Hope For A Better Life

Behaviorally-challenged Goldens get a second chance

2020-06-15T22:29:00.000-07:00

A wish for all Golden Retrievers who are rescued has turned into a special program to help dogs with behavioral challenges...Hope For A Better Life™.

In recent years, GRCGLARescue has seen an increased intake of Goldens with serious behavior issues...Goldens that are 'red-listed' for euthanasia at shelters or misunderstood and mistreated by owners with unrealistic expectations. GRCGLARescue strives to give these Goldens a second chance through a formal behavior-modification program which significantly increases the likelihood of permanent adoption.

But, we can't do it without support...

With an average cost of more than $2,000 to help a single Golden through a specialized behavior modification program, Hope For A Better Life™ requires funding. The Summer Fund was established in honor of a special-needs Golden to assist these dogs.

Please help us to help them by donating to the Summer Fund.

Hiram LOVES car rides and Starbucks

2011-09-12T20:01:00.000-07:00

Fosters help keep HOPE alive

2011-04-08T22:33:00.000-07:00

Like all of our rescue work, as important as it is, we need a special foster home for our HOPE FOR A BETTER LIFE ™ Goldens so that they can continue to assimilate back into a normal home setting. Returning them to a kennel would be a definite step backward and would probably dilute much of their progress and training.

A special foster home is one that has no other dogs in residence and the fosters are committed to participating in the dog’s on-going training.

If you can make the commitment to one of these special dogs or you know of someone that you could recommend, please contact us.

Making room in your heart and your home holds special rewards both for you and the Golden you help. There is no question that this is a special commitment and isn’t for everyone. Think about it, call or e-mail comments, questions or recommendations.

We look forward to hearing from you and we know for sure our Goldens do as well.

Congratulations Euphoria!

2011-03-24T19:50:00.000-07:00

Euphoria came to us in February, 2010, from an LA County shelter where he was turned in by his owners for food aggression. It became apparent to IE Team members that his food aggression was much more serious than anticipated with reports from the kennel that he growled and threatened over food. In addition, a food bowl test confirmed that he was serious about keeping people away from his food. While Euphoria's behavior was not acceptable, it was also clear that this was the kind of dog who, if trained properly, stood a good chance of improving enough to be placed successfully.

With the formal implementation of our Hope For A Better Life Program™ for behaviorally challenged dogs in Summer, 2010, Euphoria entered the program as one of our initial and most challenging candidates.

Euphoria went to Wags & Wiggles for a 6-week residential behavior rehabilitation program with specialists. His story and progress is documented here.

Thanks to the specialists at Wags & Wiggles, Euphoria made progress to continue his rehabilitation in a home environment. Volunteer and foster, Janet B. stepped up to the plate and participated in training sessions with the team at W&W to learn the techniques regarding feeding Euphoria as well as overall management of his behavior around food. Through Janet’s disciplined focus and handling of Euphoria over the past 4 months, he demonstrated a reconditioning of his behavior around food and is no longer a risk to himself or those around him. Janet appreciated where he’d come from and the progress he’d made so much that she adopted him in order to continue her commitment to this sweet Golden.

Euphoria thanks the Rescue knowing things could have taken a very different direction for him without GCGLARescue's Hope for a Better Life™ program.

Hiram Flaversham progress report

2011-02-15T22:40:00.000-08:00

Hiram's been busy at boarding school. He was extremely anxious and a bit depressed when he arrived, but he's brightened up quite a bit and had become the favorite of his instructor. Hiram is a relatively mellow fellow, but is very uncomfortable with other animals, particularly smaller ones, including little dogs, cats, birds, etc.

Hiram's been acing his homework and is coming along nicely in all his subjects, but it is very unlikely that he's going to change his mind about the other animal situation anytime soon. He does very well in school and enjoys it a great deal, so people who would want to continue his training would be his first choice. Once he's done with school, he'll be looking for an all-adult home where he'll be the only non-human in residence as other critters make him nervous. He's learning to tolerate their presence in a social setting, but he would prefer they kept a respectful distance; his personal "bubble" is about 10 feet right now. With time and work that could be improved, but that's where we are right now.

Witch King progress report

2011-02-15T22:30:00.000-08:00

Witch King, called "King", has been at boarding school almost a month now. Initially, it seemed that we had a dog whose impulse control issues were so acute that we were not going to be able to do much with him. His attention span was so poor, he couldn't focus for a moment, and his social skills were so bad that he literally posed a danger to any dog he may have come into contact with.

