Post-puppy depression

I overheard a conversation between two mums at school yesterday. Both were carrying their new pups wrapped in blankets, they were in confessional tone.
"Twenty per cent of the time I wish he wasn't here," said one.
The other was agreeing. "My house looked like an Andrex commercial last night."
Both had caved in to pester power but they were the ones at home all day with the dogs while their kids were at school.
Both dogs were mouthing. The new Rhodesian Ridgeback owner passed on a tip to put your hand over the dog's nose to stop them breathing... eek! I'm going to give them both a copy of our Perfect Pup book today - with Post It notes on the pages that show you how to stop mouthing.
Oh dear. Will these pups last till New Year in these homes?

Lessons not learned

I think we probably all felt a depressing sense of déjà vu as the news unfolded that yet another poor child had died in the care of a granny grappling with a powerful dog.
You'd have hoped that the last time this happened it would have given everyone else in similar circumstances a real wake-up call, but no. Seems not.
Seems obvious that after the last child death all other grannies would have reviewed their domestic situation, but obviously not.
If we don't bring up our dogs properly we put everyone - but most obviously - our own families at great risk.
What a tragedy.
Surely this time those who have dogs that are out of control will heed the warnings and take action.
Oh for a fashion that attracts people to friendly, gentle dogs - one that makes dog training trendy.

Rescue needs rescuing

Just received this urgent appeal:

On Saturday 21st November The Animal Rescue & Rehabilitation Society was given an eviction notice to leave the premises where we keep the animals. We have approximately 4 weeks to move the current animals out of the kennels and put them into temporary accommodation. We currently have cats and dogs with uncertain futures, plus the stray dogs of Stratford-on-Avon have nowhere to go.

I now have 6 dogs and 2 cats currently left at the kennels.  Two extra dogs are on trials in their new homes and one is hopefully going to its new home in a few weeks. Two six month old kittens are in short-term foster and another kitten is at my house in Rugby recovering from flu.

Is there anyone out there who can offer my rescue animals temporary accommodation until I can get something more permanent?

I am looking to buy some land/stables within the Stratford-on-Avon District, which covers a huge area and have been for some time, but it's just become a major priority to save the animals I now have.  Plus I now have nowhere to take the stray dogs.

If you think you can help in any way, either by spreading the word of the appeal, if you know of someone who could fund the building work for a new kennels to be built, land that might be for sale (I don't have a great amount but reasonable offers), foster homes for the dogs or cats or anything you may think might help in our fight to save T.A.R.R.S, please e-mail with your responses to t.a.r.r.s@hotmail.co.uk

Foster homes need to have no other animals in them as some of the dogs and cats are not use to other dogs or cannot live with other animals.

This would be a temporary basis of 6 weeks or over.

Sophie Peacock, Founder of The Animal Rescue & Rehabilitation Society also known as T.A.R.R.S.

Website: www.tarrs.org.uk

Dogs on the red carpet...

News just in...

Winners of the Fido Awards presented in association with Dogs Trust and honouring canine cinematic excellence were announced today at the prestigious ceremony at BFI Southbank. The full list of winners is as follows:

HISTORICAL HOUND (for period drama excellence)  The Young Victoria
ROM-COM ROVER (for romantic-comedy companionship) Marley and Me
COMEDY CANINE (for outstanding comedic contribution) Beverly Hills Chihuahua
BLOCKBUSTER BOWSER (for event-movie performance) Up
MUTT MOMENT (for stand-out cinematic canine moment) Fish Tank
BEST IN WORLD (for best of the best)     The Young Victoria
DOGS TRUST STAR OF TOMORROW     Paddy


Have to say I'm delighted to see Disney Pixar animated film Up! mentioned. The wonderful British-born behaviourist guru Dr Ian Dunbar was the canine consultant on that movie and if certainly showed. Brilliant!

Hounds for Heroes has a heroine!

