Bits for Pets Blog

Dogs and dog lovers are in for a real treat on Sunday as Dogs Trust Snetterton Rehoming Centre hosts this year’s Open Day and Fun Dog Show.

Classes for the Fun Dog Show include best footballer, egg and spoon race, waggiest tail, best oldie (for dogs over eight years of age), prettiest bitch, handsomest dog, and, of course, best ex-Dogs Trust dog or bitch, the class for dogs who have been rehomed from Dogs Trust.

There will also be a special “Judge’s Secret Category”, where only the judge knows what he’s looking for. The final category of the day will be Best in Show, where the winner of each class gets to show off their rosette.

Broadland Agility Club will be holding a demonstration and competitions throughout the afternoon. Other highlights of the day include a display by the Prison Service Drug Dogs (Eastern Area) and also NSARDA Anglia Search and Rescue team, featuring search dog Ollie.

In addition to this, there will be the Kennel Club Good Citizen Bronze Award Testing, giant tombola, raffle, trade stands, refreshments with a tea tent and home-made cakes and a burger van, as well as loads of fun and games for the whole family.

Gates will open at 11.30am for registration of the dog show, and the event will begin at noon in the field adjacent to the Rehoming Centre, in North End Road, and will close at 4pm. Entrance to the event is £1 per person, with children and OAPs free. Parking is also free. The Rehoming Centre will be open for viewing, but no rehoming will be able to take place on this day.

Anyone with any inquiries, or who wants further information on the work of Dogs Trust, can contact Barbara Emons, support relations officer on 01953 498012, or email Barbara.emons@dogstrust.org.uk

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It’s not such a dog’s life for pets in Norwich after a graduate set up a business specialising in holiday homes for dogs.

Paul Reeve, 24, runs Norfolk Home Boarding for Dogs, and makes sure when the rest of the family jets off to sunnier climes, their canine companion can enjoy the homely atmosphere of another dog-lover’s house.

The company has just catered for its 100th dog - a golden retriever called Sophie - while her owners were abroad.

It works by arranging for dogs to stay with a specially selected carer, someone with experience of looking after their own dog, in a relaxing homely atmosphere away from the hustle and bustle of kennels.

Paul said: “Each carer must fulfil our criteria. They must have experience looking after dogs, be at home all of the time, have no other pets and no young children.

“We have a whole host of people keen to do it, from people who work part time or from home, to people who want a pet but work abroad for half the year and can only have one at certain times.

“We interview all of them personally and look around their homes to make sure we match them up with the right dog.”

When a dog owner enquires about the service Paul is quick to assess what sort of carer a dog will need.

He said: “We wouldn’t send a labrador puppy to a frail, elderly, lady.

“We would send bigger dogs to people with bigger gardens and perhaps more opportunities for walks nearby, we always have the dog’s interests at heart.”

Penny Clay, 59, who lives near Catfield, has been a carer since May 2006. She gets paid £8 a day, or £12.50 if she is looking after two dogs together.

She said: “Paul insists you meet the dog and its owners before it comes to you and the owner provides all the food and things, and a few toys and comfort things to make the dog feel at home. It is so much better than a kennel.”

Norfolk Home Boarding for Dogs operates from Mr Reeve’s house in Hellesdon where he lives with his parents Sally and Malcolm.

After suffering an accident while at university, Mr Reeve started working from home and came up with the idea when he returned to Norwich in 2004.

The company charges £14 a day for a single dog and £21 a day for two dogs together.

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MAN can claim to be a dog’s best friend thanks to first-aid courses that teach devoted owners how to perform “mouth-to-snout” resuscitation, heart massage and dress wounds on their injured pets.

At least 15 pet first-aid courses are run by veterinary colleges and animal charities around Britain and they are proving increasingly popular with owners.

The courses include advice on how to treat a variety of less serious ailments, such as burns, poisoning, heatstroke and bee-stings.

Like first-aid courses for human patients, some let students work on dummies, substituting the human version for lifelike dogs and cats made of rubber and fake fur.
Background

* Taking the lead at Crufts: Day one

* Crufts: Best of breed results day two

* Crufts: Best of breed results day three

* Crufts: Final results

The popularity of the courses is testament to the growing notion that animals are treated as additional members of the family rather than being seen as just a pet. It may also be, however, that some owners would rather learn to treat minor injuried than pay increasingly expensive vet bills.

“People are more aware about how to treat each other and, as dogs increasingly become part of family, they also want to learn more about caring for their pets,” said Leslie Heaton-Smith, director of the College of Animal Welfare, which runs the monthly courses. Sessions cost £140, last one day and are taught by a vet in Leeds, Edinburgh, Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire and Potters Bar in Hertfordshire. Heaton-Smith added that the college would launch a first-aid DVD at Crufts today.

Owners attending the courses are told to leave their pets at home. Instead, they practise medical techniques on two dummies imported from America: Fluffy the cat and Jerry the dog.

As well as learning to dress wounds and apply splints, the models allow the students to practise more serious first aid, such as blowing into the nostrils and pumping the chest. Without training, someone attempting this might kill their pet or simply blow air into its stomach rather than its lungs.

The courses have been welcomed by vets. However, they warned that owners who thought they would be able to diagnose their pets could end up giving the wrong treatment.

