Why keeping Brindi kennelled & isolated from contact with dogs is bad for her

How awful it must be for Brindi to be isolated from contact with her kind as well as her own family!

Our trainer, Susan Jordan, tried to explain to the judge during the trial last March (2012) that it is normal for a dog to back-slide in its training under any circumstances. What's really important is whether the aggressive behavior escalates - which it did not. Also, during those precious ten weeks when she was back home, Brindi was in many situations around strange dogs where she did not react aggressively. 

And now, based on the findings of this study regarding the increased risk of behavioral problems due to the isolation from other dogs, after years of isolation, seems to me that having an incident ten weeks after she was released from two years of isolation from other dogs is understandable. Even for dogs that aren't known to have any aggressive tendencies, 

"Within four weeks after picking up their pet, 88% of the owners of dogs that had been housed individually complained of problems."

Unfortunately, judges don't tend to apply studies like this to their decisions. In my experience, they don't listen very closely to canine behaviour consultants either. 

But essentially, this is further evidence to show that Halifax has been harming my dog's health, well-being, and her chances of successfully recovering and readjusting from all these years of confinement and isolation. 

Ever since 2008 the city has argued against every option other than death. Judging from her previous arguments, the current municipal prosecutor, Katherine Salsman, would likely exploit the fact that all these years have jeopardized her future to argue that she should be locked up forever or put down.

Even sicker, if Halifax had never seized Brindi, it's extremely likely her territorial aggression would be way behind her. I was in the process of training her the first time they took her - which was after an incident in which she didn't even make contact with another dog. 

I was in the process of training her with an even better trainer and even better methods when they took her the second time, after a minor incident that caused a few scratches to a dog, whose owners kicked Brindi repeatedly without her trying to retaliate. But apparently it is more important to Halifax to punish us both and cling to the bad laws and bad practices that led to their decision to seize and destroy Brindi in the first place, for no good reason.

And being alone in the courtroom, representing myself, a person convicted of by-law violations (that the city used as an excuse to seize Brindi), the judge is apt to confuse the message with the messenger. Do I think it would be better to have a lawyer? Of course! Can I pay for one? Heck no. More importantly, is one available who'd be willing and able to do the job? Not that I could find, and I sure looked, and so did many friends, for a long, long time. 

Always isolating Brindi from other dogs means not only failing to meet her need for social interaction with her own species. It also risks multiple and compounded harmful effects on behavior, jeopardizing her chances in the future, as well as her health and well being. 

Effects of Group and Individual Housing on the Behavior of Kennelled Dogs in Animal Shelters                  

"Within four weeks after picking up their pet, 88% of the owners of dogs that had been housed individually complained of problems."

Abstract:

To emphasize the effects of group- and single housing of kennelled dogs, the behavior of 211 dogs in two German animal shelters was tested and observed. After being placed, 197 of the dogs' new owners were interviewed.
Although 51% of the German animal shelters already keep dogs in groups, there is strong prejudice against group housing because of the fear of dog fights. This study demonstrates that this apprehension is unfounded. Ninety-one percent of the social confrontations between dogs housed together were settled by the use of behavioral rituals. Keeping dogs in groups, furthermore, leads to a significant reduction in noise emission (001). Group housing fulfills the dog's need for social interaction and the need to move. 

Dogs that were housed in groups displayed a closer human-animal relationship (80%) than those that had been kept individually (43%). A high percentage of individually housed dogs suffered from behavioral problems (31%) and 10% developed stereotypes. The percentage of behaviorally disturbed dogs observed in group housing was 11%, and stereotyped forms of behavior did not occur. Dogs who had been kept in groups were, on average, placed within 10 days, and were returned to the animal shelter less often (9%) compared to those housed individually (25%). Dogs that were housed separately needed an average of 17 days to be placed. Even after being placed, there is a correlation between the animal shelter's type of housing and the dog's behavior. Within four weeks after picking up their pet, 88% of the owners of dogs that had been housed individually complained of problems compared to the owners of the dogs that had been kept in groups, 53% of whom were completely satisfied with the adoption.

Despite the fact that these results might be influenced by the small number of shelters examined, the study leads to the conclusion that keeping dogs in groups is a suitable alternative for dog housing in animal shelters and, for the animals' welfare, is preferable to individual housing.