Lena Dunham’s dog trainer comes to her defense, but questions linger
As we discussed last Friday, Lena Dunham’s story about the circumstances around her dog Lamby just didn’t add up – go here for my story about it. Long story short, special snowflake and forever-victim Lena Dunham lied about her dog Lamby. She adopted him from a shelter, and she claimed that he was an abused dog, a dog who always had behavioral problems, and that she, Selfless, Compassionate Lena, had taken him in and tried everything to heal him. The shelter was basically like “the dog was fine when she adopted him,” and they called her out for not bringing him back to their no-kill shelter, as she was contractually obligated to do. She just gave Lamby away and immediately adopted two more dogs.
The problem wasn’t that Lena claimed Lamby had behaviorial issues. I take her at her word that the dog was causing problems, that he bit her, that he had issues. I just take issue with her lies about when those problems started, and why they started. But Lamby’s dog trainer is trying to fluff around those issues by making the conversation about how Lamby really was a pain in the ass:
The Los Angeles dog trainer who spent a year working with Lena Dunham and her dog Lamby when his behavioral issues became too much for the actress to handle, tells PEOPLE that Dunham did everything possible before making the “very painful” decision to “re-home” her beloved pet. Matt Beisner, who runs The Zen Dog, tells PEOPLE that some rescue animals are so traumatized that it sometimes takes months before they begin exhibiting behavioral problems.
Beisner, who says he has “nothing but respect and admiration for those who work in the shelter world,” explains that Lamby’s change of temperament wasn’t that unusual.
“The dog that we see in the shelter is often not that the dog that we see in the home,” he says. “And often the dog in the home on day one is different than the dog that we see at the six-month mark. It’s so predictable that I can almost put it on the calendar. When someone tells me they adopted a dog, I’m waiting for them to call.”
Lamby, he says, was already “really aggressive” when Dunham reached out to him for help last year after working with six other trainers. “She was at her wit’s end,” he says. Beisner and his staff quickly learned why. “He didn’t want to be touched and he didn’t want to be handled,” he says. “When he came to us that there were days where we had to carry his crate out to the yard and open it to let him come out because we couldn’t safely put our hands near him to get a leash on him to walk him.”
Besides biting, Lamby, who stayed at Beisner’s facility for extended periods of time, would drink his own urine. “That’s pretty typical for dogs that come from breeding houses or breeding farms where they live in crates that are just stacked on top of each other,” he says.
“He was really rattled, but he was also a great dog and if you set him up in a life that is tolerable, he’s actually a real joy and that’s what we were working towards.” Dunham, who Beisner describes as a “really proactive, diligent” pet owner, was initially unable to to consider finding another home for Lamby when her trainer first broached the subject. But she eventually changed her mind and one of Beisner’s staff members, who’d fallen in love with the troubled dog, jumped at the chance to adopt him in March. The adoption was handled quietly and received no publicity. Beisner had nearly forgotten about the incident until he received an email from Dunham on June 20, informing him that she was going to “break the silence” on Lamby. The controversy which soon erupted, Beisner says, was ultimately a waste of time and energy — that could have been better used trying to find ways to help animals like Lamby.
“I think if we spent less time and energy attacking this individual owner — who I get it, is a lightning rod — and more energy talking about how we could help dogs,” he says, “we would have made a big difference in the past week.”
[From People]
Again, the issue isn’t really that Lamby had behavioral issues. It’s about Lena’s lies and lack of responsibility for those issues. Lamby was a normal dog at the shelter, in need of love and a stable home environment, which Lena lied about, casting Lamby as a “problem dog” from the moment they met. Six months with Lena, and that normal dog is a neurotic mess. We all would be, honestly. Imagine living with her. Now imagine you’re a dog and you can’t get away from her. THAT is the issue. She made a mess out of this dog and then she threw him away because he didn’t fit in with her life. I’m glad Lamby has a good home now and he’s probably grateful to be away from her, and that’s the happy ending. But what happens when Lena’s two new dogs have behavioral issues a few months from now?
I interrupt this restorative weekend to let you know that I have a new passion/safe space and it's pictures of dogs with crystals on their heads. Care of @energymuse
A post shared by Lena Dunham (@lenadunham) on Nov 19, 2016 at 10:59pm PST
her majesty & her highness (alt title: easy like Sunday poodles)
A post shared by Lena Dunham (@lenadunham) on Jun 18, 2017 at 10:54pm PDT
Photos courtesy of Instagram, WENN.
Source: Lena Dunham’s dog trainer comes to her defense, but questions linger
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