Mark Johnston a vet in Sussex and spokesman for the British Small Animal Veterinary Association, said: “They may try to do things which are not necessary and make things worse. In some cases it is far better to get the animal to the surgery and get them seen to quickly by a vet.”

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A Tibetan Terrier called Willy has been named Best in Show at the 116th annual Crufts dog show.

The six-year-old, whose full name is Araki Fabulous Willy, won the award at the NEC in Birmingham on Sunday.

Willy is owned by John Shaw and Neil Smith of Gloucester, who said winning the prestigious title was “the biggest accolade you could ever wish for”.

More than 25,000 dogs and 143,000 visitors attended the event, which opened on Thursday.

Mr Smith, 48, breeds dogs and also owns a boarding kennel in Brockworth, near Gloucester.

He said: “We may have to think about retiring him now because there is nothing left for him to do.”

Willy’s handler, Larry Cornelius, from California, said: “It was definitely worth the trip, he has won the breed here four times in a row, but it’s the first time I’ve shown here.

“He’s done everything I’ve ever asked of him, and I think he is a truly fabulous dog in every way.”

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TheDaily Echo in Southampton are running a ‘Pretty Pooch Competition’. If you think your dog measures up, why not send in a photo? The Daily Echo will be running a special supplement on April 4, when readers will be able to vote for their top dog.

Send your pictures to Newsdesk, Southern Daily Echo, Newspaper House, Test Lane, Redbridge, Southampton, S016 9jx.

Or email them to newsdesk@dailyecho.co.uk.

Make sure you include your dogs name, your full name, address and a daytime telephone number.

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A drag queen bridesmaid, a “page dog”, and a gay men’s choir have helped to mark a wedding on the first anniversary of civil partnerships becoming law.

Jamie Hakim, 36, and Graeme Youngs, 41, became the 680th couple to tie the knot in the Sussex city of Brighton.

Their vows focused on love, honour and respect, and they exchanged rings each set with a diamond taken from a ring worn by Mr Hakim’s late grandmother.

The unorthodox supporting cast also included a best man and a best girl.

The couple met more than 12 years ago and moved to Brighton in 2001.

Mr Hakim said their key reason for Thursday’s ceremony was to cement their relationship.

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Dogs Trust urges people to consider older dogs instead of puppies this Christmas.
The UK’s largest dog welfare charity, Dogs Trust, has launched an appeal to remember vulnerable older dogs this Christmas.

The charity, responsible for the slogan, “A Dog Is For Life, Not Just For Christmas”, is urging the public to relate this statement to older dogs as well as to puppies.

The run-up to Christmas is the Dogs Trust’s busiest time of the year as the number of dogs handed in, or found as strays, massively increases.

Clarissa Baldwin, Dogs Trust Chief Executive said, “In our society, it is often the very old who are the most vulnerable over the festive season. It is the same with dogs.

“Sadly, in the run up to Christmas and in the New Year, the proportion of old dogs we take in to our care significantly rises compared to other times of the year.”

She added, “We beg people to consider the commitment needed to care for your pet for its whole life.”

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THE owners of border terrier Charlie who returned home on Sunday after being missing for 20 days believe there could be a sinister reason for his loss.

Charlie disappeared while on a walk with his owner Liz Carr in woods near their home in Oare on October 9.

When he returned after three weeks, there was sand and dust in his coat.

Mrs Carr and her husband Mike believed the terrier had been trapped in a badger sett or fox hole until he lost enough weight to get out.
continued…

But now Charlie’s vet Julia Hayward has suggested that the terrier may have been dognapped.

After giving Charlie a thorough inspection on Monday, Mrs Hayward told Mrs Carr that Charlie had hair missing from the back of his legs.

Mrs Hayward thought he might have been kept in some form of harness.

She wondered if he had been stolen and then dumped back near home after the thieves discovered he had been micro-chipped.

The dog would have been no good for breeding because he had been neutered as a pup.

Border terrier puppies sell for anything up to £500 and there is concern about a growing trade in dog-snatching and demanding high ransoms from owners.

Mr and Mrs Carr are delighted that their pet is back home.

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A statue of a hero dog that became mascot to the Free Norwegian Forces during World War II is to be unveiled.

Bamse the St Bernard, who has already been honoured with the animal equivalent of the George Cross, is to be remembered in Montrose.

Montrose Heritage Trust is raising £50,000 to promote the story of Bamse, who came to Scotland in 1940 as a crew member of a Norwegian minesweeper.

The statue is to be unveiled in the Angus town by Prince Andrew.

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Close monitoring and rapid, targeted vaccinations may be the best way to protect the Ethiopian wolf, the world’s rarest canine, against extinction.

Scientists suggest that immunizing just 30 percent of the wolf population at the first sign of an outbreak is sufficient to safeguard the endangered species from major outbreaks of rabies and other deadly diseases.

Only about 500 Ethiopian wolves remain in the wild, and the species has been ravaged by rabies epidemics at least twice in the recent past. But completely immunizing all of those animals is too time-consuming, given current technology.

The new study shows that even limited immunizations of wild canine species such as the Ethiopian wolf against rabies is “safe and effective,” said lead author Dan Haydon, an ecologist and epidemiologist at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. “[That is] something that’s not always been agreed upon in the conservation community,” Haydon added.

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