 | ||||||||
| I've had the pleasure to meet everyone of these beautiful American Bulldogs. Francesco Arnone is the owner. He is one of few passionate breeders continuing the "Black American Bulldog" I'd like to take the time to give him credit and my support in his quest in producing not only a fine looking dog but dogs that have the temperament of quality and integrity. FULL FOCUS AMERICAN BULLDOGS - Steve The Dog Trainer |
Thursday, August 5, 2010
FULL FOCUS ON THE BLACK AMERICAN BULLDOGS
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
DOG RESCUE'S HIS FRIEND (ANOTHER DOG) COOL VIDEO
Dogs have feelings. PERIOD watch this video, i can say that im proud to work with dogs.....
steve the dog trainer
steve the dog trainer
Monday, August 2, 2010
TIME MAGAZINE: DEBUNKING ALPHA DOG MYTH
My rebuttal to this article is the entry, please read this and see what i have to say about it. As always share your comments.
Taken from TIME magazine: written by JENINNE LEE-ST. JOHN
Dogs are descended from wolves. Wolves live in hierarchical packs in which the aggressive alpha male rules over everyone else. Therefore, humans need to dominate their pet dogs to get them to behave.
This logic has dominated the canine-rearing conversation for more than five years, thanks mostly to National Geographic's award-winning show, Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan.But many experts say Millan's philosophy is based on now-debunked animal studies and that some of his techniques — most famously the alpha roll, in which he pins a dog on its back and holds it by the throat — are downright cruel.
Rival trainer Victoria Stilwell has launched a competitive assault on Dog Whisperer by starring on Animal Planet's It's Me or the Dog and by spreading her system of positive-reinforcement training virtually and with troops on the ground: this June she launched a podcast (available on positively.com and iTunes) and franchised her methods to a first batch of 20 dog trainers in the U.S., the U.K., Italy and Greece. She uses positivity as a counterpoint to dominance theory and reserves her aggression for the poorly behaving humans.
The debate has its roots in 1940s studies of captive wolves gathered from various places that, when forced to live together, naturally competed for status. Acclaimed animal behaviorist Rudolph Schenkel dubbed the male and female who won out the alpha pair. As it turns out, this research was based on a faulty premise: wolves in the wild, says L. David Mech, founder of the Minnesota-based International Wolf Center, actually live in nuclear families, not randomly assembled units, in which the mother and father are the pack leaders and their offspring's status is based on birth order. Mech, who used to ascribe to alpha-wolf theory but has reversed course in recent years, says the pack's hierarchy does not involve anyone fighting to the top of the group, because just like in a human family, the youngsters naturally follow their parents' lead.
Says Bonnie Beaver, former president of the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA): "We are on record as opposing some of the things Cesar Millan does because they're wrong." Likewise, the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior (AVSAB) issued a position statement last year arguing against the aggressive-submissive dichotomy.
It is leadership by showing a good example, not dominance, that AVSAB says owners should strive for in relation to their dogs. The organization's statement, which does not explicitly name Millan but references his terminology and some of his controversial techniques, argues that dominant-submissive relationships that do occur in nature are a means to allocate resources — a problem that rarely exists between dogs and their owners. (Nor even, AVSAB notes, among feral dogs, which live in small, scavenging groups without alphas controlling access to food and mates.) House pets, on the contrary, bark too much, jump up on you, ignore your commands, growl and nip at you because they have been inadvertently rewarded for this behavior or because they have not been trained to act differently.
To be sure, Millan's approach to retraining is sometimes warm and fuzzy, and he has much common ground with positive-reinforcement trainers like Stilwell. Both trainers strive — as much as possible with a nonspeaking animal — to determine the psychological cause of a pup's misbehavior. Both encourage people to ignore dogs' annoying habits so as not to accidentally reward them with attention. Both agree that punishment is only effective during or within half a second after the offending behavior: yell at Butch for peeing in your kitchen after he's already walked away, and Butch will think he's in trouble for walking away. Both trainers obviously love animals.
But, AVSAB says, calling a dog's behavior aggressive, as Millan often does, should be reserved for the most violent animals, and some critics even dislike the quick smacks on the flank he gives to focus a dog's attention. "Discipline doesn't come in the form of screaming at your dog, hitting your dog or putting it into an alpha roll," says Stilwell. "When you do that, instinct tells the dog to shut down, which is mistaken for calming, but really you're making the dog more insecure."
