Jutta from Finland writes about her podencos.

‘Our story

In the year 2005 my dear rescue dog, that I had adopted in 1990 from the shelter in Tenerife, died at the age of 15. I was heart broken and swore that I would never ever have another dog. However on the Internet I came across a rescue organization that had been rescuing dogs from Estonia since 2001. I was surprised that they had also few pictures of the Spanish dogs on their page. That of course got my attention as my deceased dog had been from Spain.

Soon I found out that a Finnish woman Miia was looking for homes for these dogs. She had brought her rescue dog from Spain and wanted to find homes for the other shelter dogs from Spain through this organization that rescued dogs from Estonia. Next time I visited the web page, I was in love.

Tami’s age estimate was 8 months and the description said that she liked children and got along with other dogs at the shelter and was energetic. She looked a little like my previous dog and I just knew that I would like to adopt her. There was a mention that Tami is a podenco, a common race in Spain, but I knew practicly nothing about podencos at that time. Anyhow I was prepared to any problems, as I had learned from the discussion forum of the organization that one always has to be prepared to challenges with the rescue dogs. I really did not know what kind of challenges I was going to face with Tami.

My boyfriend and I went to pick Tami up at the airport and she slept in the bus all the way home. When we got home she took all the toys I had bought for her to the bed beside her and went to sleep. I remember we were amazed how sound asleep she was and nothing seemed to disturb her. In the morning we carried her out as she was scared at the stairways. In the following days we realized that she was scared of traffic and cars, she would not move even if she saw a car at the parking lot. Fortunately there was a small forest just behing the building that we could take Tami for a walk. Firs time her temperament started to show as she started to smell and follow the scents of the pathways. We took her to the dog park and she went nuts. I remember we were watching amazed how she ran around the dog park, really fast. I remember saying ‘ I guess we have a greyhound’.

It took almost a year for Tami to get used to the traffic and she was not scared of it anymore. She just paralyzed every time we went near the roads. Slowly we did desensitisation practices and overcame the fear. We also had another challenge. As I did not know that Tami had an extra strong hunting instinct, I let her run free in the beginning. First everything went well and she always game back after a short while. But then one time she stayed away quite a long while and I suddenly heard a strange noise coming from the direction that Tami had gone. It was a hound scream. For a while there was silence, and then the scream started again. Finally after half an hour Tami came back with no catch. I started to wonder if it was safe to keep her free. Well ,she had gotten the rabbit scent to her nose and brain and after that she was going to go after the rabbits even through the barricades.

Tami escaped from the dog park at least five times under the fence. She also escaped a few times from her harness and a few times the locks of the leash opened. I am still very thankful that she always came back – finally, even if it was seven hours that she was gone for the hunt. She could have been driven over by a car many times, as I saw her running across the street, but it was not meant to happen. After my Houdini had proven her skills, I decided that she would not run free anymore. She is now 10 years old and enjoys the walks in the forest. I walk her with a long leash always. We have been to many training courses and Tami loves to work together with people, although she has a mind of her own. We also do different kinds of activies at home (nose work etc. )

A year after Tami arrived, I adopted my second podenco, a mix from the same shelter as Tami (PAD, Malaga). Tami and Blas immediately became friends, although Tami has a very independent nature and likes to stay by her self quite a lot. It is evident that Blas is more of a mixed breed than podenco. He did not have much of a hunting instinct in the beginning, but has learned a lot (unfortunately!) from the best hunting teacher Tami. Blas was abandoned at the shelter by the hunter and Tami was found wandering nearby the motorway in Spain.

It breaks my heart to see that not much has changed in ten years for the hunting dogs in Spain. Still hunters abandon dogs to the perreras without conscience, and kill them and leave them to die, thinking they can wash their hands of the blood, but they cannot. There has to be a new law for Spain and Europe that prohibits abandonement of dogs with a great penalty. Also there has to come strict limitations for the breeding of hunting dogs in Spain in the near future.

Here in Finland we do not have a great problem with abandonment of dogs, fortunately. Most of the escaped dogs end up back with their owners. For example in Helsinki urban area, there are annually only about 10 -20 dogs for adoption. The situation of the dogs is not much worse in the countryside. Most people, that for some reason need to look for a new home for their dog do it themselves, advertising on the Internet and so on.

Of course we also have problems in Finland. I myself am very conserned about the old aversive training methods that still persist among the rescue dog owners and even among rescue organizations. My heart breaks every time I hear that these dogs that have survived terrible conditions, end up to people that do not know how to train the dog without force and aversives. I try to educate people about the positive methods to train.

I administer a Finnish discussion group on F acebook to promote positive training methods (the group is called the Behaviour and Training of Rescue Dogs). I also admininster a web page www.koiratarhat.weebly.com on where I inform people on what they need to know when considering adopting a dog in any country around the world. On my webpage I also update a list of shelters around the world, mainly of the countries that Finnish people go on holiday so that they know where help is needed.

www.koiratarhat.weebly.com

Ed note. I checked with Jutta about Estonia and here is what she explained.

‘I mean Estonia. After the collapse of the Soviet Union the situation of the street dogs in Estonia was really bad. There were few shelters that were in terrible condition. The Finns started to help Estonian dogs in 2001 (Spanish and Romanian dogs since 2005). What gives me hope is that now the situation for dogs in Estonia is million years better than it was 15 years ago. For example there are hardly any street dogs anymore and in capital city Tallinn there is a new well equipped shelter. So I really hope that the same kind of development will come in the near future for Spain and Romania and other southern and Eastern European countries.

By aversive I mean something that the dog dislikes. Abusive methods are one kind of aversive. I quess the term aversive is used only by professional trainers and in the study of behaviour of animals.’