10 November 2004 | The River Journal | Page 13
Susan Daffron
Pet Tails
Dog Aggression Many dog owners don’t think much about aggression in dogs. Healthy, well-adjusted dogs don’t bite, growl, or snap at people or other animals. But not all dogs are healthy and well adjusted, and 4.3 million people are bitten by dogs in the United States every year. The old saying that there are no bad dogs, only bad owners is not entirely true. Dogs are aggressive for a number of different reasons. And there are different types of canine aggression. Not all of them can or should be dealt with by pet owners. Brain chemistry is a complex thing, and just as some people (like axe murderers) should not be wandering around free in society, so it is with dogs. Some dogs should never, ever be
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bred, sold, given away, or adopted out of shelters or rescues. If you go to a shelter or humane society and see a dog lunging, growling and snarling at the gate, do not adopt it. And tell the shelter staff about it. Some dogs can’t deal with being in a cage for long periods of time and go “cage crazy” as it’s called in the humane community. These dogs should not be adopted and actually can pose a liability risk to the shelter itself. Extended confinement is just one reason a formerly normal dog may start to exhibit aggressive tendencies. Others are abuse, pain and extreme fear. However, some aggressive dogs behave that way not because of bad experiences or lack of socialization, but because of genetics. For example, most terriers exhibit a very strong prey drive because they were bred to chase things. It’s what they do. However, an overdeveloped prey drive can become dangerous if the dog starts stalking the kids and biting them or killing the neighborhood cats. If you are worried about your dog’s behavior, your first stop should be the veterinarian’s office. If the dog is biting because he is in pain, the vet can help. Thyroid conditions also can cause odd behavior, including aggression. At a minimum, the vet can spay or neuter the dog, which is a good idea since hormones trigger some types of aggression. If there’s no medical reason for the dog’s behavior, the vet also can refer you to a canine behaviorist. You can help the behaviorist evaluate your dog by paying attention to details about the aggressive behavior. When does it happen and what does the dog do in response? Videotaping the dog also can be helpful. Behaviorists generally recommend behavior modification techniques to help mitigate or avoid problematic situations, but in most cases you have to remain vigilant. For example, if your dog has ever been aggressive around kids, you want to be very sure that the dog is never left alone with them. If your dog is unpredictable, you need to get help immediately. Do not dump the problem on someone else by giving the dog away or taking it to a shelter. Safety for your fellow humans should always be your most important consideration. Susan Daffron owns Logical Expressions Inc., an editorial and publishing company. She is a former veterinary assistant and owns four dogs and two cats. Articles are archived at www.pet-tails.com
Hey, Buddy, Can you Spare a Mepps?
Steve Huffaker, Director, Idaho Department of Fish and Game.
W
e need about as much as a Mepps fishing lure costs, but not as much as a Rapala, to keep giving you some of the best hunting and fishing in the country. By now, you may have heard Idaho Fish and Game wants to adjust fees. Here’s why: Just as businesses are paying more than they did five years ago for gasoline, electricity, salaries and insurance, so are we. Unlike most businesses, though, we haven’t changed our prices since May of 2000. Now we’re asking to charge a little more for licenses and tags to cover increased costs and to continue providing the services hunters and anglers want. How much more? $1.50 for a hunting license and $3 for a fishing license—about the cost of a Mepps. Not much considering how much more it costs to do business now than it did in 2000. Remember when we thought gas was expensive at $1.60 a gallon? Since the last time we adjusted prices, we’ve built new places to fish. We’ve started getting better information about fish and wildlife populations, helping us improve hunting and fishing. We’ve increased the amount of time conservation officers spend patrolling the backcountry. To continue, we need a modest fee increase. Without it, we’ll be back to the cycle of cutting services you’ve told us are important. In the tight budget years before the last fee increase, we cut what some called “fat.” Turns out, it wasn’t “fat.” Recently, we asked hunters, anglers, legislators and others to help set priorities and to tell us what we need to do better. More than 3,000 of you told us, “Get tough on poachers. Tell us more about fish and wildlife. Get us involved and give us more places to hunt and fish.” We heard you and we acted. We changed where we put our efforts. We shifted money into the priorities you identified. We freed up funds to start programs like Access Yes, opening private land to hunters and anglers. We gave conservation officers new tools to catch criminals. We improved the Fish and Game website and we’re finding new ways to make more information available to you. You told us you liked what we’ve done, but that we need to do more. A
couple dollars more per license will help do what you said is important. It will put volunteers on the ground improving mule deer winter range. It will help conservation officers catch hard-core poachers who steal your fish and wildlife. It will keep hatcheries running to stock lakes, streams and ponds so you can share your love of fishing with your kids. It will give you more places to hunt and fish by opening another 120,000 acres of private land to hunters and anglers. We’re trying to give hunters and anglers what they want and keep hunting and fishing affordable. Giving Fish and Game commissioners the authority to change prices means you won’t see prices jump every six or seven years. Instead, you’ll see smaller adjustments – just enough to keep up with rising costs. Each year, commissioners will look at the budget and meet with you—fellow hunters and anglers—before deciding what to charge. Sometimes, there may be no change. Other years, licenses and tags may go up 25 or 50 cents. We hear a lot about running government like a business. That’s what this would do. Prices will be in line with costs. If prices get too high, people will stop buying. It’s like any business, with one big difference; the Idaho legislature has the final word and can turn down a change in prices. This approach makes sense. It keeps some of the best hunting and fishing in the country affordable. It gives Fish and Game the money needed to provide the services hunters and anglers want—increased enforcement of hunting and fishing rules, more information and involvement with fish and wildlife, and more access to private land for hunting and fishing. Isn’t that worth the price of a fishing lure?
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