Tues 2nd Feb: Training with a smile

 Although I mentioned her adoption yesterday, puppy Sophie was actually taken home today and here's the photo to prove it. 

Also a rottweiler that came to us a while ago and was whisked straight off to a foster home is staying where she is, another happy ending for a Frostie Foster.

With more adoptions expected at Tai Po you might think we're starting to see some extra space opening up, but the arrivals come in as quickly as others leave.  Apart from the two new AFCD dogs from yesterday, Norton and Warren, we agreed to accept some puppies, two of which turned up today with others to follow shortly.  Both of these pups are girls, not babies but around four months old.  We're going to let them stay at Tai Po rather than move to Ap Lei Chau where the puppies normally live because we decided today to do a recall to the Homing Centre for all puppies still in their foster homes.  They're big enough now to be adopted and being on site for potential families to meet them means a higher chance of adoption success.   I'm quite sure we'll be needing more foster homes before too long anyway, as the unwanted litters never stop.

2 new puppy girls at Tai Po

You all know that one of the main perks of adopting from HKDR is the brilliant support offered to everyone by trainer Cactus Mok.  Cactus is not only highly qualified, and continues to extend her knowledge having just completed a course on Dog Aggression, but she is also very experienced in dealing with all of the issues that are most commonly seen in rescue dogs, from separation anxiety, food/resource guarding, shyness/fear, puppy biting to just basic training.  Although not able to extend her service to home visits (we have other trainers we recommend for this), there's no limit on the time that Cactus will spend helping each and every adopter as needed.  Of course in most cases there's no need for advice beyond the basic settling in period and that's what we always hope to see, but some behaviour issues take a bit longer to sort out.  

With this expert advice offered freely to all adopters you'd think that everyone would happily take advantage of it, but that's not always the case and instead friends are asked what they think or opinions are sought from Facebook groups, or random trainers are employed to sort the dog out.  As just mentioned we do have recommended trainers that we suggest for individual cases, and all of them work using the same methods as Cactus, that is using force-free and reward-based training with no punishment at all, whether physical or verbal.  

There's a common assumption that all dogs, even young puppies, fully understand what the word No! means, especially if used harshly and loudly, when in fact it's just a sound.  In the same way that any baby animal, humans included, learn from their elders, so do puppies need to be shown what to do and how to behave, and being rewarded when they get it right helps them to understand desirable behaviour.  The good thing about puppies is that they're super smart and pick things up very quickly, so if you follow the basic rules and are consistent in what you do, training is fast and easy.  

I'm saying all of this because not all trainers use the positive methods, or they combine reward with "correction".  Unfortunately there are also trainers who still use the old-fashioned "be the alpha" ways of choke chains, yanking hard on leashes, roll-over and other horrible methods to force a dog to submit.  If anyone says that they know what they're doing because they've been training dogs for decades, they will probably be using those old methods that were employed before we had a better understanding of how a dog's mind works, and that they are sensitive animals with a capacity to feel emotions such as fear and love.   I can only ask that you stay away from such trainers if you want long-term and happy results.  Once the damage is done it's a very hard thing to put right.