Thurs 15th Sept: Be careful with newly adopted dogs

Tabitha at last Sunday's WNP session

 Suddenly it's the end of the week again, and time to start thinking about the weekend's Puppy Party and other potential meetings and (hopefully) adoptions. Just as a reminder, here are the photos from last Sunday's play session at Whiskers N Paws Puppy Adoption Day 11th Sept 2022, which is the perfect venue to spend time watching and playing with the puppies.  We're there every Sunday from 2pm to 4pm, and there are always two or three full-time store resident puppies staying if you want to meet them during the week.  

It was generally a quiet day today, which was just as well because newly-adopted Alexi was spooked by a passing bus while out on a walk, and slipped out of her harness.  Luckily she didn't go too far and had been found by the afternoon, but this is yet another reminder that ALL new dogs, no matter how confident and friendly they are, have to wear the safety collar-and-harness combination when outside, until they have fully settled and know the environment and their way home. 

The collar must be a non-slip one, meaning one that tightens when pulled, but never a full choke chain.  A regular collar is too easy to slip over a dog's head, and although you might think it's not possible, it is.  The harness we recommend is an EasyWalk, with the clip at the front, but it should be at least one that can't be pulled off.  The step-in harnesses are so dangerous, and they should really be called step-out harnesses because it's so easy for a dog to do that.  The secure harness and the collar should both be used at the same time, so if one fails the other is still in place. 

Please read the adoption booklet

All HKDR adopters are given a free booklet which explains all of this, as well as recommendations for feeding and everything else you need to know, especially the first-time dog families.  We encourage everyone to take the time to read the information provided, which was written based on all of the questions that were most frequently asked after adoption. 

The most important and almost-inevitable questions involve the settling-in period for practically every dog.  It's very common for new dogs not to eat, even drink, pee or poo during their first days in a new home.  They're confused, feeling lost and uncertain, so it's understandable that they don't have an appetite.  This is the time when a dog is most likely to try to run away, so you need to be really careful when out walking. The chart shown is a general guide to the time it normally takes for a dog to fully settle,  while of course there are exceptions as always.   It's always better to be safe than sorry, and not to assume that this won't happen to you.

On a more personal note, I realised it was a week ago that I had written about my Lamma dog Oliver, and my dilemma about whether or not to have a feeding tube put in. After deciding to go it alone at home, I'm happy to report that Oliver is still with me, and although not eating on his own I'm managing to get a small amount of mashed-up food down his throat by using a spoon.  It's a twice-a-day struggle but I can see that there's a spark of life coming back, and the next step is to find something that tempts Oliver to eat by himself.