The Goodness of a Bad Dog

In recent days, a friend who runs a shelter has been talking to me about her anger and frustration with the infamous Sue Sternberg temperament test for shelter dogs. Even if you've never heard of the controversy or Sternberg, you may have seen evaluators  on Animal Planet, putting a fake hand on a stick into the food bowl of a dog in the shelter to determine if the dog is adoptable or not by how he or she reacts. This is a piece, perhaps one of the most controversial pieces, of Sternberg's temperament testing method for shelter dogs known as "Assess-a-Pet."

Those who support this method point out that shelters need some relatively accurate, easy way to know if a dog is a risk to place with an adopter, and to avoid putting dangerous dogs out into the general population or into the hands of an inexperienced owner. Many wax rhapsodic over Sternberg herself, and admire her ability as a trainer and her dedication to dogs.

Others feel that her test itself, especially on stressed and traumatized shelter dogs, is unreliable, and  pushes the dogs to behave in ways that can be deemed "aggressive," enabling the evaluator to categorize the dog as "unadoptable," and therefore keep them from hurting the shelter's adoption percentages. Some shelter funding is dependent on lowering euthanasia rates of adoptable animals, and this can be one way to continue to euthanize dogs for shelter space without jeopardizing that funding.

I suppose my very use of the word "infamous" to describe Sue Sternberg tells you what side I'm on in this controversy. Like many other people, including some who worked for Sternberg for years and many professional trainers, I feel that the test is unreliable, unfair, and in many cases, abusive.

Yeah well, life is unfair, shelters are full, and maybe rescue groups and humane societies really should be focusing their efforts on finding homes for those dogs who don't need cautious placing or re-training to be good canine family members. Makes sense.

But then I think about Colleen.

Among dog people, there's a phrase that has a special meaning. It's when we say a dog is a great dog. Oh, we might say "Wow, that's a great dog!" about our brother's new puppy or the Lab next door or the winner of Westminster. But said with a certain inflection, it means something else. In dog talk, it's A Great Dog. And some of us, from time to time, find we have one of these dogs at our side.

Colleen  was a breathtakingly devoted dog. She would have done anything at all I asked her to. She never took her eyes off me. I would have taken a bullet for her. I don't have the words to tell you what that dog was, and believe me, in the years since she died, I've tried. I've written pages and pages about her, articles here and there about her beauty, her hip dysplasia, her arthritis, her russet eyes, her plumed tail. I've honestly tried to tell people who Colleen was, but I've never really gotten it all out. And part of it is that I've never been able to explain fully that Colleen was a bad dog.

Colleen was a biter. She hated children. She was intolerant of strangers. She would throw herself in a frenzy at the guy cleaning the windshield on the car. And she'd have ripped that fake hand to shreds when it shoved itself in her face while she was eating, although I could take food out of her mouth.

I adopted Colleen from the Peninsula Humane Society in San Mateo, CA, when she was around two years old. She was a chow mix who came to me with a whole array of bad habits,  was not housebroken and didn't even know the word "sit." She had clearly never been in a house, as walking on carpets terrified her. I took her to training classes run by some local Rottie folks, who marveled at her trainability even at the hands of a completely inept trainer (that would be me). "That's a good dog you've got there," they used to tell me.

I was walking Colleen in Golden Gate Park once, down around the windmill, when a schizophrenic guy tried to attack me. Colleen went all the way out to the end of her leash and told him to Go. Away. Now.

And of course, he did. He was used to listening to voices no one else could hear.

I went places with Colleen that I would never have gone without her. I would go to the dog run in the park late at night to let my sighthounds run when I was in the city, with my headlights shining on the field. I never worried about anyone lurking in the bushes, because no one could ever sneak up on me when Colleen was around. Forget radar, forget night vision goggles. Get a dog like Colleen.

So, what does this all have to do with Sue Sternberg and the temperament testing of shelter dogs?

I can't speak to the truthfulness of the  statement - I've found dozens of references to it, but no direct quote from Sternberg affirming it. But she has been quoted as saying at seminars that the vast majority of dogs in her area - perhaps as much as 85 percent - should be euthanized for temperament issues. This doesn't seem to match up with the real-world experience of shelters, even those using Sternberg's method or tests based on or related to her method.

