I just watched the first part of that three part miniseries about the Dog section of Best Friends in Utah. I have to say, there were a few things that made me go "buh??"
First there was a little terrier who came from a puppy mill bust who was nasty, unsocialized and aggressive. When they picked him up from the pound, they stuffed him into one of those little mesh bags which they put inside a plastic crate cause they thought he might chew through it, which he did. I'm thinking ummmm ok it would have been a lot less stressful on everybody if you had just put him in a plastic crate in the first place!
With that same terrier one of the ladies muzzled him and wet him down and tried to work the poopy solid matts out of his coat because she believed that dogs should have their natural coat and that it would be "a really stressful change" for the terrier's coat to be shaved down. They ended up having to shave it down anyway because it was too matted. More unnecessary stress for the dog! I also noticed they mentioned that if the terrier didn't learn to socialize that he would "spend the rest of his life alone". Soo I guess they don't euthanize?
The other thing that boggled my brain was the way they introduced the dog "Ruger" to other dogs - by taking him into a small pen on a leash (with gloves and citronella spray) and letting another dog off leash into the pen with him. Then they go on to say that Ruger has the problem socializing when the other dog was being very confrontational and Ruger was giving clear "I'm scared - leave me alone" signals. I don't think Ruger had the problem at all!
On the other hand, they did good work with that lab that had Demodex mange and they did have some good information the horrors of puppy mills. I guess I give this episode 2 out of four stars.
First there was a little terrier who came from a puppy mill bust who was nasty, unsocialized and aggressive. When they picked him up from the pound, they stuffed him into one of those little mesh bags which they put inside a plastic crate cause they thought he might chew through it, which he did. I'm thinking ummmm ok it would have been a lot less stressful on everybody if you had just put him in a plastic crate in the first place!
With that same terrier one of the ladies muzzled him and wet him down and tried to work the poopy solid matts out of his coat because she believed that dogs should have their natural coat and that it would be "a really stressful change" for the terrier's coat to be shaved down. They ended up having to shave it down anyway because it was too matted. More unnecessary stress for the dog! I also noticed they mentioned that if the terrier didn't learn to socialize that he would "spend the rest of his life alone". Soo I guess they don't euthanize?
The other thing that boggled my brain was the way they introduced the dog "Ruger" to other dogs - by taking him into a small pen on a leash (with gloves and citronella spray) and letting another dog off leash into the pen with him. Then they go on to say that Ruger has the problem socializing when the other dog was being very confrontational and Ruger was giving clear "I'm scared - leave me alone" signals. I don't think Ruger had the problem at all!
On the other hand, they did good work with that lab that had Demodex mange and they did have some good information the horrors of puppy mills. I guess I give this episode 2 out of four stars.
