One of the most stressful aspects of my job is receiving dogs for training who have been poorly evaluated by shelter or rescue staff and given incorrect behavioral diagnoses. For many of these cases regarding high kill shelters a dog deemed DA/AA/HA would be short listed for euthanasia. From a training stand point DA/AA are manageable and often times "corrected" with adequate time and training. With HA however usually the best option available to the dog and the public is euthanasia, an upsetting subject but there are few and far between people/trainers/rescues that are able to safely house/maintain HA dogs.
However today I had the pleasure of working with a lovely rat terrier female who had been deemed "dog aggressive" especially towards females by one of the local high kill shelters. After working with her for five minutes (exposure therapy, redirection) she happily played with a LARGE intact male. Then went on to interact with several female dogs and again did beautifully with them. She by no means was a DA dog, she simply had a lot of unfocused energy and excitement vocalization, both of which the shelter "evaluator" saw as aggression. Had she not been adopted by her current owners there would have been a next to impossible chance of her ever leaving the shelter alive. Luckily she is in an amazing home with wonderful owners who are perusing ESA work with her. I'm grateful that I have the opportunity to work with dogs like her, and to give proper, educated and professional evaluations for dogs who have been grossly mishandled and mislabeled.
