In keeping with the world, I should probably be using this space to comment on the over-blown sports day that apparently happening in East London (or the olympics as some call it). Have you heard about it? Apparently it's quite famous.
Anyway, as you can probably guess, I'm not a huge fan of the idea so to avoid giving it the oxygen of publicity, I'm going to talk about something much more important instead.
As I have mentioned, I have recently moved to a new town. Since moving, I have become a volunteer dog walker at the local animal rescue centre. Since I'm a huge dog-lover this is great fun. Not only do I get to give the dogs some fun, I get to exorcise some of my puppy-broodiness! On a more serious note, although family friends have always have dogs, I've never owned one so this is a way of getting experience of dog handling and of a variety of dogs prior to getting one (sadly many years down the line).
So to the centre. What a wonderful place. It's set in the middle of the countryside so there are endless fields to take the dogs out in. But I'm jumping ahead of myself. Firstly, let me pay tribute to the staff. They are brilliant. They all obviously adore all the animals and visibly dote on them (they know all of the many residents by name). All of the animals are so well looked after and cared for. It seems to run along the lines of common sense too. We had to register our details and next of kin before we were allowed to take dogs out but there wasn't any needless bureaucracy.
On to the dogs themselves. Unsurprisingly there is a large number of staffies, boxers, etc. Dogs that could be deemed, "hard". However hard they are not. They are almost uniformly lovely. Sadly, many aren't really socialised with other dogs however they all get on well with humans. I came to it with the preconception that most of the dogs would be traumatised and be antisocial bordering on aggressive. This is simply not the case. There are a few I've encountered that are ambivalent towards people but love going out on walks. Some are a wee bit nervy around humans but relax a bit with time, affection and copious application of treats. Many are affectionate, soppy lumps who walk along almost a foot off the ground with glee when they realise they are getting a walk, treats and affection all rolled into one.
Although I've done my best not to form favourites there are a couple that have really won my heart over either because they have been particularly lovely to start with or because they have grown in confidence and personality over a couple of meetings (that's not to say that I don't want to take all of them home). I will put up pictures of a couple of them when I can make my phone talk to my computer. In particular, my girlfriend has fallen in love with a puppy called Sammy. I'm not sure what her back story is (I do my best not to ask because hearing about any of them being badly treated would be too upsetting) but it's fair to say that she's not had an easy time of it so far. Despite that she is one of the most affectionate dogs I've ever encountered. She loves human contact and likes nothing better than to be nestled in someone's arms (ideally with her nose firmly in a bag of treats). We took her for her first walk a couple of weeks back. She was scared and confused but coped admirably. It's lovely seeing her grow in confidence and personality and to see her enjoying life.
I'm really glad I've started volunteering here. Not only do I get to do a bit of instant good with the dogs in the centre, but it's totally reformed my ideas of rescue dogs. Before this point, the only rescued dogs I knew were ones owned by friends and many of them were bona fide mentalists. I know it's not fair to tar all rescue dogs with the same brush but the vast majority of them had some serious issues. Doing this has opened my eyes to the fact that most of them are in fact lovely dogs that respond incredibly well to people and a bit of fussing. It has also challenged my labrador exlusio alteris mentality. I still would love my own big, soppy labrador but in conjunction with some of the breeds I've encountered here - ones that had never really entered my consciousness before.
Anyway, enough of me ranting on about dogs. Suffice to say, if you're thinking about adopting a dog, go to a rescue centre and have a look around. You will hopefully be pleasantly surprised.
JR
Anyway, as you can probably guess, I'm not a huge fan of the idea so to avoid giving it the oxygen of publicity, I'm going to talk about something much more important instead.
As I have mentioned, I have recently moved to a new town. Since moving, I have become a volunteer dog walker at the local animal rescue centre. Since I'm a huge dog-lover this is great fun. Not only do I get to give the dogs some fun, I get to exorcise some of my puppy-broodiness! On a more serious note, although family friends have always have dogs, I've never owned one so this is a way of getting experience of dog handling and of a variety of dogs prior to getting one (sadly many years down the line).
So to the centre. What a wonderful place. It's set in the middle of the countryside so there are endless fields to take the dogs out in. But I'm jumping ahead of myself. Firstly, let me pay tribute to the staff. They are brilliant. They all obviously adore all the animals and visibly dote on them (they know all of the many residents by name). All of the animals are so well looked after and cared for. It seems to run along the lines of common sense too. We had to register our details and next of kin before we were allowed to take dogs out but there wasn't any needless bureaucracy.
On to the dogs themselves. Unsurprisingly there is a large number of staffies, boxers, etc. Dogs that could be deemed, "hard". However hard they are not. They are almost uniformly lovely. Sadly, many aren't really socialised with other dogs however they all get on well with humans. I came to it with the preconception that most of the dogs would be traumatised and be antisocial bordering on aggressive. This is simply not the case. There are a few I've encountered that are ambivalent towards people but love going out on walks. Some are a wee bit nervy around humans but relax a bit with time, affection and copious application of treats. Many are affectionate, soppy lumps who walk along almost a foot off the ground with glee when they realise they are getting a walk, treats and affection all rolled into one.
Although I've done my best not to form favourites there are a couple that have really won my heart over either because they have been particularly lovely to start with or because they have grown in confidence and personality over a couple of meetings (that's not to say that I don't want to take all of them home). I will put up pictures of a couple of them when I can make my phone talk to my computer. In particular, my girlfriend has fallen in love with a puppy called Sammy. I'm not sure what her back story is (I do my best not to ask because hearing about any of them being badly treated would be too upsetting) but it's fair to say that she's not had an easy time of it so far. Despite that she is one of the most affectionate dogs I've ever encountered. She loves human contact and likes nothing better than to be nestled in someone's arms (ideally with her nose firmly in a bag of treats). We took her for her first walk a couple of weeks back. She was scared and confused but coped admirably. It's lovely seeing her grow in confidence and personality and to see her enjoying life.
I'm really glad I've started volunteering here. Not only do I get to do a bit of instant good with the dogs in the centre, but it's totally reformed my ideas of rescue dogs. Before this point, the only rescued dogs I knew were ones owned by friends and many of them were bona fide mentalists. I know it's not fair to tar all rescue dogs with the same brush but the vast majority of them had some serious issues. Doing this has opened my eyes to the fact that most of them are in fact lovely dogs that respond incredibly well to people and a bit of fussing. It has also challenged my labrador exlusio alteris mentality. I still would love my own big, soppy labrador but in conjunction with some of the breeds I've encountered here - ones that had never really entered my consciousness before.
Anyway, enough of me ranting on about dogs. Suffice to say, if you're thinking about adopting a dog, go to a rescue centre and have a look around. You will hopefully be pleasantly surprised.
JR
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