But after completing this first round of training, King shows a great deal of improvement. As you can see from the video, while he's working he has a reasonably decent attention span, can follow his trainer's cues and performs quite well, quite a bit better than we would have hoped for a month ago. He still is quite impulsive, and he gets frustrated easily; you can see him wiggling around in the video. But he does have the capacity to relax, and with continued work with his trainers, and we hope, his adopters, King has the capacity to improve even more.

King will be looking for an all-adult home, where someone is home a good deal of the time, and where the folks are exceptionally dog savvy. Of course, his new family will need to be committed to his on-going training; it's likely he'll need maintenance for life in this area. But he's really a sweet kid, and can be pretty charming, so he's bound to win the right family over soon.

Euphoria happy in foster care

2011-01-12T19:50:00.000-08:00

Euphoria is doing very very well and has made great progress in the care of his foster. A home environment really suits him and brings out the best in him...particularly where he feels safe, gets a lot of affection and enjoys the toys which delight him. His continued training around food has progressed where he is relaxed with no reactive behavior as people prepare or eat food in his presence. We are pleased to see the results of his rehabilitation training as a result of the experienced behavior specialists at Wags & Wiggles and the continued reinforcement and progression under the care of a diligent and compassionate foster. Euphoria is looking for a home where he can build a bond with humans that continue the great work achieved under the Hope For A Better Life program. This boy has truly blossomed into a confident, sweet, affectionate golden and is a true gem.

Euphoria improves with specialized training

2010-12-27T20:30:00.000-08:00

Euphoria was left at an LA county animal shelter in February 2010 by his previous owner, who claimed that Euphoria had bitten him badly while taking food away from the dog. Since we had no way of knowing if there really was a problem, we wanted to give him a chance, and so GRCGLARescue bailed him out. After a few days at a boarding kennel, Euphoria had settled in enough to be evaluated, although we were already notified by the kennel proprietor that he growled and threatened over food when it was brought in to him.

The actual food bowl test confirmed that Euphoria was serious about keeping people away from his food. Although we didn't push him to the point of biting, it was clear that was inevitable if we forced the issue. He did, however, allow us to take away rawhides, toys, balls and other objects, and was otherwise friendly with the volunteers who handled him. While Euphoria's behavior was not acceptable, it was also clear that this was the kind of dog who, if trained properly, stood a good chance of improving enough to be placed successfully.

To get an idea of what Euphoria's behavior was like around food, please check our this video by Dr. Sophia Yin, "Ben Guards The Food Bowl" found here:

http://drsophiayin.com/resources/videos/

Euphoria's behavior was very similar to Ben's.

We knew if Euphoria had a caring, committed and skilled foster family who was willing to work with him, we could pair them with a behavioral trainer who could help them do the required behavior modification to help Euphoria get past his problem. However, after searching for several months, we were not successful in locating a family with the right set of skills in the right circumstances where Euphoria could go and be safe. As with Ben, things were looking a bit bleak for Euphoria.

We were running out of opportunities and time, so we contacted our friends at Wags and Wiggles, a dog daycare and training facility owned by a skilled behavior consultatnt and staffed by certified dog trainers; they only used the most modern and humane training methods, and had already helped us with a few other dogs with great success. After reviewing Euphoria's case information, they acknowledged that it would be a tough job, but they were willing to give it a try. Euphoria went off to start the "Ruff Love" program in early November, and we waited with cautious optimism.

Much to our relief, Euphoria responded to his behavior modification program beautifully, and after six weeks, he was able to tolerate his trainers managing his food bowl and other valuable objects, as you can see here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mUPIieIYfA

The training that Euphoria received had improved his behavior enough that finding a foster home for him was a much easier task, and before long, Janet, one of our fosters, was identified as being a great opportunity for continuing Euphoria's transition training, in hopes that he could be made ready for adoption.

Two weeks later, Janet came to work with the folks at W&W to learn about Euphoria's training and what she had to do to help him transition to a normal life. We recorded some of the training exercises Janet learned that day:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1yDWOAL2v0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9r_69vBzRE

Under Janet's fostership and care, Euphoria is making continual improvement towards being adopted. He's a golden that seeks out affection and a trusting relationship with humans.

Update from Unbreakable

2010-11-30T20:55:00.000-08:00

Unbreakable (now known as Mick), a graduate of our Hope For A Better Life Program™ has moved with his adopters to a new house. For a dog that came to us with constant anxiety and fear, it's hard to believe this is him looking so relaxed. Thanks to Hope and the team at Wags & Wiggles in Rancho Santa Margarita...it's nice to see the fruit of their efforts several months later.

