Sharing your life with a deaf dog

Owning a deaf dog can be both a rewarding and educating experience. Owning a dog that has good hearing and sight can often lead us into being a little lazy, when it comes to establishing effective patterns of communication between us and our pet. For the most part we struggle through with a few voice commands and maybe the occasional hand signal, that often change depending on the situation. Fortunately, in a lot of situations our dogs learn to navigate their way around our impromptu communication style and, begin to ‘catch on’ to what it is we want from them. Read more »

Tips For Training A Rescued Dog

Training a dog takes patience and dedication. To achieve the desired results in rescued dog will take double the dedication and patience. However, the rewards will be worth the effort.

The practice of neutering and spaying of dogs has been around for many years but unplanned births continues to be a reality. As a result of this there are just not enough homes for all of the puppies that are born. When we add the number of dogs that get lost or wander away, rescue missions and shelters everywhere are filled to capacity. For many of these dogs being euthanized will be the sad reality. Read more »

As the anniversary of losing our dear Kev loomed, I wondered how deep the pit of mourning would become as I recalled the anguish of allwoing his life to end.  But in the event we had a very lucky break, after a chance meeting at a party.  A man with a Jack Russell was also invited, and of course I could not resist getting to know the cute animal.  It turns out that he adopted the dog, Trixie, a couple of months ago but he had plans to travel to Belfast for Christmas.  The procedures for taking an animal across the water are long and convoluted, and Trixie did not possess a pet passport.  I could not resist offering to care for Trixie over the holiday, and she arrived on 16th December.  As she sat by my desk and I looked at the photos of Kev on my custom mouse pads the pain was just a little bit less than it has been through the whole year.

A breed that I would consider adopting is the Irish Terrier.  This is a breed sometimes known as the daredevil of dogdom.  The Irish terrier is brash, bold and always ready for action and adventure. These dogs like to chase anything that appears, and run and hunt and explore.  They need plenty of  physical and mental exercise every day, in a safe area. If you have to go for long walks with your terrier you can take the ipods as long as you stay aware of distractions around you and keep him on a lead.  Given sufficient exercise, these dogs are surprisingly well-mannered and dignified indoors.

The Irish Terrier is closely related to the Wheaten Terrier, also to the Bedlington Terrier, Border Terrier,
Cairn Terrier and the Dandie Dinmont Terrier. The closest relative is, of course, the Airedale Terrier, to which the Irish Terrier bears a very close resemblance.

We have just returned from a holiday in Turkey and although we had a great time, I was very sad to see a number of stray dogs in the streets and on the beach at our resort.  Some of these dogs looked very ill, with badly healed old fractures and no sign of any animal rescue service to help them. In fact, one of the dogs was walking around close to the only vet’s surgery in the area: the staff could see hime clearly from their office furniture.  Fortunately Turkish meals are very generous, as I fed most of my meat to the dogs in the evenings and early mornings.  It is a tough call when you witness a situation like this. I certainly don’t go with the idea of taking one of the dogs back to my home counrty with me – the cost of the journey would keep six dogs alive for years!

As the time since losing Kev passes, the pain receds a little. Towards the end of the year we hope to adopt another dog -or possibly two dogs. The owner of Primrose, the Standard Poodle who came from Australia, has noticed an interesting trend among local dog owners. Helen finds that, for Arundel dog owners, a rescue dog has a certain cachet.  Buying from a breeder is not seen as the best option, and some people actually frown on the idea.  This must be music to the ears of animal rescue charities.  They have been urging us for years to look at all the unwanted dogs first, rather than encourage puppy farming.  We are only one small town of admittedly middle class dog lovers, but at least the message is getting through.  Older dogs are the other neglected group, as they are often passed over in favour of puppies.  When we adopted Kev, his age was estimated at nine. We had nearly four rewarding years with him, and given the chance we would do it all over again.   Our beautiful dog was slim and handsome, with a fantastic coat. He always helped me avoid eating too much as half my snacks always reached his stomach.  This is a great alternative to an appetite suppressant, and helped me keep my weight down. That is just one more advantage to having a dog.