Mon 17th July: Let puppies play!

Edward must be thanking his lucky stars that he was taken home on Sunday

There are times when you just have to accept that nothing can happen with the weather as it is at the moment, and I was just extremely grateful that today's non-stop rain had stayed away on Sunday for the puppy afternoon (and looking back that was some kind of miracle).   Even if there had been new puppies at AFCD I would have chosen to leave them there, because those that are with me on Lamma are having a miserable time of it and I'm getting desperate for foster homes where they can stay dry. It doesn't seem to matter how much shelter you try to provide, the incessant downpours get in, through and under everything.

Elsa

Luckily for Elsa, returned from her foster home yesterday, she was needed at the Ap Lei Chau Homing Centre to provide a playmate for puppy Benji, a strange and funny boy that we can't quite work out.  He's still being assessed, but at least his original health issues turned out to be tick fever-related, so that was able to be dealt with.  It's his behaviour that we wonder about as although perfectly normal most of the time and constantly improving, when he first came to us as a very cute and fluffy five month-old, he was walking in circles and liked biting legs.  It could have been because he was kept caged in his formative months and had no socialisation at all, or a faulty brain.  That's what we are looking out for and why he's still with us at the Homing Centre where he is getting better in all respects.  He's a small-sized boy, probably a Sheltie mix, and hopefully someone will fall in love and will want him "warts'n'all".

Benji has fortunately stopped this leg biting now

The importance of socialisation for puppies is often underestimated, but without play - including fighting - and other physical interaction, the puppy will grow into an adult that doesn't know how to behave with other dogs.  The lunging and aggression are all signs of a missed "childhood", of a puppy that has been kept isolated and never been allowed to mix with others.  Seeing dog owners pull their puppy away from others when they want to play is very upsetting, and these people are setting themselves up to face behaviour problems with their adult dogs in the future.