AUSTIN — AUSTIN -- A dog that was once ordered to be put down due to three biting incidents is now on the brink of being put back up for adoption. Now the question people are wondering is if she is ready for human interaction?
The Dallas dog by the name of "Lamb of God," or "Lambie," comes from the Deep Ellum community. Her former owner, Sean Baugh, let people in the area pay to take photos with his dog. That stopped once Lambie bit a 13-year-old boy -- her third such incident in a year. A judge ordered Lambie to be put down, but then the people in the community gathered 130,000 signatures and $10,000 in favor of reversing the decision. These people blamed her owner's treatment for her actions.
This led to the judge sending Lambie to Austin Pets Alive!, a resource shelter that works to prevent animals from being put down, which is why they bring in animals from all around the country in all types of situations. Lambie is one of those dogs, and Life Savings Operations Director Mike Kaviani knew this was a unique situation.
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"We knew we were taking in a dog who we knew had some challenging experiences," Kaviani said. "We knew that there was a history there."
During these past six months, this Labrador mix has been under Kaviani's expert behavior team, as they first went through an assessment phase to get to know the dog better.
"We felt like Lambie deserved an opportunity to at least just have a team get to know her and get to know who she is," Kaviani said. "If we can say there's an opportunity for her to still live a long successful life, we want to give her that chance."
After this assessment phase, they moved onto training, which included putting Lambie in situations with other dogs and humans.
"We made sure to put her in foster homes with folks we know extremely well," Kaviani said. "They've been through training and are in constant communication with the behavior team."
During the assessment phase, Kaviani and his team noticed she initially showed anxiety when her handler left her and hesitancy around new objects or people. They worked to have her respond to new situations the same way -- no matter what was happening.
"We've conditioned her that regardless of who her handler is, if you see something weird, your go-to behavior is to sit and look at your person and then see what they say about the situation."
Kaviani said Lambie quickly made strides because she showed a natural affinity towards humans and enjoyed learning the commands and tricks they taught her.
"It's been really easy teaching her all these different skills such as walking on a leash, sitting and when to come to a stop," Kaviani said. "She's made real progress in not taking it upon herself to rush up to people or novel things she's never seen before."
There are a lot of people in both Dallas and Austin who have shown interest in this dog. Due to this attention and the dog's past actions, he said his team isn't going to take any chances in their rehabilitation.
"We know that there's been a microscope on her," Kaviani said. "We've really been going the extra mile on our due diligence and just ensuring that we're really proofing her as much as humanly possible. We want to be able to feel confident that she's ready for adoption."
After six months of spending time with Lambie and training her, Kaviani said he believes this dog is almost ready to be back in a home.
"I don't believe she's an unpredictable dog by any means," Kaviani said. "I think she likely communicated well in her past situations, but people didn't pick up on it and listen to her. She was set up for failure. We are not seeing a dog who goes to bite a human without communicating."
Kaviani said in the end, if a dog can't change its bad habits, euthanasia is still a possibility if all else fails. For Lambie, though, he's hopeful.
"It's the balancing act of our efforts to save all the lives that come to us while also ensuring that we are always keeping the safety of the community at the forefront of our efforts as well," Kaviani said.
So far through six months at the shelter, Lambie has not bitten anyone she has come across. Once she is ready for adoption, Kaviani said deciding the right family and situation will be another careful process.