Check the L.A. TIMES: there's more detail about the Canine Dental "Disarming" story.

So my friend Laura sent me the link to another story about the "canine disarming" of that dog. This time it's written by the owner of the dog. It's got more detail than the first story. You can read it by clicking on the title line of this post. You can also read what my friend Laura has to say about it in her Los Angeles Dog Blog: http://www.petdogtrainer.com/blog/
She outlines many of the inherent problems with the woman's methodology quite well.

Anyway, in it the woman gives details of the many different things she tried to resolve this problem. She went to group classes at PetSmart (not the place for solving as severe a problem as she claims to have.) She also tells of the ONE trainer that she consulted (besides CM of course) and of the MANY books and videos that she read. One has to assume that she got most of her "training" ideas from the books and videos since she only actually mentions the one trainer. From this story, it sounds like that one trainer didn't work out too well, so she just went about working on this problem on her own.

To me, this would be a little like going to ONE doctor for a serious medical condition and then upon discovering that he hadn't helped you, grabbing a "surgical procedure for dummies" book and operating on yourself. It makes no sense. Actually, the 'kitchen sink" approach that she applied to this problem could be part of the reason she was so unsuccessful!

She also mentions that she has an invisible fence...that right there raises a HUGE red flag! It's hard to believe that any qualified professional would not immediately see how that could be exacerbating the problem. I'm actually too cranky from reading the story to go into any coherent explanation as to why invisible fences can contribute to aggression issues. Go to Laura's blog: she does a good job of explaining it in her post.

What most disturbs me about this story right now is how it could influence people who are looking for a "quick fix" to an aggression problem. It paints this procedure out to be such an easy and reasonable answer, without ever examining it's harmful repercussions to the dog. The question of whether or not it will make the dog's behavior worse is never even asked. Is it humane? Is it fair? Will it actually do more harm than good to the dog, doesn't seem to matter. That it's easy, and that it requires nothing further from the owner is all that seems to be important. I'm sorry for this little dog, to be sure. But I'm worried about more pets being put through to ridiculous and unnecessary procedure after this story is circulated.

Ggrrrrrrrrrrrr.........
this story makes me angry enough to BITE!

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