Every now and again my mobile rings and it's lovely Allen Parton with exciting news. Allen and EJ were on the Labrador rescue stand at Discover Dogs and he says he met lots of lovely Dogs Today readers and had a really fun time.
Many asked him about his new venture Hounds for Heroes and how things were progressing. Allen remembers explaining to one lady how difficult it is to start a new charity as the charity commission wants you to have £5,000 before you can start.
He recalled that the lady had listened very intently.
Anyway, Allen's call today was to say he'd just opened his post and that same lady had sent him a cheque for £5,000!
Isn't that wonderful.
On a sadder note, Allen told me his wonderful wife Sandra is quite poorly and is having to take things  easier than usual until she goes in for an op. But getting busy people to slow down is very tricky. She's already put her surgery off once as she didn't want to miss an important date in the Canine Partners calendar. Sandra is their Puppy Operation's manager - but it sounds like she needs a Human Operation's Manager to get her to slow down and get well.
We all hope Sandra starts feeling better soon and is getting a lot of pampering from Allen and the dogs.
Allen very mischievously says he's now in danger of becoming addicted to watching lunchtime soap Doctor's now Sandra is at home during the day. (I used to like watching that when I was working from home - was always good to eat my lunch in front of! I bet Allen was secretly tuning in already...!)

Pets at Home and PJs in the office!

Sorry for the blog inaction! Just back from a trip up north to meet with the folk at Pets At Home. I have to say it was a memorable meeting in many ways. It was Children in Need Day and many of the staff were wearing Pjs - including the MD - what a good sport. Wish we'd known - felt a bit out of place with my business suit on! I've got some very fetching Scottie PJs - on offer at La Senza if they appeal to others - very warm they are!
And they didn't just take their dogs into work - they had reptiles and fish, too and even a baby!
Really lovely meeting and then Graham and I had an afternoon looking around Chester which I had very positive childhood memories of.
Very rare for me to venture far for a meeting, but what a memorable outing!

Nervous Lady lost in Milton Keynes

Choc & Tan Cocker Spaniel
3-4 Years Old Female
PLEASE DO NOT APPROACH
Missing in the Monkston, Milton Keynes
MK10, Bucks area since Tuesday
10th November 2009 SPAYED & CHIPPED
RESCUE DOG AND VERY NERVOUS. PLEASE DO
NOT APPROACH IF SIGHTED PLEASE CONTACT
A NUMBER BELOW & LEAVE CONTACT DETAILS
07835160111 or 07898133009
07733001165 or 01670 7604346
07918127590
Do you have any information on the whereabouts of this dog? Call DogLost in the strictest
confidence on 0844 800 3220 quoting 20673

Bruce latest

Bruce, a family pet kept on ‘canine death row’  has been held since seized from his family in September 2007 for looking the wrong shape and size as outlawed under breed specific legislation in Northern Ireland. Now top vet Professor Bill Reilly has spoken out against the legislation and urged a rethink on the Government’s position.

For Bruce a staggering two years has passed while his legal case is ongoing even though he has never put a paw wrong in his life and he’s not alone in this legal nightmare where life hangs in the balance and Bruce and others are confined to a concrete cell and cruelly denied the family homes they once knew.  This surely cannot be the actions of a civilized society when in fact it is irresponsible and uneducated breeders and owners who are the problem, not breeds or ‘types’ of dogs?

The annual BVA North of Ireland Dinner held at the Parliament Buildings in Stomont, Northern Ireland took place on the 29th October 2009, addressing the Dinner was the recently newly appointed  President of the BVA; Professor Bill Reilly.

Speaking before guests including the Northern Ireland Minister for Agriculture & Rural Development, Michelle Gildernew MP MLA, Jim Nicholson MEP and several other politicians as well as veterinary professionals, Bill Reilly covered several “core topics” including that of breed specific legislation (BSL).

A copy of the full speech can be found on the BVA web site, in relation to BSL, Professor Reilly said:

“Dogs are also hitting the headlines through the recent announcement of new control measures. I was shocked to read that one third of all dogs destroyed in the UK are in Northern Ireland – clearly the dual problems of dangerous and stray dogs are an enormous drain on your resources.

We welcome your commitment to promoting responsible pet ownership, but we are disappointed with the proposal to retain breed-specific legislation.

The manner in which a dog behaves is both a result of its inherited characteristics and, more importantly, the rearing and training provided by its owner.

We know that aggression is a normal behaviour and can be shown by any dog of any breed, type or mixed breeding. Breed-specific legislation therefore engenders a false and dangerous perception that breeds not banned will not show aggression.

