We have now been assessing the progress of the Vicktory dogs for 5 months. Our first assessment was done in early December when the dogs were still on the East coast, which was approximately 7 months after the dogs were rescued from the Michael Vick property. They arrived here at Best Friends on January 2nd, and the assessments here have been done at the end of every month since they arrived.
What have we seen happen in the time from when our first assessments were done? Here are some highlights:
The level of aggression toward unfamiliar as well as familiar people had originally been, and has remained, extremely low. In fact, while shelters don't keep scientific statistics on the matter, the level of aggression in the Vicktory dogs appears to be significantly lower than any random group of dogs at a typical animal shelter.
The fear level, as assessed by the people who know the dogs best—the caregivers—has gone down or remained unchanged in 81% of the dogs.
The general enjoyment of life—an estimate of the dogs' happiness level—has risen or remained about the same in 76% of the dogs.
Of the six traits being assessed by the caregivers, almost 60% of the dogs have all six traits improving or maintaining their current levels.
Looking at the two most important traits—fear level and enjoyment of life—only three dogs have both traits trending in the "wrong" direction.
Of the three dogs mentioned above, two of the dogs show outwardly evident problems in coping, thus reflecting the accuracy of the assessment testing. However, one of the dogs is showing outward signs of doing extremely well, thus reflecting the potential limitations of the accuracy of the current testing methods.
Using a 10-point scale (0 being the lowest level of the trait and 10 being the highest), the largest decrease in fear level we have seen is in one dog who showed an astounding 6 point drop. The largest increase in enjoyment of life (happiness) has been a very impressive 4 points. All changes have the potential of continuing their trends.
Overall, we are very pleased with the progress of the dogs. I'll report further developments as they occur.