Rescue Journal

we have a problem houston.

Carol  ·  Jul. 21, 2013

i am not sure how to approach this...i am struggling with how to say this in a way so people really understand and think about the daily risks involved in doing rescue this way.

i posted what i thought was pretty clear on how i wanted the new big dogs safely managed while i was away. i also posted an offer for anyone to call me if they were unsure of anything.

bottom line, i wasn't clear because the little dogs were let out into the yard when they should have still been locked in the house and daphne went out on the first run with the big boys.

no one was hurt but thats not the point..i won't go into the what if's, we all know what the what if's could have been.
suffice it to say that on several different fronts, it did not go the way i intended it to go. and that is a big problem for me.

we have dogs here that bite and fight..we all take that for granted. it takes us a few tries to work out the kinks, to get everyone on board on how we HAVE to do certain things with only a few wounds and close calls to convince us and hurry us along.

but when we have dogs here with the power, the temperment potential, and with the observed high interest prey drive to cause death or serious harm..we are talking about a totally different kettle of fish.

we absolutely cannot fuck around. there is NO room for mistakes.

no one wants to carry the burden of one of our animals deaths because we didn't think, we didn't know, we misunderstood, we forgot, we thought it wasn't a big deal, we thought it was someone elses responsibility, i wasn't clear, or we thought i was wrong about the risk potential for harm.

riley and capone are very easily and safely managed with stone wall limits that we do not deviate from. i could put one person in charge of the potential problem childs but that doesn't help if everyone just does their own thing or if that person doesn't understand what i am saying. i can post it and think i am clear but i obviously am not if 30 minutes into the day, everywhere, the entire plan falls apart.

i could send capone and riley away, back to the spca...but honestly, i don't want to. they are happy here, no one wanted to adopt them when they were there so going back probably would not be the best thing for them. and bottom line is not only do i really like both of them..i do think they are perfectly safe and pretty easy to manage as long as we do not set them up to fail.

we have been thru this before...how many times did the wrong dog get in with odie and blood was spilt until we all finally got it and quit letting dogs zip in thru his door?? it was quite a few. and there have been others that we struggled to keep safe too.

and the reality is..i could spell out every single possible scenario and combination of what to avoid, what to prevent, what to take steps from happening and still someone would do something or not do something for whatever reason or just plain bad luck and someone would get hurt.

i have said this before..i cannot make people stop and think before it is too late, i can only hope that they do.

there is a lot of deflection and blame flying around here...the house dogs shouldn't have been out, daphne should not have been taken for the run, riley doesn't appear deadly, i should have been more clear in my original blog post.

i should have been more clear in my blog post.

so i will try it again.

riley and capone are NEVER to be near ANY other animals of ANY species except
mystic, june, jake, and boomer, (and mo's levi and roxy.) they are NEVER to be allowed near any farm animal, barn yard bird or cat.
and when riley and capone are out for their walks...all other dogs (except those on their safe list) are to be kept locked in the house.

it is everyone's responsibility to make absolute sure this is so.
any questions or is anything unclear?

Comments

Carol

THEY CAN GO OUT IN THEIR LITTLE YARD WITHOUT OTHER DOGS BUT THEY ARE NOT TO BE BUGGING THE CATS, WE ARE TO EITHER MAKE THEM STOP OR BRING THEM BACK IN.
sorry caps,,,ooops.

he took his meds in canned cat food at lunch and ate pedigree tonight, he doesn't like the canned gastro.

dawn

I let Capone + Riley out in the small yard attached to the office today for a pee while I was waiting for a tour. The brown one (Capone?) was very interested in the cats in the cat run but I made sure he behaved himself.

Should they not be out there either? Let me know and I won't do it again.

I also did try to get hime to eat with little sucess.

lynne

what about jessie and yes i take responsiblility for letting the little dogs out of your bedroom and into the big dog room so sorry about that. will not happen again