Dogs

All dogs to be insured in proposals on dangerous breeds

The BBC have reported that “Every dog owner in the UK would have to take out insurance against their pet attacking someone under government proposals to tackle dangerous breeds.” Is this a good idea considering that most people recognise that most dog owners in Britain look after their dogs and do not represent a danger to anyone. It is important to tackle the problem where dogs are raised to be vicious and used as a weapon, these same people are not going to give a damn about any legislation and will not insure their dogs, so why penalise everyone else. What is the answer? The answer is not to penalise everyone, penalise the people who are causing the problem.

Read more on the BBC website - Proposed changes to dangerous dog act

I am currently building a shed, a fairly large shed of 12 x 21 feet or 2×7 metres approximately. I am not very good at working with wood so I am keeping my fingers crossed that the shed will (a) stand up (b) remain watertight (c) withstand 80 mile an hour winds – and finally look presentable. At the moment I have some free help in the shape of my two collies, and a chicken from the next door croft.
I do believe my collies would rather go for walks or get played with rather than watch me build a shed.

This chicken visits our garden / croft every day, she is so cheeky that she comes into the kitchen looking for food – someone should tell her that only my wife is a vegetarian, I like chicken dinners!

Marilyn has published an update of her book “Badge on my Collar” that now includes dogs from other countries that serve in police forces and that help uphold the law.

The Book is available from Authorhouse and from the Amazon Links below:

Amazon UK - Badge on My Collar II: To Serve with Honor

Amazon.com Dog & Pet Supplies – Badge on My Collar II: To Serve with Honor

Amazon Canada Dog Books – Badge on my Collar

About the book

From the heathered Scottish Highlands to the rugged Australian land down under, K9s are on patrol. Tracking through the Arctic blasts of Canadian winter or across the scorching desert heat of Arizona, they go where they are called. Thrashing through the dangerous jungles of Vietnam or patrolling through the magical green of England’s Sherwood Forest, memorable and dedicated dogs of beauty and valor serve with honor. Come along to the U.S. Capitol Building or hover in a helicopters over Indonesia with four-footed officers who protect and serve. Follow the hilarious tales of New Jersey’s Tracker and witness the astonishing heroics of dogs, both young and old, from the East Coast to the Deep South.

Whether accompanying a crack SWAT unit or tenderly standing by the hospital bed of a sick child, the multi-faceted dogs will warm your heart. In this sequel to Badge on My Collar-A Chronicle of Courageous Canines, Marilyn Jeffers Walton takes you around the globe to ride along with dogs whose stellar careers and unselfish sacrifices exemplify the brave character and profile of today’s police canine.

The common thread among the geographically-distant dogs is their love of handler, their bravery in the face of confrontation with the “bad guys” and their total willingness to surrender their very lives in order to protect their handlers and the public. Highly-trained, intelligent and steeped in the deepest measure of devotion, this international collection of K9s cast a bright light on all dogs that protect and serve. They are truly the guardians of the night.

We live in the countryside and have a large garden of over an acre which we are trying to tame and make into a productive self-sufficient small croft. We started to keep chickens nearly a year ago and out 8 hens are still laying 7-8 eggs a day and just love the large free range area they have to scrape and wander around in. So what has this got to do with dogs and a pig? Well I let my collie out at 11 pm and after a few minutes she came running in and behind her was the sound I had never heard before, I noticed a fairly large animal running down the side of our house.

It turned out to be an escaped pig from the next door farm. It was dark and I did not like the idea of leaving a pig roaming around our garden eating my plants and recently planted trees so off I went to try and catch the pig. I could not use our collies, for Tibby was recuperating from an operation and my other collie was not a farm dog (Tibby is / was).

I ended up walking up my wife and for over an hour we tried to catch the pig, who was I have to say very happy about being fed scraps of bred and carrots, and far too bright to get caught. We nearly managed to get her into an animal transport trailer, except at the last moment she side swerved and got away. I even managed to put a dog lead on her, again she was too smart and managed to get out of that. In the end the traffic on the road stopped and we left her roaming around the farm tracks.

In the morning I got up early and had a look around the farm to see if I could find her. She was nowhere to be seen. On looking around our garden suddenly a grunting noise and a head appeared out of a bale of straw we have, the pig had snuggled into the straw and slept. I went and told our neighbours that their pig was in our garden – and yes it is amazing what a bucket of barley can do, she was happy to follow George with his pail of food back to her mates.

Well it is now over two weeks since Tibby had her major operation and we went to the vet to have her stitches out; she was as good as gold during this simple procedure. Unfortunately the results of the test on the removed tuber were not as good as we had hoped for with the mammary tumour being possibly malignant. There is however a good chance that by removing it we will have stopped it coming back. She is as bright as can be so we are hopeful that she will have a long and happy life ahead of her.

She has been getting a bit stir crazy being stuck in the house and we were told she could go for a walk on the beach as long as we kept her on the lead, so off to the beach after being at the vet – she loved it as did our other collie, Charlie.

A new small animal hospital, probably the best in Europe has opened in Glasgow according to the BBC. This hospital has the leading technology to look after and help loved pets and while treatment is often expensive and may run into thousands of pounds it us usually covered by pet insurance.

Read the BBC news article on the New Small Animal Hospital, or visit the – Small Animal Hospital’s own website.

Chanel, a wire-haired dachshund, died on Friday aged 21 in human years and 147 in “dog years”.

