/akita mix, but he has the body of a pit bull. So what breed does that make him? It's a fine line and most animal control officers wouldn't be able to identity what Greyson is correctly.

Thank you Wayne County residents for reaching out to Barb and all the rest of the Wooster officials! And most of all, I can go home with any dog I have in my care! And now when I come home I won't feel I can't go anywhere for fear of having to fight a battle I would lose!

Greyson likes to show off his boxy head!