Oof! What a day, what a week! Between Hug stuff and life stuff, it's been hard to find time to write here.
Anyhow, good news - Jolie has found a foster home! A warm welcome to Amba and Travis, her new foster parents, who will be meeting her and bringing her home on Friday. Jolie will have a cute and cranky Peke girl, also a rescue, to keep her in line in her foster home. If all goes well, this might be one of those fosters that just doesn't leave...
The other girls are doing well also:
Gorgeous George is full of beans on her walks as always, but, as it turns out, is somewhat of a couch potato (or bed potato I suppose) inside now that she's settled in. She's also in heat - yuck! Huge credit to her poor foster mom for putting up with that. Georgie will of course be spayed, but not until her mange clears up. No pictures of George yet, but her foster mom promises to send some soon.
Bree just got back from a trip up to Kamloops, where she had a blast running around with her doggy foster brothers. Her foster family provided some wonderful pics (thanks guys!):
I'm also happy to announce that Ozzy/Pig has found his forever home...with Shelagh! His new name is Otis, and he's promising to shape into a lovely little ambassadog. Congratulations Shelagh and Otis, and a big thanks to Brenda and family for fostering this little gem.
Other news: HugABull's Pit Ed classes are finally getting up and rolling, with classes set to start in Vancouver the first week of July, and registration filling up quickly. Chilliwack classes set to start within the next few weeks also, we're just trying to pin down a day that works for both instructors. We're very excited about the Pit Ed classes, and will be sure to post about them here once they're underway.
And finally, some food for thought, that, while not directly Hug related, is definitely breed related... As you may or may not know, my husband Owen and I are foster parents to special needs children. We also have three dogs that are all considered "Pit Bulls" for legislative purposes (two are pit mixes, but breed bylaws, where they exist, target mixes as well). While this has raised a few eyebrows throughout the course of our fostering, historically, social workers have always been won over upon meeting our dogs, and seeing them interact with the children. That is, until recently. In response to a growing concern for the safety issues surrounding children in dogs, sparked by numerous biting incidents involving children in care or under protection investigations, MCFD and CLBC, two of the agencies responsible for overseeing the care and safety of BC's children, have drafted a new policy to address the issue. The new policy aims to evaluate the risks posed by dogs in foster homes or homes with child protection concerns, and to reduce the risks.
The policy is good, in essence. It provides guidelines for families, such as keeping children's toys and dogs' toys seperate, feeding dogs away from children, not tethering dogs, and never leaving a child under 3 unsupervised with a dog, even for a moment. There's plenty of useful information around child development as it pertains to safety around dogs, and ways to reduce the risk of a bite. Where the policy falls short is in that it is left to the discretion of each individual social worker whether or not to implement it with the homes on their caseload. In other words, while the policy itself is not breed specific, because it's not uniformly and mandatorily applied, it leads to breed discrimination.
In our case, the worker who's caseload we fall under admittedly has a breed bias. She is uncomfortable with large dogs in general, and has a strong fear and dislike of Pit Bulls. Meeting my dogs, and reviewing the literature I provided her with (HugABull's pamphlet and the book "Dogs bite but Balloons and Bedroom Slippers are More Dangerous") did little to alleviate her concerns. Due to her apprehensions about Pit Bulls, our worker is asking that Owen and I complete and submit the risk assessment, along with an information package on each of our dogs, extolling their virtues (basically trying to make up for the fact that they are *gasp* Pit Bulls). This package is to include a letter of reference from a veterinarian, testifying to each of our dogs' temperament, as well as proof of their being current on vaccinations, licensing, etc. Basically, if I can somehow magically transform my dogs into any breed other than that which they are, my life will become infinitely easier...
Now really, I don't mind doing this. Discrimination always sucks, no two ways about it, but, being a bullie enthusiast, owner, and advocate, I'm pretty used to it by now. However, it does rankle me that this policy isn't being uniformly applied. I think it has so much potential to protect children from dog bites, but it needs to be implemented in EVERY home with a dog, whether that dog is a Chihuahua or a Rottweiler. I also think there's room to do more with this policy - I believe that for foster families with dogs, a basic obedience course should be mandatory. A simple 8 week basic obedience course reduces the risk of that dog biting someone by 85%!
Here's the good news: HugABull has the opportunity to draft a package/proposal to the creator of this policy, putting forth our own recommendations. Now, there's no guarantee they'll be followed, but I say it's worth a shot!
Danielle
