Galgo News

Why punishing your dog doesn't work

Read the full article on this link.

Fern's Law in the UK - make it compulsory for lost & stolen pets to be checked for chips

On this link you can read the petition for Fern's Law - to make it compulsory for lost and stolen pets to be checked for microchips when recovered.

On this weblink you can read the report of the debate in Parliament.

Rescued Spanish Hunting hounds

Why you should always uses a harness and collar with separate leads when you have a nervous dog.

Video

Molly The Pet Detective

I want to share with you an amazing book I am currently reading. 'Molly The Pet Detective' by Colin Butcher is the story of a working cocker spaniel rescue dog which has been trained to find missing cats!

Colin Butcher is a retired UK policeman who chose a project to see if a dog could be trained to find missing cats. It's the story of how he researched the idea, the help he got from Medical Detection Dogs both in finding the right dog and training both her and himself.

The book also tells the stories of missing cats Molly found, as well as missing dogs, the latter sadly a growing problem in the UK.

If you have lost a pet or know anyone who has, you will know the pain and distress experienced. This weblink takes you to the website for The Pet Detectives. Please support them.

Aggression in dogs - what are the causes?

Our galgo Bracken has been with us for 11 years; he has always been a sensitive dog, happy in the pack of hounds and walking the meadows every day...on leash, as he has a hunter's nose! However, since we sold the farm in January 2021 and downsized back to the UK, he has caused us concern by showing aggression to other dogs.

This link takes you to an extensive article on the causes of aggression in dogs.

In Bracken's case, we guess there are a few causes.

Dementia in dogs

We're lucky that over the decades most of our dogs have lived to their teens. One or two have left us due to health deterioration like cancer, but others have suffered with dementia. Mostly ours have got to the stage of losing their bearings, or staring at something vacantly, plus loss of bowel function too. My galga Carmela suffered a stroke from which she recovered 90% but my little podenca Bebe is now 18 years old and showing familiar symptoms. So far it's not too advanced that she needs more than medication for thyroid problems, but I expect over the year her brain will let her down more.

I feel very sad seeing old dogs which have been dumped by hunters or owners who aren't prepared to repay their dog's loyalty with care in their twilight years.

Here's an article on dementia in dogs.

SOS Rescue - an horrendous case of ticks - how to treat it

Not sure why Typepad have closed comments on the above story as I only published it a couple of days ago, and on my system it says comments are 'open'. Will take it up with them.

Alison has kindly written to say that a good way of removing a lot of ticks is Listerine with alcohol (amber colour) or wrap carefully in ta;e and carefully remove - the lack of oxygen kills them.

Thanks for that, Alison.

We used to get ticks on our horses in France, and got rid of them with a dab of white spirit on cotton wool. Worked well and didn't affect the horses.

Animal Denuncia App

Walking dogs off lead

OH and Bracken were lucky this morning. They had just got back to the car after a lovely walk along the river bank when a BMW 4x4 pulled up with 3 boisterous dogs inside. Luckily the owner didn't let them out until OH had put Bracken in the car, whereupon she opened the tailgate and the 3 dogs flew out leaping around. Bracken isn't very friendly towards other dogs now, so it could have been an unpleasant situation! Having said that, their owner should train them to wait in the car till she gives permission to leave, it's what we do with our dogs.

Why punishing your dog doesn't work

Read the full article here.

Whole Dog Journal - why punishment training doesn't work