I've talked a lot about the importance of the first formative months of a puppy's life, as this stage of development will permanently affect a dog's personality and behaviour. To use humans as an example, everyone understands that a baby who's been neglected and unloved, never held or cuddled even if not actually abused, will grow into an adult with personality issues, and the same applies to all animals. This is why we insist on very young puppies being fostered (or adopted) in pairs, as without a mother to care for them they are even more in need of another puppy to sleep cuddled up to, to play with and to be comforted by. Human foster parents can feed and take care of the physical needs of a puppy, but proper brain development requires a different kind of stimulation.
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"Red" dogs are not bad dogs, they just need to be understood
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The worst thing that can happen to a puppy is that it's left alone for long hours, often in a cage, with no companionship, no play, no love or training. Again using human babies as an example, would this be considered acceptable? Of course not. But still, this is exactly what happens to so many puppies, especially those bought at pet shops or from breeders, as these places never ask questions or even care what happens to the puppies after they've been sold.
It's usually (although not always) the smaller breeds that suffer such sad and lonely lives, as they're treated like toys to be played with at the owner's convenience. When they subsequently develop behaviour problems they're passed on, often to a friend, or a stranger found on one of the many social media sites, then passed on again and again, until finally they end up at a rescue organisation - or worse. We have a "Red Dog Centre" full of such dogs, all small sized and all damaged in the sense that they can only be adopted by those people who truly understand dogs and their behaviour. Very few "Red" dogs are lucky enough to be chosen, but some have been and we're always thrilled when this happens and it works out.
Many of our "Red" dogs are poodles, and I think this is because being a highly intelligent breed they suffer more than most from isolation and lack of mental and physical stimulation. Treated and trained correctly, poodles are fantastic little dogs who are smart, funny and loving. Poorly treated they easily turn to biting.
All of this is leading me to one particular young poodle, taken from AFCD as an older puppy. He was immediately adopted of course, but it seems the damage had already been done during those formative months before he was surrendered to AFCD. Although in most senses he's the perfect companion, his behaviour means he's not suitable to be in a home with children, especially younger ones. This is how his current owner describes him:
"Well, you did warn me when I inquired about poodles that they are the worst biting offenders. Unfortunately, we have been dealing with this situation with our young toy poodle pup, Hinoki, who we adopted in July from HKDR. He had been in government care and we adopted him at age 7 months.
Hinoki is only one year old and displays guarding tendencies. He does not guard his food/water bowl...it is mostly bed areas, special items and sometimes people (only in the home environment). Our family (including our two kids) have attended training classes, I've read extensively and we also have sought the help of Cactus and a one-on-one trainer to work with our family (including our helper). Everyday we work on training and try to build trust and ease the things/areas that trigger him. We have only used positive training methods. Unfortunately, we are not seeing behavior changes in this area, and more and more bites are occurring - almost daily even though we try our best to manage our environment. I have reached the point I no longer feel it is safe to keep Hinoki in our home with children. As hard as it is to say, I believe Hinoki would be a better fit for experienced dog owners without young children.
Hinoki has so many wonderful things about him: He's young, healthy, friendly with strangers, very social and playful with other dogs, clever and likes to snuggle with his people most of the day. He loves to play fetch, tug-o-war and do his treat puzzles. We practise daily commands like: sit, stomach, touch, stay, wait, leave it, trade, up and off and return when name is called. He is very good at these when he is not guarding. The tricky part is even when we offer high value treats, it is very difficult to get him to drop something or leave an area he is guarding. We all try to read his body cues, but he can sometimes unexpectedly snap and bite."
You can see from this very detailed description that in most areas Hinoki is a great little dog, but we need to find him a new home without children. Ideally he would go to a home where there's another dog for him to play with, as this may well distract him from his undesirable behaviour. If you think you can offer the perfect situation for Hinoki to flourish in, please start by completing the adoption questionnaire at www.hongkongdogrescue.com/adopt/adoption-questionnaire/
We will only consider those homes that we feel are genuinely suitable.
For something completely different, I received this email today and I thought it was something worth sharing. Education is the key to everything, and starting with the young generation is how change happens. In the years since I've been involved in dog rescue work I've already seen a huge positive shift in attitudes towards dogs, but we still have a long way to go (see above). Children like Jeremy, and I know there are many others, will grow up to be compassionate and caring adults.
We are public speaking coaches for school children in Hong Kong. One of our students, Jeremy Guo, is deeply concerned about the stray dog problem in Hong Kong. Jeremy is very impressed with the work done by Hong Kong Dog Rescue. Recently, Jeremy did a short speech calling for the public to support HKDR.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/15_YJqyo8xZq-5Mb3AeHveTu68Tvzo3Z9/view?usp=sharing
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