Such insecurity can have unintended consequences. For one thing, rather than submit, your pets might lash out at you. "They may react with aggression, not because they are trying to be dominant but because the human threatening them makes them afraid," AVSAB says. For another, even if a dog looks subdued, you don't know what's going on inside. "Fear increases cortisol," says AVMA's Beaver, a professor at Texas A&M's College of Veterinary Medicine. "Long-term fear increases it significantly and can lead to long-term health problems associated with stress" — a point that Stilwell, in her melodious British accent, likes to point out to her clients on TV.
Take the example of Atlanta couple Louie Newman and Judy Griffin, who already had two Lhasa apsos when they adopted a rescue poodle named Manny. Not only did Manny pick fights with the other dogs, he also would attack Newman whenever he went near his wife or even tried to hand her the remote control. Newman and Griffin thought Manny wanted to control everyone, but Stilwell told them he was just trying to figure out his status in the household. "She said he was always tense. He didn't ever blink. I would've never thought to check if my dog blinked," says Newman, a recording executive in Nashville, who learned to relax when approaching Manny and to court him with treats. "He was really insecure. Who would have thought that? He acted like he owned the house."
Of course, letting Manny's whims rule the roost was one of the couple's big mistakes. The question is to what extent they, or any dog owner, should put him in his place. With Stilwell gearing up for her third American TV season and Millan in the middle of his sixth, the answer may be a lot simpler and less dramatic than producers would have us think. "All I have to be is one position higher than that dog," says Beaver. "I raise him to see me as a leader. Not an alpha, a leader."
Taken from TIME magazine: written by JENINNE LEE-ST. JOHN
Dogs are descended from wolves. Wolves live in hierarchical packs in which the aggressive alpha male rules over everyone else. Therefore, humans need to dominate their pet dogs to get them to behave.
This logic has dominated the canine-rearing conversation for more than five years, thanks mostly to National Geographic's award-winning show, Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan.But many experts say Millan's philosophy is based on now-debunked animal studies and that some of his techniques — most famously the alpha roll, in which he pins a dog on its back and holds it by the throat — are downright cruel.
Rival trainer Victoria Stilwell has launched a competitive assault on Dog Whisperer by starring on Animal Planet's It's Me or the Dog and by spreading her system of positive-reinforcement training virtually and with troops on the ground: this June she launched a podcast (available on positively.com and iTunes) and franchised her methods to a first batch of 20 dog trainers in the U.S., the U.K., Italy and Greece. She uses positivity as a counterpoint to dominance theory and reserves her aggression for the poorly behaving humans.
The debate has its roots in 1940s studies of captive wolves gathered from various places that, when forced to live together, naturally competed for status. Acclaimed animal behaviorist Rudolph Schenkel dubbed the male and female who won out the alpha pair. As it turns out, this research was based on a faulty premise: wolves in the wild, says L. David Mech, founder of the Minnesota-based International Wolf Center, actually live in nuclear families, not randomly assembled units, in which the mother and father are the pack leaders and their offspring's status is based on birth order. Mech, who used to ascribe to alpha-wolf theory but has reversed course in recent years, says the pack's hierarchy does not involve anyone fighting to the top of the group, because just like in a human family, the youngsters naturally follow their parents' lead.
Says Bonnie Beaver, former president of the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA): "We are on record as opposing some of the things Cesar Millan does because they're wrong." Likewise, the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior (AVSAB) issued a position statement last year arguing against the aggressive-submissive dichotomy.
It is leadership by showing a good example, not dominance, that AVSAB says owners should strive for in relation to their dogs. The organization's statement, which does not explicitly name Millan but references his terminology and some of his controversial techniques, argues that dominant-submissive relationships that do occur in nature are a means to allocate resources — a problem that rarely exists between dogs and their owners. (Nor even, AVSAB notes, among feral dogs, which live in small, scavenging groups without alphas controlling access to food and mates.) House pets, on the contrary, bark too much, jump up on you, ignore your commands, growl and nip at you because they have been inadvertently rewarded for this behavior or because they have not been trained to act differently.
