{"id":729,"date":"2011-12-14T08:04:55","date_gmt":"2011-12-13T21:34:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/?p=729"},"modified":"2021-08-02T14:53:13","modified_gmt":"2021-08-02T04:23:13","slug":"questioning-working-dogs-mcgreevy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/dogs-and-politics\/dog-welfare\/questioning-working-dogs-mcgreevy\/","title":{"rendered":"Questioning Working Dogs (McGreevy)"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post is part of the McGreevy seminar series. Click here for the index<\/a>.<\/small><\/small><\/small><\/p>\n

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McGreevy posed some interesting and deep questions regarding working dogs, their welfare, and the morals of owning working dogs.\u00a0 Dogs have served us in a number of ways:\u00a0 Police dogs, pastoral dogs, customs, quarantine, racing, sledding, security and guarding, vermin control\u2026\u00a0 These dogs are admired and placed on a pedestal, but there are ethical questions surrounding their work.<\/p>\n

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Herding and Pastoral Dogs<\/span><\/p>\n

Dogs that herd find this itself, work itself, rewarding.\u00a0 These dogs can be punished from being removed from work (negative punishment).\u00a0 Why do dogs find work so innately rewarding?<\/p>\n

Part of the reason may be the conditions that many working dogs live in.\u00a0 McGreevy showed a slide with dog kennels from a working farm.\u00a0 These dogs were on a chain, attached to metal (i.e. hot) kennels, confined to an area with their own faeces, and surrounded by flies and fleas.\u00a0 Of course these dogs want to work, if that means they get to leave these substandard conditions.\u00a0 Obviously, there are welfare issues associated with this treatment.<\/p>\n

McGreevy called for more research into pastoral working dogs, particularly in regard to the financial contributions these animals make to farmers.<\/p>\n

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A smooth Collie goes through sheep herding practice.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Australian Animal Welfare Strategy – Australian Working Dog Survey<\/span><\/p>\n

McGreevy made reference to the government-funded research he was involved in, which say 4000 working dog owners and handlers surveyed.\u00a0 Several trouble matters were identified from this survey.\u00a0 One being: 20% of professional dog trainers use electric shock collars.\u00a0 McGreevy asked, \u201cHow educated are these trainers?\u201d\u00a0 Typically shock collar advocates are not extensively trained or educated on dogs training, and work on intuition.\u00a0 Additionally, it was found that 50% of government working dogs are euthanised at the end of their career.\u00a0 (However, McGreevy doesn\u2019t believe that euthanasia itself is an issue, instead that it poses questions about the psychological state of the dogs if rehoming is not an option.)<\/p>\n

I plan to do a more extensive review of this survey at a later date, but in the meantime, you can download the pdf<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Normalised Unnormal Behaviours<\/span><\/p>\n

McGreevy was concerned that any \u2018unnormal\u2019 behaviours, that are a sign of psychological distress, have become \u2018normal\u2019 in some settings.<\/p>\n

He said that 97% of military dogs perform problematic or OCD behaviours, such as spinning, licking, jumping, and barking.\u00a0 For the military, this is \u2018normal\u2019 behaviour for their dogs, and they fail to see it as a welfare issue.\u00a0 (Additionally, these dogs, arguably, are harder to train due to stress.)<\/p>\n

Also, the majority of guide dogs eat their own faeces overnight.\u00a0 This has become normal.<\/p>\n

Is it behaviours like these meaning that the majority of working dogs are destroyed at the end of their working careers?<\/p>\n

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Detection Dogs<\/span><\/p>\n

McGreevy had praises for the training of detection dogs through customs and quarantine, who are chiefly trained through positive methods.\u00a0 These dogs are enthused, they want to work, and they enjoy working.<\/p>\n

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Why should we improve health and welfare?<\/span><\/p>\n

Beyond any moral or ethical reasons, there are other motivations for improving the health and welfare of working dogs.\u00a0 Firstly, they may live longer, and so have longer and more productive working lives.\u00a0 Secondly, enriched environments have been shown to make animals \u2018cleverer\u2019, and so imagine if working dogs were even better able to perform their work.\u00a0 Many kennel environments try to make their kennels neat and tidy, but McGreevy said \u201cdogs don\u2019t find neatness enriching\u201d!<\/p>\n

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Ethical Questions<\/span><\/p>\n

McGreevy posed a number of hypothetical questions about using dogs for work.<\/p>\n