The San Francisco SPCA's Jean Donaldson told The Bark that  "we need tests that are scientifically proven to be reliable and valid.  We couldn’t get Sue’s test past the reliability issue, and four of her five unadoptable dogs did fine." Trish King at the Marin Humane Society said that their failure rate on the test was only around 5 percent. If Sternberg really did say that 75 or 85 percent of dogs have such severe temperament problems as to make euthanasia necessary, it seems hard to reconcile that with the very different results being obtained on the other side of the country.

And that doesn't even touch on the dogs who, with careful placement, could be the light of someone's life despite being outside the perfectly safe  category. The dogs like Colleen.

See, I don't think dogs are furbabies. I don't think they are necessarily perfectly safe. And I have news for you: Love and passion and courage and imagination and intelligence and commitment are also not safe. Nature is not safe, the ocean is not safe, and those cops and firefighters who ran into the rubble of the World Trade Center on 9/11 didn't stop and consider that it wasn't safe.

Greatness isn't safe. That's the whole point.

So I am saying  this for Colleen, who made it out of the shelter and into safe harbor with me, and for  all the dogs who don't make it because of the failure of heart and imagination and courage on the part of the idiots who deemed them dangerous:

Sue Sternberg can kiss my ass.

Comments

[Travis]

Christie,

Well, as somebody who had the honor of knowing Colleen, and also having the honor of being her personal back massager:

Amen.

Travis

[Shari]

There are canine traits that are nature, not nurture. Reliance on the Assess-a-Pet test not only guarantees the demise of a number of good *dogs*, over time it would assuredly guarantee the demise of many excellent *breeds.*

Among them would be the Chow. Colleen would have been toast. Included in breeds eliminated from potential shelter adoption would be any breed indifferent to strangers, protective by nature, those loyal guarders of both persons and property. The human-loving but other animal aggressive breeds would be gone; as would dogs with a strong inherent prey drive. GSD, Rottweiller, AmStaff, APBT, Chow, Shar-Pei, and so very many more (including many sporting breeds)would be killed in preference to being offered for adoption.

Emphasis on retraining is absent, as is emphasis on proper placement. Dog and prospective adoptive family should be carefully matched.

Instead, doggy genocide lurks behind that Assess-a-Hand.

Shari

[Debra]

I don't think "kiss my ass" was appropriate. More like "bite me".

I have had the pleasure of a couple of bad dogs. I have 2 now. Two that would not be safe in most homes and a 3rd that only a very experienced rottie owner should have. Great dogs. My life if enriched by their love. Their lives are enriched by my providing an environment they can be safe in.

I certainly don't experience anything that would lead me to believe that even 70 percent of dogs from shelters should be euthanized for bad temperaments. But I think we would improve the planet by euthanizing or at least sterilizing the folks who bring them in or cause them to be there.

[Anne]

Ugh. Yes, you may have been able to scrape by with a dog with issues, you were lucky...no, society was lucky. Does no one realize how many unwanted dogs are out there that do not have behavior and or aggression issues? I have spent hours with behaviorists from around the country, Dunbar, Donaldson and even Ms. Sternberg. I did an intership with her. And until you work with agressive dogs and see first hand the problem. Don't talk. Society can definately do without agressive dogs. And for those of you who do not believe that there is such a thing as a "bad" puppy...I have seen them, there is a difference.

[Tom]

I do not doubt that there are aggressive dogs that are dangerous. The test of Sue Sternberg is garbage. I have two lovable, friendly, and spritied yorkies who would flunk her test. They would like see the hand as a toy. THe yorky can be a very attentive breed. They will raise their ears, etc when they hear just a slight curious sound.

What is wrong with these tests are they are being performed in shelters in stressfull situations.

What is missing are baseline tests. We do not know how dogs in well cared or situations who have never been a problem with children, families, etc would fare on that test.

There is no data that except in maybe the most aggressive dogs that this Sue Sternberg's test actually discriminates between likely adoptable dogs and ones with serious problems.

THe portions of the test that I saw look like a one size fits all sort of test.
Breeds are different, dogs within different breeds have different needs.

The science behind the test is very lacking. It does not match reality.

My two yorkies love each other to the exterme. THey will have little squables over at the food bowl. THey would not hurt one another to say the least.

The test is tailored to be easy to administor by low paid workers at city animal shelters.

I have a dog that actually did flunk her test, not just her test, but her test given by her as a demonstration of how to do it for our rescue group. In this dog's original home, she had been regularly grabbed by the collar and struck in the head. At 11 months old she found herself staying in a kennel waiting on a foster home, and quickly falling apart. She was panicked by the confinement, the noise, everything.

