We Lose Another Brave Soldier.....

There's more sad news this week as on Thursday we lost a real brave soldier.  Ronnie arrived with us emaciated and in a right mess, as you can see in the photo below. However with Alison and Michael it was love at first sight, and it was an instant bond that was never broken.

The fact I have no other photos of Ronnie other than the day he arrived shows how quickly they snapped him up, and with that move he quickly gained the best life a dog could wish for.  Caravan holidays,  the seaside twice a day, his own spot in the pub afterwards, Ronnie was never away from them, and in Michael he had found his soul mate.

As well as obvious concerns about his health, Ronnie also suffered from serious separation anxiety but Michael and Alison didn't bat an eyelid at that. They simply took him everywhere!  An action I admired greatly and will always be grateful for.

Tuesday saw Ronnie dip. He'd lost even more weight, and was rushed to the vets unable to support himself. Tests confirmed a cancer. That hideous disease had beaten us again. Despite the brilliant attention of Emily and her team at Moorview Vets there was nothing we could do. On Thursday he slipped away in the arms of his Dad.

Ronnie will be missed by everyone. His weekly visits to the kennels whilst his Mam and Dad helped others that hadn't been as fortunate as him will live with us all forever. Love and a big thank you go to Alison and Michael, amazing people who did all they could for an amazing dog.

Jack Shit

It is a very sad day for dogs today in the UK.

Breeder and judge Geoff Corish announced on his Facebook page this morning that the Kennel Club has agreed to accept the Jack Russell Terrier as a Kennel Club breed.

This is the man who campaigned THIS dog to top French Bulldog of 2013.

For Corish, it is a day of celebration. One comment on his Facebook page referred to to the announcement as "historical".

Sure - as in the sinking of the Titanic.

And such bitter irony. The Reverend John ("Jack") Russell himself was fiercely opposed to conformation dog shows - and the Jack Russell Club of Great Britain has campaigned against KC registration of the breed. It's constitution even states:

• History has shown Kennel Club recognition to be detrimental to the physical structure and working capabilities of a variety of working breeds. Therefore this club is opposed to Kennel Club recognition of the Jack Russell Terrier.

One wonders if they were even consulted.

I have been struck by an uncommon melancholy all day - which I would normally articulate, but actually, I couldn't do it better than "Terrierman"Patrick Burns - on blistering form on his blog today.

He writes:

Here is a simple truth: you cannot protect and preserve working dogs without working them.
You cannot breed quality retrievers or pointers when your own dogs have never heard a shotgun.
You cannot gauge the sheep-sense and holding power of a good Border Collie by tossing a Frisbee.
You cannot judge the true grit of a Jack Russell Terrier with a rubber ball.
A one-hour cart pull around a farm does not a sled dog make.
People who think otherwise are kidding themselves. They are the reason every working dog breed dragged into the Kennel Club has been ruined there.
These people sincerely believe that if they breed a dog that looks the part, it can do the part. But this misguided belief underscores their ignorance. What makes working breeds special is not what is on their outside, but what is on their inside.
"But why do we need that today," says the matronly show dog breeder. "No one works dogs today."
Really? Well, maybe not in their suburban world of shake shops and one-minute rice. It is true that in their world, there are no hunters, cowboys, Eskimos, or gamekeepers. In their world there are no rats, fox, bear, sheep, cattle, duck, geese, or pheasant.
But these creatures exist outside the suburbs, and these people exist there as well.
In America, Australia, and parts of mainland Europe, dogs are still used to bust, hold and drive wild cattle and hogs.
Retrievers and Pointers are used as bird dogs the world over.
Terriers are still used for pest control, not only in the U.K., but also in America, Canada, South Africa and mainland Europe.
Dogs are still used for transportation in the Arctic, and rabbits are still brought to hand by running dogs the world over.
Is this work being done with Kennel Club dogs?
No. Not usually. And no wonder; form is not function.
No matter how attractive a man in a dress might be, no one who has a clue is going to take that "girl" to the prom.
And yet Kennel Club breeders will tell you, straight faced, that they are sincere in wanting to protect their breed.
And who are they trying to protect it from? Why unscrupulous people who are not show-ring breeders, of course!
And what do they intend to protect the dog with? A scrap of paper!
It is all laughable nonsense. And it becomes nonsense on stilts when people begin to talk about "the standard" as if it were a sacred text delivered to Moses on the Mount.

