This gorgeous boy is Baloo. He is 7 months old with an all black long coat. Sadly he had found himself in welfare as his carer's landlord would not allow dogs. He has lived with children and our first impression is that he is a total sweetheart.
He does not appear bothered by other dogs and has been great with all the humans he has met. Poor Baloo had half an ear missing which happened when he was put in boarding kennels. Baloo is still undergoing his mandatory assessment but we feel he could live with children and would be fine living with a female dog.
Baloo is not neutered due to his age but will be homed with a contract prohibiting breeding. His vaccinations are all up to date and he is microchipped. Baloo is located in Mildenhall Suffolk.
If you're interested in offering Baloo his forever home then please contact us via the Aption Query Form:
A petition challenging insurance companies do not automatically refuse insurance renewal for rescue charities. With the UK dog rescue sector already in a state of crisis, this presents a potentially existential threat and see rescues have to cease operations and reduce availability when demand is already swamping services. Please support this petition created by the Pro Dogs Direct rescue organisation to try and help convince insurance companies to follow a case-by-case approach.
If you have any comments or feedback then please post in the comments below or contact me directly.
On the 21st of February 2023, the All-Party Dog Advisory Welfare Group are holding a meeting at the Houses of Parliament concerning the state of dog rescue in the UK. It's being well attended with 100 representatives from dog rescues across the UK. There are still seats available so if you'd like to get involved get in touch with them.
Ernie is a handsome 2 year old, black and tan, male German Shepherd. He came to us after a disagreement with his previous owner. Even after this occurred, Ernie remained very loving with everyone else around him. We assessed him closely after he joined us and we found him to be a happy, fun-loving, and loving boy. He enjoys playing ball games and will bring you his ball all day long if allowed to.
We have seen no signs of any aggression with people he knows or strangers. He greets everyone like a long-lost friend. He can react to other dogs but we feel this is more out of excitement. However, we did try to re-home Ernie and discovered that he couldn't cope at all so he returned to us. We have now made the decision not to re-home him.
Ernie is kept under our permanent care, please consider sponsoring our resident dogs to help pay for their lifelong upkeep.
Bruce is a 2 year old black and tan, long coated entire male. At 7 months he started reacting to things when taken out on walks. We believe that he was going through his second fear period.
Unfortunately, his owners sent him away to board and train with a disreputable (for want a better description) trainer. During his stay with the training school, they introduced him to a prong collar, spray bottle and rattle can (obviously this trainer had no idea of the science of how dogs learn). On the face of it, the training worked, but in reality, such techniques will at best mask the original issue, and are also likely to create new ones.
How prong collars are still legal in this day and age is unconscionable.
Bruce returned home, and he wasn't so reactive on walks. and his owners naively thought that the training had worked. In reality, the fear had sunk deeper and taken on new forms. He'd learned that seeing humans resulted in pain from the prong collar.
When visitors came to the house he was terrified of humans but didn't have the prong collar on. And so he tried to protect himself and bit. Poor Bruce now has two police records.
Arriving at Welfare we recognised a terrified and shut-down boy. His eyes told such a story - one that would reduce you to tears. Once we'd taken him in, the police contacted us. If he hadn't been surrendered to us they would have issued a destruction order.
Within weeks of being here, and by only working at a pace he could cope with we worked with him on problem-solving. Bruce transformed as he gained confidence and proficiency. Suddenly he looked like he had the weight of the world lifted from his shoulders.
Even with this we still have to be careful, and make sure not to put him in situations he can't cope with. He is so loving, and just five minutes in his company would leave you wondering how on earth he found himself in that predicament. Sadly the answer is all too simple - because people do not always listen to the advice given, or given bad advice and don't check. There will be no third chance for Bruce with the police, so we made the decision to keep him safe in our care.
Bruce is one of thirty or so dogs in our permanent care. He's not one of the dogs with a printed sponsor pack (yet!), but if you'd like to help us provide for his lifelong needs then you can still sponsor him by choosing 'Other', and then entering his name in the text box provided.
A big thank you to everyone who joined us yesterday for the live stream marking the final day of our 100 Days with 100 Dogs journey. We hope that it was an interesting discussion for you all and if it's something that you'd like us to do more of then please let us know and we'll see what we can do.
The recording of the video is now available on Youtube here:
Anyone who's interested in reading more about the issues facing the UK dog rescue sector as a whole can download the article from the link below and any feedback is welcome.
If you're associated with or in contact with other rescue organisations then please share this with them and we'd love to hear any thoughts they may have in preparation for the ADPDAWG meeting on the 21st of February 2023. Thanks!
For the penultimate post in our 100 Days with 100 Dogs series we meet newcomer Ace who's only just joined us and is still under assessment but we hope will be ready for his new home soon.
Ace is a youngster at 9 months old and as you can imagine is very energetic! He's come to us because his previous home was unsuitable and her's currently enjoying some new space to play in. Unfortunately, he's had little training so will need some work to help settle properly.
He's not been fully tested yet so we're not sure how he'll be with other dogs - especially males. He's very boisterous so unlikely to be suitable for a home with young children under 10 years old.
Ace is currently located in Stamford, Lincolnshire. He's currently too young to be neutered but he is microchipped and vaccinated.
If you can offer Ace a home then please get in touch via the adoption query form here:
Day 98 on our journey through 100 Days with 100 brings the sad news that one of our resident dogs, Big Mac has crossed the rainbow bridge. He was one of the many permanent resident dogs we look after. He was cared for by our chairman Debbie who says...
"It is with a broken heart that I have to write this. Big Mac was given peace in sleep today and grew his angel wings. He had been off colour and his skin was becoming even more of an issue but I felt there was something else going on. All vet advice was followed but he didn’t improve. Mac then became lane on his back leg with no obvious injury. It appears he had bone cancer and was in pain. There was no option but to let him go. Big Mac had been here for 4 years and in all that time he never put a paw wrong. He never showed any signs of aggression. He was the most amazing loving loyal boy. I will miss him more than words can express. Fly high, my special boy. You were loved so deeply ❤"
We hope that you'll all join us for our live-stream event tomorrow - there'll be in-depth discussions and fun prizes:
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