Our Therapy dogs took on another school this week that wanted to be part of the Reading dog project.
We visited on Friday and met staff and children and had a little chat with each class on the protocols around my dogs, the children were brilliantly behaved around Valli and some got the chance to get hands on with her even a young lady who at first was a little tearful was soon full of smiles as proudly held her lead and we walked Valli around the field. We are going to do a little test run next term with Bowyer attending Sunny Bank school on Tuesday/Thursday mornings for a couple of hours then I drive home, swop dogs (hopefully grab a coffee) and walk Valli to St George’s for the afternoon Reading Dog. As I said, purely a trial because I’m not getting any younger 🤷♂️😂 We finished our 10th year at St George’s now, along the way we/the dogs have met some fantastic children some with additional needs but despite what they are going through we always make time be it 30 seconds or whatever their attention span maybe.
Valli’s level of concentration surprised even me last week, I had permission to record her laying still waiting for the next child when from another class a child having a meltdown ran out into the corridor screaming which was captured on the video, not so much as a twitch from her.
Reports from St George’s suggest a 93% improvement on attendance/behaviour and reading/confidence levels of children attending our dogs.
Thanks again to everyone for messages of support for our dogs work, including of course our friendly spanner’s it really is appreciated.
Just a few pics of our male GSD 'Zeek', who is in the new Indiana Jones film that came out last week. These were taken on set and also during a break in filming on the beach!
Back to work this weekend after a fortnight off the Therapy dogs have a busy list of visits lined up. Sadly the first this weekend is a young lad (7) attacked by a loose dog, mum wants him to understand that not all dogs bite or attack and was put in touch with me via a friend of the school. With more and more dogs pouring into rescues, some with horrendous issues stemming from poor training/guidance through the lockdown period Gèrman Shepherd welfare has over 200 dogs under 3 years old and full to bursting, because as forecast people thought it was a good idea to buy a dog while they were stuck indoors. Now the dogs are paying the price!
Should legislation be toughened to help prevent people being hurt or killed by dog attacks? And, if so, what should the legislation be?
Pit bulls have been banned for absolutely years. Yet drive through any part of South London and you will see plenty. It's one thing having laws, but enforcing them is something else.
Should legislation be toughened to help prevent people being hurt or killed by dog attacks? And, if so, what should the legislation be?
Pit bulls have been banned for absolutely years. Yet drive through any part of South London and you will see plenty. It's one thing having laws, but enforcing them is something else.
Side-by-side maybe, but in isolation not sure I could tell the difference between a Staffy and a pitbull.
Should legislation be toughened to help prevent people being hurt or killed by dog attacks? And, if so, what should the legislation be?
Pit bulls have been banned for absolutely years. Yet drive through any part of South London and you will see plenty. It's one thing having laws, but enforcing them is something else.
That's why I think laws banning certain dogs don't work.
But I also don't know what laws would work, other than making anyone who wants to keep a dog undergo training and qualification and be licensed by the police. But that's impractical and expensive.
Should legislation be toughened to help prevent people being hurt or killed by dog attacks? And, if so, what should the legislation be?
Pit bulls have been banned for absolutely years. Yet drive through any part of South London and you will see plenty. It's one thing having laws, but enforcing them is something else.
Side-by-side maybe, but in isolation not sure I could tell the difference between a Staffy and a pitbull.
I've had 3 Staff's down the years . A pit bull is roughly twice the size.
Should legislation be toughened to help prevent people being hurt or killed by dog attacks? And, if so, what should the legislation be?
Pit bulls have been banned for absolutely years. Yet drive through any part of South London and you will see plenty. It's one thing having laws, but enforcing them is something else.
Side-by-side maybe, but in isolation not sure I could tell the difference between a Staffy and a pitbull.
I've had 3 Staff's down the years . A pit bull is roughly twice the size.
On lbc this morning they were talking about the XL dogs being 17stone ffs thats a bear isnt it.
Also the legislation issue it was stated they mix about with other dogs to avoid some of this legislation.
I know what i would do with some of the owners of these dangerous dogs but we wont go there.
No matter the legislation put in place, those that way inclined will break those laws, dog licenses couldnt be policed so they done away with them. Microchipping the biggest waste of time and money ever, everyone could see the work around before those making the laws had signed the paperwork.
Illegal not have chipped dog, but not illegal to have unregistered microchip 🤷♂️ Ban all advertising of animals for sale in the media would be a start but who police’s it I’ve no idea.
