Happy Birthday Lottie!!!!

Amazingly a whole year has passed since we adopted Lottie, AKA the brindle rocket. She's now also 5 years old (we adopted her on her birthday).

Looking back at my first blog entries, I can see how nervous we were about getting a greyhound and the changes that it'd entail for our relatively care-free lifestyle.

In the end it turned out that our fears were unfounded.

A Nervous Start

Lottie was initially very nervy (she trembled all the way home when we picked her up), but she quickly adjusted and slotted right in. I remember writing in one of my first blog entries "In just 6 weeks she's settled in and started to come out of her shell"

It now seems really funny to think that she struggled with alien concepts such as stairs and believe it or not sofas. Nowadays of course she owns our sofas. Stairs are not a problem in the least - they provide access to the upstairs bed for canine sprawling purposes.

Instead of waiting downstairs as we go up the stairs, whining pitifully, Lottie is usually first up or down, bolting past us and waiting at the top or bottom of the stairs, just in case there's a walk or treat up for grabs.

Another unexpected bonus of adopting a retired greyhound has been the amazing community of greyhound owners we've met.

There's a real Greyhound mafia - Most greyhound owners tend to stay in touch. Best of all, Lottie has a lot of regular playmates that she likes to zoom around the dog park with at improbable speeds. Many greyhound owners have since become firm friends.

Ninja Food Thievery

In the early stages of Lotties adoption, counter surfing was a common occurrence. (I had even considered calling her insinkerator given her penchant for ninja-like food thievery). Having only ever owned small dogs before, we were completely unprepared for the giraffe like necks of greyhounds, not to mention their uncanny ability to reach food on benchtops.

One particularly epic counter-surf saw Lottie stealing some fillet steak,packaging and all. We caught her chomping into it and realised to our horror that she'd eaten the clingfilm wrapped around the steak.

We rushed her off to the after-hours emergency vet, who promptly gave her meds to induce vomiting.

Lottie duly complied.

Even though partially digested and chewed steak materialised, there was no sign of the clingfilm.

Stressed out, tired and several hundred dollars poorer, we headed home - only to find the clingfilm had been bundled into the trash with the mangled and chewed steak packaging.

Perhaps the biggest milestone with Lottie was obedience. No matter what any greyhound expert tells you, remember this: The way to a greyhounds brain is through their stomachs.

Like most greyhounds, our girl is food obsessed and will do anything for a treat. Once we learnt this there was no looking back and Lottie passed obedience with flying colors. The fact both Shelly and Sonya, the instructors are also amazing with dogs and people also made a huge difference.

Bomber: Best Friends Fur-Ever

In what must be the ultimate endorsement of Greyhounds, we decided we liked life with Lottie so much that we'd adopt another greyhound. Not so long afterwards Bomber, a big black ex racer boy originally from Australia arrived. Lottie and him bonded really quickly and are now inseparable best friends fur-ever. It isn't unusual to see then curled up on a sofa together or snuggled up in the back of our car.


What really amazes is just how fast all this seems to have happened. the year with Lottie has literally flown past.

This scares me more than a little because each and every minute I spend with Lottie and Bomber is so unbelievably precious. If only there was a way to slow time!!

If there's things I've learnt from Lottie over the past year, its these:

Live life in the moment. Love what you do and who you are with. Food on the counter is fair game.


Happy Birthday Lottie! We both love you heaps you mad dog!

WTF Copenhagen Zoo??????

A while back I wrote about Copenhagen Zoo's sickening decision to kill Marius, a baby Giraffe. The move angered many animal lovers, myself included and I actively promoted an online petition calling for the resignation of the zoo's director, Beng Holst.

He's still at the zoo and now it seems history is repeating. Yesterday the zoo killed two adult lions and two lion cubs to make room for a new male.

The zoo says they failed to find new homes for the lions and that the new male would have soon killed the other cubs.

I wonder what on earth possessed the zoo to commit such an act when the killing and public dissection of marius was still on the minds of many. Did they really need a new male lion? Were they that short of space that they couldn't rehouse the lions and the cubs in a different enclosure to keep them separate from the new male?

These questions aside, many would be forgiven for doubting that the zoo couldn't find a home for the lions - Copenhagen Zoo said something very similar about Marius before he was killed yet it wasn't long before it came to light that they'd been offered a large sum money to cover Marius's re-homing costs and that a Yorkshire animal park's frantic calls to the zoo, offering to take Marius were ignored.