Note from his adopter:
I have attached a few pictures of Mick. There are a couple of dogs behind us, so that's why he is looking toward the wall in the backyard picture. We had our kitchen cabinets, etc. removed today to make way for a new kitchen. Tom was disconnecting the sink this morning, and greatly appreciated the help of his very able assistant. I have a feeling that Mick will go to bed early tonight since he was so busy today!

Kathy

Dog Training and the Myth of Alpha-Male Dominance

2010-07-30T19:47:00.000-07:00

By Jeninne Lee-St. John Friday, Jul. 30, 2010

Evan Kafka / Getty Images

Dogs are descended from wolves. Wolves live in hierarchical packs in which the aggressive alpha male rules over everyone else. Therefore, humans need to dominate their pet dogs to get them to behave.

This logic has dominated the canine-rearing conversation for more than five years, thanks mostly to National Geographic's award-winning show, Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan.

But many experts say Millan's philosophy is based on now-debunked animal studies and that some of his techniques — most famously the alpha roll, in which he pins a dog on its back and holds it by the throat — are downright cruel. Rival trainer Victoria Stilwell has launched a competitive assault on Dog Whisperer by starring on Animal Planet's It's Me or the Dog and by spreading her system of positive-reinforcement training virtually and with troops on the ground: this June she launched a podcast (available on positively.com and iTunes) and franchised her methods to a first batch of 20 dog trainers in the U.S., the U.K., Italy and Greece. She uses positivity as a counterpoint to dominance theory and reserves her aggression for the poorly behaving humans.

The debate has its roots in 1940s studies of captive wolves gathered from various places that, when forced to live together, naturally competed for status. Acclaimed animal behaviorist Rudolph Schenkel dubbed the male and female who won out the alpha pair. As it turns out, this research was based on a faulty premise: wolves in the wild, says L. David Mech, founder of the Minnesota-based International Wolf Center, actually live in nuclear families, not randomly assembled units, in which the mother and father are the pack leaders and their offspring's status is based on birth order. Mech, who used to ascribe to alpha-wolf theory but has reversed course in recent years, says the pack's hierarchy does not involve anyone fighting to the top of the group, because just like in a human family, the youngsters naturally follow their parents' lead.

Says Bonnie Beaver, former president of the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA): "We are on record as opposing some of the things Cesar Millan does because they're wrong." Likewise, the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior (AVSAB) issued a position statement last year arguing against the aggressive-submissive dichotomy.

It is leadership by showing a good example, not dominance, that AVSAB says owners should strive for in relation to their dogs. The organization's statement, which does not explicitly name Millan but references his terminology and some of his controversial techniques, argues that dominant-submissive relationships that do occur in nature are a means to allocate resources — a problem that rarely exists between dogs and their owners. (Nor even, AVSAB notes, among feral dogs, which live in small, scavenging groups without alphas controlling access to food and mates.) House pets, on the contrary, bark too much, jump up on you, ignore your commands, growl and nip at you because they have been inadvertently rewarded for this behavior or because they have not been trained to act differently.

To be sure, Millan's approach to retraining is sometimes warm and fuzzy, and he has much common ground with positive-reinforcement trainers like Stilwell. Both trainers strive — as much as possible with a nonspeaking animal — to determine the psychological cause of a pup's misbehavior. Both encourage people to ignore dogs' annoying habits so as not to accidentally reward them with attention. Both agree that punishment is only effective during or within half a second after the offending behavior: yell at Butch for peeing in your kitchen after he's already walked away, and Butch will think he's in trouble for walking away. Both trainers obviously love animals.

But, AVSAB says, calling a dog's behavior aggressive, as Millan often does, should be reserved for the most violent animals, and some critics even dislike the quick smacks on the flank he gives to focus a dog's attention. "Discipline doesn't come in the form of screaming at your dog, hitting your dog or putting it into an alpha roll," says Stilwell. "When you do that, instinct tells the dog to shut down, which is mistaken for calming, but really you're making the dog more insecure."

Such insecurity can have unintended consequences. For one thing, rather than submit, your pets might lash out at you. "They may react with aggression, not because they are trying to be dominant but because the human threatening them makes them afraid," AVSAB says. For another, even if a dog looks subdued, you don't know what's going on inside. "Fear increases cortisol," says AVMA's Beaver, a professor at Texas A&M's College of Veterinary Medicine. "Long-term fear increases it significantly and can lead to long-term health problems associated with stress" — a point that Stilwell, in her melodious British accent, likes to point out to her clients on TV.

