I had little optimism for Ollie’s future as we concluded his initial behavior consultation. Homes for 140-pound dogs who bite people are in short supply, and Ollie seemed about to lose his. Ann and Meredith (not their real names) had adopted him from a shelter less than two months before our appointment. Their relationship started out wonderfully. The big goofy Harlequin Great Dane quickly bonded with his new family and spent his first 2 or 3 weeks charming their friends and neighbors. Then his behavior took a sudden and dramatic turn for the worse.

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Ann and Meredith returned Ollie to the shelter soon after our visit. AAF’s Executive Director, Eric Johnson, asked my advice about how to proceed. In other shelters I had worked with, the answer would have been obvious: euthanasia. At AAF, however, that option would not be considered before making every effort to improve Ollie’s behavior.

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Ollie’s aggression posed a threat to the volunteers and staff at the Animal Adoption Foundation’s shelter facility. They accepted that risk in hopes of improving Ollie’s aggressive behavior, however, and the gamble paid off. Next they had to consider the risks of having a dog like Ollie in their adoption program.

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We know what sort of person Ollie will need to create a good home for him. He needs an experienced dog-owner committed both to safely managing his environment and to working on his behavior. We’re not, however, so sure what environment would be best for him.

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My series on Ollie the Great Dane has been on an unplanned hiatus for the last month. I hope some are still reading as I start examining some of the larger questions my experiences with Ollie and AAF have raised for me.

Without enough sleep, we all become tall two-year-olds. ~JoJo Jensen, Dirt Farmer Wisdom, 2002

There’s a dramatic story in the news this week that elicits powerful emotions from me and probably will do the same for all DSD readers. The story goes back almost a year and a half and raises questions about our pets’ place in society, our moral obligations to them, our relationship to the laws that govern us, and the power of compassion. I don’t know the whole story. I’ve only read about it. I find it both very upsetting, though, and very compelling.

Few things about my work upset me as much as clients who give up on a dog. Regardless of the reason, it usually means broken hearts for the people involved. For the dogs it means lots of stress, likely homelessness, and even the possibility (or sometimes the certainty) of euthanasia. Even in the case of dogs who are obviously too dangerous to remain in their homes, I take every client’s dog that loses its home (or its life) personally. Some of the most upsetting cases for me, though, are those where the dog never really had a chance to succeed in a home. I’ve been seeing a lot of these bad matches lately.