To be sure, Millan's approach to retraining is sometimes warm and fuzzy, and he has much common ground with positive-reinforcement trainers like Stilwell. Both trainers strive — as much as possible with a nonspeaking animal — to determine the psychological cause of a pup's misbehavior. Both encourage people to ignore dogs' annoying habits so as not to accidentally reward them with attention. Both agree that punishment is only effective during or within half a second after the offending behavior: yell at Butch for peeing in your kitchen after he's already walked away, and Butch will think he's in trouble for walking away. Both trainers obviously love animals.
But, AVSAB says, calling a dog's behavior aggressive, as Millan often does, should be reserved for the most violent animals, and some critics even dislike the quick smacks on the flank he gives to focus a dog's attention. "Discipline doesn't come in the form of screaming at your dog, hitting your dog or putting it into an alpha roll," says Stilwell. "When you do that, instinct tells the dog to shut down, which is mistaken for calming, but really you're making the dog more insecure."
Such insecurity can have unintended consequences. For one thing, rather than submit, your pets might lash out at you. "They may react with aggression, not because they are trying to be dominant but because the human threatening them makes them afraid," AVSAB says. For another, even if a dog looks subdued, you don't know what's going on inside. "Fear increases cortisol," says AVMA's Beaver, a professor at Texas A&M's College of Veterinary Medicine. "Long-term fear increases it significantly and can lead to long-term health problems associated with stress" — a point that Stilwell, in her melodious British accent, likes to point out to her clients on TV.
Take the example of Atlanta couple Louie Newman and Judy Griffin, who already had two Lhasa apsos when they adopted a rescue poodle named Manny. Not only did Manny pick fights with the other dogs, he also would attack Newman whenever he went near his wife or even tried to hand her the remote control. Newman and Griffin thought Manny wanted to control everyone, but Stilwell told them he was just trying to figure out his status in the household. "She said he was always tense. He didn't ever blink. I would've never thought to check if my dog blinked," says Newman, a recording executive in Nashville, who learned to relax when approaching Manny and to court him with treats. "He was really insecure. Who would have thought that? He acted like he owned the house."
Of course, letting Manny's whims rule the roost was one of the couple's big mistakes. The question is to what extent they, or any dog owner, should put him in his place. With Stilwell gearing up for her third American TV season and Millan in the middle of his sixth, the answer may be a lot simpler and less dramatic than producers would have us think. "All I have to be is one position higher than that dog," says Beaver. "I raise him to see me as a leader. Not an alpha, a leader."
METHOD'S? WHAT METHODS... DOG ARE NOT ALL CREATED EQUAL
Great article on TIME magazine (internet) that brought up some fallacies towards the public's idea of dog training. The last few years i've been asked about Cesar Milan's methods. It's been met with mixed reviews but mostly positive ones in favor of him cause the majority of the public have no idea what it takes to train a dog. He's accomplished much since he's been on TV but also given the public a rather "get it done now" attitude. Victoria Stilwell is the new trainer on the block and I've given her a lot of props for her way of dealing with owners and there dogs yet she too has made dog training look easy for the public. If you have an plumbing problem you call a plumber. If you have an electricity issue you call an electrician but when you have a dog problem, you either ask your friends/family or simply look at what they are doing and try to solve them yourself. Truly it is not as simple as that.
My reason's for this entry on my blog is to share my opinion (we all have one) in what I believe is REAL behind dog training. To also share my beliefs in the methods we see on TV and how we can better live with our dogs knowing what we've created today and how to deal with it for the future.
I've always said there isn't a true method in training dogs."If you train 10 dogs the same way, 9 dogs aren't trained right!" Let me explain, ANY teacher will vouch. You have 20+ (in LAUSD 30+ lol) kids in your classroom and as a teacher they realize that kids learn at different rates and with a different approach. Dogs are NO different, one of the most popular methods of the last 30 years has been the Koehler method. In our industry, it's called the "force method" where you basically enforce by "motivating dogs by anticipation of punishment" (the red light effect, we all know that RED LIGHTS means to stop but it was embedded in our heads by law and of our upbringing - family members. If we break the law, we pay a consequence)
I've seen many, many dogs fail from it. Why? you simply can't force every dog to do what you want them to do. Some dogs simply don't have the mental nerves to handle the corrections that is brought forth with this method which in turn is why there are other ways (methods) to approach and reach the same results.
