The frustrating case of the frustrated dog, and how the law could help dogs like him

This has been playing on my mind for some time, but with all the relapse/hospital stuff that's been going on, I haven't had chance to get it down in words; I've just lain awake thinking about it during my steroid-fuelled insomniac nights!

I don't really think I can refer to this dog as a "case" - I wasn't called in specifically to work with him, and at no point did his owners show any interest in anything I had to say about him, so while I was full of opinions and advice, I was just a guest in their home who had no right to say anything. I hadn't wanted to go there at all; I'd been warned in advance that I might find it upsetting, yet somehow my subtly saying "you're not going to be long, are you? Shall I just wait in the car?" failed to help me avoid going there and yes, I found it upsetting.

The dog in question is a big, mature, unneutered male of uncertain parentage. He definitely has a fair amount of collie blood and his owner speculates that the other half of him is GSD but I wouldn't agree there. He's too big and his coat is too heavy; I would say that a lot of him is some sort of mountain dog. Whatever his exact breeding, though, it comes down to this: his lineage is that of intelligent, active, working types whose sheer existence is defined by their "job", even more so than your average pet dog.

So this dog's job? He lives on a chain in the back yard, and barks at people who come onto the property. He gets no exercise, no mental stimulation, no outlet for his pent-up hormones.. except when he manages to escape from the back yard! These solo excursions may cost his owner a lot of money in getting him back from the dog warden, but they're quite possibly the only thing that are keeping him something like sane. While I was there, he was let off the chain and into the house, which gave me the opportunity to observe a little more.

His "pack":
- A brash, abrasive male owner (dominant, aggressive energy)
- A sweet, quiet female owner (weak, submissive energy)
- An elderly terrier bitch (virtually invisible energy)

Using the Cesar Millan formula of priorities (Exercise, Discipline, Affection):

Exercise:
Only when he gets out of the yard.

Discipline:
None - his male owner seemed to take pride in telling me he hadn't trained him, and the only commands he was given in my presence were a weak, ineffectual "go and lie down" and "sit, sit down, there's a good boy, sit down". He has no identifiable pack leaders.

Affection:
Strictly on his terms. He clambered all over his female owner in a very possessive manner, which was not questioned at all, and has been reported to snap at people who attempt to touch him without his permission. I found it quite telling that his only approach to me, a stranger on his territory, was a nose-bump to my hand from under the table, followed by a hasty retreat to lie down. I strongly suspect that he is a very nervous dog, forced into a leadership position because nobody else is doing the job, and that's what really worries me.

In the UK, dog attacks are on the increase, and in my opinion (and the opinion of most people who actually know what they're talking about) it's a people problem, not a dog problem. People take potentially dangerous animals into their lives with no understanding of their range of needs, or how to fulfill them, are apparently incapable of reading even the simplest body language signals, do not have a clue about the effects of hormones on the body (yet would probably freely admit to feeling aggressive themselves when they had a rise in testosterone) and... oh, the list goes on! It makes me angry just thinking about it; why do people take on the responsibility of animals when they have no intention of meeting that responsibility?

There may be a glimmer of light in the distance, in the form of the Dog Ownership Suitability Test, still in draft proposal form but being backed by such people as Ryan O'Meara (and me!). It may come in too late to help this dog, but how many other people do you know who think it's perfectly acceptable to keep a dog chained up, ignored and unstimulated throughout its life? Or think it's funny to play mouthy-snappy games with a puppy, then wonder why their now-adult dog bites the baby? Or just have a dog as a status symbol, without caring that their symbol is a living, breathing, thinking creature? The Test could go some way to preventing those people from screwing up the lives of future dogs.

I'm hoping so.