LOS ANGELES (AFP) - A California man was jailed for a year on Tuesday and told to undergo anger management counseling for beating his pet poodle to death.

Superior Court Judge Juan Carlos Dominguez ordered Jason Arnold Vaca, 35, to attend 26 anger management classes and a year of animal cruelty classes.

He was also put on four years' probation and barred from owning, living with or caring for any animal for 10 years, said the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office. Vaca pleaded no contest last month to a felony count of cruelty to an animal.

Emergency responders received a 911 call on March 18 last year in which they could hear a man yelling and the sounds of a dog being hit. When they reached Vaca's home, they found a trail of blood and the dog's lifeless body in the back yard.

It was unclear why Vaca attacked his pet.