animal sanctuary saved

Abandoned dogs that were facing death because they bark too loudly have been saved after hundreds of people stepped in to help.

Twin sisters Pat Hartley and Jane Wright, who run Mill House Animal Sanctuary, feared they would have to make the heartbreaking decision to destroy the animals after one noise complaint was made by a neighbour.

The 70-year-old sisters were issued with a council noise abatement order, which meant they must find homes for the 17 dogs or erect a £2,000 soundproof fence that they could not afford.

If that failed the dogs would have to be put down.

But after people heard their plight, the twins have been swamped with pledges of money to save the dogs from death row.

Mrs Hartley said the response has been 'overwhelming'.

'We are so grateful to everyone who has offered their support. You don't realise how nice a lot of people are.

'We think we will get enough to buy the fence, because quite a lot of people have pledged to send us money.'

The animal sanctuary is also home to 10 cows, 10 ponies, seven pigs, five sheep, five llamas and three goats.

The sisters began caring for animals when they were just six when their family saved a young pony called Dolly because a neighbour was sending her to be slaughtered.

[via twitter]

Bringing Light to Shadow

Shadow was the human-aggressive dog from which sprang the book Bringing Light to Shadow by Pamela Dennison.

"I am Pam Dennison, a dog trainer, and Shadow is my sixth rescue dog. I assumed, with a history of five dogs to my credit—all successfully rescued and rehabilitated—that I could quickly and easily turn this dog into the competitive obedience, agility and sheepherding dog that I wanted him to be.

Unbeknownst to me, I had a human-aggressive dog on my hands. I did not truly realize or comprehend the magnitude of the work, total dedication and commitment required to help him. I had been humbled by a forty-pound Border Collie.

This journal chronicles our struggles together, from recognition of the aggressive behavior to the painstaking efforts to turn Shadow into my dream dog: confident, calm, focused, and friendly. It is the story of taking him from a human-aggressive dog to passing his Canine Good Citizen test.

I have included my actual journal entries as well as training concepts and comments on what I learned in hindsight as I went through this experience. You will see that I made quite a few mistakes, especially in the beginning of the retraining process. I could have, quite easily, edited out all of them to make myself look better, but that is not what this book is all about.

The purpose of this book was not only to show the mistakes, but also to highlight them so that you might learn from my errors. Part of my intent is to demonstrate to you what does not work as well as what does when retraining an aggressive dog. I understand firsthand the denial, frustration and anguish that comes with living with an aggressive dog. I want you to know that I feel your pain, but there can be a light at the end of the tunnel."

***

Shadow passed away yesterday.  On p4r, Pamela Dennison writes

Shadow went peacefully in my arms today. He is now free from pain and playing with Cody, Noel, Carrie and Brandy...and probably chasing the cats, Robbie and Scarlet...

Shadow quite literally changed my entire life for the better. From the day I brought him home from rescue, he enriched my life. Shadow taught me much more than I ever taught him and he inspired hundreds of people with dogs like him.

He was funny, smart, a pain in the ass sometimes, sweet, loving and even though in the beginning he wanted to be good, he didn't know how. But as the years went by, he truly became the dog he wanted to be, loving up complete strangers that came to the house.

He will forever be my shadow.

Pamela Dennison, CDBC
http://www.positivedogs.com

Spider bite #2

After dropping mom off at church yesterday, I had Joey and Jojo with me.  So I figured WTH, let's go visit Laura and Cathy (and Spider and Indy).  Maybe I could scoop some food or something.

I drove around and parked a little ways away and noticed there are a lot of barking dogs in the neighborhood.  Not the least of which are Spider and Indy.

Joey and Jojo didn't react much.  Both Spider and Indy were barking, but Spider was more intense.  Laura was inside.  And Cathy asked if I wanted to take Indy for a walk.  Of course.

So I went up the hill and sure enough bothe Joey and Jojo pooped.  And I noticed I didn't bring along any poop bags.  That's what happens when you do things on the spur of the moment.  I also noticed there were a lot of other poop droppings in the area.  I guess people don't pick up their dogs poop around here.  (And Cathy said there are a lot of stray dogs in the area too.)

Good thing I found a jack in the box wrapper and used that to pick up the poop.  But then with so much poop I saw on the way, it really didn't make too much difference.  After going all the way around, we went to the end of the street and back.  Indy liked to sniff Jojo's butt.  Most of the time Jojo and Joey were out front.  But sometimes Joey would linger back.  But when he came back out front, Indy would get out of his way.

On the way back, Laura finally came out with Cathy on the sidewalk.  They said they had brought out Spider , but Spider got scared of the yardman and the weedeater so they let him back inside.

Back to the garage, Spider was still barking.  But would take food from my hand through the gate.  Carefully too, as he made sure that his teeth didn't touch my fingers.

Cathy figured the next step was for me to walk Spider.  And for Laura to walk Jojo and Joey.  Though Laura didn't really want to walk.  She finally managed to get the choke chain on Spider.  But as I went out on the driveway, he slipped loose and ran back in the garage.

I walked back in and he nipped me in the back of my right heel.  I walked in the gate (I think so he would follow me in) and as I turned to go back outside he nailed my on the back of my lower left leg.  (I guess that would be Spider bite 3, but the first one was pretty minor).

It didn't seem too bad as it wasn't gushing blood. But blood was oozing out slowly.

