Sam Basso, known as Sam The Dog Trainer, offers private in-home lessons, and is a professional dog trainer and behaviorist located in Gilbert, AZ, also serving Queen Creek, San Tan Valley, Phoenix, Scottsdale, Mesa, Tempe, Chandler, Glendale, Paradise Valley, and surrounding areas. Some posts use AI-assisted drafting for clarity. This blog participates in affiliate programs (including Amazon Associates). Purchases via links may earn me a small commission at no extra cost to you.
In most rural communities, they operate under laws that property owners can kill stray dogs, especially if they are menacing livestock. Stray dogs can menace and attack innocent people. It's a serious risk.
When you are in farming communities… keep your dog on leash, and make sure your dog has the training to obey your commands.
I believe larger shelters and professional boarding kennels can accommodate cage free areas for pets. The keys to success are a.) proper and continuous supervision by the staff; b.) safety designed furniture and floorplans to prevent injuries or fights; c.) only allowing visitors who have been screened appropriately, educated on how to behave around these dogs, and supervised by staff; and d.) only mixing dogs that are highly likely to get along and not engage in violence.
There have been tragic outcomes for dogs in cage free environments. I am assuming this facility in the article has done a good job and hasn't had any problems. Dogs have been injured and some have died in other facilities. So, the welfare of the dogs is important. Add in visitors that the dogs don’t know, and even more can go wrong. Years ago, I was preparing to conduct an outdoor group dog training class. One of the staff allowed a friend to accompany her into the yard area where dogs were finishing their play time before being picked up by their owners. I sensed something was wrong, and sure enough, a dog fight broke out between two dogs that the friend was interacting with. These were dogs that had never fought before. I warned the owner the next day that only staff should be in the yard with the dogs and not strangers. Some people can put off the wrong vibe with dogs, and behave inappropriately with dogs, and trigger fights. That is what happened here.
So, do I support cage free areas in shelters or boarding facilities? Yes. Is it a good set up for all dogs? No. Even in this article, they define the types of dogs they feel are best suited for their program. It is useful to also look at the furniture being used in the photos. For some dogs, that would be fine, for others, it wouldn’t work. I like the home environment aspects. I think that it could greatly reduce stress and help simulate a home environment for some dogs to make their stay less stressful. So… yes and no.
“9 Doberman puppies left in box outside L.A. shelter looking for forever homes”
Some shelters have drop off boxes just for this purpose. Unfortunately, those boxes are unattended. These dogs are vulnerable until someone from the shelter goes out there and gets them. This is why I support the idea of shelters, especially municipal shelters, having staff on hand 24/7.
Another observation: something is wrong when the public feels this is their only option. Reforms are necessary. More on that later…
“Chicago's Anti-Cruelty welcomed more than two dozen dogs from pet shelters in Florida”
I remember efforts like this after Hurricane Katrina. If it wasn’t for private rescues, these dogs wouldn’t have made it. There was only one downside, the influx of dogs from Louisiana introduced a more infectious and pervasive version of Leptospirosis to AZ. Hopefully these rescues are doing full parasitic and viral evaluations of these dogs before they are transported or adopted.
I have to admit, I don't understand Mark Cuban's need to continually bloviate on almost every topic. Sometimes it is better to not say anything rather than looking stupid. I think he should stay in his wheelhouse... business investment. But even a broken clock is right twice a day, and in this case, I agree with him. A lot is being made of AI, with claims that we are almost at the point where computers are smarter than humans.
No way are we even close to that point. Try messing around with the online AI platforms. Ask some questions and see how that turns out. They are interesting, but intelligent? Nope. Is there a danger in letting computers make significant decisions in place of humans? Yes, because they are not humans, don't have their values or insights or ability to develop wisdom.
No computer is going to replace your dog anytime soon, or ever.
