November Home Visit

We've had our home visit for this month. There's still no contact from A's owner so it looks like they are going to start things moving with the dog warden soon. They're going to try one more time to contact her today, then after that they send recorded delivery letters to her contact address. If there's no reply they report the dog to the Dog Warden as abandoned. The Dog Warden will then give a 7 day notice and if there's still no contact A will be signed over to the Dog's Trust. If that happens she'll go straight to my brother from here without having to go in to the rehoming centre.

It's a bit frustrating that A's owner hasn't even rang Dog's Trust because they provide a free phone number so the women can ring whenever they want.

Apparently one woman who went back to her partner and took her dog back also has been causinga bit of trouble. It's written in bold letters at the top of the contract they sign that the dog will be neutered/spayed free of charge. It's made really clear to the clients that that is part of the contract for the dog going on to the Freedom Project.

So this woman got her male dog back and it had been neutered. 8 months later she rang up the Freedom Project and shouted at them because the dog had been neutered...she'd only just noticed after 8 months when they tried to breed him. He's a lab/mastiff cross.

Needless to say she got short shrift from Dog's Trust and was told she shouldn't be breeding anyway. I was shocked to say the least, not only because the woman had been helped so much and then complained, but that she hadn't noticed her dog's baubles were missing for 8 whole months!

There's nowt so queer as folk.

Well, the good news is that it sounds like A's future will soon be sorted. Initially I had every sympathy for her owner, but not to have made any contact with DT for all that time

As for the one that wanted to breed - well done Dogs Trust - that's one less litter of puppies to worry about. Wish I'd have seen the look on the woman's face as she tried to work out why the mating wasn't working!

"There's nowt so queer as folk" that made me smile Sarah (It was one of my late fathers favorite expressions) and it has taken me many years to realise it's so true.

I have also recently learned that even if you do help some people, they will often out of the blue, turn around and bite you.

As Hali says the DT are to be congratulated on their neutering policy which has worked and you are to be congratulated on all your work turning A into a well behaved dog.

It sounds harsh but I say don't loose too much sleep over A's owner (Or the other woman either) you and the DT have done everything right and with some humans you just never know what's in their mind.

Thanks guys. Since starting training as a counsellor I've become much more accepting of other people's behaviours - not saying I agree with them, but as you put it Losos, not losing any sleep over it.

I'm doing this mainly to help the dogs and as I don't know anything about the owner's situations I can't judge their actions. One thing this experience has done for me is to make me a total staffy lover