Petfinder comments

I have been very happy to hear petfinder.com mentioned several times on the national news lately. They are doing a heroic job of trying to match up Katrina pets with their owners. They also help thousands of other rescue dogs get adopted - including mine.

The petfinder site is pretty busy right now, so I have loaded some of Karla's new pictures of my dogs on my Dogs Hope flickr account. Karla sent me a cd with more than 100 of the pictures she took last week - many of them are outstanding. It will take me a while to get them on the various sites. You can still search the Dogs Hope Petfinder site to look at my dogs. I just decided to hold off loading the pictures for a day or so.

Update on Dogs Hope Dogs

Reposted from my spaces site:

In case you aren't familiar with my rescue - we are located in North Carolina. Most of the dogs are English Pointers, some of them are German Shorthairs, and several are dobermans. I have something like 35 to 37 dogs to care for right now. People ask me to take more dogs every day. It is very hard to say no, but this many dogs is already very hard to care for properly - they are beautiful and healthy, but I spend all of my time when I am not at the library or driving to and from work or asleep caring for them.

If you are thinking about getting a dog - please consider getting a dog from a rescue - the only way we can save more dogs is to place the ones we already have. My dogs almost all came from animal shelters where they were going to be put down. They had reached the end of their time.

Here is the update:

I have my new camera, but the same old story of being too busy to even take it out of the box. So pictures eventually.

The dogs are hanging on pretty well - hard time for them and me too because of my irregular hours at the library. Yesterday was catch up on kennel cleaning day. I spent the entire afternoon until dark scooping kennels - six hours of scooping in 90 degree heat. Got it all done. I also gave heartworm preventative - a bigger job than you might imagine because I use a liquid that has to be measured out, and I have to document each dog, and also make sure he or she really eats his medicine-laced food. Some of them get little sandwiches made with mighty dog or cat food - yum.

Anyway, kennels clean (they are working on getting them back to normal already), and I also listened to NPR on my nifty radio headset while I was doing them.

Charlie continues to have problems - his illness has affected his joints, especially in his elbows. He is happy and active, but I try to keep him crated quite a bit because he needs to rest those joints. He has gained enough weight so that I now have him on normal food - not puppy food. Antibiotics continue.

Rusty - my cancer boy - is still doing fine, very sweet and loving. Still getting his cottage cheese flax oil mixture and his curcumin. The tumor is growing, but slowly.

Belle, one of my very shy little girls, is coming out of her shell. She loves Emmie - sweet little pointer who ran away earlier this year. She is also playing with Archie - new guy with fabulous temperment - and Charlie.

Everyone else is as happy as they can be. Jennie chewed up my good tennis shoes. I was angry at first, but then decided she did me a favor. She ruined them just enough so that I can still wear them, but not in public. So I can use them as kennel shoes without worrying about what I step in.

We are having a drought - Mother Nature's revenge - trees are dying, but I don't really feel right even mentioning this in the light of what others are going through. This is the 2nd hottest September on record for our area. I did turn the air conditioner back on - just too miserable without it. Dogs said thank you.

More pictures added to Antique Dog Photos, plus (thank you adopters) there are some really nice new photos on the Dogs Hope Adopted Dogs flickr site. I may not have mentioned that some of these photos are going to be used in a book about dog photography. I will add details as I learn them.

Dog blog to visit

Bankok Street Dogs You must see this.

Danny says hello

Danny says hello
Originally uploaded by Dogs Hope Adopted Dogs.

Hi from Danny. His mom has decided to start working on the Dogs Hope blog again. She didn't have a good way to put pictures on the blog before, but now she has Flickr. Danny is one of quite a few dogs in foster care at Dogs Hope in North Carolina.

Mom promises to start working on the rescue blog - she has another blog too. More about Dogs Hope dogs soon.

Still here

I didn't mean to neglect this blog for so long. I got really sick for a while - now even though I am fully better - I am still catching up.

Rescue never sleeps. Practically never anyway. I was able to muddle through caring for my dogs while I was sick, but it was an ordeal.

I do have a few more training tips and advice - probably unwelcome, on how folks can keep problem dogs they are always asking rescue to take. I will try to post these up today or tomorrow. Meanwhile, I have four new dogs at my house, now 30 dogs - way too many - so the never sleeps part is more true than most people could imagine.

For a complete rundown on the status at Dogs Hope - check out my other blog -
Judithsviews.

Being out from work (paying work at the library) for a while gave me a chance to slowly do a little cleaning and clearing out in the basement. Right now the situation is better than it has been for a while, although the average restaurant inspector would still probably condemn my kennel kitchen - the dogs think it rocks, however.

Well, better get back to boring stuff for a while.

Training Tips for Problem Dogs 1

About twice a month I get a desperate e-mail from someone who has decided to give up their dog because it has a behavior problem. Since I already have more dogs than any reasonable person should have, I attempt to counsel these people into how they might keep their dog.

