Dogs are best.....post your dog shots here

[Graham]

  But we just can't decide what to watch next!

     

[Beryl]

I just wannabe loved

[Beryl]

Evenin' all

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I added the /

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Thanks Sue!

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[Sarasocke]

Isn't it amazing how many of us have dogs!
Yay!

[Markulous]

I'm always amazed (and dismayed in about equal measure!) how many rescued dogs there are - I'd guess that about half the dogs I come across are rescues!

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If you want a clue as to why there are so many rescues just take a trawl through the on line for sale sites like Preloved and the various for sale/rehoming pages on facebook - thousands of 'staffie/staffiex' puppies together with other deliberate crosses and non health tested pet bred 'pedigrees' proudly described as 'not KC reg.' And of course the potential owners who buy on a whim as 'it would be nice for the kiddies to have a puppy' and then realise that puppies mess and bite and cost money. Then rescues like ours have to pick up the pieces ...grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!! 

[Sarasocke]

That's something I've noticed int he UK - there are a lot more Staffs than here in Germany. The tax on the so-called "listed" dogs here is very high and people are discouraged to own one of these dogs. When German bred dogs end up in "our" shelter, then they are often one of these breeds. The owners can't afford the tax, or the dog just gets bigger and is no longer quite so "cute".

The situation in many shelters is a bit different here in Germany compared to the UK. As it's relatively easy to bring dogs from southern and eastern Europe, we have an awful lot of dogs from Romania, Hungary, Poland, Italy, Spain, Greece etc etc. which have usually spent most of their lives on the street and have been brought into the "euthanasia stations" - not sure how these places would be called in english - the dogs are brought in from the street and put down if no-one claims them - thousands are killed this way.
The shelter I work with here have about 90% dogs from abroad at any one time.
I've spent quite some time in Romania and am in fact off to Spain on Sunday. The situation is quite horrendous. I'll be spending a week with a vet who spends most of her time neutering strays. She's paid by the different councils or animal protection societies.

Our own dogs are from Crete (Polly - the one in my avatar) and Romania (Mickey, our little white ball of fluff).

Snuggles here is typical of Spain, he's a Podenco, a hunting dog. Officially the Podenco is classed as "sports equipment" in Spain. They are often just tossed on the street.



Antonia here is more typical of Romania - bigger and hairier



And this chappie is from Hungary, smaller, compacter.

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Carol,
How big is the Podenco? He reminds me very much of my old dog Ted, who was a Shepard, Great Dane mix.

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Here, in the urban centres at least, licencing is very stict. In spring the enforcement people drive around the neighbourhoods looking for signs of pet ownership and then check against your residence to see if you have one. If not, they leave a notice on your door. If you don't comply they send you a court summons. They even force us to licence out cats. While you may see numerous cats roaming free, you will never see a 'stray' dog.

[Sarasocke]

Jack looks gorgeous! Well they all do, but Jack is really unusual, he has a lovely grin.
It's so good to know that so many of these lovely animal do find good homes.

The Podenco is about 60cm shoulder height. Could vary a bit, but I guess that's about average. They belong to the greyhound family and have a similar build - deep chest and rather skinny.

[Markulous]

Yeah, another mystery (to me) as to why there are so many Staffies over here - I find them not the pleasantest of dogs! Our local GP had to have his destroyed as it had a habit of attacking other dogs for absolutely no reason. There was a good vet series on TV a while back and featured a Staffie which was obviously not mentally sound, yet the owners wanted to breed from him. Vet took them off to a dog's home, showed them that 60% of the dogs were abandoned Staffies and suggested they take one of them instead!

I'm guessing that the East Europeans tend to be more 'wolf-like' in the dog mix - a situation which is increasingly popular here, hence the number of Huskies and variants ending up in rescues - like mine. I think most are down to a total lack of understanding of what looking after a Spitz-type dog entails (loads of exercise, sensitive stomachs,  never off the lead, escape artists and not necessarily quiet), never mind the ludicrous situation of dogs that can't really be fully exercised in the summer heat! Luka has a wonderful nature but has obviously been passed around before being dumped on the moors just up the road and suffered terrible separation anxiety (crying, digging and salivating) - luckily not too noisy and even better, he doesn't stress so much now, rarely salivating. Anyway, now he has to put up with me! 


Canon G11
(lead removed in PP!)