No matter the legislation put in place, those that way inclined will break those laws, dog licenses couldnt be policed so they done away with them. Microchipping the biggest waste of time and money ever, everyone could see the work around before those making the laws had signed the paperwork.
Illegal not have chipped dog, but not illegal to have unregistered microchip 🤷♂️ Ban all advertising of animals for sale in the media would be a start but who police’s it I’ve no idea.
What else would you do to prevent the thousands of people who have been hospitalised by dangerous dogs? Your view is probably worth ten times anyone else's on here!
I don’t know what the answer is @Chizz You really can’t educate the stupid or the greedy, this week I walked away from a school because despite me agreeing to do the Reading dog they got themselves a puppy.
The puppy won’t attend while my dog was in school was the assurances given to me, he can attend whenever you decide because my dog won’t attend was my response.
I won’t put my dogs in that position, that’s the end of the story!
Registration of microchip £30 per dog compulsory (with photographic ID and address confirmation of owner) and neutering/spaying at 2 years old unless you are registered breeder with the KC.
There are smarter people out there with ideas, one thing I’m sure of even banned breeds aren’t born bad those that decide to own one because they are banned are the issue.
As with most things in life, the victims of said “bad dogs” are rarely those responsible for the dog and are often children who are put in often positions of potential danger just for a “cute” photo. **** off it’s not cute it’s dangerous! I’ve seen one today on Twitter a child stepping on a small breeds back to get something from a fridge, so when that child is a little fat fucker and can’t reach the bigger cupboards guess what happens. It makes me very angry and everyone is very sorry after it happens, but ignoring the signs and a dog will give plenty of them before biting is the responsibility of the owner/handler. The other day I found a small knot in JJ’s coat tucked high up in his groin, the only way to remove it was to gently pull it away so I didn’t catch him with the scissors, first he looked away, secondly he tried to move away, third he growled, there wasn’t a fourth warning because I’m a lot of things but stupid isnt one of them, so we settled for a cuddle.
Can someone answer the question the wife just asked. If you have an XL bully and they put them on the dangerous dogs list then it's not the case if you already own one now that they'll be confiscated is it?
I thought I remembered that when the ban came in on pit bulls that if you already owned one then it would have to registered etc and then any not registered by a certain date could be taken away.
Can someone answer the question the wife just asked. If you have an XL bully and they put them on the dangerous dogs list then it's not the case if you already own one now that they'll be confiscated is it?
I thought I remembered that when the ban came in on pit bulls that if you already owned one then it would have to registered etc and then any not registered by a certain date could be taken away.
From memory I believe you are correct, although I believe muzzled in public places was also a condition? I stand to be corrected though……..
Can someone answer the question the wife just asked. If you have an XL bully and they put them on the dangerous dogs list then it's not the case if you already own one now that they'll be confiscated is it?
I thought I remembered that when the ban came in on pit bulls that if you already owned one then it would have to registered etc and then any not registered by a certain date could be taken away.
From memory I believe you are correct, although I believe muzzled in public places was also a condition? I stand to be corrected though……..
That’s right I think, muzzles was the other thing.
The problem isn't the dogs 90% of the time, it's the owners.
Scumbags will always be scumbags and have aggressive dogs, whether it's a bully, a shepherd or a wolfhound on the end of the lead, it doesn't matter, so long as they think it makes them look hard
Should legislation be toughened to help prevent people being hurt or killed by dog attacks? And, if so, what should the legislation be?
Pit bulls have been banned for absolutely years. Yet drive through any part of South London and you will see plenty. It's one thing having laws, but enforcing them is something else.
Side-by-side maybe, but in isolation not sure I could tell the difference between a Staffy and a pitbull.
I've had 3 Staff's down the years . A pit bull is roughly twice the size.
Yeah but my point stands. In isolation how easy is it to tell the difference between a large Staffy and a small pit bull?
Should legislation be toughened to help prevent people being hurt or killed by dog attacks? And, if so, what should the legislation be?
Pit bulls have been banned for absolutely years. Yet drive through any part of South London and you will see plenty. It's one thing having laws, but enforcing them is something else.
That's why I think laws banning certain dogs don't work.
But I also don't know what laws would work, other than making anyone who wants to keep a dog undergo training and qualification and be licensed by the police. But that's impractical and expensive.
Again, great ideas but who’s to police it? “Training” when you take your shiny new puppy to the vet and he has his jabs and you keep home for two weeks you miss out on two weeks socialising, not with other dogs but with the human race. I don’t give a flying f*** if my dogs don’t like yours, because unless your dog is off lead or out of control he’ll never meet mine.
