The madness that the pandemic has brought to the world of rescue is showing no sign of easing. We welcomed three more dogs into our family yesterday with several more booked to come in this week! As you all know, we have been on a bit of a mission of late.
We want to do more than just "rescue" dogs. We want to be proactive instead of just reactive. We are battling to get help and information out there that may just stop a dog having to come into Welfare. This may be advising how to select a responsible breeder, or how to choose a trainer/behaviourist, or the training methods to use and so forth. Many of the dogs coming into Welfare are the results of bad trainers/behaviourists.
Many of the dogs in our care have behaviour issues that inhibit their chance of successful homing. Several have been with us 7 years or more. Obviously, our main aim has to be to rehabilitate these dogs in the hope that they are lucky enough to find their own home one day. Not only is this the best outcome for them, but it also clears space for dogs needing help from us in the future. We are limited at how many dogs we can take into our care.
This has been an ongoing discussion amongst the Welfare committee members for some time as we try to make decisions that will take us down the right path and lead to some solutions. After much thought and discussion, we made the decision to try to centralise our "problem" dogs or dogs that have been here for too long for their own good. By doing this we can then utilise the expertise of our lovely Lisa Hird who has very generously offered to help us with our mission.
Lisa is one of the best behaviourists in this country. She has written some of the most advanced courses in dog behaviour for colleges etc. and we grabbed her offer of help with all hands. We are hoping that after an assessment from Lisa and a training plan to follow, we can help some of these dogs on their way to finding a place to call home. She will also advise us how best to "show case" the dogs that are continuously over looked. We cannot thank Lisa enough.
The weekend saw us starting to put this plan into action, by moving some of the Welfare dogs into appropriately sited kennels.
We are also thrilled to welcome Tony into our Welfare family, after he agreed to be an "uncle" to the dogs. Tony has extensive experience with German Shepherds and with rescue dogs. He is a very knowledgeable trainer using positive reinforcement methods, which as you will all know, are the only training methods we use and endorse. It is not about taking the softly softly approach, but about following the science. Welcome Tony and thank you.
When selecting kennels to use, it is so important that they are happy to liaise with us so we can all be on the same page to help the dogs move forward with their progress. It is so much more than just boarding our dogs and we are vey lucky to have some wonderful aunties and uncles for the dogs, on board with us.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank the staff at Connifer Lodge kennels where we have just moved some of our problem dogs from, especially the girls that spent time with our dogs and showed them love.
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| Ramsay |
Amongst the dogs we have relocated is Ramsay who has a police order against him, meaning that he can only go out in public when wearing a muzzle. Ramsay is a lovely boy, the police incident really was just a mis-fortune. A dog came to attack him whilst on lead. The other dog owner came over and tried to get their dog off and got bitten in the process, Ramsay got the blame and his police order. At present he doesn't like wearing a muzzle so this limits his chance of a home. Lisa will start some muzzle habituation work with him.
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| Lily |
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| Kerrie |
Kerrie and Lily are mother and daughter, victims of a cruelty case. Both of them are understandably very nervous and totally dependant on each other. Lisa's plan is to try to build their confidence, teaching them how to problem solve, thereby making it easier to cope with life for them. They will also learn how to be independent of each other to give them a chance of a finding a loving home.
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| Ghost |
Ghost came in with bite history, so he will need a full assessment so we know if it is safe to home him. We believe part of his problem was a noise phobia (hoover). Lisa will again, start by building confidence and habituating him to noises.
Poor Ted is a lovely boy but is one of the unfortunate ones who has been overlooked for several years. Lisa will guide us how best to "show case" him.
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| Ted |
As you can see, there has been so much going on with Welfare behind the scenes, as well as dealing with the daily calls for help. We are proud to say we feel like we are moving forward and addressing the problems we are facing.
We thank each and everyone one of ours supporters for your understanding and support. Without you all, we could not progress with our mission to help the many GSD's that need our help 💖
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