LAST MINUTE RESCUE

UPDATE:Both dogs show severe signs of neglect and abuse, have several older and newer wounds/scars, dislocated toes and strange marks and even some growths under the skin and umbilical hernias that need to be analized.

We have received by now 95US$ donation and appreciate it very much. Thank you!

2 WHIPPETS RESCUED MINUTES BEFORE BEING EUTHANIZED
our friend and collaborator Maite Fernández saved the lives of these 2 whippets because the breeder wanted to kill them.
The skinny one is over 10 years old and in such bad condition that she has to stay in a animal hospital. She has a very sweet personality, that’s why we call her DOLÇA. The other females name is AFRICA.
Both were brood mamas of a backyard breeder in Mexico and are now in Mexico City.
Little DOLÇA is in such bad shape that we fear for her life.
We are expecting an estimate from our veterinary as soon as he finishes attending the 2 doggies and will publish it here. For the moment we should be fine with 500US$ for bloodwoork and DOLÇA’s stay in the emergency clinic, if no major surgeries are needed.
Please help us to help DOLÇA + AFRICA!
PayPal future4podencos@gmail.com
When they are in good shape, they can be adopted in the USA, with preference WA state or nearby.

FOSTERING RESPONSABLE

WHAT IS MOST IMPORTANT TO BE A FOSTER FAMILY?

I asked this question in a group and more than 90% answered: love, especially lots of love! I do not agree at all. I see that the vast majority thinks that love and pampering are the most important and I disagree. A fosterer is to socialize the dog, teach the routines of family life, and not to pamper them. It sounds very hard but a foster home is the bridge for your definitive family and this implies discipline, teaching and support. Too much love and pampering don’t help much because they create too strong bonds and thus encourage separation anxiety and other problems. It also makes it much harder to adapt to their definitive family because they will feel abandoned again. Better be less affectionate, not letting them follow us everywhere, not sleeping with them or letting them climb on sofas and beds because we don’t know if the new family will allow it. We must not be afraid to correct them if we catch them doing something we do not want the hounds to do. Be consistent and educate you foster doggies and help them feel safe and  happy. Very important is NOT to feel sorry for them. They don’t need grief, their suffering is over. They need understanding but not overprotecting because it produces fear, insecurities and an unhealthy dependence.  Many people are surprised when they arrive at my house and a pack of friendly and affectionate hounds almost crush them to greet the visitors. Many of them came from terrible places like my podencos from Bullas. Luckily they have forgotten the past because they live in the present and are mentally stable and very sociable dogs.

It’s up to us to help them to be happy stable hounds!

SEPARATION ANXIETY? NO!

We receive many messages requesting help with adopted hounds and the owners claim their dogs have severe and often destructive SA. Even so these Galgos and Podencos are not adopted from us, we still try to help because a dog with SA suffers and needs help.

First of all we have to make sure when a new Galgo or Podenco arrives that we don’t overload it with too much attention, cuddles, love and excitement because dogs get used fast to be the center of the family and will react frustrated when the normal routine life begins.

Separation anxiety does not exist in a pack of wolfs, it’s something we produce in our dogs by giving them the wrong type of attention and overprotecting them. To much love can create insecurity in our hounds and an insecure dog is more prone to suffer and freak out when we, his protectors, are gone.

So we suggest from the very beginning to follow the same routines including leaving TV or music on etc:

– From the very first day on, go many times in and out of your home, take your handbag, car keys, coat or what ever is your normal routine when you leave. Come and go, come and go… Our dog will learn to associate it with us coming back and not only with us leaving.

– Don’t interact with the dog at least half an hour before you leave and also no “Fiesta’ when you come back. Saying good bye and greeting our dogs confirms to them that it was something special that we were gone. Ignore the dog until it is calm and relaxed before you touch or greet your hound.

– Observe your dog when you are gone by using an old smartphone as the cam. Just download ALFRED the app, it’s free and you can watch and listen to your doggy in real time and even talk to your pets (but you shouldn’t)

– If we we are stressed and anxious when leaving, we transmit our emotions to our dogs and will leave a stressed wary dog behind unable to settle down because our dogs absorbe our emotions and reflect them.

– We should not play or let the dogs run short before we leave as our hound will be in excited mode and left alone he does not know how to unwind himself. The result could be a destruction not caused by anxiety but by the need to keep going in excitement mode.

– Try from day one to follow a strict routine to avoid that your dog starts to freak when you leave. It’s not fun for the dog to be insecure and anxious and we have to avoid to create these unpleasant emotions in our dogs. It’s up to us to help them to trust and relax.

-In general, try to not leave your dog for more than 6-7h alone and build the alone time slowly up.

– You might also want to record him to see if there is something that triggers barking or whining or door scratching. Sometimes it’s other dogs, loud neighbours etc

– Not every distruction made by our hounds was SA. It can be boredom, playing with whatever they find or just simply keeping themselves “entertained”.

– Galgos and Podencos are pack animals and usually stay better alone with a canine companion.

– Crating an anxious dog does not resolve the dog’s problem only the owners! A crated hound will continue when ever the dog is out. Crating is is not the solution for SA and anyway not pleasant for them to be locked away! The only way to good results is to educate our dogs to trust in us. We have to stop overprotecting and spoiling our dogs and let them be dogs. It can be done but we have to be consistent and stable with our hounds, show them that they don’t have to worry and their only job is to be happy hounds. We should never forget, they are animals and animals have other needs than we have.

ARTISTS FOR HOUND AUCTION

I have to share this with you. We asked artists to donate some of their creations to our auction to bring 6 hounds over to Seattle.

