25th November

Well what a day!
From finding a Staffie puppy running in the road when I pulled out of the drive from my ponies, to a German Wire Haired Pointer still missing after running off last night, and everything in between!
I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the puppy. A young man grabbed her and I jumped out of my car and joined him. She was tagged and he rang the number. It turned out she belonged to the gardener from the house opposite whom I know as he has an older Stafford. Someone had left the electric gates open and she ran out and into the road stopping the traffic. Fortunately she survived, but bad call mate!

Returning from the walk with Steven, Khan, Spryte and Sandy I received a call from a friend to say there was a discussion on the Jeremy Vine Show on Radio 2 about did Staffies deserve their bad reputation. I hurried back nearly bringing on a heart attack, after contacting Val who was herself rushing from a job to join her daughter who had gone into labour whilst shopping in Croydon.
I heard most of the debate and thought it very balanced. Lesley Mcfayden from East Anglian SBT club and part of our forum spoke very well even mentioning the Stafford agility team (of which Rhea and Kerry are part) and National SBT Day.
There was an unfortunate comment from a lady from another rescue who tried to give out her web address!
I missed some negative comments about all Staffie owners being morons, I will listen again. Owners are posting positive Staffie pictures on Radio 2's facebook page. I have put on some photos of the walk.
There is an article in the telegraph, something on BBc Kent, the message is getting out there.

Val's daughter gave birth to a baby girl after a textbook delivery at 3.30pm Our congratulations to Mum and Grandparents.

Then news from Sam that a Pointer had gone missing from a neighbour at the ponies.

Sadly only one of our 3 homes came to fruition and that is for Fleur who should go to her new home on Sunday, we are pleased but it does not alleviate the situation here.

Our plan is to change Sandy and Tara over on Monday. Kye will also go into kennels unless something else has come up for him.
Smudge comes back Monday for a week.

24th November





Living With Wolves Dog Training clinic THIS Sunday 27th November 10am/3pm at Pets At Home Godalming.

Gwen Laker, Audrey Hubery and John Laker from Welfare at parliament.

Apparently the parliament meeting went well with Battersea raising all the relevant points relating to Staffies and the problems at this time. Launching their Staffies are softer than you think campaign.





Tara an old lady needing a home

  We remain in crises still coping with several dogs over our limit.
We have still not found a rescue space for Kye and Smudge needs to come back to us for a week as David has a dog coming in for training. Unless we have some movement we have no space whatsoever to take her back.
Tara is becoming stressed in kennels so I have taken the decision to swap her with Sandy. Sandy seems quite happy in kennels (and stressed here) but as Tara does not cope well with change once here she will have to stay until she finds a home.




Kye needs rescue space

  I have had three calls from people who need to rehome their dog or else they will lose their home.
One man was moving into accomodation where he cannot have a dog. It is heartbreaking but how can we help when we cannot cope ourselves.

23rd November



East Anglian Stafford agility team at Discover Dogs Kerry and Rhea back left and Kerry's husband with Neighla, back middle.


The link below  is Battersea at parliament today where members of SBT Welfare were invited.               Click http://www.battersea.org.uk/about_us/media_centre/press_releases/battersea_shows_off.html

Link below shows footage of Stafford Walk :-


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnRAEv1_j3Y&feature=email

We hope to have an article in the Surrey Advertiser either this week or next week

22nd November

Tomorrow John and Gwen laker and Audrey Hubery from SBT Welfare join staff from Battersea Dog And Cats Home at an informal meeting of Parliament where Battersea will launch its recent campaign of promoting Staffies. We wish them well.

I had a lovely time first thing this morning taking the dogs down the garden one at a time and playing with them or clearing leaves in an unhurried way. Not sure why it happens so rarely.
Chance has been neutered, he was a good boy and it was all straightforward, he doesn't seem to have noticed yet and is as bouncy as normal.



Jade

 Best news is we have three possible homes, here's hoping...!

21st November

And we raised  a fantastic £158.50 for funds!

Photos are still coming in, I have added some to yesterdays blog.
Thank you for all your lovely comments.
If some of you who were on the walk and chatted to any of us about training or possibly adopting another dog, do get in touch by email or call me on 01483 578230
Rachy, who missed the walk, with the Staff x Pug we would love to see a photo of your dog do email one across.
Also if anyone has photos please send them in.

