Bad Choices lead to Consequence

We just had a Discovery Channel incident here at the farm.

The chickens were screaming their alarm calls, total panic mode. It was ongoing so I put some shoes on and went down to the pens to check. Looking up for Hawks, along through the fence line scrub for foxes or feral cats...nup.

Inside the pens for snakes or Goannas, maybe a Raptor has squeezed in? Nup.

I followed the alert sounds of the native birds further along the fence line and heard a chuckle...looked up.

There were two Kooka's, one with a chick in it's beak and the chick was still alive.

Looking confused to be honest, that How the hell did I get up here???

Choices made:

Chick wanted to explore past its pen and squeezed out through the wire.

Consequence:

Local Kooka's know that to lurk above the pens when there are chicks sometimes pays off with a Nugget meal.

Both of these perspectives make sense to the ones involved and are perfectly natural behaviours.

For the Kooka it ends in a meal and the chick it ends in a very short life.

Preventions:

1: Finer mesh over the gates to the pens to stop chicks from escaping.

2: Remove Roosters from property to avoid further chicks being bred.

So let's apply this to Dog Scenarios:

Scenario 1:

Off leash dog spots something on the path ahead...wriggling along with rapid lateral movements.

The scent is spicy, alluring and strange and the surface of this new thing is scaly, shiny...smooth.

The creature senses spatial pressure and brings it's head up and coils into a defensive posture.

The Dog is further intrigued, the toy rope moves! Oh and it strikes out! What fun!

Choices: Dog's drive engages and it follows through with playing with the snake in a predatory way.

The owner chose to have the dog off leash despite poor level of impulse control and training.

Consequence: Sadly the snake dies, as does the dog, unaware that this was going to be the outcome of it's adventure.

Preventions:

1: Have dog on a lead and handle the lead appropriately.

2: Teach your dog a solid LEAVE cue

3: Teach your dog a solid RECALL cue

4: Avoid walking the dog in snake season/snake areas.

5: Teach your dog Snake Safe behaviours with a reputable trainer.

Scenario 2:

Storm Phobic Dog with a list of anxiety based behaviours is left alone at home while the owners go to work.

A Storm system rolls through and in a panic the dog scales the fence and takes off.

Due to the dog's high levels of fear it cannot be approached and is not behaving rationally or sensibly.

A well meaning person continues to try and capture the dog but it rushes out into traffic and is hit by a car.

Choices:

Dog, When in that state of mind, the dog can only follow through on what has worked for it before.

If escaping and running reduced the anxiety then it will access that each time it is triggered...not really choice, more cause and effect. But sometimes drive can also be like this unless the dog is specifically trained to access drive with a clear head and with specific cues and boundaries.

Owner:

Go to work and hope for the best but don't prepare for the worst.

Well meaning person:

I want to help!

Consequence:

Dog: trauma and possibly death.

Owner: Guilt, grief, vet costs and possibly repercussions for damage to vehicles or the dog causing an accident.

Possibly Shire involvement for dog at large, fines etc.

Driver: Shock, trauma, guilt, grief. Possibly an insurance claim and associated stresses involved.

Well meaning person: Trauma, grief, guilt.

As you can see this is a shit show all round and could have been avoided by providing the dog with what it needed to stay safe.

Preventions:

Owner:Confine dog to a pen that is escape proof and alongside that provide it rehabilitation from anxiety issues. Complex, multi layered and will cost time, money, effort.

Well meaning person:

Applying spatial pressure to an already panicked animal will only escalate the flight response. Sometimes stepping back and giving ground or crouching down to make you less threatening are safer options. If you are in a vehicle then sometimes stopping and opening the door allows a panicked dog to jump in and feel safe. (not without risks)

Driver: Try to be more spatially aware when driving but accidents will sadly happen.

Summary:

There are thousands of Scenario that could be listed but they all start with bad choices but rarely with bad intentions. One of the main points to this article is to make you self aware and realistic.

Dogs will be dogs but with good training then they can make much better choices...no different to the owners really.

Take on board that the way you choose to manage/not manage the dog then that has that wider ripple effect when things go wrong.

If in any doubt of a probable outcome then use a Leash, an ecollar, a dog pen, a gate that shuts, a fence that is dog proof, a crate, a car barrier in a vehicle....what ever it takes so that if and when your dog is about to make a bad choice you are there to help them.

By blocking and stopping that behaviour before it follows through then that avoids consequences and terrible outcomes for all.

What it also critically does is teach the dog that the choice failed before achieving the desired outcome, be it genetic fulfilment, appeasing fear, resource guarding etc etc.

The behaviour FAILED so then it will reduce in frequency/be less likely to occur again as it was unsuccessful.

If the behaviour/choice succeeds you have just allowed a pattern to be created and this will now happen when ever the chance arrises to do so. DANGEROUS outcomes. Think Door Dasher, Car chaser, Fence jumper, etc etc.

Simple concepts but hey common sense is becoming more and more less common.