This is another wordy one, without funny memes or joyous dog pictures. Doesn’t feel right.
If you can get through the next 1500-ish words, thank you!
With 2024 done and dusted, it’s time to review the year’s data, looking at what happened, what worked, what didn’t work. As always, keeping, collating and analysing data is revelatory even if it’s not always pleasant.
As I reflected on 2023, at the beginning of last year, the effects of the Pandemic continued to loom, and has impacted 2024 too.
There are similarities between 2023 and 2024, but little in the way of improvements. Sadly.
Please read my reflections on 2023 here for context; this piece will be a continuation it seems.
Outcomes
In 2024, 36% cases through our Behaviour Matters program ended in behavioural euthanasia.
One dog was returned to rescue and another dog was rehomed privately, relating to their behaviour. That’s a lot of heartache for so many of my clients, and their dogs.
(Again, my sample may be somewhat skewed as some of these cases were referred to me to specifically address and counsel these decisions.)
While these cases are disheartening, upsetting, depressing and frustrating, I do believe that the right decisions were made. Nobody goes into this wishing for these sorts of outcomes but maintaining these dogs’ welfare under their current living conditions had become impossible. And they were suffering.
Of these dogs who were euthanised in relation to their behaviour, 79% of them had been adopted from rescue organisations. The majority of these dogs had been in their adopted homes for less than two years, with a few home just a couple of months.
Where do dogs come from?
Across my cases, 56% of dogs came from rescue and 33% had been purchased from a breeder, DBE etc. A small number of dogs had been rehomed privately from another guardian or vet’s.
43% of dogs had been home up to two years and 45% had been home 2-4 years. But almost all had been exhibiting behaviours of concern for at least a year before coming to us.
30% of dogs were under the age of 3 when we started, and 66% were between the ages of three and six years at the beginning of their Behaviour Matters journey.
Of those dogs purchased from some sort of breeder, 77% had been reared, during their first 12 weeks of life, outside a family home type environment, so in sheds, barns, kennels and so on.
Of dogs adopted from rescue, 62% had spent more than two months in kennels but most of them had lived in kennel environments for more than a year.
The dogs.
All of my cases in 2024 were neutered, with just one neutered with careful timing and their individual behaviour and health in mind, after they had started our program. 70% of dogs were neutered males.
Timing of neutering may be impactful on behaviour, and behavioural health was not primarily considered in neutering any of the other dogs.
38% of dogs were overweight and 30% were prescribed anxiolytic medications, most of whom started as part of our program in collaboration with their vet teams.
52% of cases included medical involvement, mostly gastrointestinal issues and musculoskeletal pain, with some neurological issues too.
13% of Teams had worked with another trainer/behaviour professional previously on the specific behaviours of concern, not including those cases referred to me by other professionals.
But just 4.5% of Teams had had any training, proactively implemented, before issues arose.
Behaviours of Concern
While all cases include primary concern/s, almost all also brought secondary concerns too, often revealed as we started to delve into history taking and data collection.
Primary behaviours of concern included the following.
41% of cases involved injurious bites to humans, with 10% of cases involving serious bite injuries to children and a further 10% involving serious injuries inflicted to other dogs, including a couple of dogs who had killed at least one other dog.
36% of cases involved behaviours including barking & lunging at other dogs, joggers, vehicles, and so on
Separation related behaviours made up 11% of cases and 8% involved fear responses and avoidance behaviours.
Most help is sought when dogs exhibit behaviours that cause concern to humans. So behaviours of concern not as demonstrative are often missed without help.
Numbers
These are just numbers, stats. While they paint a pretty grim picture, they don’t tell us about the enormous devotion my clients have for their dogs’ well-being. They don’t illustrate their dogs’ trust and love for their humans, who are doing their best. And they don’t portray the great sadness and pain felt when living with and loving a dog doesn’t turn out as expected.
I’m sad and disappointed for all these Teams, and not just those with the worst outcomes. We must do better.
What can we do better?
Every dog is surrounded by humans who can make a difference in that dog’s life. In my ideal-world, every dog would have a dedicated and collaborative Care-Team from the very beginning providing guidance and support. But this is just a dream, and the dogs with whom I work have often not had humans capable of making sure that individual dog’s behavioural health will be prioritised as a matter of welfare, from the very beginning and throughout.
Training & Behaviour Professionals
Be better. Be professional.
Get off social media and stop chasing likes and follows. There’s a whole world of canine science not bastardised in reels and shorts.
We have such a unique opportunity to shape our young, evolving industry and make our services really relevant to our stakeholders. But we need to be better.
Do you want help to do this? Just ask us…we are on the same journey to be better, and we will help you. But it won’t be via social media and those echo chambers, it will be through real, substantial, and actually evidence based education.
Veterinary Professionals
Behavioural health is health, and behaviours can be considered clinical signs. All but one of the cases that involved meaningful and impactful medical issues were not addressed until the dog started our program.
Indeed, among those cases from 2024, chasing and pushing for proactive and effective medical treatments has been a significant barrier slowing our progress.
Do you want help to do this? Just ask us.
We offer free help and consultation to all veterinary staff to help with behaviour related queries.
We will come and talk to your team about behaviour, about what we do, how we help, and what can be done in day to day practice to promote behavioural health.
Producers of dogs
Making the decision to breed two specific dogs, and the experiences of each puppy from conception through their first few weeks of life are the most important elements in ensuring behavioural health for those dogs. For life.
The buck stops with you if you are responsible for these elements. There really is no understatement here – this is that important and impactful.
Do you want help to do this? Just ask us.
We will discuss ways to evaluate matches from behavioural health angles, will provide resources and will help you to structure programs to support puppies in their first weeks of life.
Rescues
Euthanasia is often outsourced to rescue; guardians surrender dogs exhibiting serious behaviours of concern to pounds, who pass the dogs onto rescue, who rehome those dogs.
Rescues should not be expected to pick up these pieces with inadequate resources, overwhelmed by the sheer volume of help being sought.
Dogs that are being homed now are different. They are coming from a different population that appears, for the most part, not to be as well prepared for the complexities of the human world, they are spending longer and longer in under-enriched environments and outside of family life. That means they need more support to keep them in homes and even more careful placements.
Post-adoption support right from the start is a key to success and safety. Just that support in place keeps adopters on board during their first months together; this can help to keep dogs home and successful, preventing behaviours of concern causing disruption.
Do you want help to do this? Just ask us.
Keeping dogs in homes starts before they go home and continues for their first months home, to survive the many bumps in the road and build a long-lasting relationship.
Rather than waiting for problems to arise, which they inevitably will, let us get help in place before that dog goes home.
Guardians
You need more and better support, without shame and blame. But you need to meet us halfway – get help before you get your dog, before there are concerns, before you are considering making final decisions.
Last year we lamented, if only. If only guardians got in touch with us at the earliest possible intervention. If only.
AniEd Ireland 