"If you treat a dog like a human, he'll turn around and treat you like a dog" (remember that) is what i've said since i began training dogs. We live in a world where we're humanizing our dogs. Most of the material and methods you find are from 20 to 30 years ago. New books are not so new, it is information that have been copy/pasted and no one's really written anything about it.
A prevalent issue today that wasn't 20+ years ago is "Separation Anxiety" 20+ years ago, owners simply left there dogs outside and never allowed them into homes. Dogs were dogs, backyard pets that only saw human contact whenever someone came outside to clean, feed, and/or lounge in yards. Dogs were never allowed to be in homes let alone furniture, in the bed or around family gatherings.
All has changed, we live in a world that dogs are allowed in all the above situations but even more so. This new way of living with our pets have brought on new habits and new problems that dog trainers have to deal with and the books of past never made a mention of it cause it was not prevalent. Which brings me to the methods that are being used today, dogs need to be addressed and trained differently than before. I call it the "Humanization of the Dog World"
Some see Mr. Milan's method's as "downright cruel" The article makes a mention of the "Hierarchical packs in which the aggressive alpha male rules over everyone else. Therefore, humans need to dominate their pet dogs to get them to behave" It furthers states that it is now a DEBUNKED MYTH. I tend to disagree with this statement, mainly for the reasons that dogs are pack animals and that they see humans in 3 ways: "either your above them, equal to them or below them" just as we humans view each other but not for the same reasons. Dogs need direction, they've been domesticated for the purpose of fulfilling the needs we needed them for at the time. Now-a-days we allow technology to do mostly everything but dogs still play a major role in our society.
Ms. Stilwell's wants the viewer to see it differently, she "uses positivity as a counterpoint to dominance theory and reserves her aggression for the poorly behaving humans" WHY? She wants to make money, who doesn't. She has to appear different to the public and have her own method of training. She's done a fantastic job in getting owners to see there problems and learning how to deal with them, i've said that since I watched her show. All in all, owners are the one's to blame NOT the dogs. I've stated to my clients that in the last thousands of years, dogs have not changed. WE HAVE!
Which is why I began writing this entry in the first place, to explain that NO ONE'S method is better than the next. We all simply want dogs to be better family members. So why not find the method that works with the type of dog you have.
Both trainers love dogs, its obvious. They both have an understanding that dogs don't talk back so it is important to understand what's going on in the dogs head before passing judgement. Yet I disagree with this statement as well:
"Both agree that punishment is only effective during or within half a second after the offending behavior: yell at Butch for peeing in your kitchen after he's already walked away, and Butch will think he's in trouble for walking away"
How many times have you left your home, come back an hour or so later and found your dog hiding from something they've done? From chewing up a pair of shoes or Peeing on the kitchen floor they realize they've done wrong and therefore begin the process guilt by hiding. It could've happened 2 mins before you got home. DOGS have no concept of time so they don't understand if it's been a one minute or one hour. They know what's wrong and right. So why wouldn't you not correct the dog for this behavior and let them know what they did wrong?
"If you treat a dog like a human, he'll treat you like a dog" remember that statement above? this is the humanizing of your dog, once it feels accepted as a family member (a human) it begins to act as if home is a den and whatever goes, GOES. Urinating, chewing, jumping and such is accepted in a dogs den so why not your home. Dogs don't have the capacity to treat you like a human cause there dogs, we humans can mimic and THINK we are dogs.
Now for the importance's of this entry,"In order to correct a problem, you have to allow the problem to happen" a simple philosophy that must be understood when dealing with your dog. Dogs are all the same, it's a matter of cause an effect. They do something wrong, we teach them how to do it right with all the AVAILABLE methods to get it done. Not what 2 people and there methods have to say. You have one using the words "Dominance" and another saying "Leadership" but there both the same. Look, they are both right is my point but to get the bottom of it all available methods should be seek and understanding the type of dog you own will help you better navigate through the madness of dealing with dog training.
