Due to owner illness, Bernie is still waiting in kennels for his new home and fresh start. Please visit his profile for more information!
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Final reminder: Our limited edition Christmas Cards and 2019 Calendars are still available but supplies are going fast - order yours soon to make sure you don't miss out! Our beautiful Christmas cards are perfect for sending messages of love to your friends and families this year and our calendars (packed full of photos of happily adopted Give a Dog a Home rescue dogs!) make wonderful gifts too. All profits for every purchase go towards rescue dogs in need. Visit our Wooftastic shop to buy yours now, or send us an email with any enquiries. Give a Dog a Home - UK will be holding our first ever Christmas Fair at Crowborough Community Centre on Saturday November 24th, 10.30 to 2.30.
It will be a festive, fun-filled event and a great opportunity to purchase some unique Christmas gifts and help raise funds for Give a Dog a Home and Spay it Forward so we can rescue and treat more dogs in need. There will be around 30 stalls offering a diverse assortment of local art, crafts food and trade. In addition there will be fundraising games, a tombola and a chance for the kids to get creative with Daisy Sew. There is free car parking at and around the venue and a cafe on site. All are welcome so please do come along, grab some fabulous and unique gifts for family and friends and help to support local crafts and dogs in need! Venue Details: Crowborough Community Centre, Pine Grove, Crowborough TN6 1FE. Free parking on site. For more information please email kareygadah@gmail.com Andy and Mimi know too well that the smells, sounds, sights and textures of the outside world can be hugely distracting, exciting and even overwhelming for many dogs. This can mean dogs struggle to calm down and focus and can lead to a stressful walk for dogs and owners alike! However, here are some suggestions for ways in which you can use the environment to your advantage to help regain your dog’s focus outside. Andy and Mimi highly recommend #2 and Mimi is also a big fan of #4 :). We’d love to know if you have any more suggestions? 1. Train in different environments. Of course, just because your dog knows how to ‘stay’ or recall in your house doesn’t mean that your dog knows how to do it outside! Unlike humans, dogs struggle to generalise behaviour and learning can be highly specific to environmental factors. For instance, if a dog is only taught to “sit” in one location, the dog will pair the location with the behaviour and may struggle to repeat the behaviour in a different environment at first. To ‘proof’ your dog’s training skills, practice in multiple environments. Start off training a new behaviour in a boring room of your house, then start start afresh in other parts of the house, then the garden, then outdoor locations with increasing distractions. Eventually your dog will generalise this behaviour and respond reliably in new locations. Proofing behaviour is so important for fundamental skills such as lead-walking, stay/wait, recalls and response to name. 2. Enrich the environment yourself. Environments are full of enrichment by their nature and your dog will inevitably enjoy exploring by himself. However, it is important for your dog to view you as a source of fun and excitement too. ‘The sausage tree’ is a technique that owners often enjoy as well as dogs. While on a walk, wait until your dog is distracted (or enlist a helper to do so), go over to a tree/bench/rock/log/rough surface and hide tiny pieces of sausage, liver or other smelly treats around in the nooks and crannies. Go back to your dog and, using encouraging tone of voice and gestures, direct him towards the treat-loaded object and let him use his nose to see what is there. Allow your dog to sniff out each tasty morsel and spend as long as he wants on this game. Make sure you have placed some pieces out of easy reach so he has to use his mind and muscles to find them. He may even look towards you to help him get those extra little crumbs he can’t reach! This is a great activity not only to exercise your dog’s body and mind but also to build on your dog’s focus and on working as a team. ‘Sprinkles’ is another way to provide environmental enrichment. Scatter small, smelly treats around in grass or leaves and then encourage your dog to sniff and search for the treats. Treat games are best played in quiet environments with no unknown dogs or people around. Scentwork activities are very rewarding and calming for dogs and it is remarkable how much difference just 10 minutes of scentwork can make to a dog's behaviour. 3. Use the environment as a reward. Does your dog go berserk with excitement before you have even stepped out of the front door? Does he pull you towards his favourite field or bolt out of the car at full pelt? As much as we all love to see our dogs expressing unbridled joy, if a dog is already pumped full of adrenaline and too excited/stressed to think straight before you have even started the walk, this is not ideal. Any kind of overarousal, even excitement, is a form of stress and can cause health problems in excess. If the environment itself is a huge prize for your dog, you can use that as a reward for desired behaviour. For instance, you can get into the habit of asking your dog to offer sustained eye contact, touch or a sit/wait before you leave the house to start your walk. This takes time and repetition to train at first, but once a habit is established your dog will offer this behaviour instinctively in order to get the reward of the walk. This training can be used at other times too, for instance asking your dog to wait while you open the gate to a field (use the lead at first to prevent him bolting through). If a dog tends to be very overaroused on walks, it helps to take some time and wait for him to calm and settle in a new environment before starting to explore. 4. Use the environment as equipment. If your dog always wants to be busy and you struggle to gain his attention during walks, try using the environment as an agility course or urban parkour. This works best if you teach your dog some agility cues at home first but you can also start outdoors using luring. Encouraging your dog to weave through trees, jump on logs, climb under bicycle racks, balance along walls etc. is a great way to entertain and exercise them on walks whilst keeping their focus and engagement towards you. It also helps build a dog’s confidence, balance, mobility and strength. Remember to start small and work up, especially with puppies or nervous dogs. ‘The Gromes’ Episode 5: The One with the Sausage Tree
The 2018 Limited Edition Charity Christmas Cards for Give a Dog a Home are now on sale!
