Author: FSJ Dog Training

The Dog Who Was Lost 925km Away

Dog Blog, Dog Rescue

Today’s topic is a bit of a deep dive into responsible ownership and the SPCA. As always, names are changed to protect people’s identity. The fact we live in a small town, people can easily figure out who I’m talking about. So my disclaimer is this: I’m not here to place blame or point fingers. I’m here to discuss WHY this happened and how to avoid it from happening again. We are only humans doing our human thing. We learn a lot of lessons the hard way, unfortunately, and I think this is one of those cases.

Here’s the story: a woman (let’s call her Cheryl) posted on a local group that her dog Fred was missing. Fred wanders frequently and covers a large distance but he’s friendly, he always comes back home, and as far as the owner understand he’s never been a problem to anyone so therefore the wandering habit isn’t something she feels needs to be fixed. But when Fred didn’t come home from his usual adventures, Cheryl became worried and started to look for him. She shared on local groups that he was missing, with his photo in case anyone has seen him, and she talked to people who said they spotted him. She was able to track him down to an SPCA 925km away from home. WHAT. THE. HECK? This was the question on everyone’s minds when hearing the news that Fred had made it so far from home. How did he get there in just a few weeks? Clearly, he didn’t walk himself there, he must have found a ride (meaning somebody knows something).

We don’t have proper animal control in our community (something myself and others are working on), so Fred wasn’t picked up by AC here. What they think happened, based on talking to people who’d seen him, is that Fred was sold to someone in town and then somehow made his way to a nearby city where he was picked up by animal control as a stray. I don’t know what happened to him between being sold and being picked up by AC. Maybe his new owners tried to move him there and he escaped their yard? There’s really so many possibilities. Animal rescues transport animals between rescues all the time. Some shelters are full while others have room and so dogs who struggle to find placement or who they just don’t have room for will transport to other rescues. Dogs can travel across Canada and the United States in this way. Fred ended up in a city 925km from home. He was well taken care of by shelter staff and was even neutered and put up for adoption (keep in mind, he’d been missing only a few weeks). By the time Cheryl and her family found him he was to be adopted out to another family the NEXT DAY. Cheryl’s mom was able to go to the shelter and identify him, but the SPCA would not release him to her, only his rightful owners. They compared photos and videos of him and were able to confidently declare him as Fred based on several distinct scars on his ear, muzzle and leg. Purebred dogs can be difficult to tell apart at times, but there’s no denying that many factors. The SPCA told them the dog was not a match and that if they wanted the dog they had to come adopt him. They spent the next 24 hours scrambling to raise money to go get their dog.

This story has a happy ending. They were able to raise the money they need and they SPCA decided to let the dog go to the owners who rightfully claimed him. The last update I heard was that the owners were on their way to get him.

Here’s my two cents, as a dog trainer/enthusiast… I think both parties are in the wrong and the poor dog is the one who had to suffer for it. I think that if you let your dog wander, especially without any identification, you’re just asking for something to happen to them. What happened to this dog is a pretty extreme, and probably not a super likely scenario, but it’s a good reminder that you just never know what’s going to happen. The least you can do is put a tag on your dog’s collar with their name and your phone number on it. Better yet, have your dog tattooed or micro-chipped.

I also think that the shelters that handled this dog were in the wrong. There was not a long enough window of opportunity at either shelter for the dog to be properly claimed (especially since he came from a different town). When the owner did come forward with identifying the dog and proof that it was her dog, the SPCA should not have denied that it was Cheryl’s dog. Why was it so difficult for them to ID him, when even I could see this was the same dog? I understand their need to recoup some of their costs to care for and neuter him, but the really short time-frame with an ultimatum of either pay for the dog within a day or he’ll be rehomed, was pretty heartless. Even though I feel the owner was misguided in the way the dog was left to wander, I do believe they deeply love their pet. They wouldn’t have gone through SO much trouble to find and get him back if they didn’t. The SPCA is here to help animals, but it should also be here to help people too. Help reunite animals with their owners so that you’re not adopting out dogs that already have a home (which takes a home away from a dog who does need it). It should take this as an educational moment and teach this owner how to be responsible instead of just using money as a teacher. Do you job and explain to the family how to keep Fred safe at home from now on. Give them resources such as local dog trainers (hello!) and information that can help them be better dog owners so that something doesn’t happen to Fred again.

I saw a lot of people suggested that Cheryl takes Fred’s story to the news and calls out the SPCA for the way they handled this situation. I agree, I think she should too. I understand how difficult rescue is, I understand many of the rules they have around adoption etc. are there to keep the animals safe. What I don’t understand is how they can be so black and white and not realize there’s a LOT of grey in-between when it comes to people. It’s not always so simple as this person is good and this person is bad. We are complex animals taking care of other complex animals (dogs). They need to consider other factors when it comes to adoption as well as reuniting pets with their families. I tried to adopt a dog to bring with me to dog training school and they wouldn’t let me because I had another dog at home who had guarding issues with food. An issue I worked on with him for years and by the time he was an old dog nobody knew he had these issues. The dog I would have adopted would have had a chance to be trained in a professional setting, with someone who loves dogs SO much I wanted to make a career out of it. This was just one of many experiences I’ve had or heard about with the SPCA that makes me shake my head and wonder are they really doing all they can to help animals? Or have they become too possessive over animals?

