Without fail all of the dogs I meet with sketchy or nasty temperaments have been subjected to aversive training methods and/or devices. In fact just today a German Shepherd dog was reactive and nasty to my dog, Macy, for absolutely no reason at the off leash park and the first thing I noticed is that it was wearing a choke chain. German Shepherds have an undeserved reputation for being aggressive, but I can tell you first hand that we meet a good deal of lovely, friendly ones who have been raised in non-punitive environments. The quality of a dog’s temperament is extremely dependent upon what methods are used to train them.

Who wouldn’t be nasty and unpredictable if all of their guidance in life involved pain and/or fear. Just think about that. Typically I avoid any dog wearing a choke, prong, or electronic collar because I simply don’t trust them and don’t want them to hurt me or my dog. It can do damage to your own friendly dog’s temperament to interact with aggressive dogs so it is wise to be choosy about who your dog meets for sure. Anytime I’ve ignored that I’ve immediately regretted it and had months of remedial work to remind me of my error in judgement.

At some point some misguided person decided that the most important thing is for a dog to be a robot under complete control. Walk on a tight leash, don’t interact with anything, don’t sniff anything, don’t be happy and curious, don’t pull toward things that interest you. Be miserable and frightened of potential harsh repercussions all the time. But hey, the owner will feel important and powerful envisioning themselves as some kind of urban lion tamer. Well that just sucks. It’s way more important that your dog is well socialized and will come when it’s called off leash than if it can heel. You need to be certain that even if your dog is wearing no collar at all that it will listen to you. If you develop a good trust relationship with your dog and teach it what is expected and make learning fun, it will.

Your dog will be happier and friendlier when you loosen up your expectations of complete control and start putting a lot more value on a rock solid, friendly disposition.

Do not yell, grab, pin, shake, or hit your dog. Do not use pinch/prong, choke, or WORST ever electronic collars of any kind. They are banned in the UK and many other countries yet sadly Canada still hasn’t gotten on board. Do not get sucked in by slick marketing and rhetoric about positive training that actually refers to positive punishment. I can tell you right now, aside from scientific jargon designed to confuse you and dupe you out of your hard earned money, there is nothing positive about punishment. Discipline means to teach. Punishment is frankly gross and has no place in a civilized society. All of the tools that will hurt or frighten your dog are pure profit for trainers and stores who promote them. I promise you they exist for no other reason.

The absolute best way to train your dog is to reward good behavior when it happens. Especially if the dog does it without being asked or taught. Can you imagine if great food fell into your mouth from the sky when you did something by accident? Bet you’d do more of it.

The earlier you start this the better and if it’s later on to counteract bad behavior just stick with it and be patient. It will take more time but it’s way more effective than punishing your dog and yelling and getting angry. At best that makes dogs think you have no emotional control and are someone to ignore, or you are scary and untrustworthy.

Unlike children who may or may not want to please you depending on many factors, odds are your dog lives to please you. So harness that instead of being mean and cruel and angry with your best friend.

Anyway, the cost of control is high.

Too many dogs are angry and filled with anxiety these days. 

When you see an expression like the dreaded “whale eyes” on a dog then you should be able to clearly see that poor animal is in distress.

You can find a great description of what force-free training is here, and I think all my kindred spirits will agree it’s the only way to go.

Dogs have a tremendous repertoire of calming signals they use to appease other dogs, and harsh owners and methods. Animals have a basic instinct in stressful situations for fight or flight. Always keep this in the back or your mind that it takes discipline and experience to fight your animal nature, even if you are a dog.

The focus of all force-free trainers is to contribute to the well being and good temperament of dogs.

Furthermore, every force-free trainer and behaviourist I know works pro-bono with rescue groups all the time, but they don’t advertise it and use it to leverage sales as the shock jocks like to do.

A money back guarantee from a shock jock if the dog ends up euthanized really is not the same as a dog that is alive and friendly is it?  Although it rarely makes the headlines, there are many dogs who have been euthanized after being “rehabilitated” with electronic collars.  However, I do recall a recent news story where someone was killed by a dog who had been “treated” for aggression using an electronic collar.  Clearly it was not rehabilitated.  So sad, and so preventable.

” Now they were able to see and play with Blue prior to his adoption from Forever Home Rehabilitation Center and that he seemed like a good fit for the Pattersons. Blue showed no aggressive tendencies. It was when they brought him home and took off his shock collar that he attacked.”  (I’m sorry but 3 months of board and train with a shock collar are to blame I’d say – rescues like this are not helping anyone!)