The news says dog bites have increased 20% in Oahu, HI. Legislators are recommending new laws to deal with dog bites. However, that isn’t the root problem, is it? How are the authorities going to track this dog to that homeless person and hold that person accountable? None of this is going to happen. Unless and until the homeless problems are solved, these dog issues aren’t going to get solved. In the meantime, it’s all smoke and mirrors… never getting to the causes and avoiding what needs to be done. No one will be held accountable, and the dogs will be captured and put down.
Stray dogs aren’t the problem in these communities.
An inmate allegedly punched and seriously injured a therapy dog puppy.
One thing I have learned over the years, not everyone is going to be nice to your dog. This is also true for therapy and service dogs.
Good hearted volunteers who take therapy dogs to visit various people often have their guards down when doing their work. A built in assumption is that others are going to appreciate their dogs equally. Unfortunately, that isn't the case. Whether visiting children or adults, regardless of the situation, I recommend two adults per therapy dog. One person is a lookout and helper. The other person is the dog's owner and handler. This way, everyone's welfare can be seen from all angles. I have used this approach for a while, and I think it should be standard practice.
In this article, the alleged bad guy is a habitual offender. What kind of 27 year old man would feel it ok to punch a gentle 13 month old King Charles Cavalier Spaniel so hard that the dog suffered from a concussion? The news says they are going to charge this creep with the maximum allowable penalties, maybe as much as 8 years in prison.
Be careful in all therapy dog environments. Not everyone is going to be good to your dog.
"‘Miracle’ dog stuck in car’s grille for 12 hours after being hit in Florida."
It is amazing that this dog survived this ordeal. I've seen several stories in which wild animals survived in a similar way, such as coyotes.
"Army Testing Robot Dogs Armed with Artificial Intelligence-Enabled Rifles in Middle East"
After some research and thinking, we are a long way from being able to replace real dogs or soldiers with robots.
Consider The Terminator, first movie. That technology doesn't exist. Putting a dog's abilities in to a drone doesn't exist, either.
If you have messed around a bit with AI (artificial intelligence) applications, they aren't all that intelligent. They are pretty dumb. Computers are good for crunching numbers, or doing word searches. But for real world style thinking, it just isn't there.
Consider the complications of dating. Think of all the complex things it takes to go from asking someone out to getting married. No existing computer could do all of that today. No one would fall in love with a robot, even with a lifelike body, using the very best AI computers. The ability to negotiate something like that is significantly beyond what any computer can do. Now, imagine a robot, of any configuration, going into combat and fighting against a human. There is a lot more to combat than shooting a rifle. There is strategy, camouflage, negotiation, spy craft, deception techniques, concepts of good and evil, coordination with plans and goals of the nation you represent, and on and on. Included in all of this is the lack of sensory abilities and processing compared to living organisms. We can perceive things a computer can't. Same with a dog.
I think there are uses for such technology. Hopefully, the US military is consulting with top K9 trainers to help enhance whatever they are developing to give them insight into the behaviors that make a dog useful in combat.
Shelters across the US are in trouble. I have spent considerable time with a team of rescue volunteers and have developed a rescue shelter model. Part of the solution resides in the idea that government WILL NEVER BE good at animal rescue. Government isn't capable of doing this well, and it should instead privatize as much of their operations as possible. Governments are good at collecting taxes and enforcing laws. They shouldn't be in the animal welfare business.
We now have shelters across the country patting themselves on the back for engaging in "managed intake", and touting their "no kill" statistics. These numbers are inevitably manipulated to give the impression that things are fine. They are not. When you can control the number of pets in and out, and how those numbers appear in your reports, then you can make them look any way you wish. The result, deserving pets are being turned away, or not being picked up by animal control, that need help. It is all an illusion.
It is time long past time to have these conversations in your home town. If it is government run, you can almost guarantee it is being mismanaged.
"Moment Dog Rescued After Family Locked Her In Tiny Room Then Moved Away"
Assuming this was purposeful... this kind of thing should result in a prison sentence. These type of stories hit the news fairly regularly. People know right from wrong. I would not let them off the hook.