The president of the group brought her out for Sue to assess. We never got to the rubber hand. Sue grabbed her by the collar and flung her hand at the dog's head. The dog struggled to get away. Then the hand came at her again. On the third time the dog snapped. She didn't bite, but she definitely acted like she might. Sue catagorized this attack as "unprovoked" and said she should be put down. And Sue wasn't wrong that this wasn't a dog for most homes, and was in fact a "bad" dog.

So naturally I took her home.

I discovered she was a ball freak who was scary smart and loved kids. I practiced grabbing her collar and throwing the ball. Then grabbing her collar and waving the ball in her face. She got to where she couldn't wait for you to grab her collar. She had such great drive that we joined a search and rescue team. She had problems with separation anxiety and was never good with strangers if she was in the car or otherwise confined, but her chance to shine was when we searched the woods. I will never forget that look of pride on her face when she found someone. She didn't care if it was just practice, she loved having a job.

We've since moved away and are no longer on a team. She's starting to slow down a little now and her muzzle is grey. But she still knows the names of all her toys, recognizes all my shoes and what they mean for her (heels = bad, sneakers = good, hiking boots = really good). She knows what time my son gets home and waits for him by the front door. In the evening, she keeps the same vigil for my husband. And she won't go upstairs to bed until her entire flock is up there too.

I am a dog lover and have owned and adored several dogs, and fostered many many more. But when I think of losing her, my sweet girl, my soulmate, I am filled with despair. This dog is special.

I work in rescue, I work with shelters, I understand what people are saying about liability and danger and I commend Sue Sternberg for raising awareness and working to help shelter dogs, but just as not every breed is for everyone, not every dog is for everyone. That doesn't mean these problem dogs aren't for anyone! I worry that in our quest for bomb-proof dogs, we are slowly eliminating the dogs with high drive, the dogs with more intelligence, the dogs with quirks, or maybe just a rough start. These dogs are worth saving! These are the dogs I like!

Do we want all dogs to be Golden Retrievers? Goldens are great, I used to have one, but when my house was burgled, she kept the robbers company; thank goodness she wasn't hurt. If someone had attacked me with her there, she wouldn't have known what do to. I honestly do not think she had it in her to bite a person, no matter what the provocation. I guess this makes her a "good" dog? She was a good dog, she was a gentle soul and I loved her a lot, but she was very different. Like Colleen, my current dog wants to keep her family safe and is prepared to follow through on that. She's sometimes sneaky and has been known to disobey a direct order if she knew something about it that I didn't. This is what good guide dogs do and it's a good thing! When my dog snapped at the evaluation years ago, she reacted the way any reasonable and intelligent creature (person or dog) would have if their previous experience had been what her's was.

She will always have some baggage, but that doesn't make her not worth saving. To me it's dogs like her that are what having dogs is all about.

Something to keep in mind when you're talking about breeds is that all breeds are still, in shelters, meant to be adopted out as companion animals. Companion animals very often to families with small children. People that can handle the true problem dogs, that can manage the kinds of dogs that you've mentioned, are very few and far between.

And it should not matter what breed the dog is. If the dog is aggressive, the dog is aggressive. Period. And if an animal is aggressive, it should not go out into the community. Who cares whether or not it's a pit bull or a golden retriever with massive prey drive? The dog /still has/ prey drive, and I don't think the kid that gets mauled is going to care what breed gave him a hundred stitches.

[AL]