Simply put some dogs have problems just like some people have problems and you can manage this in a variety of ways, but you cannot cure it.  They may have been bred poorly and have genetic temperament issues, or they may have suffered abuse and trauma that they are unable to overcome. If you force a dog into situations they can not handle, there is always the danger they will “blow up” and ignore any pain or repercussion and that can be much worse even then how they would have behaved had you not used harsh training methods. Very dangerous. Do not trust quick fixes from people who are getting rich quick because you didn’t do your homework or really think this out from the perspective of a living creature, who is most likely frightened and not “trying to be the boss”.

Please be humane in the management strategy you choose, please and don’t expect more than a dog can deliver.

I think we were put on this earth to make dog’s happy and protect them from harm. Some would not agree, but I don’t let them near my dog!

In early September this year, I spent a glorious week in Greece.  I spent some time in urban and touristy areas on an island, and a good spell in the countryside up north.  Everywhere I encountered homeless animals.  Both cats and dogs.  This is not something that is specific to Greece, it happens in every country but since I took the time to slow down in Greece and study many things, I have some observations and ideas that may be helpful.

My intention is not to pick on the wonderful Greek people.  I met so many kind and lovely people in my travels and overall my view of Greek people all my life has been positive, and only reinforced by spending time in their country.

Back home in Nova Scotia I have seen very similar situations, although not very much in the last 5-10 years since the Nova Scotia SPCA has increased powers and patrols and TNR has been adopted across our province.

Also, at home I have done my fair share of fundraising and advocating for animal welfare, so as I hopefully intend to return to Greece many times it is a place where I would also like to do some good for the critters.

My hope and intention is to build a bridge between like minded people from my home and away that will give me even more reason to return and do something meaningful when visiting.

In the urban areas the dogs seem to be dumped dogs which is really a shame.  I saw many single breed dogs running down the streets looking frantic as dogs are social creatures, so they were clearly very upset to be abandoned.  That is heartbreaking, and any person who would let their dog go in the street to fend for itself is heartless in any country and this does happen in every land unfortunately.  I do wish I had taken more time before leaving for my trip to get the information for local shelters and rescue groups, so I could alert them to abandoned animals.  In the future before I travel to any place outside of Nova Scotia I will make sure to familiarize myself with these organizations.  At home I know all the phone numbers to call and do call all the time when I see dogs wandering on my travels.  So, no reason not to do the same everywhere I go.  In fact, sometimes they have just gotten lost or run off on their owners and need some help getting back home.  On the topic of dumped dogs, the one thing that really aggravates that situation is the unscrupulous sale of puppies and kittens in pet stores.  We have banned that practice in Nova Scotia and it has had a profound effect on pet overpopulation.  In an extremely positive way.  It is a pet peeve of mine that people put profit before the welfare of animals.

Anyway, I do know the urban areas are most likely to have resources in place, and the problem of dumped dogs will not be addressed until sales are regulated so that will not be my focus.

I will say that most of the dogs I saw running loose in urban areas were clearly purchased dogs as they were single breed dogs such as the German Short Haired Pointer I saw roaming downtown Antiparos, or the frantic Bichon Frise running downtown Parikia.

The dog I saw roaming in Lefkes didn’t really worry me as the cars drive very slow there so no real danger to him in that respect.  But those other two in areas where there was a lot of traffic are goners if someone doesn’t get them off the streets.

Homeless cats seem to fare better than dogs in some ways only because cats are independent and don’t mind flying solo, whereas dogs enjoy the company of other creatures, dog or human.

Both the cats and the dogs encounter the same major problem though, cars.  As countries modernize and roads get better, cars go faster and there are more of them.  This is very dangerous to free roaming cats and dogs.  I spent 2 days birding in the Kerkini area of Northern Greece and in that short time saw 2 dead cats, 1 dead dog, and 1 injured dog and had to jam the brakes on numerous times to avoid hitting one myself.  That was in a very rural area so proportionally that is quite shocking to me.

I do recognize that a life running free can be wonderful in many ways, and that would be lovely if cars didn’t make that so dangerous.

Overall people seemed to treat the homeless dogs and cats with kindness.  Many people feed them, and I did not witness anyone being cruel or mean to them in my travels.  There are just too many, and no homes available for them.  Even though they are being fed, their meals are not nutritious, and they don’t look healthy.