I would urge the Minister to rethink her position on this issue and shift the focus of control to ‘deed not breed’, alongside a concerted campaign to promote responsible pet ownership.“

Minister Michelle Gildernew has given a written response to the BVA President’s speech at the BVA Dinner and in relation to the comments on BSL has stated:

“I note your comments on my proposals for dog control legislation and in particular on the issue of breed specific legislation. Subject to Executive approval, I plan to begin consultation in November on my proposals. I will ensure that the BVA receives a copy of the consultation document and I would clearly value the Association's input on my full proposals at that stage.”

It is heartening to hear that the leader of the BVA has spoken out against breed specific legislation and has urged the Minister to rethink her position on this issue.

Breed bans do simply not work and are costing millions of pounds to implement whilst failing dismally to protect the public whilst innocent adult dogs and puppies are being held in kennels at huge public expense awaiting court hearings to determine their fate with a tape measure or being automatically put to death and all based solely on their appearance.

Please support the President of the BVA and write to Minister Gildernew and urge her to repeal breed specific legislation in Northern Ireland and to spare the life of Bruce and other family pets currently caught up in this unjust and unworkable legal nightmare:

• Department of Agriculture & Rural Development (DARD):
  

Email:dardhelpline@dardni.gov.ie  & private.office@dardni.gov.uk

• Minister of Agriculture & Rural Development - Michelle Gildernew, MP MLA:
  

Email:Michelle.Gildernew@sinn-fein.ie 

• British Veterinary Association - Presidents Office:
  

presidentsoffice@bva.co.uk



Further details at www.endangereddogs.com/BruceAppeal.htm 

Food for thought

In today's Guardian a big plug for indie petfood label Lily's kitchen... well done!!! Click here for the full story. Fascinating piece though on a number of levels.