Although the zoo has agreed not to perform a public dissection on the killed lions, or to feed them to other animals, there are some pretty big questions that need to be asked

Who is doing the public relations for this zoo? Why haven't they been fired given the abysmal job they're doing? Did the zoo's management team even think about the public relations angle given the damage they're doing to the reputation of zoo's all over the world? With the world media spotlight still on them, why invite even more controversy?

Why hasn't Copenhagen's local government stepped in and investigated? There is obviously a clear need for this to happen - Copenhagen zoo must be overcrowded and underfunded if euthanasia is the only option open to them. How many other animals have to die before this happens? Aren't zoo's supposed to be about conservation?

An investigation could at least reveal issues such management incompetence, funding issues or poor resource use.

The bigger issue however is this. Zoo's have long positioned themselves as safe places for animals and they've long been the only places in which some animals can be found as their wild populations have been wiped out.

Yet Zoo's such as Copenhagen all seem to struggle to manage their animal populations - perhaps the focus now needs to become how to re-introduce animals back to the wild rather than killing them because the zoos are out of room/funding or run by psychotic nutters?

Proud Owners!

Last time I wrote, Bomber, our black sweet greyhound boy was still getting to grips with beginners obedience training. His big black furry heart was in the right place, he really wanted to please, but even more importantly, he REALLY wanted to play.

What a difference a few weeks makes. Lots of biscuit training  later the penny (erm dog registration tag) dropped and he started to get the whole sit thing, within days he's figured out "down" and to our astonishment, he even got "stay".

Turns out that Greyhounds like most dogs are poor generalisers, he easily figured the whole sit thing out on a comfy sofa (its what he'd normally do but we added a command and treats), but extending that beyond the comfort of a sofa was one sit too far.

At least until we started to get him comfortable with sitting on the rug, then the floor and then the lawn. since then he's taken to planting his furry butt instantly because he knows he'll be praised or even get a treat.

Eventually obedience class grade out came round. I'd pretty much resigned myself and Bomber to a well earned fail, but then something amazing happened.

He had an irrational urge to be the worlds most obedient greyhound.

First up we were tested on lose lead walking - this is when the dog walks besides you without pulling the lead. Bomber tends to be A.D.D on a lead (or anywhere for that matter), but today he was glued to my side. I'd taken to tickling behind his ear and praising him when he did walk beside me, and it appeared to have paid off.

I was utterly and pleasantly stunned.

Next was sits and downs - Bomber instantly dropped like a stone, planting his behind and giving me an "aren't I good" look.

Once again I was gobsmacked, I gave him a treat, praised him smiling from ear to ear.

He must have heard the smile in my voice because the next grade out exercise was one that I'd been dreading and pretty much knew we'd probably fail on. The dreaded stay.

For grade out he had to sit or stand in the same spot and stay put for at least 10 seconds as I walked away. Trying this at home usually resulted in Bomber going "oh look! [insert distraction here] lets play/run/walk/mooch or do anything but stay put".

Not today. Bomber sat, flopped down on his side and stayed put. Looking perfectly content with his lot in life he was so chilled out he wasn't going budge.

I certainly wasnt complaining and 10 seconds later he's executed the perfect stay. I walked back and praised him, gave him a treat and a cuddle.

Then the instructor said ok lets go for a 20 second stay - I was floored - lightening never strikes twice, would our boy remain flopped out on his side?

40 seconds later (I was so stunned, I actually counted), bomber was still contentedly laying on his side, calmly watching the world pass by. Now I  really was speechless

The final grade out exercise was what is called a recall. An instructor would hold his lead and I'd walk 10-15 metres away and call him. If he ran directly to me without stopping enroute to a) sniff another dogs behind, b) play c) take a leak on something and I could catch his collar, he'd pass.

Having woken up expecting to have a puppy school dropout on my hands that afternoon, I was mentally unprepared for how swimmingly it was all going. Now however it all came down to one final exercise. Would Bomber race to me without getting distracted on the way? Could I catch his collar? Or would he just wig out and go for a zoom around the training compound?

It turned out that my worries were completely unfounded. Bomber raced straight up to me, almost bowling me clean over.

He'd passed! I could almost have cried I was so proud of our previously untrainable boy.

Looking back I think several things figure in Bombers decision to be the worlds most obedient Greyhound on obedience pass out day.