Check out the rest of it here. 

Farewell To Mr Foxy.....

I had some really sad news on Monday night as one of SHAK'S old timers lost his battle aginst illness. Seymour came not long after I started The Rescue Place, and although he was very quickly snapped up by a loving family,  he left a big impression on everyone.

Mr Foxy as we nicknamed him was simply gorgeous, and the Inglis family that fell in love with him at first sight ended up with a perfect family dog.

He used to send me postcards from his many family caravan holidays, and despite being away from us for 6 or 7 years I got regular visits at least a couple of times a year. The picture below was taking just a couple of weeks ago..... the last time I saw him.

I don't think anyone who was lucky enough to meet him will ever forget Seymour. I know his family has has their hearts torn apart by having to let him go. Our thoughts are with them. 'Jump free little man.'

RIP the Otterhound

Oh great. So now the Kennel Club is celebrating how endangered the Otterhound is?

Like it's some kind of badge of honour?  Like there's some value in the breed's rarity? 

The sad truth is that the Otterhound is about to be consigned to history and the Kennel Club is doing nothing to stop it. Obscenely, the KC has the bald cheek to compare the Otterhound to the seriously endangered giant panda and white rhino while mustering none of the effort we see conservationists make to save wild species.

And how ironic that KC twitter handle... because if the KC really loved dogs, it would be doing so, so much more to ensure their future.

The population data released by the Kennel Club last week revealed that the Otterhound is on its last legs - only 22 puppies born last year in the UK, and very few born abroad.  They're all horribly inbred.  There is no job for them any more. And no demand for a big, shaggy, sometimes smelly dog which - the KC helpfully reveals in its Discover Dogs lowdown here - has a tendency to kill small furry things and can rarely be let off lead safely.  Oh, and they slobber. 

The breed club in the UK has a good health rep in Judith Ashworth and there is a lot of helpful health info/ongoing surveys on the breed club website (you can find them here). But, goodness, they make for depressing reading. 

The reports suggest that the breed suffers from a high rate of epilepsy, cancer and hip dysplasia. The breed's mean hip score is 46.5 - severely dysplastic. In fact, the Otterhound has the worst hips of any breed in the UK and they are getting worse (if you look at just the last five years, the mean hip score has risen to 51). Breeders are continuing to breed from dogs with hip scores over 100 because there are so few dogs they feel they cannot be fussy. There is an increasing number of reports of low-litter sizes; almost certainly due to inbreeding depression. Average COI has risen almost 2% in the last two years (up from 16% to 17.9%) The breed has an effective population size of 33 - genetically unsustainable.

And while there was some talk a couple of years ago of an outcross to save the breed, that seems to have died a death. Like the breed itself is doing.

In 2012, the breed's UK health rep Judith Ashworth said: �Outcrossing is certainly one option that we are very keen to look at, because we do need to increase the number of dogs that are contributing genetically to the very small population of dogs within our breed. We look forward to working with the Kennel Club and the Animal Health Trust to find solutions that will protect our breed in the future.�

Since then? Nada. Zilch. Nothing. I imagine that however keen Janice may be to explore crossbreeding, she has had little or no support from breeders. It is the equivalent of the zoos of yesteryear - happy to parade highly endangered species for the public to see, while doing nothing to protect and preserve them.

That changed. Why can't this change too?

Why aren't the KC and breeders working with conservationists who understand this stuff and have brought many species back from the brink?   Why aren't there specific breed conservation plans? Why aren't you talking to those who are successfully managing rare livestock breeds? Seriously, in breeds like the Otterhound, we are way beyond softly-softly advice to limit the use of popular sires and encouraging breeders to DNA test.

Am I the only one who feels any sense of panic?

Now, I don't have a problem with the breed going extinct. It's the manner of the Otterhound's extinction that sticks in the craw. The dogs are dying fitting, limping and painfully in the hands of breeders who will look you in the eye and tell you they love the breed but who in reality are the agents of their destruction through their obsession with blood purity and their unwillingness to embrace modern science.