After chatting a bit more, I figured I better leave and check where my mom was.

Going home, I rinsed it.  I think that started the blood oozing out slowly again.  And it started to look a little more gory.  (see picture)

Later on, while standing on the steps, Joey came over and started licking it.  He licked it pretty clean and so it doesn't look so bad now.

Joey and Steven 2

Stanley went out walking, so I decided to take Joey out.  I was going to take Kimo too if he wanted but he signaled he didn't want to walk.

Just my luck that Steven went jogging at the same time.  I had Joey on the short leash and wanted to see what would happen when Steven passed.  We weren't in my territory, more near the Wong's house or the new house area.  And Joey reacted as Steven jogged past.

That was a little surprising since we weren't near my house.  But maybe not that surprising since he remembered the incident last time.

I kept the short leash when Steven came back and on subsequent runs and they was little reaction that I could see.

So I suppose it could have been worse.

Later I took Kimo out with Joey and he pooped near the Iha telephone pole.  And didn't lose control when Keith was barking at us.

Pet Psychics (animal communicators)

I see Sonya Fitzpatrick is on on Katie today.  She's probably the most famous pet psychic since she had a show on Animal Planet called The Pet Psychic some years ago.

I don't know if I believe it completely (Christie does), but you never know.  I think there could be something to it.  Maybe.  Or maybe not.  James Randi would be skeptical.

Doing a quick search on google (and youtube) also brings up names like Laura Stinchfield, Lydia Hiby, Karen Anderson,

also check out some of the videos in my animal people playlist

I remember there was an animal communicator features on Dog Whisperer.  Looking it up, the communicator was Susan Hill.  That was season 4, episode 24 which featured Kathy Griffin and Scrout on the other two stories.

Joey again

Joey is over again because Sheryle is getting her floor tiled.  I took Joey, Kimo, Tuffy, Fifi out yesterday.  Because Hershey wasn't over and Jojo didn't come in the morning.

Treating at Duane's garage.  The roofer (who owns a big dog) came over to Kimo and had him sniff his hand.  Then went to pet him, but Kimo nipped at him to stay away.  A couple of times.  Joey seemed OK with Fifi this time.

Then later after everybody went home, Jojo arrived.  And played with Joey a little while on the steps.  He stayed a while and finally looked like he was going to jump down so I let him out.

***

Today, Jojo came early.  Gave Kimo his antibiotic by hand and hand-fed them all a little.  Since today is a Hershey day, was thinking of taking all of them out.

Duane and Coco come.  No barking from Keith or anyboday and even Hershey.  Take out Joey and Jojo.  But Kimo lay down and I didn't want to force him.  Retrieve Hershey.  Retrieve Fifi.  Have Duane hold them  by the stonewall.  Bring Jojo with me and retrieve Fifi.

Go to Duane's garage.  Duance treats them.  Though after a while, Joey and Jojo come by me and I treat them.

Lots of treats.  No problems that I can see except that Coco still wants to jump on Tuffy.

Time to go.  Suddenly I hear a commotion.  I think it was Joey.  And I see Fifi on top of somebody.  I think it was Joey.  I grab Fifi's collar and pull her up.  Took a little while, but finally she calmed down.

Duane comes out and offers to take Joey back home.  Offer accepted.

Take home Hershey.  Kimo wants to come out.  So I let him out and he goes poop (or maybe he pooped after?).  Then we go back to the end of the street.  The roofer from yesterday arrives and Kimo wants to go to him.  He offers his hand to sniff but doesn't try to pet him.  Probably a good move.  Fifi and Tuffy run up for affection.  Jojo kind of shies away.

Let Kimo go home.  Take home Tuffy and Fifi.

Don't know what happened.  My guess is that Joey might have showed some teeth at Fifi and Fifi jumped him.  And that's what happened last time.  Good thing Kimo wasn't there.

And that's kind of what happened with Kimo and Miki.  Kimo growled and Miki jumped him.  Joey recovered faster than Kimo though (who never fully recovered).  He got used to her again that last time he stayed with me, though it took several days.  We'll see how he is with her this time.  At least he doesn't bark and go nuts at her when I walk her (like Kimo used to do with Miki).

Hawaiian Humane Society foster care

Every day, animals from the Hawaiian Humane Society are being cared for by volunteer foster families before they can be placed for adoption.

Whether it’s for a kitten, puppy or a sick or injured animal, these dedicated families open up their homes and provide a place of comfort, as well as some tender loving care for these creatures in need.

When animals are received at the shelter, the staff of veterinarians evaluates them and identifies ones that would benefit from foster care.

“For example, we have a large number of underage kittens and puppies that come in that are not ready to be sterilized and adopted, so they need further care,” explains Swartz.

“And then we also get animals with a variety of injuries, from minor things like wounds to surgeries that need to happen, such as orthopedic surgery or animals with eye injuries that need to have their eye removed. Those animals need to have some recuperation time before they can be adopted, and it’s much better to recover in a home where they can be comfortable.”

There are on average 90 volunteers per month in the foster care program, but the number of animals in need of foster care is much greater.

“It would be really nice to get to a point where we have people on-call,” says Swartz. “Right now what we do is we get an animal and then we start looking for a person. In my ideal world I would have a list of people ready and waiting, and all you have to do is call and place them.”

Michael Ellis

I came across Michael Ellis while browsing through youtube and found this video about his philosophy of dog training.

Here's more videos from his website.