Henrietta Morrison confidently plunges her spoon into a tin of slow-cooked lamb hotpot and lifts out a mouthful for inspection. She passes her nostrils over the meat chunks and accompanying sauce, smiles, then places the whole lot into her mouth. "Delicious," she remarks, as a small crowd of onlookers gathers round to watch the spectacle.
Someone eating their lunch doesn't usually elicit such attention, but, then again, most people aren't prepared to tuck into a tin of dog food for sustenance. Morrison has a point to prove, though: she is at Europe's largest pet trade show, PetIndex, at the Birmingham NEC, and her company, Lily's Kitchen, sells the most expensive pet food on the market. Her dog food, for example, retails in places such as Harrods for more than £2 a tin, with the promise that the contents are "proper food".
A quick inspection of the ingredients ("organic and certified holistic") shows why Morrison is prepared to put her pet food where her mouth is. Lamb ("60%"), rice, pearl barley, broccoli, spinach, blueberries, flaxseed, marigold petals, burdock root and alfalfa are just some of the ingredients contained within a tin of slow-cooked lamb hotpot. It really does look and sound good enough to eat – that's the whole point.
"I eat my pet food regularly to test batches," says Morrison. "My personal favourite is goose and duck feast with fruits, but chicken and turkey casserole is our bestseller."
Lily's Kitchen and its range of anthropomorphised pet "recipes" represent the somewhat rarefied summit of the UK's pet food industry, which is now said to be worth close to £2bn a year. Just like us humans, the nation's 8 million dogs and 8 million cats – as well as our collective menagerie of rabbits, horses, lizards, tropical fish et al – consume a wide variety of foodstuffs. In recent years, and despite the economic downturn, the pet food industry has witnessed a move towards "premium products", but the market is still dominated by products made with ingredients that, frankly, can send a shudder down any owner's spine. "Hydrolysed feather meal", "derivatives of vegetable origin", "ash" and "animal derivatives" are just some of the delights routinely found in pet food.
The industry has been the recipient of both jibes and brickbats about the true origin of its ingredients for decades. Horse meat, whale, kangaroo – before strict legislation tightened up the rules following the BSE scandal, we were used to hearing all sorts of hypotheses and rumours. But now it faces a new source of criticism: just what is the environmental impact of feeding the huge quantity of "companion" animals around the world? A new book with the somewhat provocative title of Time to Eat the Dog? The Real Guide to Sustainable Living has triggered a highly charged debate about the environmental efficacy of our pet-owning habits. If we are to examine the environmental impacts of all our lifestyle choices, the book argues, then we must also include pets in the discussion, no matter how unsettling the answers. The various environmental impacts attributed to the human food chain are well documented, so isn't it right, for example, that we should now be questioning whether it is sensible to be feeding slow-cooked lamb hotpot to our dogs, too?
The New Scientist, in a recent editorial entitled "Cute, fluffy and horribly greedy", largely agreed with the book's findings that some pets, due to the food they eat, have a surprisingly high "ecological footprint" (a way of quantifying human demand on the planet's ecosystems using a measure called "global hectares"). "According to the authors . . . it takes 0.84 hectares [2.07 acres] of land to keep a medium-sized dog fed. In contrast, running a 4.6-litre Toyota Land Cruiser, including the energy required to construct the thing and drive it 10,000km a year, requires 0.41 hectares. Dogs are not the only environmental sinners. The eco-footprint of a cat equates to that of a Volkswagen Golf. If that's troubling, there is an even more shocking comparison. In 2004, the average citizen of Vietnam had an ecological footprint of 0.76 hectares. For an Ethiopian, it was just 0.67 hectares. In a world where scarce resources are already hogged by the rich, can we really justify keeping pets that take more than some people?"
Speaking from his university office in Christchurch, New Zealand, Robert Vale, who co-wrote the book with his partner Brenda Vale, admits that he has received a "few unpleasant emails" from irate pet owners since the New Scientist article was published, but insists that he still stands by his central point. "We need to know what we're doing when it comes to the environment," he says. "We can't go blind into this debate. Nothing should be off limits no matter how uncomfortable it is to discuss it. Human population growth is a huge issue, too. We have to recognise that we live in a world of finite resources."
Vale says he was "genuinely surprised" when calculating quite how large the environmental impact was of some of our most popular pet species. "Of all the areas we researched for the book, the subject of pets was by far the biggest surprise for us. But all we are arguing in the book is that we should be making sensible, informed choices. For example, it's not really going to be that much of a problem if you have a big dog but also take the bus everywhere, never fly and live in a small home. It's when everyone starts to have a big car, big house, big family and a big dog that the problems start."
Vale does not – as some of his critics seem to assume – advocate a mass cull of the world's pets. But some of his proposed solutions are still likely to shock some pet owners. For example, the book suggests catching vermin such as rats and processing them into a "natural" cat food. Equally, the book proposes a return to the days when families would – hence the book's title – have edible pets. For example, a pair of rabbits would be kept as pets and their offspring would be eaten. It's hard to see that one gaining much traction.
When feeding a pet, however, the advice is to "think feathers and long ears, not horns and fins". In other words, favour pet foods made from chicken and rabbit meat and avoid those containing red meat and fish which, by comparison, have a much higher environmental impact. Last and, perhaps, most obvious: the smaller the pet, the better.
Back among the avenues of stalls at the PetIndex show, vendors jostle for attention with their impressive and sometimes baffling range of pet foods and accessories. One woman proudly tells me why her pet food containing yucca extract makes "her dog's poo stink less".
Another tells me why, when you use her hair-grooming tool, you must aim to "never expose a dog's testicles". Two saleswomen from Shanghai try to explain to me the fashion vagaries of doggie handbags (let's be clear: that's handbags to carry around your dog, rather than handbags made from dogs). I also spot car seats for dogs, a "pet fountain" that allows your cat to drink from a constantly flowing source of water, and a "memory foam" mattress for "senior" pooches with bad backs. I even come across a treadmill for obese dogs – the "Fit Fur Life" with its attendant price tag of £1,865.
Amid this paradise of pet paraphernalia, I meet Ben Helm, the sales and marketing director of Golden Acres, the UK's largest manufacturer of own-brand pet foods. The company owns Lancashire's largest arable farm and its on-site factory produces 70,000 tonnes of pet food a year, exporting to 37 countries around the world. By most measures, it's a huge operation, but it's a doggie biscuit in scale compared with the four leading pet-food manufacturers – P&G, Nestlé, Mars and Colgate-Palmolive – which, between them, are thought to account for more than 80% of the world's pet-food market.
"Some people now spend more on feeding their pets than they do feeding their children," says Helm, with a hint of awe. "It's a huge industry. Our bestselling 'kibble' [dried composite biscuit] is lamb and rice. Until about a year ago, we were importing three shipping containers of lamb meal [the labelling term for dry rendered lamb derivative] from New Zealand every week to make our kibbles, but now we try to source more of it locally as people are worried about food miles." As for the rice, he says: "The pet-food industry is now probably the biggest single importer of rice in the country." (I later check this factoid with the Pet Food Manufacturers' Association. It says: "So far as we can tell, our industry uses 50,000-150,000 tonnes of mostly 'broken rice' [a byproduct of the milling process] a year. This compares with rice imports for human consumption of around 450,000 tonnes in the UK.")
