Hope this doesn't happen on the towpath

[PeterScott]

5 minutes ago, Arthur Marshall said:

She tried to get one from a uk kennel but the huge questionnaire put her off ...

Rory KeflinJones (once BBC technology correspondent) on R4 PM this week described a similar experience - the adoption-agency-style questions for a UK pre-owned dog were, he thought, too onerous and there's a blog somewhere of the trials of coaxing a foreign-rescue-dog from behind his sofa ...

 

Last week, was following, in the rain, a large umbrella, a puprpousefully-walking man, a smallish dog, all on the towingpath: without moored boats I was just a bit faster, after most-of-an-hour I was almost level when a series of moorings arrived and I lost touch with them some way ahaed. Pootled along for a while and umbrella appeared heading t'other way: man underneath was bearing a lead and chasing said dog. Repeating at fifty yard intervals: calls of 'Fido ere' or similar to the sitting-up-smiling dog, and almost within collargrapbbing distance, dog heads off furthe,r homeward. Enjoyed the doggy victory over the umbrella ... probably fed up of the rain ...

[JoeC]

When I was younger my local park had a fenced off area that dogs were allowed to run around in. For some reason this was got rid off and the dogs were just allowed to run anywhere - owners seemed to like the playing fields and football pitches for their dogs to now use.

 

I have no issues with a dog only area but I do not like the idea of them using playing fields where people fall over, sit etc. Touching dog excrement, even a minute bit, can lead to blindness in humans.

[Naughty Cal]

42 minutes ago, haggis said:

I just cannot understand why people import street dogs from abroad when rescue centres here are bursting at the seams. It is almost as if they are being seen as status symbols 

Liams mums previous dog was a Romanian rescue. She didn't know this until getting all the paperwork from the rescue centre in Glasgow where he had come from.

 

He was a beautiful dog but very troubled. He had clearly been mistreated, he had half an ear hacked off. Such a gentle soul in the right situation but could turn at the click of a finger if he felt in danger or uneasy.

 

It wasn't his behaviour that would be his downfall but a skin condition that they could not treat. The vet ran out of options and the kindest thing for him was to put him to sleep when no antibiotics would work on his raw feet. Poor boy couldn't even walk to the garden in the end.

 

They never did get to the bottom of what it was that affected him.

[jpcdriver]

1 hour ago, Arthur Marshall said:

Part of the problem may be the prevalence of rescue dogs which seem to be more or less untrainable, especially street dogs from abroad, which seem to be popular these days.

A sweeping generalization which is untrue. Our Romanian rescue spent his first year on the street, the second in a charity run shelter in Romania before coming to the UK 18 months ago. He had obviously never lived in a house before but had been taught to sit and generally walked on a lead quite well

 

His training is still a work in progress and he is never walked off lead, due primarily to his strong hunting drive for rodents (understandable otherwise he would not have survived). However he goes into cafes, restaurants, sits before crossing the road, and is as well or better bahaved than most of the dogs we meet.

 

The issue with many of the very traumatised rescue dogs from abroad, I think, is that they seem to be brought straight across into the UK.

 

1 hour ago, haggis said:

I just cannot understand why people import street dogs from abroad when rescue centres here are bursting at the seams. It is almost as if they are being seen as status symbols 

Because otherwise they would be dead. Euthanised if lucky, but dodgy contractors in Romania will just round up a load of dogs, put them in a compound and then leave them to die.

[haggis]

3 minutes ago, jpcdriver said:

 

Because otherwise they would be dead. Euthanised if lucky, but dodgy contractors in Romania will just round up a load of dogs, put them in a compound and then leave them to die.

Sad, but for every dog which is rescued from abroad, that's one less which will be rehomed from a UK rescue centre and whether it is a foreign dog or a UK one, a dog will be put to sleep. Its a pity there is not more regulation on whether you can let your dog mate with that nice dog down the road and produce yet more pups needing a home. 

[Naughty Cal]

5 minutes ago, haggis said:

Sad, but for every dog which is rescued from abroad, that's one less which will be rehomed from a UK rescue centre and whether it is a foreign dog or a UK one, a dog will be put to sleep. Its a pity there is not more regulation on whether you can let your dog mate with that nice dog down the road and produce yet more pups needing a home. 

I do agree. We have enough dogs in this country that need new homes without importing more.

 

Which is sad. But its also very true.

[hider]

The Cambodians raid Thailand for dogs, they take strays back over the border for food. Seems to be a sensible way to deal with unwanted dogs to me.

