UPDATE 3/02/08 on the 19 Seeley Collies Rescued in Upstate NY
Statement by AWCA President Jean Levitt
He play-bowed in his crate to greet me last fall, when I walked into the top floor storage room where most of the Seeley Collies were held in crates at the SPCA of Upstate New York. Making direct eye contact, the smooth sable Collie man pranced playfully in place, eager to meet this new arrival, hopeful, no doubt, for an opportunity to get out of his confinement for a fun romp, and maybe some ear scritches. Although weak in the rear and very thin, I saw in his dignified bearing an enthusiasm and a promising eagerness which said to me he would make a fine activity dog, once he was rehabilitated. I obliged with the ear scritches through the top of the wire crate where they poked out.
The AWCA volunteers began their weekly work at the SPCA the following week. Team Leader reported that this Collie man was beginning to spin constantly in his crate. At that time she wrote: "Anxious and agitated while crated, he performed endless counterclockwise circles. His spinning is rapid and intense. He spins the entire time I am in the room cleaning crates. I feel he seems so desperate and so in need of friendship. In my opinion he and the old gentleman are the two neediest collies."
She now writes "This great dog started as a curious, animated, outgoing, affectionate dog who connected with people. Over the weeks I volunteered at the SPCA he became less interested in people and more interested in the other Collies. Thin from the start, he remained thin. Even though the SPCA staff had already fed him by the time AWCA volunteers arrived, he was always very hungry and would frantically scarf any spilled food from the floor."
As you read in my first report January 13, Team Leader was allowed to adopt 'Spinner' on January 8 . Of course she has given him a dignified new name. She has taken him to her own veterinarian who determined he has some structural issues related to extensive crate confinement, and iron deficiency anemia for which is now on a special corrective diet. AWCA has paid these veterinary bills.
Be assured he is in good hands in his adoptive home. She has extensive experience rehabilitating shelter dogs. For two decades she has fostered dogs for local rescue groups to prepare them for successful adoptions. An experienced trainer and rehabilitator, our Team Leader has put many working titles on previously damaged shelter dogs, including the Social and Therapy titles, CGC, CDI, DPP, Agility, Obedience and Herding titles, and has trained other shelter dogs to track and perform in Freestyle. She trained a front-end amputee Golden Retriever to work as a Social Dog who made nursing home visits and worked in a psychiatric ward for adolescents, and remobilized a German Shepherd dog mix with a rear-end wheelchair. When necessary she has provided hospice care for terminally ill dogs, giving them love, comfort and dignity at life's end. The following is her rehabilitation report on 'Spinner':
"In times of stress humans fall back on habituated behavior; it is the same for this Collie boy. Counterclockwise spinning is his learned default behavior. It kicks in like an automatic switch whenever he is anxious or aroused or excited. Stimuli that trigger this automatic response must be anticipated and the spinning behavior prevented. This requires management of the environment and training new substitute behaviors, such as 'sit' or 'down', 'stay', 'stand' in place, run to touch a target, fetch a toy, spin clockwise, etc. When he is on the verge of an against-the-clock circle, or when he is in a situation which will trigger a spinning response, I can ask him to perform one of his new tasks.
"When a dog has months, perhaps years, of spinning to cope with crate confinement, the habituated spinning will take months, perhaps years, to diminish. It will never disappear completely. 'Spinner' is an example of a dog who should never have been placed in a shelter. He should have been placed in an experienced foster home immediately. He waited in a crate at the SPCA nearly three months for behavioral rehabilitation to begin at my home. Spinning signals stress. It is a behavioral emergency. Like a plane in a nosedive, spinning out of control, it can end in a dog's emotional destruction.
"The most exciting time in my house is feeding time. He spins really fast while I prepare his food. He is asked to 'sit' and he is rewarded for sitting by getting his food. If he gets up, I just ask him to 'sit' again. I frequently touch and pat him on his right rear side, to give him more stimuli on that side. It is very important to reconnect him to the right side of his body, because his spinning overworks his left side. The rare times I come upon him exhibiting behavior I want to reinforce, such as being relaxed in a dog bed, or just standing in place, I reward him with a food treat. 'Good Dog'."
We are so happy that 'Spinner' is with Team Leader. We wish him well in his new life.
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Folks, we thank you for your good wishes and your concern for the old gentleman following last week's report. We remain very concerned about his crate confinement, especially at his age. As Dr. Lund said in the February 17 update "The complete lack of daily exercise.... affects every single body system over time. Heart, lungs, musculoskeletal are the most obvious, but their compromise compromises circulation which is critical to everything else."
The remaining Collies have been held in crates at the SPCA for 138 days.
Calmly,
Jean Levitt
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