1) Bomber loves to please. Praise is his nectar. He mightn't be super food motivated like our other Greyhound, Lottie, but give him a cuddle, a pat and some kind words and he'll move heaven and earth to get similar attention next time

2) Shelly, the trainer. She is awesome. Not only does she really get dogs, she's also amazing with people. Moreover, she uses plain english to explain how it all works so even a complete ignoramus such as yours truly actually got it.

3) Relationship. Bomber is really bonded with me and my wife. We have got to the stage where we can just about read his mind (he seems to almost have telepathy when it comes to figuring out when a walk or dinner is about to materialise). A good relationship equals trust and comfort and we thankfully have that in spades - the classes also really helped it to develop and blossom too.

So are Greyhounds trainable? Yes, they're really smart dogs.

Proud but sleepy and slightly bored Greyhound and his doggie diploma, held by his well trained treat dispenser.

Greyhounds and training

Bomber our big black greyhound boy is amazing. He's been with us just under 5 months and has become a firm fixture of our household. Our Girl Greyhound, Lottie gets along famously with him and he is an affectionate cuddler. In short, my wife, Lottie and I are all besotted with Bomber, he's the bomb!

Things started getting more fun after we'd entered Bomber into beginner dog obedience classes. Lottie has already passed these classes, and they're a great way to get more connected to your dog.

At least that'd be the case if Bomber wasn't as thick as a (well intentioned) plank. Actually that isn't all that fair. Bomber really wants to please, but like a lot of Greyhounds, he also really REALLY wants to play.

With Lottie we were able to overcome this because she was so highly food motivated. We could keep her focussed with a treat and eventually she'd cotton onto what the command was and what she was being expected to do.

This hasn't quite been the case with Bomber. Getting a greyhound to sit is incredibly difficult and some just refuse to do it. Lottie eventually got it but with Poor wee Bomber its taking a lot of effort.

At first I'd utter the command "sit" and lure him with a treat over his head (starting at his nose so he knew it was something yummy). The plan being that he'd back up his behind and hopefully low it into a sit.

Unfortunately I'd get salivation, an incredibly cute hungry stare but nothing approximating a furry dog bum planting itself on the ground.

Persistence and a lot of treats later we had our first real breakthrough.

Turns out that like many Greyhounds, Bomber has an aversion to sitting on any surface that isn't soft and warm. Who'd have thought that Greyhound behinds were so sensitive? Luring Bomber up onto a sofa and issuing the sit command whilst gesturing with a treat from his nose over his head so he backs towards one of the sofa arms resulted in a sit. I was pleasantly gobsmacked and rewarded him with lots of treats and praise.

He now plants his ass everytime he gets up onto the sofa.The next steps have however been a tad more tricky.

While Bomber will automatically sit when on a sofa, getting him to sit on a normal floor is still a work in progress.

 He so clearly wants to please and like most Greyhounds has a heart of gold. The big question however is can he and will he get sit figured out? With only 2 classes to go before he's graded out it'll be interesting to see if he becomes a puppy drop out or an educated greyhound.

Last year I was lucky enough to spend some quality time with a bunch of Giraffes, in fact I did it twice - the first time was at Sydney's amazing Toranga zoo. As part of a stay over package called the "roar and snore" - I got up close to these gentle giants and fed them, it was a special experience.

This was probably why I leapt at the chance to do it again at Wellington zoo (which is also a really well run zoo). One look into a giraffes big gentle and intelligent eyes and you're hooked - they're really sweet creatures. If you don't believe me, just check out the picture of Marius, a beautiful 2 year old male giraffe formerly at Copenhagen Zoo.

The reason I write this is that I've just heard the sickening news this morning that Copenhagen zoo executed Marius and then publicly dissected him in front of a shocked crowd before feeding his remains to a lion.

Animals being fed to animals mightn't be terribly unusual at zoos, hell animals have to eat, but the really sickening thing about the sensless killing of Marius the baby giraffe was that it was avoidable.

That Marius's days were numbered at Copenhagen was no big secret. The zoo had been petitioned for months by tens of thousands of people. A donor even offered 881,000 euros towards the cost of transporting Marius to another zoo.

The PR flacks at Copenhagen zoo say that there were no zoos who could have taken Marius as he didn't fit the reqirements for genetic diversity (avoiding inbreeding is a huge issue for zoos as wild populations of animals begin to vanish).

Trouble is this has since been proven to be utter bullshit as Yorkshire wildlife park had been frantically trying to call Copenhagen zoo to take Marius. They were ignored and Marius was killed.

So lets just recap.

