Thurs 13th April: Crazy days

There are more of these Stanley Barracks pups at AFCD

Rescuing and re-homing dogs is often more revealing about people than it is about the animals themselves.  Any good dog trainer know exactly what I'm talking about because the problem almost always lies with the human side of the equation, leaving aside personality and energy differences.

I have probably come across every type of dog in terms of behaviour and personality type and it's true that some are very easy and others more of a challenge, but using a different approach according to the type there are ways of dealing with all (which don't include mind-altering drugs). 

Today I have been on the receiving end of verbal abuse (something I have unfortunately had to get used to) for not agreeing to have a puppy who nipped someone tested for rabies (because the pup is too young to be vaccinated).  Of all the bizarre things I have heard over the years, the one that the puppy may have come from China (despite having been picked up by AFCD in Kennedy Town at three weeks of age) tops everything.  It is bad enough having to deal with this sort of craziness, but then when I went to AFCD today I was told that the puppy in question would need to be scanned and checked "to see that it was still alive" (not dead from rabies).  Seriously?  I'm standing in the place where I had taken the puppy from, who have their own records to show that it was found in Kennedy Town, and yet because some nutcase says it may have come from China everyone is running around like blue-arsed flies?  This is how public money is spent in case you were wondering. 

Lucy looks just like a border collie

While I was at AFCD,  I took out a very sweet and beautiful black-and-white fluffy puppy who is now called Lucy, and was dismayed to see three new Stanley Barracks doglets had arrived.  I am sure they're the siblings of now-adopted Painter, Rollo and Dougal because they are the same age and just as waggy-tailed sweet.  They have to do their regulation four days, and I'll take them out next Monday.

Painter from Stanley Barracks was adopted in February