Mon 13th Aug: Six poodles and a shih tzu

Details of the 6 poodles will be posted soon

The six poodles arrived at our Ap Lei Chau Homing Centre as promised, and rather than being pet shop or breeder dogs I suspect they were those exhibition dogs used for training groomers, or for grooming competitions.  They are too old to be sold in pet shops yet they don't seem to have had puppies, and we recently had some other "show" poodles who had a similar background.  It would never have occurred to me that dogs are kept specifically for this purpose, but they are.

These new poodles aren't in bad health or condition, other than all having shocking teeth for their relatively young age, and one being infected with heartworm.  They are mostly under five years and very friendly, that being a prerequisite for dogs that have to be groomed for a living.  Once they have had their dentals and been desexed they should be very nice pets, the drawback being as usual the lack of toilet training.   There are four females and two males, and if you are interested in adopting one (or more) of these poodles then please start by completing the adoption questionnaire on our website www.hongkongdogrescue.com (under Adopt).

This shih tzu is still quite young according to his clean teeth

Apart from taking the new poodles to Acorn for their health check, including heartworm tests and vaccinations, I also took the newly surrendered shih tzu boy.  It was confirmed that his poor sore feet were due to demodex mites, which can be dealt with, but he also seems to have pneumonia so was prescribed heavy duty antibiotics to knock the infection on the head before it gets too serious.  Everything else will have to wait until we know that his lungs are clear, but he's a young dog so I think it will be fine.

Probably a bit of a cross, this 2 year-old needs a new home

Every day when I check my emails there are surrender requests, either just a short message asking "Can you take my dog?" with no details, or the official Surrender Form which can be found on our website.  Some of the reasons for the dogs needing new homes are acceptable, such as the young husky (cross) whose owner suffered a stroke, while others are just upsetting.  Among the worst are the requests for help from Filipina helpers whose expat employers have left Hong Kong and desposited their dog with the helper.   Of all the scummy tricks this is the lowest, and anyone thinking of doing that should be ashamed.  It happens time and again, and expat-favourite places like Discovery Bay are full of such dogs.   If you aren't a Permanent Hong Kong Resident then either don't get a dog or take your commitments with you.  It makes me furious when I hear these stories, and it's totally unfair on both the dog and the helpers.  We can always take the small dogs because they're easy to re-home, but that's not the case with the larger ones, and especially mixed breeds.  These are the dogs whose whole life and family is suddenly taken from them through no fault of their own, and it's just very sad, and unacceptable.