ArcticFuzz.DK

Sweet Mia… R.I.P.

February 16, 2010 on 4:33 pm | In Blog | 2 Comments

20 months, we got this sweet little puppy from a shelter. Mia was just 12 weeks old when we picked her up and the last of a litter of 11 puppies. When we got her, she was acting a bit shy, but we really didn’t think much of it to start with, thinking that it might just be down to that she was a puppy, but when we started with training and also seeing how she reacted when we were out walking her, it became clear to us that it was more than that. We spend time with a trainer to start with and had great success in obedience training, but we never could get her to not shy away from strangers or new objects. Over the past year, we’ve done everything we could to correct this behavior, but without any luck. Actually it’s just gotten worse. Sometimes she’d shy away from something or someone without obvious reason or patterns and end up on the road, in front of cars, or simply getting aggressive, which we’ve especially seen lately where she’s attacked other dogs.

After having talked with behaviorists and trainers, we’ve found out that what we’ve done was more than anyone could expect us to do, but also had to realize that breeding and genes, you simply can’t fix. Her being a mix of a collie and a German shepherd, makes her even more dangerous. The collie is shy of nature and it’s not much of a problem since it’s not aggressive. But add the genes of the German shepherd and you got an explosive mix. Sometimes it ends up not being an issue, but with Mia – well she ended up getting the worst of both worlds, so after the last time she directly attacked a dog, we’ve decided it was best for her and us that she was put to sleep. At the consultation with our vet, we had our decision confirmed with him. He had seen this behavior before and also seen many people who did not take the right decision and where things had gone horribly wrong.

Mia went to sleep at 13:30 CET. We sat with her for the time until she breathed the last time. It was a peaceful time and we are glad that we could offer her a worthy exit from this world.

We will miss her lots. She’s always been a loving dog towards us and has been a joy to train, when we overlook her problems. She will be missed greatly.

Rest in peace, dear Mia.

Patiently answering why

-illys adding on the blog entry

Our dog has been both a great big blessing and a difficulty- hubby was a bit nervous when we first got her. As I remember, he told me that he was questioning if getting Mia was the right choice as we drove home with her. A feeling, really, just that, but we had signed the non-refundable contract with the kennel, and the anticipation of caring for, training and enjoying a dog was high. We don’t have state-owned dog pounds and large institutions for dogs and cats here in Denmark- it’s a smaller group that takes care of homeless animals, and it was a private kennel that had just joined into the animal protection group that we got Mia from.

The biggest question that has been on my heart for the past month, and the months before, was how best to handle Mia’s nervous and timid side. I’ve been her trainer and most active teacher, and while there has been a decent learning curve with Mia, she was a very easy dog to teach new things and train to heel. I studied a great deal on dog behavior advice websites and have been in active contact with our vet-nurses and the local dog-training specialist- classes and all, and contact with a dog-behavior advisor. I’ve put daily effort into training and the things one can do to lessen timidity and nervousness in dogs, such as the use of treats, the correction of nervous behaviors by not actively avoiding the things that make the dog nervous, and going further by ignoring the unwanted behavior so as not to encourage the behavior.

I feel that the biggest question I’m going to face from friends and family that have not been around Mia on a weekly or daily basis is ‘why’? Couldn’t you have tried this or that, or adopted her to another family, or just used a muzzle on her, or.. or…? Personally I would have probably chosen, had I been making the decision alone, to continue trainings and getting advice. I would have searched to adopt her away, but when I look down those roads with logic in mind, I would have been putting both Mia and myself in very difficult circumstances. Some folk are given to waiting until there is no other option than putting a dog down, as it is seen as the worst possible choice. With dog shows and behavioral advice given so widely it’s made to look as if any dog can be trained to be ideal, and that anything is possible as long as you try hard enough-

But honestly, I want to remember Mia as loving and without having developed further on the track of anxiety and fear that she showed. We have watched it carefully for patterns, for what we could do to intervene, and for logic in it, but from the breeding history and intimate knowledge we have of our pet, it was clear that her personality trouble had it’s root in her genetics, and not in abuse or poor socialization. She has, on the opposite scale, had every opportunity and experience available to dogs living in aarup.