[dmr]

Sadly my dog is very old and a girl dog, but otherwise I really like the idea of training them to p*** on fishermen. 😀

[IanD]

10 minutes ago, dmr said:

Sadly my dog is very old and a girl dog, but otherwise I really like the idea of training them to p*** on fishermen. 😀

Never mind delegation, you could always do it yourself... 😉 

[Naughty Cal]

13 minutes ago, dmr said:

Sadly my dog is very old and a girl dog, but otherwise I really like the idea of training them to p*** on fishermen. 😀

Gender doesn't matter. There is a girl dog we see on the woods at home that cocks her leg to pee 🤣🤣🤣

 

It must be gender neutral 😀

[SLC]

We board guide dog puppies. They are well trained, their recall is excellent and can be let off the lead. Common sense is required of course but goldies, labradors and cockers or all trainable.

Sadly too many people buy dogs which are unsuitable for their lifestyle, Covid dogs for example, owners don't have time to look after them let alone train them. Some breeds are totally unsuitable for the home environment such as XL bullies and I feel some dogs are taken in to reflect the owner's personality rather than their suitability. Poor breeding doesn't help, a cheap puppy may be attractive but with no pedigree they are a risk.

I have often seen mothers pushing a pushchair with a baby with a large dog either off a lead or on a lead attached to the pushchair. Unable to control the dog, too often a big dog such as a husky or GSD, it is a recipe for disaster and one child was attacked near us by an uncontrolled dog while being walked with a mother and pushchair. I despair at what I see on our local towpath but it doesn't mean all dogs should be on a lead at all times in all places.

Incidentally I walk our retrievers on a lead on the towpath because I know it is too crowded and narrow to let them go. However, in parks it is good to let them go if only to train them not to do what some folks here think all dogs do.

 

[dmr]

5 minutes ago, Naughty Cal said:

Gender doesn't matter. There is a girl dog we see on the woods at home that cocks her leg to pee 🤣🤣🤣

 

It must be gender neutral 😀

 

Ive seen a few girl dogs that do a sort of hybrid half squat with one leg slightly raided, I suspect they are the real gender neutrals  😀.

If mine cocked her leg she would probably fall over these days.

[Jon57]

1 minute ago, dmr said:

 

Ive seen a few girl dogs that do a sort of hybrid half squat with one leg slightly raided, I suspect they are the real gender neutrals  😀.

If mine cocked her leg she would probably fall over these days.

I've seen a few people like that coming back from the pub 😁

[Naughty Cal]

2 minutes ago, dmr said:

 

Ive seen a few girl dogs that do a sort of hybrid half squat with one leg slightly raided, I suspect they are the real gender neutrals  😀.

If mine cocked her leg she would probably fall over these days.

When Syds really knackered he will Squat and do a girly wee so maybe he (or should that be she?) is gender neutral as well.🤣🤣🤣

[Jon57]

Just now, Naughty Cal said:

When Syds really knackered he will Squat and do a girly wee so maybe he (or should that be she?) is gender neutral as well.🤣🤣🤣

My little fella used to swing both ways. Sadly no longer with us 😢

2 minutes ago, Jon57 said:

My little fella used to swing both ways. Sadly no longer with us 😢

 

[ditchcrawler]

2 hours ago, JoeC said:

When I was younger my local park had a fenced off area that dogs were allowed to run around in. For some reason this was got rid off and the dogs were just allowed to run anywhere - owners seemed to like the playing fields and football pitches for their dogs to now use.

 

I have no issues with a dog only area but I do not like the idea of them using playing fields where people fall over, sit etc. Touching dog excrement, even a minute bit, can lead to blindness in humans.

We saw that a lot  in Spain, a fully fenced and gated small park, I don't know if there was a charge for using it

[haggis]

1 hour ago, ditchcrawler said:

We saw that a lot  in Spain, a fully fenced and gated small park, I don't know if there was a charge for using it

These safe dog parks seem to be the " in thing"  and there are several near us and yes,  you do have to pay. 

[cuthound]

20 hours ago, Arthur Marshall said:

Part of the problem may be the prevalence of rescue dogs which seem to be more or less untrainable, especially street dogs from abroad, which seem to be popular these days.

 

I disagree. Any dog is trainable to a degree, regardless of background and age providing the owner is willing to work with a good trainer.

 

My last dog, Zeus, (the one in my avatar) was a rescue GSD. When I got him he was 14 months old and had not been trained or socialised by his previous owners. They had shut him in the garden where he had learned to bark almost continuously. This resulted in a noise abatement notice from the local council, hence the need to rehome him. It took me just a few weeks to stop the incessant barking, simply by putting frosted film on my windows to eliminate the stimulus of him seeing dogs and people passing the house.

 

Because he hadn't been socialised, he wanted to kill every dog he saw. He was however great with people, especially children, probably because his original owners had a large family.

 

I found an excellent local trainer and we began weekly group obedience lessons. He quickly learned to socialise with the other dogs at the training barn, although outside of there it took another him three years before he learnt to (mostly) ignore other dogs. Within two years he had achieved the training schools highest level of obedience training award.

