I consult with shelters in Indiana regarding canine enrichment. I also work with rescue groups in solving behavior issues in the foster home and I work with lots of groups if someone adopts a dog and calls wanting to return or ask for help so we can try and keep the dog in the original home.
I am currently working with a very small Indiana shelter. It is governed by the city. There are three part-time workers and some volunteers. There are 11 dog kennels. They are very small; about 3 by 5 feet. The city mandated "no kill" and there are now two dogs in the shelter that have been there between 1.5 and 2.5 years. One of them has at least five bites to people; and three of those bites would be graded Levels 3 and 4 on the Ian Dunbar bite scale. The other dog is kennel spinning (for hours). It also has a level 3 bite history.
Both dogs are walked by volunteers off the shelter's property and several of the bites have occurred to members of the public who were walking (or in one case running) by the dogs. Upon my recommendation these two dogs are no longer allowed off shelter property and sadly a volunteer has now taken to social media and is telling people how horrible this decision is.
Both dogs are mentally suffering. They do get outside in play yards a few times a day and the walks from volunteers (there are only a few volunteers who feel safe walking the dogs), but there is no one to work on their behavior issues. Both dogs have been listed multiple times on various shelter rescue pages. No one has come forward to foster either dog and both dogs would need special foster placement anyway just to make sure no one else is bitten. The only way to truly help them at this point would be to get them into a home and into a behavior modification program under the guidance of a certified behavioral veterinarian and a really great trainer.
This shelter does not have the resources currently to help these dogs. There are lots of things they can do in the future to make sure they don't get into this situation again and the mayor has agreed to paying me to come back and help with training for volunteers and staff, but I cannot save these dogs at this time in this shelter. I hate thinking of them spending years in these tiny kennels.
The woman who oversees the shelter (volunteer liaison to the mayor) would like to euthanize these two dogs, but the mayor would like documentation about dogs suffering in a long-term shelter setting.
I feel bad that this is my first post here and it is about euthanasia when this organization has done so much to stop unnecessary behavior euthanasia; but these dogs are suffering in their current situation. Does anyone have anything that I could provide for this mayor that discusses mental stress on canines in long-term kennel housing?
Thank you for reading!
Connie
PS in somewhat better news, prior to this shelter being built, dogs were taken out to the country and shot by the police; so the shelter is definitely a step in the right direction.
#PetBehaviorandTraining