Oddly enough I came across Sue's show by accident at 5:00 a.m. Through Bloodshot eyes I surfed the tube as our 2nd Night home, 1 month old Half Rottie half Shepherd Gnawed my hand after waking me whining for attention. I was so amazed at her ridiculous method's I had to record it to show my 13 Yr. old daughter how insane so called Professionals handled Dogs in a "NO KILL SHELTER." I clearly thought it a "Normal Reaction" and that any Smart dog would take her "Phony Hand" as just that and would Anticipate a snap or snarl or snip. I saw it as entrapment like a Prosecution lawyer would setup to provoke a "Bad Dog" scenario to win a case.(As bad as "If The Glove Don't Fit) Sadly in this case, it deemed the dog's Execution. I played with Riddick and Thought of My Boy Buster who left us 3 months ago after 13yrs of being the best friend and companion me, my wife and 3 kids could have hoped for. He was a boxer/Black lab mix that was Deemed "BAD" at 4 months old by its owner by my wife's folks house in Ohio. We lived in NY and were visiting when we saw him chained to a tree where he spent the last month according to her folks. We were surprised how aggressive he was when we approached and over time he knew us and actually got exited when he saw us. He was extremely protective of his food and certain actions also drew a bad reaction from him but I could see it was not in him, just how he acted. I grew up with 3 German Shepherds at a time at my folks and learned enough to read dogs pretty well. The owner was amazed how he took to us and asked if we wanted him...We took em home and he was great. They called him Buster I soon nicknamed him "MUSH" and he was a 30lb lapdog in a week. He never growled Nipped or barked in anger towards us again but proceeded to Destroy anything in chewing range and over the next few months he mauled our couches (3 Sets) tables,Walls,Christmas trees (Presents Too) and wouldn't stop regardless of our training till my crying wife broke and considered giving him up. I knew it would stop and thank God it did when My daughter was born and buster found his new role. When she cried he rushed to the crib and back to us prodding with his nose and tail wagging until we checked on her. Growing up they were inseparable with him as an incredible guardian alerting us many times of a dangerous condition or where she got off to. He stayed between stranger's and her and if you did get close he stay right their and keep an eye on her. If we even raised are voice to her he would respond with a "Watch It" Growl or Bark. Even when she pulled his ears or anything he would never even consider acting out. This behavior continued as he took on the guardian role for my next two kids over the next several years. His attention was always making sure they were safe. No One could get near them without the sniff test and he wouldn't leave their side till they were gone. Five years ago we moved to P. A and Buster loved the 2 1/2 acres. He was alert to every inch of it and helped us adjust to the outdoors warning us too many times of bears and snakes etc. with incredible accuracy, and a protective reaction that would scare away a Grizzly.(He was 110 lbs at this time)He Never bit anyone but let you know he would if need be.I continued to work in N.Y and stayed at my folks a few nights a week leaving my wife and three kids alone,but fully protected by my "Bad Dog".They felt safe and I never worried cause I knew Mush was their and he'd never let anything happen to his family. About 3 months ago it was movie night and just as the family sat down he laid down by the door (his favorite spot) and had a heart attack. We all lost a part of us that night and never realized how much we relied on him. I stayed away less and My wife would call scared somtimes,even using our house alarm for the first time in 5 years. The kids wouldn't venture out in the woods and played less outside. I didn't like going to the woodpile (or Outdoors) at night without him. He passed on June 6th and on July 12th we went back to Ohio (now worried about the house with no mush to scare away bad guys)to visit the wifes Sister and drop off my son for a week to spend time with his grandparents.While driving back home we saw a sign saying "Shepard Puppies" and I had to stop and look....I got my last dog here I Thought....Any males I asked??..."One Left... Your daughters Got Em..." I looked over and he was Exactly like our mush....Black with a white cross on his chest....and she picked him out already! The guy said he was lazy one that just laid around and chewed everything all day. The guy asked if I want to meet the parents...Their out back...."buster's" the dad...I said No Way as my family looked at each other and my daughter walked towards the car and off we went. That was 2 months ago and I see a lot of Mush in Riddick and I only Hope he turns out the same.....except the chewing part....Just like Mush. Wow, Sorry got off the Subject but what I meant to say was I'm glad Sue didn't Meet buster First cause he'd been dead Instead of the best thing to happen to my Family for the last 13 years.

[JEN]

i am so in agreement with you that i almost want to quote this in my signature, but i dont want to scare off the people who turn their dogs/cats into kids aka furbabies, plus im sure youd want to approve my quoting you anyway. keep up the good work

[cindy]

I enjoyed reading about your friend & guardian. I am currently looking for a dog for myself & my one yr old to make a threesome for our little family. I remember when I was 3-4 yrs old and playing in our shepard's dog dish with her. My mother tried to come near me and the dog reached out to warn her. It scared me at the time but unfortunately I later found out that, when angry, my mother had a temper of her own. The dog was only matching her temper and saying "Leave this one alone". Dogs just know. That dog followed me around for the next 5 yrs. She waited at the door when it was time for me to come home from school. She got distemper & the vet told me that the only way she would live was if I stayed still since she followed me everywhere. Ever try to stay still as a 7-8 yr old? She passed away, but she saved me from some spankings I would have otherwise gotten. Her name was "Pilsmal, the Far out Pooch". She was my first true friend. In today's world they would have put her down. My dad would never of allowed that to happen. He believed dogs were never bad, just sometimes misplaced. We expect dogs to be perfect humans while people get to have a license to act like uncivilized animals when they wish as long as they don't get caught & if they do get caught they have a great excuse no matter how it hurt others. Animals offer such balance to the world. Thanks again for sharing about your dog, it reminded me of a long lost friend & a father who on a deep level understood my attachment to her & hers to me.