I always say "dogs need affection but more importantly they need direction" so love them all you want but remember they're still dogs, teach them and stop "enabling" your dogs by looking for excuses. Look at yourself in the mirror and see what your doing wrong, a method I found when dealing with dogs is simple: do the opposite of what your dogs wants to do and usually it will work in your favor. (if he wants to walk fast, walk slow. if he wants to go right, go left. if he wants to hump your leg, don't allow him) simple method that no one can take credit for, just one that seems to work with many dogs but again not all.
My reason's for this entry on my blog is to share my opinion (we all have one) in what I believe is REAL behind dog training. To also share my beliefs in the methods we see on TV and how we can better live with our dogs knowing what we've created today and how to deal with it for the future.
I've always said there isn't a true method in training dogs."If you train 10 dogs the same way, 9 dogs aren't trained right!" Let me explain, ANY teacher will vouch. You have 20+ (in LAUSD 30+ lol) kids in your classroom and as a teacher they realize that kids learn at different rates and with a different approach. Dogs are NO different, one of the most popular methods of the last 30 years has been the Koehler method. In our industry, it's called the "force method" where you basically enforce by "motivating dogs by anticipation of punishment" (the red light effect, we all know that RED LIGHTS means to stop but it was embedded in our heads by law and of our upbringing - family members. If we break the law, we pay a consequence)
I've seen many, many dogs fail from it. Why? you simply can't force every dog to do what you want them to do. Some dogs simply don't have the mental nerves to handle the corrections that is brought forth with this method which in turn is why there are other ways (methods) to approach and reach the same results.
"If you treat a dog like a human, he'll turn around and treat you like a dog" (remember that) is what i've said since i began training dogs. We live in a world where we're humanizing our dogs. Most of the material and methods you find are from 20 to 30 years ago. New books are not so new, it is information that have been copy/pasted and no one's really written anything about it.
A prevalent issue today that wasn't 20+ years ago is "Separation Anxiety" 20+ years ago, owners simply left there dogs outside and never allowed them into homes. Dogs were dogs, backyard pets that only saw human contact whenever someone came outside to clean, feed, and/or lounge in yards. Dogs were never allowed to be in homes let alone furniture, in the bed or around family gatherings.
All has changed, we live in a world that dogs are allowed in all the above situations but even more so. This new way of living with our pets have brought on new habits and new problems that dog trainers have to deal with and the books of past never made a mention of it cause it was not prevalent. Which brings me to the methods that are being used today, dogs need to be addressed and trained differently than before. I call it the "Humanization of the Dog World"
Some see Mr. Milan's method's as "downright cruel" The article makes a mention of the "Hierarchical packs in which the aggressive alpha male rules over everyone else. Therefore, humans need to dominate their pet dogs to get them to behave" It furthers states that it is now a DEBUNKED MYTH. I tend to disagree with this statement, mainly for the reasons that dogs are pack animals and that they see humans in 3 ways: "either your above them, equal to them or below them" just as we humans view each other but not for the same reasons. Dogs need direction, they've been domesticated for the purpose of fulfilling the needs we needed them for at the time. Now-a-days we allow technology to do mostly everything but dogs still play a major role in our society.
Ms. Stilwell's wants the viewer to see it differently, she "uses positivity as a counterpoint to dominance theory and reserves her aggression for the poorly behaving humans" WHY? She wants to make money, who doesn't. She has to appear different to the public and have her own method of training. She's done a fantastic job in getting owners to see there problems and learning how to deal with them, i've said that since I watched her show. All in all, owners are the one's to blame NOT the dogs. I've stated to my clients that in the last thousands of years, dogs have not changed. WE HAVE!
Which is why I began writing this entry in the first place, to explain that NO ONE'S method is better than the next. We all simply want dogs to be better family members. So why not find the method that works with the type of dog you have.
Both trainers love dogs, its obvious. They both have an understanding that dogs don't talk back so it is important to understand what's going on in the dogs head before passing judgement. Yet I disagree with this statement as well:
"Both agree that punishment is only effective during or within half a second after the offending behavior: yell at Butch for peeing in your kitchen after he's already walked away, and Butch will think he's in trouble for walking away"
How many times have you left your home, come back an hour or so later and found your dog hiding from something they've done? From chewing up a pair of shoes or Peeing on the kitchen floor they realize they've done wrong and therefore begin the process guilt by hiding. It could've happened 2 mins before you got home. DOGS have no concept of time so they don't understand if it's been a one minute or one hour. They know what's wrong and right. So why wouldn't you not correct the dog for this behavior and let them know what they did wrong?
