Comments on: A Celebration Of Mediocrity

By: Frank Bonomo

Frank Bonomo — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 23:28:03 +0000

Hey Doc,
At least you guys need to go to school. Real Professional Dog Trainers are competing with the 3 week course dog trainers, and even worse, correspondence course “behaviorists”. What a joke! the average dog owner can’t initially tell the difference. I hope the day comes where my fellow “trainers” are able to reach mediocrity. Sadly, mediocrity woud be an improvement to the profession as a whole.

Frank Bonomo

By: Nancy Evans

Nancy Evans — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 01:51:00 +0000

Thanks for writing this Dennis. I’ve done rescue work over the past 5 years as well as owning my own herd. I have also spent time at the track as an owner and backside employee. You are right, there are some excellent, dedicated professionals and there are those that should have their licenses pulled. All I needed to do was read the monthly bills from the vet for the racehorses. I literally would pull the vet books and google on line to decipher and then was like why in the heck is all this being given to a healthy sound athelete. Fired them! Funny, horses ran the same after that and bills were reduced by $1000. My favorite is a local vet that wanted to clean the teeth of a dog that belonged to my girlfriend. She took the dog in because she was acting very confused. Oh, and did I mention she was blind, diabetic, and 15 years-old. He wanted to charge her $800 to CLEAN HER TEETH. Those are of course the negatives. The positives are the vets that donate their time and services to our local rescues, the ones that crawl out of bed at 2:00 in the morning, drive over and hour, when they get the “my horse just ain’t right” call, and the one that handed me the box of tissues and let me sit in his office for an hour with a stray that had to be put down (he had everything wrong with him).

By: Mark Nunez

Mark Nunez — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 19:11:58 +0000

You’re absolutely right. Hopefully the new generation of veterinarians will start to turn the wheels of change, rusty as they are.

By: Teddy

Teddy — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 16:13:31 +0000

I wish you were my personal physician.

By: Barbara A. Albright

Barbara A. Albright — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 04:27:37 +0000

Dr. Leon, Be proud of this blog and of your profession. If you practice honestly & with compassion for your patients and your clients…you will be rewarded, I am sure of it. We are in very bad times, I have never seen the likes of this during several recessions in my life (and I’m 53).

It will turn around. The people who hold the higher standards will survive and no one as much as a pet-owner and the ethical professionals are tired of the lack of accountability and the drag placed on good people.

Speak out, speak often. As one voice multiplies, things will change!

By: Laurence Badalamenti

Laurence Badalamenti — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 03:43:54 +0000

Well said.

By: Rebecca Young

Rebecca Young — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 01:04:03 +0000

Dennis: Thanks for the hidden truths in our profession. I recently wrote a comment that was critical about both paraprofessionals doing more than they are legally allowed, and the veterinarians that facilitate these actions. Editors asked if they could use my comments without including statements critical of the DVM. I said no. I often wonder how I will maintain enough business when 70% of my job can be done by mail order magazines, dental technicians, farriers, massage therapists and physical therapists that don’t carry the same practice overhead as me. The answer is often less aggressive care than I would like to provide, fewer bells and no whistles.