RIP the Otterhound. Like all dogs trapped in closed gene pools under the auspices of kennel clubs... you deserved better. 

Official Statement & The Launch Of SHAK Club.....

Statement from Stephen Wylie (Founder and Chairman of SHAK.)

"Running a charity like SHAK and the pressures it brings really is incredibly stressful. The dream that I had all those years ago of 'simply helping dogs' has grown beyond even my wildest dreams, but with that growth and reputation for helping the dogs that nobody else will, there also comes the heavy burden of keeping it all running. My day so often now gets bogged down with all the other worries that I guess only people who run their own businesses or other charities really understand.....

The support that firstly I received when I started this, and then the support my team has received as we've moulded SHAK into what you now know, has quite simply been amazing. We couldn't do what we do without your support. Likewise there wouldn't be a SHAK without the hard work, dedication and sacrifices myself and my team have committed too. WE NEED THAT HELP TO CONTINUE.

I think now is a very good time to mention that SHAK does not and never will have a Facebook page, or a page on any other social media website (the Twitter account is dormant.) We have tried in the past but it became to much. We were accessible, and requests to take dogs along with the messages threatening that 'dogs will be destroyed' was simply too much for me or our facilities to cope. However, and this is a very important point, individuals do cross post things on social media from this site, whilst others run fantastic fundraising pages, the value of that exposure and promotion on such sites is vital, I understand that, and really do appreciate the effort put in and the funds these supporters raise! Again our existence would be in doubt without them.

You maybe wondering where all this is going? What is he rambling on about? Quite simply put, SHAK the charity has grown too big for myself, the kennel staff and the existing volunteers, and the fundraising team to keep going at the rate we are. We need help, but we need the right help. Help with the things that we need the most..... More money for us to expand and improve our facilities, more money so we can hire more staff. The demand for us to take dogs is now plural on a daily basis. We simply do not have the spaces, resources or man power to take the charity to the next step that it seems destined to reach. Having become so specialised and building up our reputation nationwide, we need help to continue to grow, and we need the help now.

You will of seen the adverts for volunteers on the 'Opportunities To Join Our Team' page, those positions still need filled. However, I have to emphasise that only people that can meet the criteria will be considered. We also need help with every other aspect of the the work SHAK does, and that is the whole point of this statement.....

Today see's the launch of SHAK Club..... At first it may not seem much, but SHAK Club is my way of communicating with SHAK supporters and letting them know exactly what help is needed and how they can help. Originally starting off as an Emailing list, SHAK Club will keep you up to date with Change Lives appeals, things we are desperate for (whether its at the kennels or medication, specialist food etc for example) new merchandise and gifts, all official fundraising events and so much more. As SHAK is well into its 10th year, I feel it would be really appropriate to connect with our supporters by sharing what we really need and offer. The good and the bad. 

We are all working so hard to keep this running. There are some really exciting plans in place that will hopefully come to fruition in the not too distant future, as myself, the fundraising team and the PR people we now have on board look to really push us forward and establish SHAK as a charity nationwide. I believe we really are at a pivotal point in the charities existence, time to push to the next level, we cannot keep operating within the bottleneck we currently find ourselves.

So..... whats the next step? HOW CAN YOU HELP? Easy..... email shakclub@shak.org.uk to register to be on our emailing list. It is as simple as that, and that way you will be the first to know what is happening, but also what we need the most. That way, hopefully you will be able to help. 

Once again, thank you for your continued support, but also for taking the time to read this statement. SHAK Club is an exciting prospect, be great to have you come along for the ride....."

A New Arrival Brings His Mates.....

I don't usually post dogs that have just arrived, and are still serving their seven days as a stray, but I just can't keep this video to myself. This poor boy is a dog that was found locally and absolutely riddled with flea's. Excuse the poor quality of recording we were literally trying to capture as much as we could whilst trying to treat him and deal with his wriggling.....

If you recognise this dog, or know who he is owner is then please get in touch with the Animal  Welfare Team at Northumberland Council.

Three Amigo's.....

Had a great walk last week with some great friends..... Moby, Daisy and Maisie. 

I love these photographs, especially the one where Maisie is resting on Moby's head as if to say "I'm here!"