Rescue Journal

wow...

Carol · Dec. 14, 2009

takes a lot to wow me first thing in the morning. max and rosie did it tho. how much urine can 2 kidney dogs produce in one night?....apparently as much as wilbur and jazz used to....i may soon be writing my morning gum boot and indoor rubber dingy posts again....they may be somewhat funny to folks without urine floating rooms but do present a bit of a problem for someone who LIKES to wear slippers instead of wellies when getting out of bed everyday.

i asked mo yesterday.....can we please send all of dogs to the other shelters and rescues for adoption appropriateness assessments?...if they don't fail on health stuff, they might fail on temperment...i bet we would only get a handful back again...ok...maybe only 2 or 3.

bye reg, bye phebes, bye 4lane, max, jess, jerry, caspar....and bye-bye to all the rest!

i do think we should temperment test humans first....certain human personality traits are pretty difficult to live with too. think about it...honestly..how many of us think we would pass a temperment test? are we possessive...(do we OWN our dogs and ain't no one going to tell us we don't cuz by OWNING them we think we keep them safe?...keep your freaking hands off of my hamburger you moron....)...do we get mad when someone pisses us off? (like OMG, meet a stupid human with an offleash dog, who should by law or brains have that dog on a leash)...how many fights do we have with our neighbors over the fence? how many times do we get into arguments with our co-workers, drivers on the road? people who park in handicapped zones?...how many times in a day do we display socially unacceptable behaviors... do we yell.... do we scream... do we throw things around, slam cupboard doors and act really out of control.... are we sometimes snarky, rude, bossy (come on...many of us ARE bossy)....just plain mean....

(my question mark button just crapped out....SHIT!!! i was in the middle of asking a lot of questions!) this is my question mark now...ÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉ...what the hell is thatÉÉÉÉ

i would pass on a good day with flying colors..i really am patient with my feet solidily on the ground...on a bad day tho i would probably be heading for the back room.

i do actually get the reasons behind temperment testing......there are animals who need to be let go who are not safe to live with humans.
but fair is fair....why can`t we test humans too (we can start with shelter,rescue folks first as a trial project and see how they do...) that sounds like fun.

wow..lucas just emptied his bladder on the wire kitchen door...maybe his kidneys ain`t all that great either.

Leila

Well Carol I finally took your advice and have not read the food guarding thread on brindle. I would think most shelters would not euthanize over food resource issues unless the dog is like Seeger (I'm a pyscho dog who will kill you if you touch my stuff - really I will kill you). All mammals resource guard something including humans. It is the survival instinct kicking in. You should see my brother resource guard his food - too funny. Testing for resource guarding should be part of helping shelter/rescue figure out what kind of home the dog should go to.

Carol

you are right of course leila..i am just pissed at the resource, food guarding thread on brindle...can these dogs be responsibly placed in adoptive homes? quite a few believe not..so what happens to them in the end???
you are like me..you see issues as things that can be managed, worked on, lived with...i get that for you temperment testing is just more pieces of the puzzle to put together...but...for some folks out there...temperment testing is the ultimate answer to life or not...i think this is a bit harsh because the temperment tests are basically flawed IF one discounts the dogs point of view.

Leila

"i do actually get the reasons behind temperment testing……there are animals who need to be let go who are not safe to live with humans".

This is not why dogs are temperment tested Carol. The main purpose of temperment testing is to figure out what type of dog you have so you can hopefully find the right kind of home for the dog (i.e. dog has a food resourcing problem - don't put the dog in a home with small children or dog gets very excited very quickly, probably shouldn't go into a very busy house hold but into a quieter/active household where a lot of attention will be paid to him.

Temperment tests also show how strongly a dog will feel an emotion like anger -since everybody seems to like talking about that emotion (i.e. reaction type one: grrr get away from me I am eating my bone - oh I didn't mean it, I can share. reaction type two: I am going to make a lot of noise cause you just pissed me off - boy I am really, really mad. reaction type three: Hey, get the fxxx of, I am now going to pummel you into the ground and possibly knife you). This would be similar to temperment testing people who drive in rush hour traffic. Most people would probably grr when someone when cuts them off but go on with their day, some might get really, really angry and honnnnnnnnkkk their horn at you or possibly drive very fast up beside you so they can give you the finger. Then there is the driver who will try to drive you off the road, want you to pull over so he can come over and bash your head in. Temperment tests register low to extreme reactions to a situation.

On a very bad day Carol, you might think of killing someone but you wouldn't go through with it. On a very bady day, you might possibly slap someone but they wouldn't take you the back room for that. Temperment testing is not an evil thing and you don't fail just because you have negative reactions to stressful situations as most mammals do have a negative reaction of some kind.

Maybe we should temperment test potential life mates. Maybe there wouldn't be so many returns (i.e. divorces/break ups. In the human world, I believe the rate of return is 50%). Think of shelters/rescues trying to cut down on the divorce rate/break up etc.

I know that we don't put our fosters through a temperment test that is as structured as a shelter/rescue. But I do put my foster dogs in situations to see how they react i.e. I introduced Screech to a new dog in a very stimulating environment - it was new, it had a lot of people and dog activity, and oh my god he was on leash. The dog was a very nice, calm girl who had extremely good dog manners and Screech did not so he failed. But it doesn't mean I'm going to kill him and nor would it necessarily mean so in a shelter.

My foster dogs go through tests constantly without them knowing because they are not staying with me and I have to find them a good home. That is based on me knowing as much as I can about the dog in many different situations. Maybe because I temperment tests myself and I have seen dogs find appropriate homes at the shelter based on temperment tests, I don't to see them as a bad thing.

Greg

are we possessive... do we get mad when someone pisses us off?... how many fights do we have with our neighbors over the fence?... how many times do we get into arguments with our co-workers, drivers on the road? people who park in handicapped zones?... how many times in a day do we display socially unacceptable behaviors… do we yell…. do we scream… do we throw things around, slam cupboard doors and act really out of control…. are we sometimes snarky, rude, bossy (come on…many of us ARE bossy)….just plain mean….

----Yikes... I can think of only one person that I've ever met in my life that matches this description. Life's too short to associate yourself with these types.

wow...

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