Thurs 31st May: Rain is coming - hooray!

There were so many dogs needing to go to Acorn today that we had to have two van runs, and now I'm trying to sort out in my head who arrived, who left, and where they came from.

The 3 poms from the shelter seem to be doing better

We have quite a few new dogs, including a further two from the closed-down shelter, this time a couple of medium-sized mixed breeds who have been sent to Tai Po.   There's also a young miniature pinscher and a young(ish) poodle, both sweet boys, and a ten year-old smaller-sized poodle boy I picked up from AFCD today along with a singleton puppy girl.  The poodle is now called Rocket because he is fast and hated being in a crate or confined in any way, and all of these arrivals are now at the Ap Lei Chau Homing Centre.

The Shelties were very scared when they first arrived

We are now pretty full at the new Centre, so were happy to say goodbye to the two Sheltie girls after they had been desexed today.  They have started to come out of their shells and are such sweet dogs, and now they will always be together.  The adoption photo will be posted later.

Although all of the dogs that are kept in the free-running front section of the Homing Centre are friendly, both to people and other dogs, having the size and weight difference of a small puppy or senior bichon and a truck-like bulldog can be challenging, and although funny in a way because it's only in play, the staff have their work cut out rescuing the little ones from being squashed.  I'm only ever there for a short time but I can see it's like running a kindergarten full of kids, and having to make sure that nobody gets hurt.

Winkle in the corner already knows how to use the toilet tray every time

One of the observations I made while watching the dogs at Ap Lei Chau was that even the smallest puppy, the only healthy one from the "Rubbish Litter", knows how to use the toilet tray.  She ran over to it after finishing her meal, and Iris told me that all of the mixed breeds were automatically toilet trained, something I have seen for myself with my Lamma puppies.  They instinctively use the newspaper, whether they have been living wild in Chai Wan Cemetery or come from a home environment.   This is what puzzles me about crate training, when it comes naturally to a puppy to use one special spot as a toilet area and to keep everywhere else clean.   It seems very odd to me that anyone would want or need to reverse that natural behaviour by shutting a puppy in a crate or cage, and that's why we don't like or recommend it.

There's some happy news coming from Tai Po, although I'm going to save it until everything is confirmed.   More than anything it's the dogs staying there that are in need of homes, and there are so many super-sweet and lovely ones.  I just wish they could be given a chance to show how amazing they are.

I never thought I'd be looking at the weather forecast and feeling happy about seeing black clouds and rain forecast, but I am.  However if the rain is heavy on Saturday we may not be able to hold the Heal puppy event in Sai Ying Pun as there's no shelter at the moment.  Please check our Hong Kong Dog Rescue Facebook page for updates on that, but regardless of sun, rain or storms we will be at Whiskers N Paws on Sunday.