Category: Dog Welfare

Another Knee-jerk Reaction

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Anther knee-jerk reaction The stupidity of the decision to ban the XL Bully knows no bounds. Yet again, the government ignore the weight of peer-reviewed science just as they did with Covid-19, and prioritise a populist response. Nothing to do with pending by-elections and a general election of course.

Once German Shepherds were demonised and the Staffie was the Nanny Dog and then they were demonised and became the media’s”devil dogs”. Now it is another bull breed derivative.

It seems the government is not prepared to learn the lessons from listing the so-called pit bull and we will have yet more perfectly fine dogs confined to leads and muzzles for no good reason and worse – owners will be obliged to neuter so that we will effectively be reducing the pool of dogs with good temperaments. More so-called expert witnesses will be polishing their callipers ready to measure those massive heads – how many millimetres over their limit does a bully have to be to be condemned even if it has done nothing?

There is a serious problem and that has led to so many injuries and fatalities this year but it is far more complex than sticking a type of dog on a list. Whether it’s a large dog confined to a council flat or a dog walker unable to cope with too many dogs, the problem lies with breeding, purchase and ownership.

This was a missed opportunity to improve the legislation regarding breeding and responsible ownership, a missed opportunity to support behaviourists and trainers who are trying to deal with the consequences and a missed opportunity to save lives.

XL bullies are already being dumped and now will probably be culled as, once the legislation is enacted, it will be illegal to exchange or sell them. Responsible owners will be demonised and, right now, I am thinking of the delightful XL Bully bitch that my puppy was romping with last week. She was well-trained and well cared for and, despite being three times the size and weight of my puppy had perfect play manners.

Rishi Sunak might like to consider that his own chosen breed, the Labrador is a restricted breed in Ukraine and they feature high on the list of dogs causing injury in the UK. Of course, the Labrador has excellent PR – puppies rolling around with lavatory paper, Guide Dogs; but anyone that has been on the receiving end of an aroused Labrador may have a different view, as might the person who like me, had a whale of a time playing with an XL Bully.

CMA Vet Review

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CMA Vet review The Competition and Markets Authority is undertaking a review of the small animal veterinary practice market.

There are concerns about pricing, access to prescriptions and medications and the variety of services that are available.

In the days of Alf Wight, most vets were self-employed  and often worked out of their home, much as GPs did. They did all their own out of hours work. It certainly wasn’t as rose-tinted as Wight portrayed in his James Herriot books (for a more accurate portrayal see Gareth Steel’s Never Work With Animals, Harper Collins, London, 2022) and options open to vets were several limited. Most people also had few expectations that small animals could be helped by vets in many situations and prophylactics, if used, were primitive.

Veterinary treatment options have expanded out of all proportions and people often expect the same high standard of treatment for their companion animal as they do themselves. This has to be paid for. The difference is that, shielded by the NHS where, however poor we may perceive it to be at times we do not pay at the point of receipt of care, owners therefore rarely understand how high the costs are for the provision of that treatment.

Small animal practices have changed too. They moved out of private homes into high streets and now, even independent vets often need to have more than one practice in order to survive in a competitive market. Meanwhile, independent practices were consolidated into groups and the groups are being bought out by venture capitalists. At this end of the chain, vets have little or no control over policies, practices or prices. Just as the corner shop became the high street emporium and then the out-of-town shopping “village”, the consolidation takes the individual vet further away from the business and the clientele and ultimately leads to far less choice for the client.

That’s capitalism folks.

Fortunately we still have some checks. The CMA have 3 surveys:

For owners who have paid for veterinary services within the last 3 years

For veterinary staff

For anyone not in the above 2 categories with an interest.

The survey will be open for “up to 6 weeks” which suggests that it may close earlier if sufficient responses are received.

Shocking Shame

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Electric kickback At last legislation is due to come into force on February 1st, 2024 to ban shock collars in England.

However, there is a strong lobby that regards shock collars as the only way to prevent livestock worrying and members of the House of Lords who happily boast of using them on their companion dogs. It is 23 years since they were banned in Wales, a country with 11 million sheep and just 3.1 million people.

There is plenty of research that shows that severe punishment – and we are talking about electrocution after all – does not work and research that shows that shock collars cannot and do not deliver a reliable measured shock. It is illegal to electrocute children, why are dogs any different?