1) Copenhagen zoo had a surplus giraffe (the refuse to use contraception so inbreeding and over crowding happens)
2) They decided the kill this animal even though tens of thousands of people begged them not to
3) A donor offered a considerable sum of money to cover the cost of transporting this animal to another zoo (881,00 euros is the figure commonly quoted)
4) The Yorkshire wildlife park had offered to take Marius, yet their offer was ignored
5) Marius, a 2 year old male giraffe was executed using a bolt gun
6) His remains were dissected in front of a crowd of startled people, many of whom were young children
7) Marius's dissected remains were then fed to lions

If  like me you are utterly sickened by this revolting PR stunt when this death was avoidable, you are not alone.

A petition has been started that is calling for the official who authorized Marius's death to be fired.

I say that is probably a good start and Copenhagen zoo should be held to account for this obscenity. If you feel similarly sickened, you can sign the petition here

Please share the petition link with everyone you know as this despicable act cannot go unpunished and a clear message needs to be sent so other zoos think twice before doing something similar in the future.

At the time of writing over 120,000 people from around the globe have already signed it. Perhaps there's hope after all. Me, I am off to hug my greyhounds as this whole affair just makes me feel incredibly sad.

Double trouble??

Well here we are 8 months after adopting Lottie, AKA the brindle rocket, our 4 year old greyhound and its gone by incredibly fast. After a recent 3rd degree current affairs show detailed the brutal and horrific nature of what happens to slower, older greyhounds (http://www.3news.co.nz/Shocking-new-greyhound-revelations/tabid/1771/articleID/321231/Default.aspx) we were gobsmacked and horrified in equal measures.

Lottie has been a dream dog, and even though she's had small bursts of finkiness (usually involving counter surfing and food theft), we remain adamant that ex racing greyhounds make amazing pets.

In fact we're so smitten that we've decided to adopt another greyhound. Our motives are admittedly selfish (they are such gorgeous dogs), but the fact remains that we'd be saving another dog from a senseless death and giving it a good environment to live out its post racing years. If more of us did this it'd make a huge difference.

Interestingly adopting raises a few interesting questions and a few minor logistical hurdles.

If we adopt another greyhound, should it be a boy or a girl?

Then there's the not so small matter of transportation.

While we have plenty of room and a large section that is fully fenced, our car is barely practical for transporting one greyhound let alone two. So now we're looking for a greyhound friendly vehicle before we can adopt another gorgeous grey.

Proud Parents (Ermm dog owners)

Proud Parents (Ermm dog owners)

Who'd have ever thought that Lottie, also known as the brindle rocket, destroyer of paper towels, counter surfing ninja extraordinaire was so smart?

She'd been with us since march, and we decided that the time had come for her to go to school. Her first day didn't involve any teary eyed goodbyes at the school gate as we had to take part too. Turns out it was a pretty rewarding process and I'd recommend it to any dog owner.

Thankfully the trainer at central all breeds, shelly wasn't only incredibly personable, but she was also a remarkable teacher and as good at teaching us dumb humans as she was working with our dog (who I suspect is considerably smarter than us sometimes). Prior to obedience classes Lottie wouldn't sit, couldn't be arsed staying and laying down on command? Forget it.

What a difference a few months make. Classes took place on Saturday mornings (which meant dragging our sorry carcasses and a very excited greyhound to the training ground in Aro Valley).

After a few weeks Lottie surprised both of us by demonstrating just how trainable she was. This was due to several factors. First and foremost she is a total slapper when it comes to food and will do almost anything for a treat.

The other (and perhaps most influentual) factor was Shelly who  had  training down to such a fine art that even the most ill behaved (grey) hound couldn't help but eventually work out what was being demanded.

We we gobsmacked when Lottie first sat for us... Greyhounds don't tend to like sitting of the bat, so we had our doubts about Lottie planting her bum on demand.

As it turned out, getting Lottie  to sit was pretty simple. She loved sitting on our sofas, and with the addition of treats we eventually habituated her into associating the sit command with being comfy and getting fed if she planted her butt on the ground.

Before long she was sitting, laying down and staying on command. It turned out she was a pretty fast learner.

Before long the last class was looming large and involved Lottie passing tests to show she knew her stuff. On the day I'd be lying if I said that we weren't nervous, but Lottie did us both proud and passed with flying colours.

Getting lottie trained with basic obedience turned out to be one of the smartest moves we'd made. Not only did we learn a heap more about canines, but we also learned a lot about our dog and she learned a few things about us too. Our already good bond is now even stronger.

Graduation Day