Responsible Dog Ownership - CB'S Dog School

Responsible Dog Ownership
Article from the April 10, 2004 edition of the "Peeing Post"

Being a responsible dog owner involves more than just giving your dog food and water, as I am sure you do understand. I am also sure you are fully aware that you will only get to truly enjoy your dog if you give it a decent dog life, with a good pack leadership. Good pack leadership involves giving your dog work to do that makes sense for the dog. You need to take the dog's nature as a hunter and a highly social pack animal into consideration when you assess what makes sense - but when you shift your paradigm to seeing the dog's world through wolf's eyes, it actually becomes easy. I hope you can see it - and that it makes sense also to you. Till now, we have focused exclusively on the relationship between you and your dog. Whether you like it or not, you are not the only person having a say about that. No, I am not talking about your family; I am talking about your neighbor - and the society we all live in. You are not free to do what you want with your dog. You have to comply with certain rules of society, including the law. In addition to this, I seriously hope that you will also be a good advocate for the dog owner community. We need your support too.

Let's discuss the legal issues first.

In terms of the law, your dog is a commodity for which you are liable, as the owner. It is the same as with your car. You can buy it and sell it as you please - and you will pay for any damage you do with it to other people's property.

Being a live animal, however, the dog does have a little more protection against violence than your TV. All civilized countries have laws that prohibit cruelty to animals. What "cruelty" is varies a lot, though... In some European countries, dogs have certain rights that make them more valuable than other animals. In North America, however, dogs are just "pet" animals, with no specific rights whatsoever. As we discussed earlier about dog food, dogs are not protected against commercial exploitation by any government agencies. The pet food industry is "self regulated", which basically means it can do what it wants to make money on dog owners. The same goes for all other products that are manufactured to be used on dogs or other animals, such as health care products. In those industries, a manufacturer can use production methods and ingredients that are outright illegal to use for humans - and no safer to use for dogs. As we already discussed, you cannot rely on any veterinarian endorsing the product on the label. Those veterinarians are paid for participating in those commercials - and their education generally does not warrant them being called "experts" in those areas that call for chemical knowledge.

Here is a list of crap you just simply don't buy - ever:

Dog tooth brushes and tooth paste (use raw meat and raw bones instead)
Dog shampoo - feed the dog a natural diet instead - the shampoo will only start an evil circle of your dog smelling even more of "dog"...
Flea medication that is supposed to be rinsed off - it is nothing more than a waste of money to kill only the 1-2% that are present on the dog at any specific time.....
Flea collars - they are outright dangerous.
Flea medication your dog is supposed to eat.
Flea medication that works through penetration of the skin and making the dog's blood poisonous for the fleas to consume.
Dog treats of any kind that do not perish - they are filled with poisonous preservation chemicals...
Dog treats that are made on a base of flour and water, as bakery - unless you want to brush the dog's teeth after each cookie....
Rawhide "bones" - they are heavily preserved with chemicals that should never enter anybody's stomach...
Retractable leashes - unless you really want to teach your dog to pull on the leash...
Invisible fences - you can't see when a battery goes dead, if you have a power failure, or the dog loses the collar...
Anti-bark devices - if you dog barks "too much" it is because it is frustrated, and it is your bloody responsibility to do something about it instead of just camouflaging the problem!
"Halties" and "no-pull" harnesses - if you really feel you need one of those, you are just demonstrating that you don't provide adequate training for your dog and that you are not taking good care of it...
My point is: use your common sense. There are no laws to protect you if you don't. The maximum you can claim in a lawsuit against somebody who sold you something that caused your dog severe trauma, or even death, is the commercial price for another dog. That's it. Add to that the legal costs of suing, and you come out a sure loser.... (Maybe you understand now why manufacturers get away with so much when it is "just" for dogs....?)

Another legal issue is your liability. When you own your dog, you are also legally liable for any damage your dog does, be it on purpose or not. It does not have to be your dog attacking somebody. All it takes for you to end up in court defending yourself is that your dog gets scared and pulls you over by jerking on the leash. From there, anything can happen.

Another liability example is your dog protecting your home. Even if you get a "visit" of a burglar, your dog is not supposed to injure other people, burglars included. If it does so anyway, not knowing the law, you will still end up paying the price when the burglar sues you for assault - and wins his case, burglary or not! I am not kidding you - there are many examples of this in North America. Many! As you see, there are quite a few ways a dog can ruin you. The possible damages to your own house and furniture are the least. Your liability is by far the worst... You have two ways of protecting yourself:

You can get yourself a dog owner liability insurance.

Let's cover the insurance first. Many home owners' insurance and tenant insurance policies will also offer liability coverage for your dog or for "animals owned by you". Make sure you got such an insurance, and make sure that the policy covers regardless the circumstances! Many policies will not cover, if you are in breach of any laws or bylaws at the time of the incident - but that is nothing more than a escape clause for the underwriter, so he will never pay for any damages. If you are walking your dog on leash, and it gets scared so you fall and let go of the leash, you are in breach of the bylaw that demands your dog being on leash when out in public places. If you dog now causes an accident, you need your liability insurance to cover...

Insurance policies are so different from one area to another - I cannot give you any specific recommendations, except this: get such a liability insurance - and make sure it covers without any loopholes for the underwriter to betray you. The Prepaid Legal coverage is giving you way more than just coverage for your dog. It will cover almost any kind of legal trouble you get into, also civil disputes that do not involve any breaching of laws or any criminal charges. The average North American family has at least 6 legal issue every year that go unresolved because people generally don't feel like spending hundreds of dollars on just calling a lawyer for advice. Few people know that they are more than three times as likely ending up in court defending themselves than they are going to hospital, sick. Now, if you understand and appreciate the value of medical insurance, you will not want to be without legal insurance either. There is only one company that offers true value in this market, and that is Prepaid Legal Services, Inc. I put together some of my own experiences and some of the experiences I know of from other people. Please check them out and see for yourself what kind of support you can get for a very modest monthly membership fee. I can highly recommend it - I have had enormous value of my own membership.

Mogens Eliasen holds a Ph.D. level degree in Chemistry from Århus University, Denmark and has 30+ years of experience working with dogs, dog owners, dog trainers, and holistic veterinarians as a coach, lecturer, and education system developer. He publishes a free newsletter "The Peeing Post" containing lots of tips and advice on dog problems of all kinds, particularly about training, behavioral problems, feeding, and health care. For more information about Mogens Eliasen, including links to other articles he has published, please send a short e-mail to contact@k9joy.com