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.
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.
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.
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 4×4 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.
Read the full article here.
Whole Dog Journal – why punishment training doesn’t work
Click on this weblink to read an article in the Greyhounds In Need spring newsletter on the subject of leishmania. Whilst European vets are well versed in the disease and its treatment, sadly there are many UK vets who still don’t understand it and obtaining the treatment can also be a problem in the UK.
But don’t let it discourage you from adopting a dog with Leishmania!
Many years ago I completed a training course to use the Tellington Touch technique on my horses. Now Linda has developed this to canines. Here’s an interesting article on the subject.
All about The Tellington Ttouch for canines from Linda Tellington-Jones with online courses available.
‘A long time ago we had to stop the volunteering program in Scooby because we had had some similar incidents and wanted to make sure that we did everything according to law. So we got into the hands of lawyers and experts in volunteering; for this two members of our team made a workshop on volunteering and we have prepared a series of documents and rules; on the one hand they ensure the safety of volunteers and on the other hand Scooby’s continuity.
We tell you a little the story about the news we share, it’s an Italian volunteer from an Italian shelter who took a dog for a while, not knowing why the dog severely attacked her and the volunteer ended up in hospital. The responsibility of the shelter is being investigated. That’s why, because we already foreseen this, we’ve done what we’ve done. We leave you the full news in this link ‘
Regular readers will recall that back in October 2016 I was invited to the first PAES conference to talk about the plight of the galgos and podencos and other hunting dogs in Spain. There I met Raquel, a Spanish lawyer very active in taking animal abusers to court. She had started running courses for anyone involved in animal welfare – judges, police, vets, other lawyers – on how to prepare cases to prosecute animal abusers.
This has now been further developed so that anyone can sign up for the courses. Click on this weblink to read more. Let’s hope that many law enforcers, including and especially in the Canary Islands, will sign up and take action to help protect the hunting hounds of Spain