Helm picks up a handful of salmon kibbles for cats and rolls one around in his fingers. "Cat food actually requires more processing than dog food because it makes it easier to digest. We also add high-quality fats to the surface of cat kibbles to aid palatability. They say that you can't fool a cat as they will detect bad fats. We source our chicken fat from the UK."
Helm says that pet-food trends follow human food trends by about a year. He says that "no carb" pet food is currently the "big thing" largely because pet obesity – it is now estimated that between a quarter and half of the cats and dogs in the UK are obese – has become such a big talking point for the industry. Hypo-allergenic ranges are also popular, with many pet owners reporting that their pets are displaying signs of intolerance to the wheat found in many pet foods. It is one of the reasons why many owners are scaling up to the premium ranges offered by the likes of Lily's Kitchen.
When viewing the sheer scale of the pet-food industry from on high, it can be tempting to agree with Vale's conclusion that we must urgently consider the associated environmental impacts of owning a pet. But the industry, as you might expect, puts up a spirited defence, arguing instead that the pet-food industry is actually a highly efficient processor of what would otherwise largely be waste material from the human food chain.
"Far from being unsustainable, pet-food manufacturing uses material from animals which are inspected by vets as fit for human consumption but which are surplus to the requirements of the human food industry," says Michael Bellingham, the chief executive of the Pet Food Manufacturers' Association. "These byproducts must meet the very high safety and quality criteria laid down in European legislation. Without us adding value annually to around 630,000 tonnes of animal byproducts in the UK, it might otherwise have to be disposed of via landfill or incineration. Not very green. Furthermore, a recent report by the Waste and Resources Action Programme [more commonly known as Wrap] is rightly damning of the enormous amounts of food – around 30% – that goes to waste each year. Compare that with the 1% of pet food they found went to disposal."
Bellingham says that the "vast majority" of meat used in pet foods is byproduct from the human food chain, as opposed to "human-grade ingredients" or meat specifically reared for the purpose. The situation with fish, he says, is similar: "The vast majority of the fish ingredients used by industry are the surplus from fish filleting plants, or fishmeal produced from such surpluses. Some 'super premium' products may use human-grade ingredients but, for the very small amount of fish used and the tiny market share, this will have a negligible impact on fish stocks."
But Bellingham also argues that the benefits of pets need to be viewed more holistically, rather than just through the prism of their "carbon pawprint". "Our environment, far from being threatened by pets, is greatly enriched by the part they play in our lives," he says. "Pets in the home instil responsibility, encourage social as well as environmental awareness and have positive health benefits on children. Furthermore, children from households with pets are found to have stronger immune systems and take fewer days off school. People with pets make fewer visits to the doctor – 21% less for elderly people. What large polluting car improves your health and gets you out for a walk every day?"
Archaeology has shown that we have been living with companion animals for at least 12,000 years. For example, in what is now northern Israel, a dig at the remains of the Natufian settlement called Ain Mallaha revealed the grave of an elderly man who is tenderly cradling a puppy in his arms.
That we greatly benefit from the presence of pets isn't really disputed. But in order to reduce their impact on the environment, should there possibly be a limit to the number of pets we have? Because, of course, it's not just the food they eat that's the problem. Some conservationists, for example, have long been saying that the population of domesticated cats is having a detrimental impact on native fauna. As obligate carnivores, cats are, by instinct, opportunistic predators. A 2005 study in Bristol, for example, showed that 131 cats returned home 358 animals – birds, small mammals and amphibians – over the course of a year. It didn't record the prey the cats failed to return home.
Professor Stephen Harris, based at the school of biological sciences at the University of Bristol, was one of the study's authors and he believes that the impact of some pets on local ecology needs to be debated much more widely.
"Compulsory neutering of cats is not really practical," he says. "But people really should weigh up the environmental cost of owning a pet. We each need to ask ourselves if we really need a pet? In the US, animal welfare groups strongly recommend that cats are kept indoors. And in Australia, some states are now discussing making it compulsory to neuter cats, as well as introducing 'feline-free' zones where, if found, cats can be trapped and humanely destroyed by the local authority. But here the British attitude to cats is that they should be left to roam as this is natural." (In an earlier study that Harris co-authored, it was calculated that the UK's 7.7 million cats kill around 188 million wild animals a year.)
But Harris says dogs aren't exactly guilt-free, given that an estimated 250,000 tonnes of dog faeces are deposited on our streets and in our parks each year: "It is calculated that 100 tonnes of dog shit is left on Richmond Park in London each year alone. This has a huge impact on the local ecology. If you see aerial photographs of the area, you can see how yellow the grass is around the car park where all the dogs rush out of the owners' cars to urinate. Pets such as dogs and cats can have lots of these little impacts, which really do add up. Ecologically, pets are very demanding and this is a lifestyle choice that is difficult to justify for most people." (In their book, the Vales make the observation that, in San Francisco, city officials say that dog faeces now account for 4% of the municipal waste sent to landfill each year – the same level as used nappies.)
Marina Pacheco, chief executive of the Mammal Society – who owns a cat herself – says education, rather than legislation, is the answer: "We are aware of the huge impact cats have on small mammals. Yes, we probably have too many cats in the UK, but it's too hard to work out the optimum carrying capacity. We have to be pragmatic about the fact that millions of people do own cats. There are things cat owners can do, though. Keeping cats in during dusk and dawn, which is their natural hunting time, is a good idea, as are collar bells. Not owning too many cats is also sensible. One or two is enough and get them neutered, too. It must become socially unacceptable to be an irresponsible pet owner."
Anyone who owns a pet will keenly testify how much joy and companionship they can bring. But they will also acknowledge just how much time, effort and money they can require, too: a tortoise needs its heat and lighting; a horse needs shoeing and a regular supply of straw; an iguana needs its supply of insects; a chicken needs grit and corn; a dog needs its delousing powder; a cat needs a scratch tower. And then there's the insurance, the vet's fees and the annual cost of food and bedding. It's little wonder that some pets are described as being as big a commitment as having a child in the home. So it shouldn't really come as a surprise that some are now viewing pets as having a similar environmental impact to that of a small person. After all, in many owners' eyes, their pets are very much part of the family.
Back at PetIndex, Morrison is handing out samples of her luxury pet food to passersby. "No, we don't use any animal meal in our pet foods," she says proudly to one interested woman. "It's the devil's work. They strip everything that's good off a chicken, even the fat, then they grind it into a powder for pet food. People are fixated on price – most pet food is cheaper than a tin of baked beans. But more and more people are coming round to the view, just as they are doing with their own diet, that quality counts. We've only been going since last November and we've already turned over half a million pounds. We have to start asking more questions about the food we feed our pets."
For altogether different reasons, Morrison is right.

