Thursday, July 28, 2011

10 Month Old Doberman Pinscher Available For Adoption (Adopted)

Obie the Dobie is a sweet boy with a fabulous temperament.  He is very mellow around the house, and is great with other dogs and cats.  He is house trained, neutered and up to date on all shots. 


He was given to us by a previous owner who kept him in a crate in an apartment.  There was no yard and he was bored and did not get enough exercise.  Now that he is trained to sit, stay and come when he is called, he has been getting tons of exercise and play with other dogs.

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

An Evening At Puget Sound Retriever Club Training Grounds

One of several bodies of water on Puget Sound Retriever Club grounds
 Fast Pup Dog Training recently visited the Puget Sound Retriever Club grounds in the evening.  These are some of the pictures taken. 


This is a picture of a small pond at the grounds.  It is only about 100 yards across.

Puget Sound Retriever Club leases land up in the hills north of Belfair and west of Bremerton.  The grounds are beautiful and the training ponds are awesome.  There is a feel when you are here of being far away, even though it is only an hour away from downtown Tacoma.  Currently there is a ground cover of flowers near the ponds, with bumble bees working on collecting pollen.  There is a perfume of herbs, especially mint all around the ponds.

A bumble bee works collecting pollen at Puget Sound Retriever Club grounds
 This year, with our cooler than usual summer, the water has been late in receding from one big lake into a number of smaller ponds, but now the water is perfect.  There is room for several training groups to work on one of several bodies of water at the same time.  It is always difficult to gain access to great water for training--and when we do, sometimes conditions are less than optimal.  Many of the ponds that are available locally in the spring are too overgrown with high grass, blackberries and cattails by mid summer to safely train dogs on.  The ponds at the Puget Sound grounds seem to be carved out of river rock, and the grass naturally stays very short and thin.  There currently are a few (very few) lily pads developing and there are no blackberries or cattails.

Big water at Puget Sound Retriever Club grounds

Becoming a member of the club requires filling out an application and submitting $60.00 for the annual fee.  Upon approval of membership, you will receive a key to the gate at the ponds and the combination for the gates of the big field and the horse pasture.  (See pics below.)

This is a huge field leased by Puget Sound Retriever Club

Club members refer to this field as the "horse pasture."  About 12 acres of open field

The club has regular training days on the second Saturday of each month.  The next training day is August 13 and the club is hosting a BBQ in conjunction with the training. This is a great way to connect with some of the members and get a chance to see the grounds before joining.  There will also be a NAHRA hunt test and BBQ on September 3rd & 4th.  The training day on August 13 will be a mock hunt test to introduce people and dogs to the format of the test.

Cooper enjoying a romp in the water

Hunting season is coming up very quickly.  Now is the time to train our retrievers and get them conditioned for the season.  If you live anywhere in the greater Seattle Tacoma area, you should consider the benefits of joining this club.

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Dogs And Cats Killed Because Shelters Don't Trust People

Notice from Harrisburg Pennsylvania Humane Society.  "Humane" Society?

"One of the most enduring of these traditional dogmas is that animal shelters must kill because the public cannot be trusted with animals." Nathan J Winograd

"I faced this attitude when I arrived as the new executive director of the Tompkins County SPCA in upstate New York. Other than prohibiting killing, I had planned to quietly observe the agency for the first couple of days on the job: I wanted a sense of how the agency was run. An elderly gentleman and his wife came in as I was standing behind the counter observing our adoption process. After looking at the animals for some time, they came to the front counter to adopt a cat. The man told the adoption counselor how he adopted a cat from us 15 years ago. “She died one year ago today,” he said. As much as they missed having a cat, he explained, he and his wife waited one year to get a new cat because they wanted to mourn her appropriately. As he told the story, he began to cry and walked away. His wife explained that her husband loved their cat very much, but they were indeed ready to love another one. Because they found a great cat here 15 years ago, they came back to us.
They filled out the application: Do they consider the adoption a lifetime commitment? Yes. Do they have a veterinarian? Yes. What happened to their other cat? Died of cancer. “In my arms,” the old man said. But one thing caught the adoption counselor’s eye. When they came to the question asking about where the cat would live, they had checked the box: “Mostly indoors, some outdoors.”
“Sorry,” the adoption counselor said. “We have a strict indoor-only rule.” She denied the adoption. They were stunned. I was stunned.
What happened to “15 years,” “in my arms,” “wanted to mourn her appropriately,” “lifetime commitment”? I overruled the counselor and gave them the cat. No fees, no more paperwork: “Let’s go get your kitty,” I said. I put her in their carrier and told them we’d see them in another 15 years. They thanked me and left." Nathan J Winograd

http://is.gd/uOotYS

This is a great article and wonderful food for thought.  Many people who work in shelters and in "animal control" are not working in it because they "care" about animals.  They work there because they love having god-like power over people and animals.