Take the example of Atlanta couple Louie Newman and Judy Griffin, who already had two Lhasa apsos when they adopted a rescue poodle named Manny. Not only did Manny pick fights with the other dogs, he also would attack Newman whenever he went near his wife or even tried to hand her the remote control. Newman and Griffin thought Manny wanted to control everyone, but Stilwell told them he was just trying to figure out his status in the household. "She said he was always tense. He didn't ever blink. I would've never thought to check if my dog blinked," says Newman, a recording executive in Nashville, who learned to relax when approaching Manny and to court him with treats. "He was really insecure. Who would have thought that? He acted like he owned the house."

Of course, letting Manny's whims rule the roost was one of the couple's big mistakes. The question is to what extent they, or any dog owner, should put him in his place. With Stilwell gearing up for her third American TV season and Millan in the middle of his sixth, the answer may be a lot simpler and less dramatic than producers would have us think. "All I have to be is one position higher than that dog," says Beaver. "I raise him to see me as a leader. Not an alpha, a leader."

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2007250,00.html?xid=rss-topstories#ixzz0vDypf3Lr

Selecting a Dog Trainer or Behavior Specialist

2010-07-02T21:28:00.000-07:00

Your education and understanding of what to consider can make all the difference in the life and well-being of your dog

If you needed a plumber, you'd want to ensure he was qualified to work in your home. So when it comes to your family companion dog, you want to take as much care in selecting a trainer or behavior specialist. Here are a few steps to follow to identify qualified help:

* Ask how the trainer learned his trade, or how the consultant learned about animal behavior. There are many excellent academic programs for dog trainers these days (a partial list can be found at http://www.dogtec.org/cc_choose.html). A behavior specialist's education may include accredited university coursework, seminars, extensive reading, writing, working under a mentor, independent study and hands-on experience working with animals.

* Research the person's credentials. Are they a member of a reputable professional organization, such as the Association of Pet Dog Trainers or the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants? Look for trainers who have achieved a credential from an independent certification organization (such as the Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers), as opposed to one awarded by a dog training school. Look for behavior specialists who have achieved and independent certification credential such as CAAB or CDBC.

* Find out how the trainer or behavior specialist stays current in their field. A qualified individual is concerned about continuing education, and takes courses, attends conferences, reads literature and participates in online dialogues with colleagues so they always know the latest information.

* Notice how the trainer/behavior specialist relates to you. Is he or she friendly and respectful? Do you feel comfortable discussing information about your dog with this person? A qualified individual meets high ethical standards and will not blame you for your animal's behavior problem. While owners may inadvertently do things that create or worsen their animals' behavior problems, there are many other reasons that animals develop behavior problems.

* Learn about the trainer/behavior specialist's approach to modifying the dog's behavior. Qualified professionals use the gentlest techniques that will effectively address a behavior problem, because techniques that are unpleasant for the animal are risky and may make behavior problems even worse. Do not hesitate to ask questions before you commit to hiring anyone. And remember, qualified trainers/behavior specialists do not guarantee success! A qualified behavior specialist will do their best to help you succeed but will never guarantee an outcome. Avoid "whisperers" and anyone offering you a "quick fix".

Although the dog training and behavior field is not standardized or regulated, you can find plenty of well-qualifed and skilled professionals if you know what to look for. Check out the trainer directory at www.apdt.com and the behavior consultant locator at www.iaabc.org.

Humane Society Asked To Stop Euthanasia

2010-06-18T10:42:00.000-07:00

Lawmakers To Hold Press Conference Wednesday
POSTED: 2:26 pm EDT June 16, 2010
UPDATED: 5:51 pm EDT June 16, 2010

HARTFORD, Conn. -- Two state lawmakers are calling on the Connecticut Humane Society to stop euthanizing animals because of behavioral problems.

Democratic state Reps. Diana Urban of North Stonington and Annie Hornish of Granby scheduled a news conference Wednesday in Hartford to call for a moratorium on behavioral euthanasia at the organization.

The lawmakers also planned to talk about preliminary findings by the state attorney general's office in its probe of the Humane Society.

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said in March that the Humane Society has failed to spend most of its money for its central purpose of helping animals and sometimes euthanized animals instead of treating them.

A Humane Society spokeswoman didn't immediately return messages Wednesday.

Related video: http://www.wfsb.com/video/23925403/index.html

Donor offers matching gift challenge

2010-06-15T23:13:00.000-07:00

An anonymous donor has offered a matching gift challenge! For every dollar pledged to Team Bethany's Run For My Life 2010 Long Beach Marathon, a matching dollar will help our behaviorally challenged Goldens.