Got a doggie Jedward?

If you have a dog who can sing, then please get in touch with these guys!
They are hoping to assemble a canine choir. This is I feel ambitious. In the past we've staged the Paw-O-Vision Song Contest and we found that some doggies could be quite diva-esque - they wanted to sing solo or not at all. (Very often the dogs chose not at all, it's very different putting your head back and singing in the comfort of your own front room - but in front of legions of fans and press...)
And when we did Pup Idol at the Wag and Bone and later Dog Brain of Britain at the Cold West Nose singing dogs were a touch thin on the ground. Although if that Shih Tzu who did a strip while singing to the Full Monty theme tune is reading this blog - please do apply!

Sky1 Canine Choir seeks Singing Dogs.

Brand new animal entertainment show ‘Pet Nation’ is looking to audition your Pavarotti pooches, canine crooners and musical mutts for a brand new dog choir!

Hosted by Liza Tarbuck and Huey Morgan, ‘Pet Nation’ will be a celebration of our nation’s love affair with our pets.

The canine choir will be a spectacular ending to our series. So if your beloved can belt out a tune please get in touch today.

Send a short video clip to animalhouse@twofour.co.uk under the subject ‘Canine Choir’. Please include contact information along with details of your dog’s repertoire. We will be holding auditions in January and February 2010.

We look forward to meeting you then!