Tues 21st Feb: Chuck out those choke chains

Susan and Copper are inseparable

It’s a funny thing, fate.  I had been at Horizon Plaza on Monday to pick up some  rugs  from a lovely furniture store called Tree (they had been used for display and were too dirty to sell).  The manager had adopted a dog from HKDR, a mini pinscher called Rusty, son of two mini pins-in-waiting, Susan and Copper, and she was telling me what a great little dog Rusty was.  I told her that Rusty’s parents were still at our Ap Lei Chau Homing Center because we wanted them to be adopted as a pair,  and that’s always more difficult even if they are young and tiny.  Susan could have left a long time ago because she’s a very sweet girl, but Copper is a bit of a barker and tries to scare people away.  It works, even if it is just for show and once you pick him up he’s as docile as Susan.  Then today, while I was out and about, I got a message from Iris (at Ap Lei Chau) telling me that someone wanted to adopt the two mini pins, and so they are now in a home together just as we had wished.  Of course all three dogs were desexed as soon as I picked them up from AFCD so there will be no more Rusty siblings, and they can all enjoy a carefree life without the problems of parenthood.

One of the major challenges we face is getting information out to dogs owners across Hong Kong, and I mean the whole territory.  We have almost thirteen thousand Facebook fans and a large database, not to mention the readers of this blog, but there are still millions who haven’t heard of HKDR and have no idea about things like the importance and benefits of desexing, or microchips and rabies vaccinations.  Of course a lot of people deliberately avoid having a dog licensed because then they can’t be traced when they abandon their pet, and when it’s picked up by the AFCD dog catchers they simply accept it and get another puppy.  They’re easy enough to come by – you only have to walk a few yards down any road in the New Territories and you’re pretty much guaranteed to some across some wandering strays.

However, there’s another issue which is closer to home (and by that I mean our Facebook and blog followers) and that’s the use of choke chains (collars) on dogs.  I know that there are – sadly – many trainers who still use them, but as far as I’m concerned anyone who can’t stop a dog from pulling on a leash without resorting to throttling has no business calling him(her)self a trainer.  Just think about it and the obvious damage a metal chain can do to a dog, especially when the chain is thin.  It’s no better than a garotte, and the stupid thing is choke chains don’t work.  There are products like the Easy Walk harness which are completely painless and work very well if you have a dog that pulls, but leaving aside the ineffectiveness of a choke chain as a training tool you need to think about the physical damage these things cause.  Please don’t do anything with a choke chain except throw it in the bin where it belongs.  http://www.positivedogs.co.uk/Choke%20Chains!.htm

Hing the van driver was busy today so I couldn’t do too much that involved transporting dogs, but carrying two of the new baby sharpei pups to Acorn to hand over to their foster was easy enough.  The other two will be going to another foster tomorrow so that’s one problem temporarily solved.  Hopefully the little wrinklies will be adopted before too long as they really are very lovely in the way that sharpei puppies are.