Santa's Little Helper

so sorry :GroupHug:

the neighbour deserves a medal for getting this @rsehole arrested !! hope truffles will eventually get the loving home she deserves

the problem with any sort of 'examined dog licence' is that it would only cover the person who's taken the 'test' which, presumably, in most cases would be the owner and most of the recent tragedies have occurred when the owners weren't present. supposing there was a scheme where you took part in some sort of assessment or training to own a dog, what would happen when the dog was being looked after by a neighbour/relative who had not received the training? the analogy of the car driving licence is very apt because once you've passed your driving test, you're allowed to drive any car (with some restrictions) however you're not allowed to be in sole control of a car until you've passed your test. i agree that a central register might help maybe together with microchipping and compulsory registration with a vet. i don't understand why the 'costs of running it would wipe out most crossbreeds' - there's probably a good reason but i'm being a bit thick at the moment and can't think what it could be !! lol

happy birthday kiera (aka murphy ) hope you had a lovely day and enjoyed all your pressies !!

so sorry to hear this thinking of you all

i've got karen pryor's book. it's a bit on the thin side but it's ok to start you off with the basics. you're probably a bit more advanced than that, though ange. i just taught my dog a new trick - fetch your bowl !! we're in the process of refining it but she picked up the basics in 2 minutes !! i think i get more enjoyment from watching her work out what she did to get the click than from the actual trick itself !! i really should do more clicker training with her cos she's a quick learner and she enjoys doing it.

i'm going to ask my daughter to ring the police station today to see if she can find out what happened. i'm curious to see if this was his own dog. for the dog's sake, i hope not

my daughter heard a dog yelping this afternoon and looked out of her office window. there was a man on the other side of the road holding a young brindle staffy, awkwardly in his arms. she went down into the street to see what was going on, the dog was now on the ground and the man was crouching, trying to stop it running past him. he punched the dog on the nose, then he was fiddling with something (she couldn't see properly) then he punched the dog again, 3 times, in the face !! she phoned the police and kept an eye on him for a while. he was sitting near a bus stop with the dog held tightly in his arms - no sign of any lead. police came about an hour later and took the man and dog away. my daughter got the impression that this wasn't his own dog. she thinks he may have found him or maybe stolen him. i've checked doglost, there's no recent reports of any lost dogs answering this description missing in the area. i've emailed them to say what happened, just in case someone was to report their dog missing in the next few days. just thought i would mention this in case anyone hears of a young staffy, possibly about a year old (she said he looked puppy-ish but was big) that's gone missing in the croydon area. presumably, if lost or stolen, the police will take him to battersea.

happy gotchaday to the gorgeous max !! :wub:

happy gotcha day, kiera !! what a fab year you've had !!

so sorry that it wasn't better news, to you both

sorry to hear this to you both and hope all goes well tomorow

what a fantastic article!! lovely to see something positive for a change and great also that they are using rescue dogs:)

we were shown how to 'stop' a dog running towards you at puppy classes. with a treat in hidden in your hand, call the dog to you. when he's about 3 or 4 metres away, throw your hand/arm up as if you were hailing a taxi, shout 'stop' and at the same time release the treat so that it lands in front of the dog and stops him in his tracks. you'll find, after a few goes, that when you shout 'stop' he will stop and look for the treat. releasing the treat and getting the right distance/direction takes a bit of practice so i would try it out first!! i know you asked for help for doing this when the dog is running away from you and you're behind him but maybe once he's learned the 'stop' command you should be able to halt him no matter what direction he's running in. not sure how you would transfer this to do it on a whistle, though.

dogs are allowed on the beach all year round from dungeness to greatstone, after greatstone they're banned from april to september. there's banks of shingle but it's sandy once the tide's gone out.