"If you treat a dog like a human, he'll treat you like a dog" remember that statement above? this is the humanizing of your dog, once it feels accepted as a family member (a human) it begins to act as if home is a den and whatever goes, GOES. Urinating, chewing, jumping and such is accepted in a dogs den so why not your home. Dogs don't have the capacity to treat you like a human cause there dogs, we humans can mimic and THINK we are dogs.
Now for the importance's of this entry,"In order to correct a problem, you have to allow the problem to happen" a simple philosophy that must be understood when dealing with your dog. Dogs are all the same, it's a matter of cause an effect. They do something wrong, we teach them how to do it right with all the AVAILABLE methods to get it done. Not what 2 people and there methods have to say. You have one using the words "Dominance" and another saying "Leadership" but there both the same. Look, they are both right is my point but to get the bottom of it all available methods should be seek and understanding the type of dog you own will help you better navigate through the madness of dealing with dog training.
I always say "dogs need affection but more importantly they need direction" so love them all you want but remember they're still dogs, teach them and stop "enabling" your dogs by looking for excuses. Look at yourself in the mirror and see what your doing wrong, a method I found when dealing with dogs is simple: do the opposite of what your dogs wants to do and usually it will work in your favor. (if he wants to walk fast, walk slow. if he wants to go right, go left. if he wants to hump your leg, don't allow him) simple method that no one can take credit for, just one that seems to work with many dogs but again not all.
Boy, 2, is fatally mauled by family dog in San Diego
I hate to post these types of stories, my condolences to the family!!!!! I stated in my twitter account that when you read about these types of stories, think of the situation before passing judgement on a breed. This dog was probably not trained/socialized well enough and left in a backyard/garage and anyone including the child can be subject to be bitten. This is a Shepherd we are talking about, for once at least it wasn't a Pit Bull....
Boy, 2, is fatally mauled by family dog in San Diego
A 2-year-old boy was fatally mauled Saturday morning by a German shepherd in the family home in off-base military housing in San Diego, police said.
The child was rushed to Rady Children's Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The family lives in military housing in the Tierrasanta neighborhood; the father is forward deployed. The dog was the family pet.
The boy's mother was sleeping at the time of the incident, police said. The death is under investigation.
-- Tony Perry in San Diego
Boy, 2, is fatally mauled by family dog in San Diego
A 2-year-old boy was fatally mauled Saturday morning by a German shepherd in the family home in off-base military housing in San Diego, police said.
The child was rushed to Rady Children's Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The family lives in military housing in the Tierrasanta neighborhood; the father is forward deployed. The dog was the family pet.
The boy's mother was sleeping at the time of the incident, police said. The death is under investigation.
-- Tony Perry in San Diego
Rabid dogs roam holiday hotspot, kill at least 78
Vaccinating your dogs is very important no matter what country you live in, as in Bali Indonesia an epidemic of rather large proportions is hitting home. Please read, as always your comments are welcomed.
Steve the Dog Trainer.....
By MARGIE MASON, AP Medical Writer
BALI, Indonesia – Putu Valentino Rosiadi should have started third grade this month. But instead of buying a new school uniform and notebooks, his father mournfully cradles a black-and-white photo.
The 8-year-old was next door when a stray dog jumped him in May, ripping its teeth into the boy's right calf. He was stitched up at a local hospital and sent home. His family was told no cases of rabies had been reported in their area.
Earlier this month, a high fever hit him. Valentino died two days later.
"He was delirious. There was foam coming out of his mouth," said the boy's father, Komang Suda, 32. "Every time we tried to give him water, it was like he went into shock. He was shaking and very agitated."
A rabies epidemic has gripped Bali, an island of 3 million people and one of Asia's top tourist destinations. Seventy-eight deaths have officially been logged in the past two years, including that of a 40-year-old woman a week ago, and many other deaths have likely gone unreported.
The Indonesian government says it's overwhelmed, with more than 30,000 dog bites reported in just the first half of this year across Bali. In a highly criticized move, officials killed about 200,000 dogs, instead of initially conducting mass vaccinations as recommended by the World Health Organization.