Her owner believes that dogs are God’s angels on earth, sent to look after people and while that may not be completly true I understand how Denice and Karl feel, except I feel that we are here to look after dogs for God and not the other way around! If you get to know and love a pet then you are probably as close to God as you ever will get.

Read more about Chanel on various news websites – BBC Oldest Dog Dies while the Daily Mail reports that Chanel was adopted from a pet rescue when only 6 weeks old.

An excellent book I bought a while ago deals with looking after older dogs.

The Seven Ages of Your Dog:

More books by Jan Fennell on Amazon UK Shop (aStore).

It is also available from Amazon.com Book Store – The Seven Ages of Your Dog by Jan Fennell on Amazon aStore

And from Amazon Canada – Seven Ages of Your Dog by Jan Fennell

We just had our 8 year old adopted female collie – Tibby – go through a fairly extensive operation to remove a mammary mass (tumour). While I had noticed this large lump on our collie several months before we were told that it was not a serious condition. Unfortunately this turned out to be less than accurate as all mammary tumours may be aggressive cancers and spread. The easiest way to protect your female dog is to have the bitch spayed as young as possible. With Tibby she was a typical farm sheepdog and not spayed.

So we now have a worrying time to wait to see if the tumour is benign or malignant.  We are praying that we have got to this condition on time and that the lump is benign. Our collie is a strong dog and I know my wife is praying for her, and I have to admit I am too.

I just wish I had spent a few minutes looking on the Internet regarding this condition (search using the spelling of tumor / tumour) when I first noticed the lump last October, at that point we were only looking after the dog on a temporary basis and she was not the friendliest of animals. It was difficult to approach her and after a week walking and talking to her she eventually let me get a bit closer, basically when I was drying her after walking in the rain. It was at that point I noticed the lump on her tummy and mentioned it to her owner. She was taken to the vet however the information we were given was that it was likely to be benign. Unfortunately only 50% of these growths are benign and this can only be determined by laboratory testing.

A week ago we took Tibby along with our other collie, Charlie, to get booster injections – with Tibby this was her first injections and I asked the vet’s opinion on the mammary lump.  He told me about these lumps often being malignant and gave his opinion that it would be better removed and to have her spayed at the same time as these tumor are often estrogen, progesterone or other hormone dependant.  It was arranged for her to have the operation a week later and that led to major changes in how we looked after our adopted collie.

As a farm dog she was kept in a stone built farm building, it was dry and sheltered and we provided her with lots of straw to sleep on, this is all she had known her whole life. We often felt bad about leaving her in this outbuilding which was a short distance from our small croft, especially when it was windy or gales as she did not like the noise. Yet it was the only practical thing we could do as Tibby was well known to be aggressive to other dogs (and to people we were told) and had attacked our own dogs on a couple of occasions. With our own dogs not getting on with her it was impossible for her to be kept in our house.

At the end of June (09) we lost our oldest dog Sam to cancer and this left me our other 8 year old female collie Charlie and Tibby. Charlie used to hide everytime she saw Tibby so it did not seem likely that we could even walk them together. Well I did walk them together, initially on the lead and then off the lead, after a couple of weeks they even get on well together and are becoming friends – something I never ever believed would happen.

So when we discovered Tibby required an extensive operation to remove the mammary tumor and was to be spayed at the same time we realised the time had come to bring her into the house permanently, as old farm buildings are not the cleanest of environments and not suitable for a dog after an operation. As a farm dog she used to urinate to mark her place and we dreaded the job of trying to house train an 8 year old collie. What has been amazing is that has become house trained very quickly, within a couple of days in fact. She has been good as gold in the house ever since.  Before the operation she was like my shadow, following me around everywhere, still she settled and became more relaxed as the days went on. At night she is slept in the kitchen or in the conservatory. In the morning I always get a warm welcome!

We brought her back after the operation a couple of days ago, the vet and vet nurse was brilliant. When picking her up the veterinary nurse commented that she had never seen a farm dog behave so well with people and was amazed what has been achieved over 9 months – simply walking, playing and giving lots of cuddles and encouragement to a collie that used to be frightened of every new experience and her first option was to attack every dog she met.

We are just hoping that she makes a full recovery as she has only recently discovered the joy of being walked in forests and on the many beaches we have nearby. You see it is only in the last 2 weeks that we could get her and our other collie in the car together – Tibby has changed her stripes from being an aggressive wolf like sheepdog to one that just loves loads of cuddles and kind words. She is a great pleasure to be with and brings us a lot of happiness and pleasure to see a dog enjoying life and gradually becoming more sociable to other dogs and people.

If you have any doubts regarding a lump or growth on your dog please go straight to the vet. We do not have pet insurance on Tibby as she is now too old (only about 8 years old) and has a pre-condition that would exclude her from having pet insurance taken out on her. Our other dog has pet insurance and it does help remove the worry over expensive veterany treatments. If you are unemployed and live in certain locations in Britain then you may also be eligible to pet treatment through a pet charity, ask your vet for information.

Internet Links with more information on mammary growths: Pet Education website – Mammary Tumors

Another useful link on Pet Health and also on Tumours in pets can be found on the Bilton Veterinary Centre website – Pet Advice section.

For books on dog cancers you will find them on Amazon.

UK Shop – Books on Dog Cancers 

US Store  - Books on Dog Cancers

Canada Shopping – Books on Dog Cancers

France Boutique – livres sur les cancers de chien (Anglais)

Deutschland Amazon.de