Here is what the BSL says for my city...
The city has identified the following breeds as dangerous...
Such dogs must be kept:
Owners or guardians of such breeds must:
The court will order the euthanization of any dangerous dog found guilty of an offence, upon failure of any mandated training course, obedience course, "how dangerous is my dog" course, or any other course or evaluation deemed necessary by the Municipal Council.
Now that we all see what the BSL says, here is what it actually means...
Stella is 9 months old (vet estimate), for the entire 6 months I have had her she has been in some type of cl$#@!, been tested, evaluated etc etc. It honestly has been non stop. All of which I have had to pay for, of course. The basic training and obedience cl$#@! I would have done anyways, but it would have been nice to have had my choice of where to go and with whom to train with. Like it says above I don't have a choice in vet, and the vet won't spay her until she reaches sexual maturity, the same goes for all of these "dangerous dogs". Can you guess why? Not for health reasons, or probably any of the first 3 reasons that come to your mind. For one reason and one reason only..."because you can't determine the true nature of the dog and it's potential to harm a person or animal of any species until it is allowed to fully mature. Human adults are more likely to kill then human children or teenagers; the same is true of dogs." (that's a quote from the vet) At the point of sexual maturity the dog will again have to undergo all of these tests/cl$#@!/evaluations again to be reassessed, that's of course if the dog even made it through the first round.
Our current cl$#@! is entitled "how dangerous is my dog?" I'm not even kidding you when I say this...it's a room full of the above listed breeds being put in situations where ANY dog would have a hard time remaining non-reactive. Last night was the first cl$#@!, they had what looked like a dead squirrel on a string; moving it around the room (I suppose the way they thought a squirrel might run around outside?) and it was our jobs to stop our animals from reacting. Not stop them from chasing and wanting to kill the 'squirrel', stop them from reacting AT ALL. I'm sure you can imagine what happened, all hell broke loose. The dogs that did try to go after the squirrel weren't even doing so in (what I considered) an aggressive manor, their tails were wagging and they were almost bouncing up and down. This however, caused other dogs who initially didn't react to do so, if only because the other dogs were. Within 5 minutes almost every dog in the room was barking, jumping, growling or doing some other "unwanted behaviour".
Stella was terrified. She was shaking really bad, and kept trying to get in between my legs. At one point she actually peed on herself. I have been working really hard at home to try and help with her fears (she has many), and I feel like last night was 10 steps back in that department. Also, she has always been fine around other dogs, now I'm worried these cl$#@! will eventually make her fearful of them OR she will start reacting to them if only because she feels she needs to protect herself (or me) first. I should also state that this "test" as they called it, happened with 5 minutes of us all being put in the room together. After this "test" most of the dogs wouldn't calm down, it was like they were all feeding off of each other and the high energy/anxiety in the room. I chain smoked all the way home to try and stop shaking then went straight to the fridge for a beer! All I could think was thank God she wasn't in heat! I honestly don't know how I remained calm in that room and was still able to be $#@!ertive when giving Stella commands. After the cl$#@! was over the (so called) behaviourist came up to me and said (and I quote) "it was promising that your dog didn't react to the stimuli, however a fearful dog can and will be more dangerous and deadly then a straight up aggressive dog, so you really need to get that in check" I just turned around and walked away because at that point I honestly don't know if I would've laughed, cried or screamed at him...possibly a combinationt of all three. I know understand what my mother meant when we were kids and she would say "my nerves are shot"!
I should probably tell you what the paper they gave us says about what constitutes "unwanted behaviour" during the cl$#@!, and what would cause the dogs to score low or fail completely. This is taken word for word from the paper...
The dangerous dogs will be scored on these, and any other criteria deemed appropriate by the instructor/trainer/behaviourist...
"Any person on site working on behalf of the Municipal Council has the right to force a dog to be surrendered over to them to have any and all appropriate action taken against the dog and/or it's owner/guardian if they feel the need arises to maintain safety". (this whole situation isn't safe as far as I'm concerned, and I know small "lap" dogs that show every one of these behaviours every day!)
The dogs ultimately get a score out of 10 upon completion of this "course", at which point restrictions will be placed on them based on the score. I will update when I know what each score will mean for the dog, as they haven't given us that info yet. This was only the first cl$#@!, there are 13 more to go. I don't want to go back, however I have no choice. It would be awesome if anyone could give me tips or techniques in maintaining my cool when I am attending these cl$#@!, and what I can maybe do at home with Stella to help ensure the "unwanted behaviour" (most of which is natural instinct) can be kept to a minimum while at cl$#@!. At home she watched squirrels and birds when we're outside, she's never tried chasing them, but she definitely is alert to their presence. I have never disciplined this because she's a dog and it's natural...should I start?