We also received a cheque for £400 from Pets At Home Support Adoption for the four days we did there in October. Our thanks to them.

Back to reality we took Kye in as an emergency on Sunday evening. This is the 8 month old who has had a different home for each month of his short life. As he is a cross we are trying to find him a space with another rescue. Having him puts us way over the limit of dogs with us and can only be a temporary measure.



Kye

 We desperately need homes or foster homes, do consider if you could help in this way.
Poor Tara is still in kennels and needs to be in a home asap.



Tara

 Chance is being neutered tomorrow.

20th November

Well our STAFFORD WALK was a HUGE SUCCESS!

Far beyond anything we could have imagined!

http://www.staffiezone.org.uk/discover_dogs_2011_.html


Before I set out I checked my emails only to hear from the people who couldn't make it so I was feeling pretty discouraged when I arrived at 10.15am.
Sam and her Mum Sue, and Roxy were soon there and I booked them in and then someone else came and they just kept coming!

Soon the car park was full of very excited Staffords and it was only 10.50am
We moved down towards the river to try and calm everyone down and then we were off!
You can imagine we made a very impressive presence. Once on the river path everyone settled down, crossing the roads we stopped the traffic and once back outside Pets at Home shoppers were asking us what was going on.
David was accosted by desperate dog owners so that he ran out of cards, someone took a photo of the side of his van to get his details and we left him there still talking to people!
The only thing missing was a hot drink and snack at the finish...maybe next time.

We had 36 dogs and many more people. Everyone behaved responsibly even though some of the dogs were not easy (especially mine) and it passed off without any unpleasant incidents.

My thanks to EVERYONE who came along, special thanks to Sam Keen and her Mum Sue, David and Helen, Sandi (our official photographer ) and Morag who produced our wonderful stickers.

I am going to award prizes.
We had 36 dogs. All Staffords apart from two Collies and a Yorkie called Jo-Jo (prize for being the smallest dog there, and the bravest!)
We had several Staffie crosses Two Staffie x Newfoundland ( prize for being the biggest dogs there)
A very well behaved Staff x Labrador and Ernest Staff x Boxer ( rescue from Acek9 ( Treetops) wins prize for best rescue.
There were 3 quite young puppies one of whom was deaf  Roxy ( special needs prize) with her brother Drake and Maisy who was only 13 weeks ( prize for youngest) and of course dear Smudge (prize for youngest rescue)
Gareth came with Monty! (Prize for travelling furthest) he came all the way from Wiltshire setting off at 8am!
Guildford Staffords included Monty, Hippo,Tara, Sky with their adoptive families. Jade, Sapphire, Chance and Smudge, still waiting for homes.
Several people came without dogs including Ellen  who came on her own (so gets a prize for that ) she took Jade and coped with her very competently despite Jade barking for almost the entire walk ( she shares the prize for the noisiest with Rex)
Hippo wins a prize as Guildford Stafford celeb and the Stafford with shortest legs!
Sandi wins a prize as best turned out owner in her Welfare Deed not Breed pink tee shirt and matching wellies!
Kathy and Alan with Bella and Jess with Buster all win a prize for coming when they were nervous about their dogs. Bella and Buster both did really well and well done to you guys for turning up and taking part.

Everyone was asking when was the next one going to be....

19th November

STAFFORD WALK TOMORROW!

Tomorrow is our big day. Looks as if the weather is set fair. We do hope many of you join us.
The purpose of the walk is to show publicly what good dogs Staffords can be with responsible owners.


Daisy and Honey at Discover Dogs

 We hope it to be a positive experience for all who come along.

Dogs will have to remain on leads throughout. Even if your dog is O.K. others may not be. We will have a number of 'reactive' dogs there and we want to encourage owners who are not normally brave enough to attend such events, to come along but we do not want to spoil it by others being inconsiderate or insensitive.

Our behavourist David Egan from 'Living With Wolves,' will be present and a number of stewards who are experienced trainers will also be on hand ( in high viz gear )

We have also printed out some guidelines which will be handed out to each walker plus a sticker and poo bag!

Can't wait now to meet you all.  Let's change public opinion....let's  WALK OUR STAFFORDS WITH PRIDE!