 

Sadly, just as he had become an excellent, well behaved and obedient dog he died of inoperable liver cancer. He was just 7 years and 4 months old.

 

Edited October 2 by cuthound
To add the last sentence.

[jpcdriver]

3 hours ago, Naughty Cal said:

3 hours ago, haggis said:

Sad, but for every dog which is rescued from abroad, that's one less which will be rehomed from a UK rescue centre and whether it is a foreign dog or a UK one, a dog will be put to sleep. Its a pity there is not more regulation on whether you can let your dog mate with that nice dog down the road and produce yet more pups needing a home. 

I do agree. We have enough dogs in this country that need new homes without importing more.

 

Which is sad. But its also very true.

I actually never intended to adopt a dog from abroad. However, the local rehoming kennel that I went to (along with another they work with) actually have a link with the Romanian based charity kennel. So they obviously feel there is a need to bring in these dogs as well as rehoming UK dogs.

 

I'm not aware of any rehoming kennels that put any dogs to sleep. However, if it does happen at least the dog is humanely euthanised rather than possibly being left to starve.

[David Mack]

58 minutes ago, jpcdriver said:

I'm not aware of any rehoming kennels that put any dogs to sleep.

Surely they must all, from time to time, end up with dogs which are too injured, diseased or disabled to rehome. I imagine there is no alternative to euthanising such dogs (or passing them on to someone else who will do it for them).

 

[jacko264]

4 hours ago, SLC said:

We board guide dog puppies. They are well trained, their recall is excellent and can be let off the lead. Common sense is required of course but goldies, labradors and cockers or all trainable.

Sadly too many people buy dogs which are unsuitable for their lifestyle, Covid dogs for example, owners don't have time to look after them let alone train them. Some breeds are totally unsuitable for the home environment such as XL bullies and I feel some dogs are taken in to reflect the owner's personality rather than their suitability. Poor breeding doesn't help, a cheap puppy may be attractive but with no pedigree they are a risk.

I have often seen mothers pushing a pushchair with a baby with a large dog either off a lead or on a lead attached to the pushchair. Unable to control the dog, too often a big dog such as a husky or GSD, it is a recipe for disaster and one child was attacked near us by an uncontrolled dog while being walked with a mother and pushchair. I despair at what I see on our local towpath but it doesn't mean all dogs should be on a lead at all times in all places.

Incidentally I walk our retrievers on a lead on the towpath because I know it is too crowded and narrow to let them go. However, in parks it is good to let them go if only to train them not to do what some folks here think all dogs do.

 

+ 1  I agree with all this 

our gsd is very well trained and does things to order 

g

[SLC]

The best guide dog puppy we had with us was a gsd x retriever cross! Looked like a hyena crossed with a pony! Put the wind up our 2 retrievers at first. He looks like a gsd but for his floppy ears and was truly docile, friendly and obedient. I believe he is now with his partially sighted owner. His sister was gorgeous too. I loved him. Guide Dogs show what can be done.

My wife has given up watching Dogs Behaving Badly. It's not the dogs that irritate her. It's the owners and Graham Hall is very diplomatic when suggesting where the problem is!😂

[Ronaldo47]

Fenton! Fenton!

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=fenton+dog&oq=fenton+&aqs=chrome.2.69i57j46i131i175i199i433i512j0i512j46i175i199i433i512i654j46i512j0i512l3j46i175i199i512j0i512j46i175i199i512j0i512j46i175i199i512j0i512.11344j0j7&client=ms-android-hms-vf-fr&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:a38b97c8,vid:3GRSbr0EYYU,st:0

[haggis]

11 hours ago, SLC said:

My wife has given up watching Dogs Behaving Badly. It's not the dogs that irritate her. It's the owners and Graham Hall is very diplomatic when suggesting where the problem is!😂

I despair at some of the owners when I have seen this program but it is not what it appears to be. Apparently, when Graham agrees to have a dog in the program a local established dog trainer is contacted and that is who actually trains the dog . Graham then copies what the trainer has done but they must not appear on screen. Some of his methods of handling dogs leave a lot to be desired and I understand that he has not trained as a dog trainer . How do I know this? A couple of established and accredited dog trainers I know have been approached by him (or his program). 

[Arthur Marshall]

As can be seen from some of the comments above, everyone has a dog that they make sure is perfectly safe around other people. And although they haven't said so,  they always clean up the poo.

Which is why it amazes me that fences, trees and the towpath are littered with poo bags, and that almost every dog I know has in the past bitten someone or run off, that FB is full of people pleading for folk to look for their lost dog, that every day on the boat I see people cycling with dogs running free beside them, or walking staring at their phone with a dog tweny yards behind, or even in a couple of cases, the dog trotting along the towpath while its owner drives the boat along the cut. It's so lucky that all the twenty dogs running round the local park have totally reliable recall, too, especially the old deaf ones.

Truly, I am astounded.