I'm sorry this is so long, I just wanted to make sure all the info I had was in this post. In closing I want to say this...I think these cl$#@! (definately the one I'm currently taking) are set up to cause the dogs to fail, so some pompous $#@!hole can stand up and say "see, I told you these dogs are dangerous". This kind of crap is also what makes people not take their dogs to the vet. Stella was abandoned with me and when I took her to a vet for deworming and her first shots, that vet alerted the Municipal Council to her "appearance to that of a dangerous dog under the BSL", which caused AC to show up on my doorstep and force us into all this. Apparently all the vets have signed a contract agreeing to do so, or face consequences.
I also think this contributes to BYB. Many people want these types of dogs (granted many, if not most of them shouldn't have these types of dogs), but they don't want to go through the hassle of the BSL rules and regulations so they buy them from a BYB, never take them to a vet and hope their neighbours don't figure out they aren't following the "rules" and report them. I think that's what happened with Stella. I was supposed to babysit her for a weekend, unaware until I saw her of what her breed potentially was, but the guy never came back. I think the guy was reported for having her and didn't want to go through with all BSL stuff.
I understand the potential risks in owning her, she is an AmStaff/Rotti. I am doing any and everything I can to learn more, and help her have the best possible life. I am fully commited to training and working with her everyday as well as prepared to always follow through. That is why I joined this site, to ask questions and get help/advice/support from other owners who know what the hell they're talking about and aren't afraid to say what needs to be said. Any tips, info or just comments would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
I'm sorry about the small font, I couldn't figure out how to get it bigger. I really suck at this posting stuff!
The city has identified the following breeds as dangerous...
- American Pit Bull Terriers
- Staffordshire Bull Terriers
- American Staffordshire Terriers
- and all mixes that bear the physical characteristics of one of these breeds (what does this even mean??)
Such dogs must be kept:
- in a closed building (ie. house, garage, shed etc.)
- if the closed building is anything other then inside a place of residence it must be in an enclosed area with a lock or padlock, of an appropriate size and height to contain the animal; (this also confuses me)
- muzzled and on a leash no more than two metres in length when outside their enclosure.
Owners or guardians of such breeds must:
- have their pet sterilized;
- have their pet vaccinated against rabies;
- have their dog identified with a micro-chip and/or tattoo;
- have DNA testing done on their dog so the breed and/or mixture of breeds will be on permanent file;
- p$#@! a training and obedience course with their pet at a facility recognized by the Muncipal Council;
- walk with only one dangerous dog at a time, and only in approved walking areas;
- indicate to anyone wishing to come onto their property that there is a dangerous dog on premise;
- post a notice on their property indicating "Attention, dangerous dog lives here";
- on request, provide evidence of full compliance with these conditions;
- get a licence each year, for each dangerous dog at the price to be set by the Municipal Council based on grade level issued to dog upon completion of course entitled "how dangerous is my dog".
- the owner/guardian will only take the dangerous dog to a veterinarian approved by the Municipal Council, and must follow any and all instructions/directions given to them by said veterinarian.
The court will order the euthanization of any dangerous dog found guilty of an offence, upon failure of any mandated training course, obedience course, "how dangerous is my dog" course, or any other course or evaluation deemed necessary by the Municipal Council.
Now that we all see what the BSL says, here is what it actually means...
Stella is 9 months old (vet estimate), for the entire 6 months I have had her she has been in some type of cl$#@!, been tested, evaluated etc etc. It honestly has been non stop. All of which I have had to pay for, of course. The basic training and obedience cl$#@! I would have done anyways, but it would have been nice to have had my choice of where to go and with whom to train with. Like it says above I don't have a choice in vet, and the vet won't spay her until she reaches sexual maturity, the same goes for all of these "dangerous dogs". Can you guess why? Not for health reasons, or probably any of the first 3 reasons that come to your mind. For one reason and one reason only..."because you can't determine the true nature of the dog and it's potential to harm a person or animal of any species until it is allowed to fully mature. Human adults are more likely to kill then human children or teenagers; the same is true of dogs." (that's a quote from the vet) At the point of sexual maturity the dog will again have to undergo all of these tests/cl$#@!/evaluations again to be reassessed, that's of course if the dog even made it through the first round.
Our current cl$#@! is entitled "how dangerous is my dog?" I'm not even kidding you when I say this...it's a room full of the above listed breeds being put in situations where ANY dog would have a hard time remaining non-reactive. Last night was the first cl$#@!, they had what looked like a dead squirrel on a string; moving it around the room (I suppose the way they thought a squirrel might run around outside?) and it was our jobs to stop our animals from reacting. Not stop them from chasing and wanting to kill the 'squirrel', stop them from reacting AT ALL. I'm sure you can imagine what happened, all hell broke loose. The dogs that did try to go after the squirrel weren't even doing so in (what I considered) an aggressive manor, their tails were wagging and they were almost bouncing up and down. This however, caused other dogs who initially didn't react to do so, if only because the other dogs were. Within 5 minutes almost every dog in the room was barking, jumping, growling or doing some other "unwanted behaviour".