We cannot take the passing of this legislation for granted, Lobby your MP and write to DEFRA in support.

 

Bully Off

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Bully Off It has been an appalling year already for serious injuries and fatalities involving dogs.

The Met alone seized 479 out-of-control dogs under the Dangerous Dogs Act in 2022 146 more than in 2021. 154 dogs had already been seized by May this year.

44 of the seizures were XL bullies, compared to 16 Staffie crosses. No American bulldogs were seized in 2018 or 2019 by the force. In the UK overall in 2022, there were nearly 22,000 cases of out-of-control dogs causing injury. In 2018, there were just over 16,000, the UK’s dog population having been estimated to have risen by only 15% in the same period of time.

The reasons for the rise in incidents are complex, but include poor breeding and rearing, poor handling and ignorance of owners plus the minority who deliberately want their dogs to be perceived as intimidating.

There is a push for XL bullies to be added to the list of banned breeds but this would not solve the problem. In fact, yet more legislation will do little but to enable the police and other agencies to deal with the “low hanging fruit” unless considerable resources are committed to back up the legislation that we already have and which is rarely enforced. This would go a long way to preventing back street breeding, illegal boarding and out of control dogs.

Dogs have always been used to exemplify the perceived status of their owners – and that applies as much to the Labrador and spaniel (“my other house is an estate”) as to the XL Bully (be scared of my dog, be scared of me). Demonising whatever the latest fad is in dog breeding ignores the elephant in the room that all dogs have the potential to be dangerous in the wrong hands and under the wrong circumstances.

Research proves that BSL has failed everywhere it has been tried: research and statistics prove that the Dangerous Dogs Act has been an abject failure. Let’s not allow MPs to tick a box, add a breed and then think that their job is done. It won’t save lives.

Shop Fitting

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Shop Fitting It can be challenging shopping when one has a dog, especially if one lives alone. Dogs should never be left alone outside and many shops – and even shopping centres – ban dogs.

Often this is due to misunderstanding the law – dogs are only legally prohibited from food preparation areas. That said, it is frequently difficult to take dogs into banks, post offices and shops where well-behaved dogs should not be a problem.

Some people don’t like dogs; I don’t like children, but I still have to put up with them, and they are often exhibit far worse behaviour than my dog.

So good news, then that Dalton Park shopping centre in County Durham not only allows dogs but facilitates owners. Each entrance provides water, poo bags and dog waste bins and the centre provides canine first aid facilities. Dog-friendly shops display a sticker in their window and there happen to be 55 acres of parkland attached.

Hopefully, where Durham leads, others will follow. After all, with 26% of the population owning a dog, it makes good business sense too.

How To Get Free Dog

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How to get a free dog…and a free go to jail card.

It behoves owners to take suitable precautions to keep their dogs safe when they are out, not least because of the number of dog thefts across the UK.

However, there is a new twist on this perennially increasing crime thanks to Tik Tok. So-called prank videos are used to goad children into behaviour that is often anti-social and, in this case illegal.

An eighteen year old filmed himself snatching an elderly women’s dog and running off with it, posting the video with the caption How to get a free dog.

Although he gave the dog back, it can only be imagined how distressing this must have been for owner and dog. Fortunately, he was arrested for causing a public nuisance.

Far too many owners fail to train good recall and fail to pay attention to their dogs when out, even, as I discovered to my cost, when their dog lays into another dog. In that case, the owner was far too interested in her telephone call than in getting her dog away after it had bitten my puppy. When combined with the shocking number of dogs off lead on roads, it’s hardly surprising that dogs are vulnerable to such stupidity and downright criminality.

Electric Kickback

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Electric kickbackStop Press: The government has announced that it will at last introduce a complete ban on shock collars in England from February 1st, 2024. About time too.

The Government has been too preoccupied with its own internal wranglings to prioritise the ambitious raft of animal welfare legislation into effect, having announced in 2022 that it would be put on hold.

This includes the proposed ban on shock collars, even though the Scottish government put guidance in place advising against their use in 2018. Whilst this is still too weak, it is better than the nothing that pertains to England and Wales.

 

Now a group of dog boarders have petitioned DEFRA to oppose the ban, claiming that it puts their livelihoods at risk. It is easy to react in an emotional way because there is no doubt that electrocuting animals in the name of training is unethical.

