Run Free

Very sorry to report that there will be no more posts from Ci on this blog. He died very suddenly on 15th September 2014, from a pulmonary oedema, aged only eight years old. RIP, little buddy. Run free!

A puppy is never for Christmas

Bonjour mes amis It's been a long time since I updated my blog. But today on ze Twitter, I read a post by a very nice human bean @PeterEgan6 warning all you human beans about the dangers of buying Christmas puppies without seeing where they are bred and, most of all, seeing them with their maman. He showed an article from ze BBC about poor little puppies coming from Ireland where they 'ave been bred in conditions most terrible, and they are very sick, with many illnesses. So I wanted to tell you about ze dog ma maitresse got for me last Christmas. Those of you who have read my little blog will know that I came from the dog shelter, where I was ver' ver' frightened and ver' unhappy. People think that shelters are full only of ze difficult dogs zat nobody wants, but it is not true. Ma maitresse thought I might be happy to have another dog for company, to help me be less frightened all the time. So she looked on her computer and one day she said we were going to Gerzat. Now Gerzat is the shelter I came from so of course I was worried that perhaps she had decided to take me back there. But when we got there, she left me in the van and went inside and a little while later, she came back with another dog! I could see at once that it was another bordaire collee, like me. But it was a fi-fille. And she was ver' pretty, with such a beautiful coloured coat. Maitresse asked if I would let her come and live with us. I wasn't too sure at first - I'm afraid of other dogs because I was so unhappy in the shelter where there were so many of them and I hated the noise all the time. And I never really learned to play. Maitresse said she was called Fleur, was only 18 months old and it was the second time in her short life she had been in the shelter. The first time she had been found straying, with no identification, so she was taken in and rehomed with a young couple. Then they split up and neither of them would take Fleur, so there she was again, back in the shelter. We brought her home and once we got into the garden and could run round together, Fleur asked me if I wanted to play, but I didn't know how. So she started to teach me, and very soon we were having a wonderful time, running round and round in circles. She was ver' fast, I had to run ver' fast to catch up. I was a leetle bit jealous to begin with, but she is now my ver' best friend, after ma maitresse. She was always clean in the house, she is ver' nice with people and helps me to understand they are not all bad. She loves to learn and is ver' clever - we both go to dog school together and are top of our classes. So you see, mes amis, the dogs homes are full of lovely dogs with no problems who are just there through no fault of their own. So please, please - don't buy these poor sick little puppies that are bred on these terrible puppy farms. You will only condemn more dogs to years of terrible suffering. Please consider adopting a dog instead, like me or Fleur. There are lots of young dogs like us who would be so very grateful for a new start in life. So here are

some pictures of Fleur teaching me to play. I hope they will encourage you to go and have a look in your nearest shelter.

Please try to understand us not choke us

I haven't updated my blog for a few weeks. Ma Maitresse has been busy writing her book. But she said I could borrow ze computer today to write with because I saw something on Twitter this morning which upset me very much.

It was re-posted by my friend @widgetty who is a very nice human bean who understands us animals, but it was about something very bad, so I couldn't stay quiet.

It's about someone who is selling collars which are designed to cut off a dog's air supply to stop them from being "dominant" and aggressive. You can read all about them for yourself here http://leerburg.com/746.htm

Now I am a dog who can be very aggressive, to people and dogs I don't know. And I can tell you quite simply why I am, and why almost every other dog which is called aggressive,is like that. I'm quite simply terrified.

Never mind any of this dominance nonsense. I don't want to be dominant, I want to be small and invisible so no-one notices me and leaves me alone. But when people come near me, I do the only thing I know to make them go away - I bark and growl and snarl. And it works, they usually go away. I don't chase after them and attack them because they've done what I wanted them to do - left me alone.

Now ma maitresse understands my fear and tries to help me. Sometimes she gets things wrong because she is only a human bean and she gets frustrated and even shouts at me. But I know she would never, ever deliberately do anything to cause me any pain or damage.

These collars, it says, are specifically designed to show the dog who is boss by cutting off its air supply. I'm only a leetle French dog, but I can't understand how that is even legal. It is so very dangerous, because it's not just the air to the lungs that can be cut off but the oxygen supply to the brain. Ma maitresse used to do judo and she was telling me about strangle holds, shime-waza, which can cause unconsciousness in a matter of seconds. And serious brain damage if maintained for too long.

I don't read heenglish all that well but I can't see anything in this article which stresses how very dangerous it can be to cut off oxygen supply to the brain, even for a few seconds. I can't see anything which shows people in detail how to avoid putting pressure on a dog's carotid artery, which would do just that. I can't see anything which tells people how long it is suggested that they deprive their dog of oxygen.

And I have to tell you, that in my humble dog opinion, the answer to that is never. Not at all. Ever.

If I bark because I am afraid, choking the air out of me is the last thing I need.

Please, anyone, no matter how desperate you are because of your dog's behaviour, I urge you, do not go down this root. There are lots and lots of nice human beans out there who can show you a different way. Ma maitresse has Grisha Stewart's BAT book, which has helped us both, and likes http://intellidogs.com/ for really simple, practical advice.

