Troubles with Fido? Pick up the telephone

A hotline will soon be available to smooth relations between pets and their owners.

By SHARON TUBBS

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 9, 2000

LARGO -- The pregnant couple needed advice -- not for their unborn baby, but for their cat.

For eight years, the cat has been the only "baby" of the house, explained Donna Bainter, the animal behavior counselor at the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Then there's the family struggling with a newly adopted adult dog who was kept outdoors by his previous owner. He was free to roam and "eliminate," as pet experts put it, wherever he pleased. Now, will Fido ever be the obedient house pet his new family desires?

Troubles such as these are driving a national push for pet help lines for people trying to understand their pets and make them behave.

Newly trained in these things, Bainter knows how to solve their problems, or at least where to research the solutions. She's been answering calls about animal behavior problems for months on an informal basis at the SPCA. In the next months, Bainter and Connie Brooks, the SPCA's shelter manager, will sit down to organize a pet help line at the center, a first for Pinellas County.

"There's no other hotline in the area," Brooks said. "We would be the first." The Humane Society of the United States is sponsoring the $400,000 effort to train shelter workers across the country in dealing with the behavioral problems of dogs and cats. The training program is based at the Denver shelter and will train 80 people this year, said Nancy Peterson, coordinator for the Humane Society.

Details have not yet been worked out, but locally, the help line would work similar to one in Denver. There, pet owners call around the clock to leave messages describing their problems and times when they can be reached. Trained behavior specialists, then, return the call in a few days with tips and other information.

Bainter has gone through the Humane Society's two-week training program. Brooks will fly to Denver to complete the session later this month. When she returns, the pair hope to train workers and volunteers for the help line.

"Owners sometimes become very frustrated with their animal," Bainter said. "And that severs the bond they have with their animal."

Bainter recently got the call about the pregnant couple and their cat. She said she would advise the couple to prepare the cat for the baby's arrival. That means bringing in the baby furniture ahead of time, so the cat can investigate and get used to the new surroundings. Kitty must also get accustomed to new scents that come along with a newborn, such as baby powder, baby lotions and the like.

"You need to give them (cats) an opportunity to investigate," Bainter said.

When the baby arrives, the family might try giving the cat treats at the same time they feed the baby. That way, kitty sees reward in the newborn's presence.

The canine with the indoor-outdoor problem?

There is hope, Bainter said. Family members will have to keep a close eye on the dog, watching for signs that the dog needs to go outside -- sniffing for example, she said.

Harshly punishing the dog for mistaking the carpet for the potty won't work, Bainter says. "If you scold him and rub his nose in it, it could backfire because that's going to teach the dog not to eliminate in front of you."

And that will be a problem when you go out to walk the dog, she says.

In the years since the Denver Dumb Friends League established its help line and a number of other programs intended to keep pets and their owners together, the shelter has seen a drastic drop in the return rate for dogs and cats, Peterson said.

Although a few other shelters in the country have organized help lines, Denver's is among the more highly acclaimed, Peterson said.

From July 1, 1999, through June 30, the Denver shelter answered 2,347 calls in the city and nearby states. "It helps keep people and pets together," said Lani Kian, communications manager for the Denver shelter.

Much of the advice Bainter and Brooks intend to give is common sense -- once you see it through the animal's eyes, that is.

You don't want your dog to chew on your favorite pair of shoes?

Well, don't let him chew on your old shoes, either. Once the owner allows the chewing to begin, the dog logically thinks any shoes are fair game. Many owners start their pets out young, giving them beat up shoes to chew on and thinking it's cute. But when the dog chews up your new pumps, it's not so cute.

But should you expect any differently? Brooks asked. "(A dog) can't differentiate between a new pair of shoes and an old pair of shoes."

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