'Dog Whisperer' Cesar Millan Under Investigation For Possible Animal Cruelty

[bklyncowgirl]

49. Even the most experienced trainers sometimes misread an animal.

As far as dogs who kill livestock, that is a very difficult thing to train out of an animal.

A guy I knew had two dogs, a husky and a German shepherd. He owned a summer camp where they had a riding program and a petting zoo. The dogs were great with kids, good with the horses and were fine with the animals as long as someone was watching them.

One day they got out. The husky, the ringleader, broke into the pen, and ripped out a lamb's throat. The goat ran into the horse paddock--a smart move--with the calf following. The husky was attacking the calf when humans arrived on the scene but before they could separate the animals an aggressive little appaloosa gelding who very much considered himself the herd stallion of this band charged in. He broke the husky's hind leg and several ribs and probably would have killed him if the dog had not rolled under the electric fence. Even so he stalked up and down the line, threatening, until we got the dog in a car and took him away.

The calf's ear was ripped off but he was saved, after extensive veterinary work the husky survived but from now on he had to be kept confined. Interestingly the German shepherd did not take part in the killing--he did not stop his friend, however. I suppose you could say he was conflicted. One of the reasons that herding breeds are so gentle with animals that should be their natural prey is that they were bred selectively for that trait. As for those who would not stop killing, the cure was a bullet.

The husky did get out again a year later and attacked a neighbor's mare and foal. The mare, a high strung Thoroughbred, defended her baby but was so emotionally upset that she later came down with colic and nearly died.

This time the dog's owner put him down.