Most of the problems are solvable, although I am not sure that the majority of people are willing to make the effort.

At any rate: I am happy to share what I know.

Here is part of my reply to a person who worries that his dog, which lives in an invisible fence, will bite workmen who come to the house. The dog does have a place inside (but apparently not a crate) and goes to private obedience training.

>>I think you should get this dog a secure outdoor enclosure where he can be when you have workmen around. I have nearly 30 dogs. I had to get a AMR meter put up so that the power reader wouldn't come in the yard. If other people come in, it is by invitation or appointment. I have pens and safe places for dogs that would bite the power guy or anyone else coming in the yard.

Read this: Military Training for Dogs

I found this link with a google search on "keep the dog" "problem dogs" - you can try this to see other tips. Note: the quote marks are for phrase searching in google.

I know (from an e-mail list) the person who wrote this article. There are some parts of it which might not apply to your dog (such as rolling him onto his back). It sounds like he is possibly a fear biter (he is trying to protect himself), so you don't want to put him in a position where he feels even more insecure, but you do want to get him to work for every reward - including his food.

It sounds like he has way too much freedom at the moment. The only dogs I have trouble with at my house are the dogs which have a lot of freedom - my whippets and one of my shorthairs (she goes crazy during thunderstorms and tears up crates so I have to leave her loose in the house). My other dogs are always crated or in their pens. They are all extremely happy and well behaved.

I did successfully rehabilitate a fear-biter (he bit me) and he got along fine for his entire life. This took a long time though and lots of patience.

I based my training on the ideas in this book -
JELLY BEAN vs. DR. JEKYLL & MR. HYDE

http://www.dogwhisper.com/book-jekyll_and_hyde.html

The book is not really well written, but it has fantastic tips on working with problem dogs. It is based entirely on positive reinforcement.

Here is another situation:

A person wanted me to take his dog which was jumping out of his six foot fence. A simple solution to this is to hotwire the top of the fence - with a visible wire. There is a product called FidoShock Fence Controller which will safely discourage going over or under a fence.

Unfortunately when people decide to give up their dogs they generally don't want to hear how they could solve the problem. Our society has made it way to easy for people to dump unwanted pets - rescue is actually part of the problem, in my opinion, although in some cases we do take dogs from owners, especially if we think the dog would be better off.

But these two cases just mentioned here are homes which might possibly be willing to make the effort. Worth a try.

Dog Island Hoax

I found this site by checking for links to my informational Dogs Connections Web site. They have a link to my site. I wasn't really taken in by the claims of Dog Island - do they really think an animal lover would be thrilled to learn that 10,000 rabbits are released as food on an island which acts as a sanctuary for unwanted dogs? But the site is very slick, very pretty.

Anyway, I got around to researching it today. Here is the link.

We have just been warned, at work, that we are under a tornado warning. We are not to leave the building. Of course I am worrying about the dogs I left outside, especially Tristan - he doesn't have any shelter other than the cover over his pen - he started chewing up his new dog house as soon as I gave it to him so I took it out.

I'm living life in the fast lane - while drinking coffee to stay awake - I have to pick a new rescue boy tonight from Albemarle and be in Gaffney SC tomorrow morning at 9:30 (about 95 miles from me) to get Margit. Meanwhile...

Two potential adopters bailed out - more on this later. I'm going to put up guidelines on how to not waste rescue workers time on my application form.

New boy coming

Against reason I have decided to accept yet one more pointer into my rescue. A friend who helps dogs from a nearby county shelter sent me his pictures. His face is so sweet. I just can not bear the idea of him going into the gas box (which would have happened at tomorrow morning). This shelter euthanizes (not the correct word but that's what they call it) nearly every animal in the shelter on Fridays so that they won't have to take care of them over the weekend.

What to do about this? I don't know. I called the shelter to try to get some information about the dog, but it was clear after a few minutes of talking to the animal control officer that he was on the defensive (they couldn't possibly tell me if they had a pointer, they can't be expected to know about breeds and they don't have pure breed dogs). I don't expect this guy to be purebred, but who knows, and quite frankly, I don't care. He is a beautiful soul, young, there is sweetness in his eyes. His name will be Patch - he's getting out of "Jail" tomorrow. He will be on the petfinder site as soon as I have had a chance to evaluate him.

Lots of folks think they can shop around and find the perfect dog. I know, and I know from much experience, that most dogs are perfect. Sometimes it takes a bit of patience and a bit of training.

My strong, difficult boy, Tristan, is starting to come around. He has graduated from having to wear the pinch/prong collar (I had to use this collar on him as I was in considerable joint pain from him jerking me about. As soon as I started using the collar, I began to feel better). He is now walking on a loose lead sometimes and he goes into his crate without a problem. It just takes time. Wonderful boy. A few more weeks and he will be perfect.