Dogs aren't furniture
This is a sad situation all the way around. Some thoughts…
Sometimes, a location will set off my internal alarm bells, telling me to be extra careful. Looking at the street view of the homes, I don’t see any obvious signs that you would need to be extra careful with a K9 or pet. This looks to have happened in a normal looking suburban neighborhood. The incident happened around lunch time. Life can be unpredictable, and bad stuff can happen anywhere, and can come into to your home and your yard. It is normal for all of us to let our guard down when at home in a peaceful looking suburban neighborhood. Most people don’t want to be in Condition Yellow at home. Here in AZ, the risk might not be another dog, it could be some kind of wild predator that can get into your yard. I think it a good idea to have a plan wherever you live to game out how you might prevent or deal with such a situation. Most people, however, are unaware of this concept because the average person doesn’t track this kind of thing in the news. They might be thinking about a burglar, but… an intrusion by another animal? Being a dog trainer, I watch for these stories to see what I might learn from them.
The news articles say 3 dogs broke through a fence to attack the K9. That indicates to me some big, strong dogs. The news says the officer and his wife couldn’t physically get the dogs apart. That isn’t unusual, especially with these many dogs. Dogs are also incredibly strong when fighting. Was the fencing inadequate to keep these dogs contained? As I look around the neighborhood on the internet using street view, the fences seem like normal fences. The news stories say the owners of these dogs had just moved in 3 weeks prior and had never seen this kind of thing from their dogs before. Dogs can be more suspicious and stressed in new environments, so that could have played a part, but there is no such information in the news that I read. We don’t know what set these dogs off. The main conclusion here for me is that all dog owners need to inspect their property walls and fencing to keep out neighbor’s dogs and wild predators. Ask, can that barrier be defeated in some way? Since the news indicates the dogs broke through the fencing, maybe that means the fencing was somehow damaged before all this happened, whether by weather, aging, or some other factor. Walk your property, go look at your boundaries. Are they still in good condition? Could an animal go under, over, or through into your property? If so, then you have some work to do.
Regarding the K9 that was killed in this situation. It is hard enough for a dog to fight off another dog, much less 3 dogs. Most K9’s aren’t selected for their aggressive capabilities to fight off another animal. They are selected, raised and trained to be relatively neutral towards other dogs. All dog fighting is not tolerated. So, this dog was confronted with a situation that it was most likely unprepared to handle. It is also going to be very difficult for someone with a firearm to shoot multiple dogs in a fast moving dog fight. There have been several stories in the news of hunters being attacked by bears and the hunters shooting themselves as they defended themselves. There are also stories of those who use a firearm to get a bear off of someone, and the person with the firearm having to be concerned that the bullet might ricochet inside the bear, make a turn, and injure the victim. Furthermore, dogs’ bodies are not the same as human bodies. As I mentioned, bullets are unpredictable once they enter tissue and hit a bone. They can deflect and go in strange directions and come out in ways that are not in line with the direction the bullet first entered. Add in all that commotion of a full-blown fight with 4 dogs, and the use of a gun, while possibly justified (I don’t know the specifics or the laws there), is going to be hard to manage. Note, the K9 was managed by a police officer, who would have had plenty of training with a firearm, and he still ended up shooting his own dog, and only shooting 2 of the 3 other dogs. If he had had some other tool, say bear spray, would that have stopped the fight? That is an unknown. Plenty of bear attacks, as a parallel example, are stopped with bear spray, but a percentage of those cases the bear spray doesn’t work and the victim is either killed, badly mauled, or the bear must be shot. A split second decision had to be made, and I don’t think you can second guess what the officer did, especially when all you must go on is what some reporters have written down. Furthermore, reaching into a full-blown fight is very dangerous. People have done that before, and then all the dogs turned on the humans and the humans were then killed. Dogs have also been in fights, now in a frenzy, going on to attack nearby humans. So, doing nothing isn't always the best option, either. There is no easy answer. I think this entire situation is a tragedy for all involved. The news indicates the owners of the 3 dogs have been cited for some violations, but I don’t know if those alleged violations had not been made if that would have prevented this from ever happening.