Stella was terrified. She was shaking really bad, and kept trying to get in between my legs. At one point she actually peed on herself. I have been working really hard at home to try and help with her fears (she has many), and I feel like last night was 10 steps back in that department. Also, she has always been fine around other dogs, now I'm worried these cl$#@! will eventually make her fearful of them OR she will start reacting to them if only because she feels she needs to protect herself (or me) first. I should also state that this "test" as they called it, happened with 5 minutes of us all being put in the room together. After this "test" most of the dogs wouldn't calm down, it was like they were all feeding off of each other and the high energy/anxiety in the room. I chain smoked all the way home to try and stop shaking then went straight to the fridge for a beer! All I could think was thank God she wasn't in heat! I honestly don't know how I remained calm in that room and was still able to be $#@!ertive when giving Stella commands. After the cl$#@! was over the (so called) behaviourist came up to me and said (and I quote) "it was promising that your dog didn't react to the stimuli, however a fearful dog can and will be more dangerous and deadly then a straight up aggressive dog, so you really need to get that in check" I just turned around and walked away because at that point I honestly don't know if I would've laughed, cried or screamed at him...possibly a combinationt of all three. I know understand what my mother meant when we were kids and she would say "my nerves are shot"!
I should probably tell you what the paper they gave us says about what constitutes "unwanted behaviour" during the cl$#@!, and what would cause the dogs to score low or fail completely. This is taken word for word from the paper...
The dangerous dogs will be scored on these, and any other criteria deemed appropriate by the instructor/trainer/behaviourist...
- has the dog bitten, attempted to bite; attacked or attempted to attack a person or another animal of any species;
- has the dog displayed aggressiveness towards a person or animal of any species by growling, baring its fangs, barking fiercely or in any other way indicating that it could bite or attack a person or animal of any species;
- has the dog behaved aggressively; (kinda vague?)
- has the dog held an offensive or defensive stance ready to attack a person or an animal of any species. (again...wtf??)
"Any person on site working on behalf of the Municipal Council has the right to force a dog to be surrendered over to them to have any and all appropriate action taken against the dog and/or it's owner/guardian if they feel the need arises to maintain safety". (this whole situation isn't safe as far as I'm concerned, and I know small "lap" dogs that show every one of these behaviours every day!)
The dogs ultimately get a score out of 10 upon completion of this "course", at which point restrictions will be placed on them based on the score. I will update when I know what each score will mean for the dog, as they haven't given us that info yet. This was only the first cl$#@!, there are 13 more to go. I don't want to go back, however I have no choice. It would be awesome if anyone could give me tips or techniques in maintaining my cool when I am attending these cl$#@!, and what I can maybe do at home with Stella to help ensure the "unwanted behaviour" (most of which is natural instinct) can be kept to a minimum while at cl$#@!. At home she watched squirrels and birds when we're outside, she's never tried chasing them, but she definitely is alert to their presence. I have never disciplined this because she's a dog and it's natural...should I start?
I'm sorry this is so long, I just wanted to make sure all the info I had was in this post. In closing I want to say this...I think these cl$#@! (definately the one I'm currently taking) are set up to cause the dogs to fail, so some pompous $#@!hole can stand up and say "see, I told you these dogs are dangerous". This kind of crap is also what makes people not take their dogs to the vet. Stella was abandoned with me and when I took her to a vet for deworming and her first shots, that vet alerted the Municipal Council to her "appearance to that of a dangerous dog under the BSL", which caused AC to show up on my doorstep and force us into all this. Apparently all the vets have signed a contract agreeing to do so, or face consequences.
I also think this contributes to BYB. Many people want these types of dogs (granted many, if not most of them shouldn't have these types of dogs), but they don't want to go through the hassle of the BSL rules and regulations so they buy them from a BYB, never take them to a vet and hope their neighbours don't figure out they aren't following the "rules" and report them. I think that's what happened with Stella. I was supposed to babysit her for a weekend, unaware until I saw her of what her breed potentially was, but the guy never came back. I think the guy was reported for having her and didn't want to go through with all BSL stuff.
I understand the potential risks in owning her, she is an AmStaff/Rotti. I am doing any and everything I can to learn more, and help her have the best possible life. I am fully commited to training and working with her everyday as well as prepared to always follow through. That is why I joined this site, to ask questions and get help/advice/support from other owners who know what the hell they're talking about and aren't afraid to say what needs to be said. Any tips, info or just comments would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
I'm sorry about the small font, I couldn't figure out how to get it bigger. I really suck at this posting stuff!
Need help coping with BSL and the "rules" I have to follow. (long post)
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