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Break the chains: Chaining dogs has behavioral consequences
By Pet Connection Staff
June 8, 2010
A dog spending his life on a chain — it’s a sight to break a veterinarian’s heart, and make him worry, too. From our Dr.Marty Becker in this week’s Pet Connection newspaper feature:
Every time I drive the 16 miles from our ranch to my hometown in northern Idaho, I pass dogs who are chained to a tree, a doghouse or just to a stake driven into the ground.
Make no mistake: These aren’t the pets of loving, responsible owners who want to make sure they’re safe when unsupervised, so they secure them temporarily. These dogs are imprisoned within the chain’s radius for their entire lives.
In fact, in the years I’ve lived here, I’ve never seen these chained-up dogs run free. Sadly, millions of other pets across this country share their fate.
I seldom catch their gaze — they tend to seem resigned to their sad fate — but I always feel sadness for the dogs and frustration at their owners. If these folks knew that chaining a dog all the time can have serious consequences, would they change how they confine their animals? I like to think so.
Experts agree that chaining increases aggression in some dogs. It can also be the primary cause of severe or lethal dog attacks on people.
“Rather than protecting the owner or property, a chained dog is often fearful for itself, particularly poorly socialized dogs, or those with a previous negative experience,” says Dr. Rolan Tripp, a PetConnection contributing editor and owner of AnimalBehavior.net. “When tethered and exposed to a potentially threatening stimulus, one thing the dog definitely knows is ‘I can’t get away.’ In that circumstance, a reasonable response might be, ‘Therefore I’m going to try to scare you away by growling,’ or worse yet, biting.”
Hear from more experts here.
And from Gina Spadafori, what you need to know about those endearing little birds most people mistakenly call “parakeets”:
What we in the United States call a “parakeet” is really a “budgerigar,” or budgie. (There are other varieties of parakeets besides budgies, which is why the distinction matters.) Budgies come in many colors and patterns, and two basic body types. The American style of budgie is slender and long compared to the husky, almost bulldog look of the English budgie. The personalities are the same, though.
Budgies are quite common and inexpensive compared to other parrots. Prices will vary, and birds typically can be found for less than $20, with rare colors on the higher side. It’s worth paying more for a hand-raised bird, if you can find one, because taming an aviary-bred pet who has never been handled can be difficult.
All birds are messy, but a little budgie needs less cleaning up afterward than will a larger parrot.
Because they’re so common, budgies are often dismissed as “just” a children’s pet. But a friendly budgie can be a loving and entertaining pet for anyone, regardless of age or bird-care experience.
As for housing, the best guideline for choosing a cage is to look at the one specified for your bird — and then go at least one or even two sizes bigger. For pets who spend a lot of their lives in confinement, it’s only fair that they have as much room as possible. When you’re looking at cages, though, check bar spacing to ensure the gaps are too narrow to allow escape.
Budgies are parrots, and so should be fed like them. Choose a high-quality pelleted diet and complement it with a wide variety of healthy “people food.” Give seeds sparingly. Their best use is as a treat in training.
Want more? Read the entire Pet Connection for this week.
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With respect to the article break the chains, it is a sad phenomenon, these poor animals live their lives chained up, who blames them for turning aggressive? People who bring a pet into such a life, need to be punished.
Comment by Animals Away — June 8, 2010 @ 6:22 am
One of my dogs was chained up for the first 8ish months of her life to a tree in a trailer park. She was socialized by at least one person, but not enough that she’s comfortable around new people quickly. She’s scared of teens, kid transport devices (bikes, skateboards, scooters, strollers), people looking like they’ll throw something, and she used to be scared of diesel engines. Oh, and she’s bow legged and strains at the end of every leash I put her on. She’s 5 now, and I suspect we’ll be working with the damage done in that trailer park till she’s old and grey.
Comment by Another Kate — June 8, 2010 @ 6:58 am
I saw this article you wrote in my local Florida Weekly edition. The photo captured my attention. Then the article was very informative.
I think educating the public is so key here.
When we lived in Milton, MA our neighbor had a beagle tied to a tree with a ten foot chain. There was a circle of pressed dirt all arund the tree where the dog would “run.” I went over a few times to make sure the dog had clean water. He did. I kick myself for never once going over there to ask them to unchain him. I am going to find their address and mail them this article. It was 8 years ago when we lived there, so that dog may not be alive. But the next time they get a dog I hope it doesn’t end up with the same fate.
Comment by Ericka Basile — June 8, 2010 @ 7:12 am
I don’t understand why people would get a dog just to chain it. Do some people consider a dog another piece of property?
I wonder what will happen to my dogs if I die, they would not adjust well to that way of life.
Comment by Erich Riesenberg — June 8, 2010 @ 8:18 am
Tethering is a sad deal all around. I’ve read reports putting the likely hood of a dog bite from a tethered dog 3 times what it is for one not tethered.
Thankfully more and more states/cities are passing anti-tethering laws.
Many of these dogs do end up breaking their chains or cables and getting free. Having a nervous, often aggressive dog running free is dangerous. Recently a husky in Nebraska broke free from it’s tether. The news story said when found somebody tied it to a railroad track where it was hit and killed by a train.
Comment by Dan — June 8, 2010 @ 10:08 am
I don’t like tethering at all- but I like dogs running loose even less, and even a short chain properly set up gives a dog more space to mvoe than one of the 10x6 prefabricated chain link kennels that are the next cheapest option for a fence for people who have outside dogs. I’d rather see these dogs indoors, but this just isn’t a perfect world.
Have any of the anti-tethering initiatives ever done outreach as far as fencebuilding for folks who use a tether as confinement for economic reasons? There are a lot of folks in my neighborhood who have dogs who can clear or climb their chainlink fences.
Comment by Cait — June 8, 2010 @ 12:51 pm
I like the invisible fence. We live on a lake and community policy does not allow fences. We set the collar device on vibrate after they were trained ( in one day) with very low shock ( I did it on myself first btw. )
Comment by Ericka — June 8, 2010 @ 1:46 pm
I have the opposite view entirely of “invisible fence.” It does nothing to keep other critters OUT, it prevents a soft dog from feeling he or she can escape from anything that can come IN without feeling the shock, and it won’t work on a hard dog. I know a Saluki owner who tried them who said she could see her Salukis, when they saw something they wanted to chase, simply brace themselves to take the shock and away they’d go. Only thing was, when they came home, less adrenalinized, they wouldn’t come back the way they went out… because of the shock.
Comment by Christie Keith — June 8, 2010 @ 2:42 pm
I hear you Christie. My yard is the size of a postage stamp, though. I can see everything my dogs are doing and if other dogs (though have seen none in 8 years) who might run loose come in I am 90% sure I would know. I hope these are not my famous last words and tomorrow something dreadful happens. But, in my situation, the invisible fence it works well.
Comment by Ericka Basile — June 8, 2010 @ 2:58 pm
Oh yeah, my dogs(even the soft one) will go through the invisible fence after a rabbit if they can get up enough speed. So I had to add another strand of wire to slow them down enough to get shocked enough to stay inside. And really, I’m not dancing around with joy at the thought of them getting zapped. But it’s better than being shot.
Comment by redheather — June 9, 2010 @ 6:43 am