Moral to the story? Well, from my perspective, I’ll adopt the Boy Scout motto: “Be Prepared”. I have been criticized for noting dangers and risks when I evaluate situations. Some people tire of my opinions because they want to only hear stuff that fits the happy stories in their heads. I look for risks to help my students who might not focus on "what could be". I believe there is wisdom in the streets; wisdom is to be found everywhere if you look for it; good outcomes are mostly a result of experience, knowledge, and acquired judgment; and sometimes it is a good idea to lean on the wisdom of others, such as elders or professionals, to advise you. For this case, I would say, for me, a few things that stand out: a.) develop a Code Yellow mindset; b.) inspect your property to prevent escapes and intrusions; and c.) have a plan. People do this with respect to prevention of burglaries. We plan and consider that people might want to get into our property. We do that when considering what we would need to do if we had to escape our property, such as if the house was on fire. However, people who are not dog trainers possibly don’t consider that animals can also be motivated to get into or out of our property.
"Demi Moore‘s teeny dog Pilaf melts the hearts of Graham Norton, Lady Gaga and Colin Farrell"
Celebrities have pets. That might not seem significant, but I think that matters. There is a tendency to demonize celebrities. What celebrity doesn't have haters? I think it would be hard to be super famous; you'd have to develop a thick skin. Yes, celebrities bring on some of this when they get out of their lane. Even so, when the cameras are gone, it is nice to see that they are actually real people like everyone else.
"DOG POOP DRONE CLEANS UP THE YARD SO YOU DON’T HAVE TO"
Feces should be picked up immediately after your dog poops. Poop smells bad; is unsanitary; can attract predators to your yard; attracts flies which are disease carriers; can harbor parasites; can inhibit dogs from eliminating quickly in your yard again; and is unsightly. You should also inspect your dog's stools regularly as a way of checking on your dog's health. Whoever let the dog out to eliminate should be the one to pick up after the dog.
My opinion? Unless you have a disability, or doing maintenance for an off leash park, you shouldn't own a dog if you let the poop pile up to the point you need a drone. This could be a useful device in very specific situations, but for the average dog owner, regular care and maintenance of your dog is your job, not the job of a drone.
I am asked what kind of dog is best for a first time dog owner.
There are lots of videos online saying "this is the best breed for" you. Many of these posts are made by dog trainers, but a lot of the advice is worthless for the newbie. Here's my advice...
Get a social dog. Get a dog that is friendly with everyone and every animal. I'm less concerned with breed, or a mix, for a new owner. They will sort their preferences out as they go out looking for that new family member.
The hardest cases are first time dog owners who have gotten in over their heads with specialty breeds that are not known for being social. That one obstacle to a happy experience can make them decide to do harsh things to try and fix responses that they don't understand, to neglect the dog's proper socialization, to give the dog away, or to endanger others and not know the seriousness of what they are doing.
Rescues should screen out newbies and only adopt out to them the most friendly dogs in their care. Breeders should turn away newbies who aren't prepared for dogs that were bred to be suspicious of strangers and other animals. These suspicious types of dogs are better for people who have already successfully owned their first dog. Much of the groundwork of learning can be accomplished with a friendly first dog. Then on subsequent dogs, it will be easier to add additional skills.
"Pugslee had been brutally attacked and killed by the pet sitter’s own dog"
As a general rule, I would prefer to not have a pet sitter have their dogs, kids, friend, spouses or anyone else interact with my student's dogs. I think when you hire a pet sitter, you are hiring them to work with your dog, period. The safest way is to keep them separate from others while the owners are away. I understand why some pet sitters take customer dogs into their own homes, however, that is possibly going to be for the convenience of the sitter, not for the benefit of the customer.