Please purchase using our online shop... ...or get in touch with your address and how many packs you would like and Kathy will send you all the payment options. Specially designed Tania Lomas Christmas cards, ten per pack. Total cost inc P&P: 1 pack £7.05 2 packs £12.50 3 packs £19.00 4 packs £24.15 For higher quantities and overseas deliveries - please enquire It's often said that life is a journey best traveled with dogs. But that's the thing about life with dogs; it's a journey, not a destination. One of the biggest mistakes humans make when working with dogs is to have too high expectations for the dogs and too low expectations for themselves. Expecting a dog to climb a mountain without the appropriate safety equipment is setting him up for a big fall! It's understandable for people to be keen to launch into life with their new canine best friend, explore all the dog walks and meet all their friends. But with a new rescue dog, it's so important to start off small and slow, setting the dog up for success rather than failure. Work on building a bond with your dog and building up those 'mountaineering skills' (eg. recall, lead-walking, 'let's go' u-turns and other life skills) at home before you go outside and try to climb a mountain. Always remember your safety equipment (eg. double leads, long lead, secure harness, reeeaaally good treats) and take it one step at a time. Go home before your dog starts to struggle, better to return early but glorious than not at all! Setting a dog up for success also means not putting them in environments that cause undue stress or danger. For instance, by giving them space when eating and sleeping, not leaving them unattended with other dogs until they've developed a solid bond, not leaving dogs alone with children, not leaving bones or other really high-value food stuffs lying around and creating safe spaces for your dog to retreat and be alone. As with any journey, there will be ups and downs along the way. Progress is not linear and sometimes you and your dog may have to take a step back and re-assess. That's okay, as long as you are traveling together in the same direction. Advice and help is out there for anyone who needs it. Life is a journey best traveled with dogs, so make sure you don't lose yours along the way. 'The Gromes': Episode Four
THE GIVE A DOG A HOME 2019 CALENDAR IS NOW AVAILABLE!!!! Featuring over 70 of our gorgeous dogs, the calendar makes a great Christmas gift for any dog lover. All proceeds go to rescue dogs in need. Only £8.95 plus postage and packaging
Get yours at www.wooftastic.co.uk/gadah-charity-goods Fun Family Dog Show and Reunion Walk Give a Dog a Home are running our biggest event yet - a fun family dog show and what will now be an Autumn fair! We are combining this event with our twice yearly Reunion walk which will see many of the dogs we have homed and their adopters coming to join us so it is going to be a busy, bustling, fun filled occasion. Please join us on October 7th from 11am-4pm, at the Big Park in Peacehaven, it will be a great day out and will help us raise vital funds for dogs in need. We will be running a wide range of classes to welcome dogs of all shapes and sizes, from pawfect pups to golden oldies, with rosettes and prizes to be awarded for all classes. The Up and Running Flyball Team will be providing a Flyball demonstration and there will also be an opportunity for you and your dog to stretch your legs in between classes by trying Hoopers Rings run by Clix and Trix and to test your woof's scenting skills in the Search n Sniff arena run by Search Dogs Sussex. In addition there will be lots of fun and games for the whole family and stalls with crafts and merchandise on offer. The show will be located at the Big Park in Peacehaven (BN10 8RH), with ample parking (all for a voluntary donation to Give a Dog a Home), a cafe serving delicious food and drinks and the surrounding park and play area to enjoy. There will also be food stalls with a wide range on offer, including plenty of vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free options. We would love to see you all there and do feel free to invite friends and family, all are welcome. Registration opens at 11am, with approx. class timings of: 11.30 Child and best four legged friend 11.50 Most Pawfect Puppy 12.15 Most Dashing Dog (Male) 12.45 Most Beautiful Bitch 1.15 Best Mixed Breed 1.45 Most Appealing Eyes 2.15 Best Rescue 2.45 Best Golden Oldie 3.15 Best Trick Final (best trick auditions will be run as a sideshow during the day ) 3.35 Best in Show For more information or to volunteer to help out on the day, please email kareygadah@gmail.com If this isn't a sign of a good rescue, we don't know what is!
Here is how one of our trusted Romanian rescuers, Flori, is greeted when she comes home. 😍 It is clear how well these dogs are cared for while they stay at Flori's rescue. She gives them all they need in order to be ready for forever homes; not just food and treatment, but also love, courage, socialisation and basic skills such as lead-walking. Florentina may be a hero, but she cannot do it all alone. She is desperately trying to raise funds to expand and build upon her rescue. With the harsh Romanian winter fast approaching, funds are urgently needed to insulate the kennels and ensure the outdoor dogs stay warm and cosy. Please donate and share our fundraiser. Every penny will go straight to Flori's dogs - and you can see this is a very good cause indeed!! www.gofundme.com/help-flori-build-a-better-future Thank you. We are sad to report we will have to postpone the dog show. Forecasts for Sunday 5 August are currently showing at high humidity and temperature anything between 22 and 26 with most at the high end. After consulting with the vets who were going to do the judging for us, and for the sake of dog welfare we will be postponing the show until 7th October and moving our reunion walk to the Big Park, to run both events on the same day.
We do thank everyone for their support with this event so far and it would be lovely if you can come along and join us on the new date. We will send out more details nearer the time so please save the date! With best wishes from all at Give a Dog a Home UK |
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