More importantly such training, it is ineffective and, in spite of protestations to the contrary, there is a great deal of good scientific research available to prove it. At best, punishment only stops the behaviour at the time that the behaviour is occurring and the dog does not learn an alternative behaviour – indeed cannot learn an alternative behaviour when under stress and suffering pain.

There is no doubt that more needs to be done to train dogs not to harass wildlife, livestock and domestic animals and it is imperative that the results of any training are as effective as possible as well as ethical.

DEFRA needs to throw this complaint out and more needs to be done to educate people in effective training.

State Of Play

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state of playI often wonder why some people bother to own dogs. After all, they are messy, have a very different sense of disgust to humans, disrupt our lives and they don’t come cheap.

The pluses must outweigh the minuses otherwise we wouldn’t do it again and again, however much we feel that it would be impossible to get another dog after a beloved dog has died.

 

It was an idyllic morning when I took my puppy out for a walk this morning. Blue sky and full sun after days of rain and cloud and not too warm – perfect. I passed a woman on her mobile telephone, her dog’s eyes fixed somewhat worriedly on mine and I overheard her say “I’m only walking the dog – so boring”. She hadn’t even noticed that we were there, never mind that her dog was initially hesitant and she obviously had no interest in interacting with her dog.

We did in fact get talking as she reminded me that we had met on another occasion when it wasn’t appropriate for our dogs to interact. She admitted, although I had not solicited it, that she had only really bothered giving her dog toys when she was puppy and that she didn’t really play with her, although, she explained that she gave her lots of cuddles. It was abundantly clear that, after some polite conversation with me, she couldn’t wait to get back on her mobile telephone.

I know that I am an outlier in not owning a mobile telephone, but I would like to think that if I did own one, I would not use it for trivial (not to mention public) conversations instead of enjoying the day and my dog. Actually, come to think of it, it’s one of the main reasons why I don’t own one.

Get a life people – it’s a much better option than forcing everyone to listen to the minutiae of yours.

Fighting On The Beaches

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Fighting on the beaches There are many hazards for which dog walkers need to be vigilant. As a puppy owner, I often feel that I wading knee deep in litter, every bit of which has the potential to end up in my puppy’s mouth and some of which could be fatal.

Getting out of town no longer provides respite as litter is far from an urban problem. Fly-tipping in the countryside has been an increasing problem since Covid-19 lockdowns and the sparsity or rural police. However, it is not the only difficulty that may be encountered.

There has been increasing concern about direct discharges of sewage onto UK beaches resulting in dog walkers being warned about 83 beaches. Problems have been exacerbated by recent heavy rainfall. The Thames has long suffered from this problem, although it seems not to deter owners from allowing their dogs to swim: if the tides don’t get you the sewage will, to misquote Tom Lehrer. Hopefully, the Thames Tideway Tunnel will alleviate the problems along the Thames and its tributaries, although that isn’t due to open until 2025.

In addition, the horrendous outbreak of avian influenza (H5N1) that had ravaged domestic and wild birds has spread to some mammals. So far, it has been detected in foxes, otters and seals in the UK. Whilst the number remain small and H5N1 may not have been the cause of death, it does pose a risk. Training your dog not to harry wildlife or scavenge carcasses is vital, not only to keep your dog safe, but to limit the potential of overspill form birds into dogs.

As the easter holidays approach, many people will no doubt be heading to beaches. Training and vigilance should ensure that it shouldn’t turn into a vet emergency.

Barking at the moon(pig)

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Barking at the moon(pig) Congratulations to online card retailer Moonpig after their announcement that they will no longer sell images of brachycephalic dogs such as pugs and French bulldogs.

Many brands have exploited such dogs for advertising purposes, often with a sick irony. BullDog Skin Care using a severely compromised dog with probable skin problems, Vitality Life Insurance using an image of an extremely achondroplastic Dachshund with an obscenely long back are just two examples.

Hopefully where Moonpig lead, others will follow. We live in a culture that is so quick to take offence over trivialities that may not even possess the perceived connection, so how can we, in all conscience, still find deformed phenotypes in dogs attractive? Not displaying them in advertising may help to dispel the normalisation of illness and pain that these dogs suffer and reduce their popularity.