I am asking you all please, on behalf of my canine cousins everywhere, just to think hard about this. If your teenage son or daughter was shouting at you aggressively, would you think it acceptable to put them in a chokehold and cut off their air?

And if you answer no, please explain to me why you think it would be acceptable for your dog?

My Christmas wish came true!!

I eez a very lucky little dog. Just a few days ago, I was telling my friends how more needs to be done to heducate the public about not buying puppies from pet shops because 95% of them are bred on puppy farms which are very VERY bad places.

And because it is so close to your human bean Christmas, pet shops are full of puppies which the public are happily buying, without knowing the horror that lies behind these poor puppies.

Then today on Twitter I saw this wonderful video youtu.be/InmKjGZGx98 which has been made to show people what puppy farms are really like.

Please, PLEASE, all my lovely human bean friends, can you send this video link to everybody you know to try to let more and more people understand that puppy farms are not nice places. In fact if you read my last blog post, you will see that I think they should really be called something else, like puppy mills or puppy factories, because that is much more what they are like.

But someone has now made this wonderful information video and that gives me hope that one day soon, perhaps in my lifetime, everyone will know the true story behind puppy farming and will ban this terrible trade forever.

Thank you, mes amis and please don't even think about buying a puppy from a pet shop.

What's in a name?

I've been having such fun opening the doors of the advent calendar on the Intellidogs site http://advent.intellidogs.com/ Ma maitresse has been helping me enter some of the competitions. She wants me to wear a silly hat for one of them but I'm not sure.

It's full of very interesting articles about dogs. But also some stories that make me a little bit sad. Take poor Lillie on Day 10, who so desperately needs a nice home for Christmas. Her story is particularly sad because although she is a beautiful lady, she is 12 years old and it is always so hard to find homes for older dogs.

That's because you human beans much prefer to buy puppies. And according to a programme I saw recently on your heenglish television, some of you even like to buy tiny little ones which you call teacup puppies which even I can tell are very poorly little puppies who, if they live at all, are going to cost you thousands of your heenglish pounds in special care to keep them alive.

And, those of you who read my humble little blog, will know what's coming next - that brings me onto the subject of puppy farming. There was a very interesting debate on http://advent.intellidogs.com/ about how to educate you human beans to the reality of puppy farming.

Now I'm only a leetle dog, and a French one, too, whose heenglish is not very good. But I really think you heenglish are using the wrong name for these dreadful places. Ma maitresse wrote this for me on that site: "Strange that this should pop up today as I was just going to help him (Ci) with his latest blog about the phrase 'puppy farming'. Because he has a theory that the very name is part of the problem.

Because the public know animals are born and raised on farms. They probably retain a nostalgic image of a jolly farmer’s wife in her gingham apron with a crowd of scampering puppies around her feet as she feeds the free-range chickens – in the sunshine, of course.

So to the average member of the public, the term puppy farm probably suggests an idyllic upbringing for a puppy and indeed, the very place from which one should buy a puppy.

Our American cousins are probably nearer the mark with puppy mills. After all, the phrase “dark Satanic mills” is graphically engraved into many people’s minds and probably conjures up an image which is far nearer to the truth."

That's what I believe. I don't think all the human beans who buy farmed puppies are bad people and I really believe some think they are doing the right thing in buying from a "farm".

So I think they need to be shown what puppy farms are really like. It would cost a lot of money to have adverts on your heenglish television, but that would be a quick and effective way to let people know.

Me and ma maitresse have just been back to the dog's home where I came from and brought home a little fi-fille dog called Fleur. I was a bit jealous to begin with but she is very pretty and very well behaved, only 18 months old, clean in the house and so grateful to have a new forever home.

I do hope everyone who reads my little blog will find room in their heart and their home this Christmas for a wonderful older lady like Lillie or for any one of the thousands of dogs in overcrowded refuges, just waiting for your visit.

Merci, mes amis and 'appy Christmas to you all.

Have you been sold a pup?

You human beans have some very strange expressions, especially in your heenglish language. I heard recently that you use the phrase "to be sold a pup" to mean buying something that's not worth what you thought it was, to be swindled. It seems it comes from an old trick of selling someone a sack supposedly containing a piglet when in fact it contained a puppy.

What set me on my research of these funny expressions was something I read on Twitter, written by a very nice human bean called @hen4 who looks after animals and loves nature, so I like her. She'd seen two men in different cars, parked in a motorway service station, doing a deal over a very small puppy.

What's wrong with that, you may ask? Well let me tell you, mes amis, it is never, ever, a good idea to buy a puppy from someone who offers to meet you anywhere other than the place where the puppy was bred. Before you even think of buying a puppy, you need to visit it at the breeder's, see it with its mother, if possible see the father, and see the conditions in which it was born and raised.

See how it reacts with people, with its siblings, with strange sights and sounds. Find out how much socialisation it has received, whether it has had all the required vaccinations and health checks. See for yourself if the conditions in which it has been raised are clean, safe and suitable.