"We have a serious problem with the anti-rabies vaccine for humans ... we are very short of treatment across the island," said Nyoman Sutedja, chief of Bali's provincial health ministry, who expects all stocks to run out by next month. "We need help."
Hospitals across Bali have faced periodic shortages of free post-exposure vaccines since the outbreak began, leaving poor residents with few options. The shots remain available at pharmacies, but many Balinese cannot afford them.
"The sad part is they get to the hospital and they get turned away because they don't have any vaccines," said Janice Girardi, an American who runs the nonprofit Bali Animal Welfare Association, which has vaccinated 45,000 dogs and recently received funding to conduct an islandwide campaign. "Then they go home and die."
Several countries, including the United States and Australia, have issued travel warnings advising vacationers to consider getting pre-exposure rabies vaccinations before arriving and to avoid contact with dogs while in Bali. A handful of foreign tourists have reported dog bites, but none have been fatal.
Shots given immediately after contact with saliva from a rabid animal can easily prevent death. But once symptoms appear, treatment is useless.
Rabies kills some 55,000 people annually — mostly children — with nearly 60 percent of those deaths from dog bites in Asia, according to the WHO. The disease still exists in the U.S., but human deaths are extremely rare. Nearly all bites occur from wild animals, such as raccoons or bats.
The rabies incubation period can last from a few weeks to months or even beyond a year. Flulike symptoms, such as headache, fatigue and fever, are the first signs of infection, followed by agitation, breathing problems, fear of water, paralysis and coma.
Bali dogs, often covered in a scaly mange, are a common sight across the island. They roam beaches and hang out in packs, lounging around temples and markets. Many are kept as guard dogs, but as part of the island's Hindu tradition, most are typically allowed to run and breed freely. They forage for food from restaurants and garbage heaps, and have largely coexisted peacefully with locals and tourists. The entire island remained free of rabies until the first case was reported in November 2008.
Some believe rabid dogs from the neighboring island of Flores may have carried the virus with them into Bali aboard boats. Many Indonesian sailors refuse to leave port without their dogs, convinced canines are a source of good luck at sea.
"Culturally, it is difficult to convince people that dogs can carry disease," Sutedja said. "In the traditional Balinese faith people believe that dogs will take them to heaven."
Once rabies arrived, the virus spread quickly because a mass vaccination campaign was slow to start. Government officials opted to kill dogs in areas where human rabies cases occurred, using strychnine-filled meatballs and blow darts.
A third of the island's estimated 600,000 dogs have been killed since the outbreak began, Sutedja said. But he admitted the problem has only worsened with more puppies being born along with a spike in dog bites. Only about a quarter of Bali's dogs are kept as pets.
"The government doesn't want to do what everybody tells them from the WHO on down," said Dr. Henry Wilde, a rabies expert at Chulalongkorn University in Thailand, which serves as a WHO collaborating center on the disease. "It's a virtually hopeless situation."
Because dogs are territorial, vaccinating an entire village creates a natural barrier to keep rabid strays out, Wilde said. He added that in some cases, vaccinated dogs were being killed. About 70 percent of the dog population must be vaccinated to control the spread of the virus, but so far only about 20 percent of Bali's dogs have been reached.
Sutedja said the government has responded seriously to the threat, fearing dog attacks could damage its lucrative tourism industry, which so far has remained strong.
The island, known for its sun, surf and shopping, has slowly rebounded from two suicide bombings in 2002 and 2005 that killed more than 220 people. Many hope next month's release of the movie "Eat Pray Love," filmed on location in Bali with Julia Roberts, will attract hordes of new visitors.
But Valentino's father is a world away. He sits quietly outside his tiny two-room brick house nestled among lush banana trees near the western border with Java, about 100 kilometers from the five-star beach resorts and exquisite restaurants bustling with tourists.
Since the dog that attacked his son was killed and never tested for rabies, no one can say for sure whether his boy was infected with the deadly virus. Doctors maintain a rare autoimmune disease was to blame. Sutedja, however, said rabies is the suspected cause because dogs in the village had tested positive for the disease.
"I'm definitely upset, but there's not much I can do," said the boy's father, as a warm summer rain poured down. "My kid is dead and nothing can bring him back."
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