Vanderhoof Appointments Open

Dog Blog, FSJ Dog Training, update

I’m excited to announce that I’ll be available to book dog training appointments on Saturday mornings in Vanderhoof between October 14th and December 16th.

I hadn’t put too much thought into traveling to Vanderoof for training before. I am currently unable to walk or drive anywhere so I have been training out of my back yard. Last weekend I had an appointment with a lady and her dog from Vanderhoof. The original plan was for them to come here but since our bank appointment was for the same day in Vanderhoof, I told her I’d come to her. I don’t know Vanderoof super well, my husband definitely knows it better than I do. But her home was easy enough to find. An hour before our bank appointment my husband dropped me off and he spent the next hour driving around and picked us up a snack from Tim Horton’s. While I really hate depending on others for a ride, if I have to depend on anyone for it I prefer it to be my husband. I just struggle with allowing myself to rely on other people.

We signed our daughter up for swim lessons in Vanderoof and they will occur every Saturday from October to December. Since we’ll be heading to Vanderhoof and hanging out for an hour anyway I figured I might as well open my books for dog training appointments while I’m there!

If training in Vanderhoof proves successful I may continue to provide training to our neighboring town even after my daughter is done swim lessons. Of course, it will depend on how healed my foot is and if I can drive myself by then.

I will continue to offer flexible hours for those who need it in FSJ, but I will no longer be available for Saturday morning sessions after October 13th.

Welcome to the Dog Blog

Dog Blog

I used to write a “dog blog” when I was like 12. I kept at it over the years on and off but once I quit the FSJ Humane Society and dog training I didn’t write about dogs anymore. I kept up writing with my art blog as I focused on my art and starting a family.

Now that I’ve stepped back from publishing my art and hopped back into dog training, I kept going back and forth on whether I’d write a dog blog again or not. It feels right to keep writing, but I know realistically I won’t be able to commit to any sort of schedule. The posts will come when I find time and inspiration for them.

Please also keep in mind that as a professional dog trainer I don’t exactly want to give all of my secrets away for free, either. I’ve been working on a subscription-based Patreon page, but I’m still heavily editing it. It is currently available, but please bare in mind that everything currently on there is still a work in progress. That being said, I will use this space to write about my experiences in dog training, helpful tips or training methods I feel like sharing, and as a place to update what I’m currently working on for my community projects. I will change or omit names just for privacy sake, if I’m talking about any of my clients. Including the dogs… it’s a small town and a lot of people will know exactly who I’m talking about based on their dogs name.

I’m not here to judge anyone. If I talk about a particularly “bad dog” it’s because I want to gain more insight about the case and how to help the dog and their owner. There are no “bad dogs” just misguided dogs and uninformed owners. I’ll probably mostly end up complaining about my own dog, Zelda (haha).

A little bit of back story: I got my certification for Kennel Management and Master Dog Trainer in 2007. I trained in Fort St. James for about 3 years. During that time I also volunteered and was on the board of directors for the Fort St. James Humane Society. A group of caring individuals who tried so hard to make a difference for the animals in our community. I think they actually did a LOT of good and made strides, but unfortunately it sort of fell apart when the founders moved away. I actually bought their house when they moved, so it was interesting some of the things I came across (like a lifetime supply of poop bags and a whole bunch of first aid supplies). I quit the board an dog training because I became emotionally exhausted. There was a lot of very sad cases I had to deal with involving animal abuse and neglect. When I did my training I had a hard time teaching people, especially when most of them were older than me (I was in my early twenties). I was shy and struggling with mental health problems that went beyond just compassion fatigue. I also found a lot of people just struggled with following my advice or keeping with a schedule. I was canceled on or stood up constantly. When I got back into dog training this year I decided that was going to be something I didn’t put up with and wrote my cancellation policy fairly quickly.

Right before I injured my foot badly last June I decided to start doing dog training again. Getting back into it with my foot the way it is has been difficult, but I’ve managed to keep training every week. I’ve learned a lot from my clients this summer and see where I need to tweak my session plans. I’m beginning to see trends in which problem behaviors are most common and what are common goals and expectations out of owners.

I’m also learning what the community needs; the major complaints and expectations out of community members. I’m slowly learning who is currently involved in animal welfare in our town and who would like to be involved. A lot of it has been happening behind the scenes and I’ve been told COVID had a major role in their effectiveness the last few years. Now that things have relaxed a bit they are getting back into the full swing of things.

It’s exciting to be back into dog training and welfare. It was hard for me to finally come to the conclusion that’s what I was going to do but once I made that decision it felt so right. It felt so familiar yet also exciting and new at the same time. I will always create art, and I feel that the time is coming to get back to my drawing course again, but it felt like a struggle. I continuously felt like I couldn’t find my place. When I thought I’d find my place it wouldn’t last long and I’d be searching for another outlet and avenue of sales. It felt like I had to constantly be on top of what’s new and what will sell and it really devalued my self-worth in my art. Dog training doesn’t feel like any of that. It just feels right.