Tues 17th March: Stress can affect everyone

Here's some good news for any of you who are currently staying at home more than usual and could use a glass of wine at the end of the day; we'll be taking in a new donation of red, white and rose wines on Thursday and selling them at a very low price from our Ap Lei Chau Homing Centre.  I know it's not strictly dog-related, but as all of the proceeds will help the dogs so you can think of every bottle of wine bought as a donation.

Gorgeous puppy Charlie

As a very clear demonstration of how stress can affect everyone, dogs and puppies included, I made the decision to move puppy Charlie to the Homing Centre from his foster home where he had been doing so well.  He'd been very scared when I took him from AFCD kennels, but gradually with help from his wonderful foster parent and other pups also being fostered in the same home, Charlie started to come out of his shell and began to play and even enjoy being petted.  I thought he was ready for more socialisation so he could be ready for adoption, but unfortunately I was wrong.  Poor Charlie went into complete meltdown, unable to cope with the move to an unfamiliar place and all the other dogs, so we had to quickly send him back to his foster home.   I'm waiting to hear if he's got over the shock, but was reminded of a similar case when the puppy actually died of fright.  It's extreme, but just like people some dogs are exceptionally sensitive and need to be handled accordingly.

It's heartbreaking to receive surrender requests for dogs whose "bad" behaviour can be directly attributed to being sensitive and fearful, usually of loud and excitable children.  In almost every case the dog is in fact perfectly fine and well behaved once away from the triggers causing the behaviour, and we see it time and time again.  If your have a sensitive dog like this there are things you can do to help, but also please bear in mind that children grow up and change, and so does their own behaviour.  What doesn't change is the fact that a dog adopted as a puppy has lost its home and family, and that's really very sad.

Gordon is a very happy boy at Tai Po

Gordon is one such dog, adopted as a puppy just like all the other cases, and apparently a lost cause, so much so that he was surrendered back to us at six years of age.  Almost immediately Gordon showed himself to be a very happy and affectionate boy with absolutely no behaviour problems.  Of course we would never let him go to a home where there were children, but he's shown us that he's not bad, just sensitive and in need of a stable and quiet environment.

For all adoption enquiries please complete the questionnaire as a first step.  You can find it at www.hongkongdogrescue.com/adopt/adoption-questionnaire/