I'm going to start with the photos (head shots only) of the new puppies that arrived yesterday, and as they're already around three months of age they're ready to go to new homes immediately. I love black fluffies, so there's already two in this group that I would grab for myself if I was able to. Of course, as with all of the new arrivals, this litter will be going for a health check and vaccinations before anything else.
The most depressing and upsetting emails I get are the surrender requests, and right now they're coming in thick and fast. A poodle with behaviour issues, a senior terrier type whose owner has died, a young dog adopted from HKDR as a puppy and who apparently became aggressive, another dog adopted from HKDR way back in 2011, another large and shy dog who has never been walked in its life, and so on and so on. It's never-ending, and the sad thing is that the victim is always the dog.
I'm so tired of hearing from ex-adopters who have made no contact until suddenly they want to return their dog. Every single adopter from HKDR is offered the free services of our very experienced and highly qualified trainer, Cactus Mok, yet many still go to other trainers (often the worst kind) and the results are that either the training doesn't work, or the dog gets worse. We're happy to recommend trainers if home visits are requested, but there are too many in Hong Kong who still use the outdated dominance-type methods. I also need to mention that training a dog is a two-way thing, as the human side also needs to put in the effort. Dogs are amazing and intelligent, but they don't possess superpowers that enable them to instantly understand what is wanted of them.
I'm also worried when I see newly adopted dogs with young children draped round the dog's neck, and the dogs (or puppies) almost always have a worried look on their face. In fact, one of the above-mentioned surrender requests showed exactly this, a new older puppy being smothered by the young child. It's a recipe for disaster, and it shows a complete lack of understanding and parental responsibility. Most dogs don't like to be tightly cuddled, and you need to know your dog well before doing this. Allowing, or even encouraging, a child to hug a puppy is never a good idea.
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| Turpin during his stay at Kennedy Town |
One recent surrender was Turpin, adopted as a puppy, and again the first photos we were sent from the adopter showed the child with her arms tightly round Turpin's neck, and a very unhappy expression on the puppy's face. Turpin's littermates all turned out fine, and indeed both in the foster home that took Turpin in for a while after his return, and later at the Kennedy Town Homing Centre, Turpin was a very sweet and normal doglet. I'm happy to report that he's currently in a trial situation, with his brother and sister as it happens, and of course we're all hoping that everything works out. Either way, we know that although Turpin lacks confidence due to his early experiences, he's not a problem dog in any sense of the word.
The point is, in so many cases when a dog is labelled as aggressive, it's simply not true. The dog is responding to situations where it feels it has no alternative but to show its teeth as a warning, or to growl to indicate that it's feeling scared or uncomfortable. Dogs have no other way to vocalise their feelings, so they can't say in words that something scares them, or hurts, or makes them feel threatened. It's part of being a dog owner to learn how to read their dog's body language and facial expressions, and to be able to communicate both ways. If it seems too complicated, just pretend that your dog is a toddler, and think what you would expect that baby to understand. Hopefully you wouldn't yell at a two year-old and punish him or her for not getting everything right first time.
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