Herding breeds are the most prevalent in the rural, agricultural areas and I do understand that these dogs will not all be neutered and will live outdoors and work.  They are fed and owned and doing fine overall.  But some of them will have litters of puppies who are unwanted and end up roaming and homeless.

The mother of a recent litter of homeless puppies had red eyes and appeared tired and weak.

Her puppies are being raised outdoors, and not at the farm she came from.  So, they are homeless and she is not getting the care she needs.  They are social with people but if they are not spayed or neutered they will also have puppies, and if there are no homes for them how will their puppies get homes?

Perhaps a low-cost mobile spay and neuter clinic to address the problem would be beneficial, and some free spay and neuters of homeless dogs and cats could be arranged.

Thessaloniki is only a little hour away and is a big city of a million people so there must be clinics and organizations who could help.

It would also be great to have a little angel fund to help dogs like the one injured one who haunts me still and is the reason for this post.

When birding in Vironia I saw a pack of herding dogs tending the Water Buffalos.  One of them was lagging, holding a broken paw in front of him.  He was in great pain.  I assume he was hit by a car and never taken to the vet.  Perhaps that is not what happened, but it was clear that he was suffering greatly.  It crossed my mind briefly that he was getting by somehow and just not fast enough to keep up with the pack, so it wasn’t that bad but when I got home and zoomed in on my photos my heart broke.

There is no fur on any of his legs.  All the other dogs in the pack have fur on their legs.

It is not mange or a skin disease in my opinion.  I believe he has chewed the fur off his legs to deal with the pain of his unhealed injury.  Many times, since I left I have wished I could go back and do something about it.  It may be impossible, but I am hoping someone in the area could help get him to a vet to be treated.

I do not wish to attribute blame as the cost of the vet may be more than the farmers can afford.  He may not even be their dog.  I just wish we could make him comfortable.  I realize that many people and animals suffer, and you can’t help all of them but to help just one matters I believe.  Well it sure does for the one you help.

Likely I will not be able to organize anything in time to help that dog, but those are the types of angels I’d like to find a way to raise funds for.  I’m just not sure how to go about it so ideas are welcome.

Perhaps I can trade trip planning and birding advice for the region for a donation to a designated fund?

I found this great page on Matt Barrett’s Greece Travel Guide (a site I visited quite a bit before heading to Greece thank you Matt!) and will start reaching out to existing organizations for ideas before trying to tackle this on my own of course.

https://www.athensguide.com/practicalinfo/animalwelfare.htm

I’m sure there are people in place who can help if they are alerted to problems and they would benefit from donations to their funds to help.

Birders like myself, have great powers of observation and cover a lot of ground in search of birds so are in a perfect position to help.

This is also why my focus will be the Kerkini region and surrounding areas.  Lake Kerkini bosts 300 species of birds and is an amazing place for birders and nature lovers to visit.  I will have a separate blog about the birds and my adventure in this beautiful place.

I think birders are in a special position to help the homeless dogs and cats and that overall, people who love animals love all animals.  A very organic partnership could evolve here without a lot of trouble.

When you know better, you do better they say.

Just knowing where to direct donations, or who to mobilize on the ground would be very beneficial.

Clearly it is not practical, and perhaps even wanted, for tourists to take it upon themselves to approach or collect homeless animals in another country.  Local people need to be involved for this to work.

So, let’s find some local people in Northern Greece we can work with to identify animals in need that we see when we are birding in this amazing natural landscape.

If we could start by finding a way to reach out to the locals to get the dog with the broken leg to the vet, I would happily try on my end here in Nova Scotia to raise funds to help.

It took me a while to write this post as it wears heavy on my heart, so I will be happy now to allow myself the freedom to write some birding and travel logs of my amazing time in Greece where I fell in love with the people, the food, and the beautiful country.

I would really like to put a group of my friends together to go birding in the Kerkini region so if this interests you get in touch.  I am a fantastic travel planner and now that I’ve done the tour of the region completely on my own, I know what to do, and what not to do.  Let’s go on a great adventure and maybe even help a few dogs and cats on our travels.

Perhaps I can donate a portion of sales of this photograph to the cause?  These puppies stole my heart at the boat launch in Lake Kerkini.  There were 4 of them, all homeless.