And if the seller does everything in their power to prevent you from visiting their premises, there is never, ever a good reason. They aren't being kind and considerate by saving you the journey. They're trying to stop you from visiting what is almost certainly a puppy farm. And if you don't know what a puppy farm is and why many human beans and dogs like me are trying to get them banned, then do some simple research and find out about them. There's plenty of information on the internet; here are a couple of sites to start you on your search. http://www.puppylovecampaigns.org/ and http://www.puppywatch.force9.co.uk/

Because if you don't care about animal welfare, and if you don't I shall come round and bite your legs, then consider the financial risks you will be taking. Because puppy farm pups are often not healthy at all. They often don't get vaccinated and may arrive at your home carrying terrible illnesses like parvo virus. And the resulting vets' bills can cost you hundreds and hundreds of pounds. And there's no guarantee your new puppy will survive. So does you car park purchased puppy still sound like a good buy or are you being sold a pup?

And when you've made the decision to get a dog, ask yourself if, rather than buying an expensive puppy, possibly bred on a puppy farm, you couldn't instead give a home to one of the thousands of dogs in shelters and rescue centres everywhere, many of whom are puppies and young dogs.

Thousands of perfectly healthy dogs are destroyed every year in Britain, simply because no homes can be found for them. Those of you familiar with my blog will know I'm a rescue dog, though not from a puppy farm. I'm a nervous dog, so tend to be very suspicious of people, except ma maitresse. But there are lots of dogs in homes who are absolutely 100% kind and gentle and would love a new forever home.

Couldn't your New Year's resolution be to give a good home to just one of them? Wouldn't that be better than being sold a pup?

Are you humans really top dog?

It's been a while since I put paw to keyboard. Even though I'm only a dog, sometimes when I hear the things you human beans do to us animals, I am lost for words. So many of you still have the old fashioned idea that all us dogs can't wait to be leader of the pack in your homes, and that's the reason for any and all of our behaviour that doesn't suit you.

I read this very interesting article about someone who had to put right the harm done by people who still believe this so-called dominance theory is correct. http://www.apbc.org.uk/Dog-Whispering-Can-Backfire This Mat Ward sounds like a very nice sensible human bean. I wish there were lots more like him.

Let me tell you a little bit about growling and why us dogs do it. Even though I've been with my human bean for 18 months now, having come from the rescue kennels, we are still learning things about each other, and learning to trust one another. So sometimes I growl at her. And yes, I admit, sometimes I even snap.

But that's not me saying I am top dog in this pack and don't you forget it. On the contrary, that's me saying something really scary is going on around me which I neither understand nor like, and you're pushing me a bit too hard, too fast, to accept it. I'd like you to deal with the scary thing, please, and let me just stay in my corner well away from it. And if you insist I come out and face my phobia, I'll just have to resort to biting you to try to explain how scared I am.

Now my human bean is trainable enough to understand this most of the time and she does her best. But there are still far too many out there who suggest dealing with us frightened dogs by “scruffing” or “pinning” us. Both of these methods seem to involve grabbing us by the neck in a way that hurts and throwing us to the floor. I can't think of anything that would terrify me more, nor make me more likely to bite in self-defence.

Today my human bean clearly had a touch of the sun. She bought a strange machine which made a noise and when she ran it over my coat all my lovely hair finished up on the floor. She said it was to make me feel cooler in the heat. She put my Baskerville muzzle on me, just in case, and explained carefully what she was doing and spoke quietly whenever I growled, so after a while, she got most of it done. If she'd grabbed me and shaken me, I'd have been doubly convinced the machine was dangerous and painful and wouldn't have let her try again. Ever.

There are a lot of “experts” out there who claim to be Dog Whisperers or Dog Listeners. They all seem to share a belief in dominance being at the root of everything dogs do. That means they haven't the slightest working knowledge of the language Canis, which is very complicated. “Grrr” has as many different meanings to dogs as “snow” has to Eskimos. It can mean “I'm going to bite you” or it can mean “I don't want to have to bite you but you're putting me in a situation where I see that as my only option”. Anyone who can't tell the difference is putting themselves and their dog in danger.

Human beans are supposed to be the most intelligent species, yet you persist in wasting time trying to get us to learn your strange language, without taking the trouble to learn even the basics of ours. No wonder dogs have so many problems in your company.

I believe you human beans have to take a theory and a practical test before you're allowed to drive one of your motor cars. What a pity you don't have to do the same before you can have a dog.

If you don't speak Canis, there's no shame in admitting it and getting help from a proper interpreter who does. You only have to look at the APBC website to find one near to you. http://www.apbc.org.uk/ Their people are fluent in Canis, and Equus and Felis, and lots of other animal languages too.

Have you ever had problems in a foreign country when something goes wrong and people are crowded round you all shouting at once in a language you don't understand? Imagine how you would feel if, when you were trying to tell them you simply didn't understand, they suddenly resorted to violence, shaking you by the neck, throwing you to the ground and pinning you there. Then imagine the relief if someone came along who spoke both languages and could explain everything clearly to you and the others.

Sound familiar? Which do you think your dog would prefer?