Am I the sort to sweep a problem under a rug and ignore it? Nope- and I honestly do not see ignoring Mia’s behavioral pointers as responsible toward her or to our family. The stories of what those indicators were are many, but in the interest of brevity, I do not wish to explain every one to the very end of the list. She snapped at the neck of one of our cats once in guarding her food bowl, and while we laughed rather in surprise that she showed that behavior, in hindsight we can see that when she attacked a fellow dog, it is the same pattern we saw earlier in smaller scale. Her anxiousness I have also seen in action on multiple occasions when she shied right into the street or headed blindly into danger in avoidance, and when a dog is in the midst of a panic attack, they are all muscle and not attentive to their owner- and I have been in that role as protector!

I have no wish to see my animal on the grill of someone’s truck, or come out of a shop to find that she has bitten or fled from someone who thought that she was fine enough to pet, either.

Now the question of adopting away a nervous/anxious dog- we were considering it as a possibility when it became harder and harder to mediate her anxious behavior with training and being the pack leader on walks. The possibility was always there, that a more knowledgeable owner could smooth her out of her growing state. When she began to show her aggressive streak more, though.. When she attacked the calm Labrador on Sunday, Mike turned to me and said that with behavioral signs like that, he would not consider giving the dog on to someone else. The network for dog specialization is very thin, and we would be still in turn responsible for the aggressions she would show later. Mike’s been very wary on the front of aggression- with timidity alone a dog is manageable, but we’ve heard plenty from pound workers and dog workers on Animal Planet that they’d rather work with an aggressive or defensive dog any day than a dog that is aggressive out of fear. A creature ruled by fear acts unpredictably, and that is, I am sorry to say, what we have seen developing in Mia.

Why did we choose to euthanize rather than adopt away? As the vet said, it is a wise and responsible thing to do to stop a dog like this early, before the situation becomes traumatic. While it is traumatic for us in the short run to be bereft of our dog and to be responsible for her euthanization, we have acted because we have wanted her to have had the best life we can give, and that was today with falling asleep in our arms. It is more traumatic to be passed between caretakers and in unstable circumstances than handled with love at home.

Give that I lived in a rural situation where I could teach Mia to help me in herding animals or on a farm where her timidity would be less pronounced, but I do not have that sort of home or the chance to change to it. I haven’t won the lotto yet! In my struggles in the past nights with the pending appointment, I wobbled much. Mia has been my companion animal, and a steadfast one with both the joys and the difficulties of her personality. The input I had from talking with my closest family members was mixed, and I simply could not adopt the idea of muzzling my animal because I was afraid of what she might do! Indeed, that doesn’t protect myself or her from the flight instinct that has lurched the leash out of my hand before.

It was one simple and straight thought that I kept my finger on. Mia was adopted to help me, and not me to serve her- and yes, I know it sounds harsh, but listen! I have served, with a great deal of enjoyment, in training, feeding, grooming, daily walks, socialization excersizes, play, etc, etc- and in turn gotten the love, companionship and obedience that dogs give. In spades! But fear- either my dog living in fear, or myself living in it, I cannot do that. I cannot abide allowing a miasma of angst and insecurity to dwell in my walls, for I’ve already dealt with it- cancer, mental abuse, the difficulties of diabetes mellititus- I’ve experienced these things. Ignoring a serious problem, or having to live with one for a longer period hollows one’s bones. Yeah, a bit of fancy language there, but.. perhaps you get my drift.

Dear fellow dog owners, love your animals! Take serious steps slowly and with much consideration. Involve your vet and other knowledgeable advisers, and give your all in being a good leader for your dog. Mia is not the last dog we want to make a part of the family, but we are going to save what we can for a properly-bred puppy from a breeder we take time to get to know. Mia was the most shy puppy out of a litter from an anxious bitch that a vet advised to be bred to calm her down, and it was very poor advice, because breeding a nervous dog simply spreads the heartache for other families.

Naturally this is far from the end of the story for us, or the full story about Mia, but there is a cat looking for a lap beside me, and I think I could very much use some purr right now. Thank you for reading, and for your understanding and prayers.

-Jeanette