Most pet sitters are not going to be animal behavior experts. I don't expect them to be, and I don't think they should be putting unfamiliar dogs together. I just want them to feed, water, potty, clean up the yard, safely play with, exercise, and supervise the dogs until the owner is back home.
I don't know what happened here. We don't have enough information from the article. However, my opinion on how to manage dogs with pet sitters is the same as above.
People get injured managing their dogs. Owning a dog is inherently risky, and more so for people who aren't sufficiently in shape.
Accidents are unavoidable and are sometimes dangerous. Some are preventable, or at least the risks can be minimized. If you have dogs, eventually you are going to get some kind of injury. That is something to be accepted as part of owning a dog. Just like there are various risks to driving a car, or getting married, or eating crunchy foods, there are risks to being around a dog and working with a dog. Here are some examples:
1. There is a person who got entwined in her small dog's leash. She fell and shattered her elbow. The injury was so bad that she required elbow replacement surgery.
2. There was a person doing some beginning agility with their dog. They tripped and fell. Fortunately, the surface was soft sand and they were mostly shaken up. The bigger risk was that they were elderly, and the shock of the fall made them have to sit out the rest of the lesson.
3. I was working my own dog having him drag a 20 foot long line. I tossed a toy for him to fetch. I didn't realize that the end of the line was under my left foot. As he ran, the line caught my ankle, pulled my foot out from underneath me, and I hyperextended my left knee. That was back around 2001, and that knee still isn't 100%.
4. I was working my own dog in the snow with a Schutzhund club in Olympia, WA. He was romping around in the snow and ran around some big bushes. I called him back, he came running full speed around the corner, didn't stop, and butted his head full speed into my right thigh. I went back and down onto my bum like a sack of rocks. It hurt like crazy, and I wondered how bad I had been injured. After a couple of minutes, I got up and found I was OK. But my thigh must have been bruised deeply, because it hurt there for nearly a year. It never was discolored, but it was a deep hurt for a long time.
5. A person was taking their puppy back to their vehicle to go home. Right after putting the dog in the SUV and closing the door, a couple of big dogs got loose from their owner, and attacked this person. She was injured, to the point of needing stitches and antibiotics. The owner of the 2 dogs ran off with their dogs and never helped her at all.
Here are some ideas to help.
A.) There is no substitute for training with your own dog. If someone has no experience working with a dog, then they have little chance of anticipating what might go wrong. Yes, you might just be teaching a puppy to Sit for a treat, but there is a lot more to it than that. You are learning about how that dog behaves and reacts along the way. It is better to make non-serious mistakes in a class, even if there is a risk of being injured, than to be seriously injured in a real world situation that you are completely at a loss to deal with.
B.) I recommend that people take some beginning martial arts classes to learn how to fall. You can do beginning Judo classes to accomplish that. People tend to fall like a tree that was chopped down, rather than controlling how they land and how they absorb the fall. If you can fall properly, without having to think about how to do it, you have a better chance of not getting injured badly and permanently. It is also important to maintain quick reflexes. You can't do that without practicing fast and agile movements throughout your lifetime.
C.) It is important to maintain muscle strength and mass throughout your lifetime. You have a better chance of absorbing an accident, or fighting back in the case of an attack, if you are physically fit. Most people don't stay fit, especially the older they get. There is no benefit to letting yourself get out of shape. You have to accept that being fit is an important element to successful and safe pet ownership. What if you have to carry your dog back home; could you do it? What if you have to run away? What if you have to fight off 2 or more dogs?
Are you keeping yourself fit for proper pet ownership? If not, then you are being negligent about your health and safety. You also are shortening your life, and your pet needs you to be healthy to live a full life with them and to keep them healthy and safe. Everyone can do something. Everyone can move something on their body every day, even if they have to start with the smallest of efforts. Exercise is often painful and hard to schedule. Do it anyway. Life, after you are born, is something that you have to learn to earn and protect. No one deserves to be fit. It isn't a gift. Fitness is only earned through merit.