6 year old Hristina from Barcelona insisted in participating by painting her own adopted Podenco puppy. This is the wonderful result. We are sooooo proud to have this lovely artwork in our auction and to know that the kids in Spain will be a better future for the animals.
MUCHAS GRACIAS HRISTINA!

Please check Our auction to help to fly 6 lucky hounds to Seattle.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/580113792449141/

WHAT OUR DOGS TEACH US

We work nearly exclusively with sighthounds, mostly galgos and podencos. Many of them with severe deprivation syndrome and general fears for having been mistreated.

EXERCISE? Of course!I it keeps them healthy and happy. Normal well balanced dogs want to run and play. In Spain we had a 60m² (aprox 600sqf) dog room with old sofas and beds and a possibility to go in and out when ever the door was open. It was only closed for special reasons such as having a handyman working in the finca etc. They ran miles every day in our 10acres fenced finca and they loved it. Never any severe fights nor major injuries! Sighthounds are energetic and need to run (not for hours but at least every day) and they enjoy long walks. their body is made for speed.

FOOD AGGRESSIONS?  All our hounds have always food 24/7 in several areas of the house , it reduces tummy torsion risk and the food aggressions dramatically. Many galgos came obsessed with food and even growled at people to protect their resourses. By leaving them food always available, they learn fast that there is no need to protect food as it’s always there.

SOCIALIZING? In our pack I  have had in Spain two very obedient dogs , my personal hounds. An female irish wolfhound and a male huge ibizan hound. They helped me a lot with socializing newbies so we could personally foster over 800 hounds in the last 20 years. We also rescued, fostered and rehomed over 100 Chinese crested and other hairless breeds. They all lived as a pack. Dogs love to meet other canines and humans and we should let them do it and not overprotect them  because Dogs are by nature social  animals and we need to help them if they have issues. Avoiding any canine contacts is not the solution.

SEPARATION ANXIETY AND DESTRUCTIONS? Except one day when I was gone and the heating stopped in a very cold afternoon and my big peruvian hairless to prevent getting too cold, had made a huge hole in my matress to keep him warm. He needed to do it to survive, it was freezing outside and inside. Well entertained and exercised dogs are balanced in their personality and do not suffer such disorders frequently because they are mostly caused by us, the humans.

CRATING?  Is not an option for us! Using common sense, for example keeping their environment free of possible hazzards such as electric cables, breakable things, poisonous plants etc, is the way to go. I dont freak out if they shredded a roll of toilet paper or my shoes because if they cought something its my fault for not being careful. By nature, dogs are NOT den animals, only very frightened would they hide and when their are about to have puppies. They need space and freedom and we can not lock them away in crates to avoid a shredded pillow or dog hair all over the house. If people can not live with such things, they should not have a dog.

SPOILT ROTTEN? We should treat dogs as dogs, even though they sleep in our bed, they are animals and enjoy to be outside as long as it does not rain. Galgos and pods don’t do rain 🙂 For me spoiling a dog is not giving him more treats, it giving him quality dog playing  and exercisinge time  surrounded by other hounds. Observing them running and chasing each other is so much more satisfying than seeing them bored on sofas.

EDUCATION? I was lucky to have 2  very obedient dogs in my pack, they were my assistants. Just had to call one them and the others immediately copied as one is my pack manager. Newcomers sleep in my bedroom so they learn to trust me. I don’t work with goodies.  I use cuddles, ear schratches and positive enforcement but I would definitively shout aloud NO if I catch one doing BS or being bossy to others.
And even with so many dogs, I still had antique furniture etc. I just would not let a teething pup alone with it. I don’t believe in domination but in education and my dogs know perfectly well when my voice gets into “the boss is pissed” pitch.
Humans tend to humanize dogs too much and I want them to be dogs and I adapted my life and surrounding so we can live together without one reducing each others freedom too much but still setting up boundaries. (Don’t laugh but I can go alone to the restroom! No dog follows me…) 🙂

PACK DOGS / DOG PACKS?
When you have big packs it probably only works with sighthounds. I could not do the same with an alsacian pack as I dont know the breed enough. As I lived all my life with sighthounds and know how they are,  I can read their body language and sometimes even their mind when I have food on the counter 🤣

DOGS NEED OUR GUIDANCE Hounds need us to tell them what we want them to do and it’s  only working if we create a good bond with our dogs. Long walks and fun games are very helpful to achieve this goal. In general, and  my dog behaviourist/educator/trainer friends say the same. There are too many dogs that are not dogs anymore and too many dog trainer who use the crates as the easiest way to keep owner happy and dog out of trouble.

Educating dogs takes time and effort, and using a crate for transport reason is a necessary tool. But today’s society is lazy, does not want to commit to exercising dogs not taking them to dog parks. Any excuse serves for not having to go for a nice walk or even hike. But people keep forgetting that in the end, their dog will oay a high price for it, such as boredom, health issues, behaviour problems…

WHY DID I WRITE ALL THIS?
After having studied in the early 80′ Konrad Lorenz theories, it was immediately clear to  me that these theories do not work much for sighthounds as they are not showing so many wolf behaviours so I started to read books, attend seminars and courses but the most I learned from what the dogs taught me and from observing my pack. I am lucky to have lived all my life with greyhounds, galgos, Podencos, iggies, afghans, wolfhounds etc. Thanks to these wonderful 4 legged partners I can continue help other hounds with our rescue work and sometimes their families to turn their stressed, anxious and often hysteric “fur babies” back into what they should be: happy normal dogs.