[Emily]

I just want to say what an excellent article this is. It sums up not only the profound problems with a test never shown to accurately predict aggression, but the whole idea that aggression should reult in a death sentence rather than extra care and support. It is convenient to think digs that will fail this kind of test must die, but it is not true. the difference in failure rates between facilities show clearly that this test is of our need for excuses not the correct fate for the dog.

[Barbara Saunders]

I believe we need a fundamental shift in the way we think about "safe" dogs. Animals, including (perhaps especially) human beings have the potential to be unsafe. It is not the responsibility of dogs to transcend being animals in order to be child-lover-parent-friend substitutes for needy human beings seeking "unconditional love." It is, in my opinion, the responsibility of human beings to continue to care for those animals whose human-bred traits have lost their purpose to us.

[Cindy Cooke]

I have a request from an attorney looking for an expert witness who can speak about the deficiencies of the Sternberg test and other temperament tests used by many shelters. Please forward any suggestions to me at anstamm@charter.net. Thanks in advance.

Cindy Cooke
Legislative Specialist
United Kennel Club

[Sharon Azar]

Having had 3 of my rescued dogs labeled 'dangerous' by Madame Sternberg, I can't tell you how much your article "The Goodness of a Bad Dogs' meant to me.
Incidentally, all three 'dangerous' dogs were gotten out of her clutches, given lots of time, energy and love, then placed into fantastic homes. After many years, I still get letters and postcards from the people who adopted Maggie, a pit mix.
Also, I lived with a 'bad' dog named Franz(husky/wolf) for 17 years and he was my greatest teacher.
Best,
Sharon Azar
WOOF!

[Jill]

I had a "bad dog". I loved my lab-shephard mix, Mattie Lou, and was devoted to her, and shared ten years of my life with her. She was treated gently and lovingly the entire time I had her. I spent many hours and many dollars with obedience schools and trainers, trying to figure out ways to deal with her issues. But I never felt like she was safe, and when my daughter was born, she proved I was right when she snapped at the baby as she crawled by her. She spent the last two years of her life being as well cared for as ever before, but always on the other side of a baby gate from where my child was. I felt guilty on behalf of both my beloved dog and my beloved child. I wish someone had done something to make this dog unavailable to me before I fell so deeply in love with her. I am a devoted pet owner, and would never have turned her over to a shelter so some other family would have to deal with her problems. I also could never have lived with myself for euthanizing her, so I just put up with her unpredictable temperament, and kept her separate from my child. Mattie Lou died of cancer when my daughter was two years old. She had an especially aggressive cncer, and although she was under the care of a veterinary oncologist, and even though I spent thousands of dollars on her treatment, in my heart I was actually relieved when the treatment failed, and I had a "legitimate" reason to euthanize her. I thought my guilt would kill me.
I think shelters and rescue groups owe it to society to do everything in their power to not rob people like me from having the privelage of having a gentler, more trustworthy dog as a companion. I sometimes feel like I lost a decade of my life to that dog. I went several years without a dog after her death because I didn't want to put my child in a position to have her heart broken if it didn't work out again. We now have two gentle, loving dogs, and I am glad I decided to trust again. But I am not so sure others would come to the same conclusion, or have access to all of the same information as I do (I am a veterinarian).

[Robert]

You say "I wish someone had done something to make this dog unavailable to me before I fell so deeply in love with her" and Sternberg's temperament testing very well may have accomplished that. By killing the dog. The thing is her methods have not undergone any empirical testing to show they can distinguish between a dog who may nip a baby and one like Colleen who will protect a family member from any and all threats.

Sternberg's behavior in Shelter Dogs wasn't an evaluation, but a desperate attempt by a disturbed person to prove she is infallible, and all at the poor dog's expense.

Sue Sternberg can kiss not only my ass, but the ass of my loving, fiercely loyal, over protective shelter dog Jake. Who, by the way, would never put up with some unhinged idiot repeatedly jabbing at him with a rubber hand on a stick. He would, however, without hesitation throw himself into the breach to protect any member of his extended family.

In all seriousness Sternberg herself needs a temperament test, better known as a psychological evaluation. The woman clearly has mental problems.