What is more important is that they know how to correctly greet a human being be they 3 or 93.
If your dog shouts at mine from the other side of the road my dog will shout back, if he’s allowed to get in my dogs face and start shouting I’ll shout at you.
Barking is just noise, it’s what dogs do the amount of people I see that are embarrassed by a barking dog 🤷♂️ When we exercise our dogs they will pick up on our energy be it nervousness or confidence, if we start wrapping a lead around our knuckles that tells me as an approaching handler you rely on brute force to control the dog, I believe it also tells your dog “heads up dog this shits getting real” If you have a reactive dog, simply remove it from the situation, cross over, turn around and walk back because all the while you walk a reactive dog towards another the stare remains fixed and the steam is rising. My first dog training session with Mrs Redmidland was 20/30 minutes long before got the dogs out of the van.
Comments
We are going to do a little test run next term with Bowyer attending Sunny Bank school on Tuesday/Thursday mornings for a couple of hours then I drive home, swop dogs (hopefully grab a coffee) and walk Valli to St George’s for the afternoon Reading Dog.
As I said, purely a trial because I’m not getting any younger 🤷♂️😂
We finished our 10th year at St George’s now, along the way we/the dogs have met some fantastic children some with additional needs but despite what they are going through we always make time be it 30 seconds or whatever their attention span maybe.
But sometimes I just have to tell someone and on here you can ignore it or read it.
And no, I’ve never had to use it.
What a great CV this handsome boy has !
( Err, not you, RM...)
Sadly the first this weekend is a young lad (7) attacked by a loose dog, mum wants him to understand that not all dogs bite or attack and was put in touch with me via a friend of the school.
With more and more dogs pouring into rescues, some with horrendous issues stemming from poor training/guidance through the lockdown period Gèrman Shepherd welfare has over 200 dogs under 3 years old and full to bursting, because as forecast people thought it was a good idea to buy a dog while they were stuck indoors.
Now the dogs are paying the price!
Yet drive through any part of South London and you will see plenty.
It's one thing having laws, but enforcing them is something else.
But I also don't know what laws would work, other than making anyone who wants to keep a dog undergo training and qualification and be licensed by the police. But that's impractical and expensive.
A pit bull is roughly twice the size.
Also the legislation issue it was stated they mix about with other dogs to avoid some of this legislation.
I know what i would do with some of the owners of these dangerous dogs but we wont go there.
Microchipping the biggest waste of time and money ever, everyone could see the work around before those making the laws had signed the paperwork.
Ban all advertising of animals for sale in the media would be a start but who police’s it I’ve no idea.
You really can’t educate the stupid or the greedy, this week I walked away from a school because despite me agreeing to do the Reading dog they got themselves a puppy.
I’ve seen one today on Twitter a child stepping on a small breeds back to get something from a fridge, so when that child is a little fat fucker and can’t reach the bigger cupboards guess what happens.
It makes me very angry and everyone is very sorry after it happens, but ignoring the signs and a dog will give plenty of them before biting is the responsibility of the owner/handler.
The other day I found a small knot in JJ’s coat tucked high up in his groin, the only way to remove it was to gently pull it away so I didn’t catch him with the scissors, first he looked away, secondly he tried to move away, third he growled, there wasn’t a fourth warning because I’m a lot of things but stupid isnt one of them, so we settled for a cuddle.
Surely not.
I thought I remembered that when the ban came in on pit bulls that if you already owned one then it would have to registered etc and then any not registered by a certain date could be taken away.
I stand to be corrected though……..
Scumbags will always be scumbags and have aggressive dogs, whether it's a bully, a shepherd or a wolfhound on the end of the lead, it doesn't matter, so long as they think it makes them look hard
“Training”
when you take your shiny new puppy to the vet and he has his jabs and you keep home for two weeks you miss out on two weeks socialising, not with other dogs but with the human race.
I don’t give a flying f*** if my dogs don’t like yours, because unless your dog is off lead or out of control he’ll never meet mine.
When we exercise our dogs they will pick up on our energy be it nervousness or confidence, if we start wrapping a lead around our knuckles that tells me as an approaching handler you rely on brute force to control the dog, I believe it also tells your dog “heads up dog this shits getting real”
If you have a reactive dog, simply remove it from the situation, cross over, turn around and walk back because all the while you walk a reactive dog towards another the stare remains fixed and the steam is rising.
My first dog training session with Mrs Redmidland was 20/30 minutes long before got the dogs out of the van.