22nd New Zealand Companion Animal Conference

On Monday October 31st and Tuesday November 1st 2011 we attended the 22nd New Zealand Companion Animal Conference held at the Stamford Plaza Hotel in Auckland.

For those of you who have never heard of the New Zealand Companion Animal Council or NZCAC, it is a collection of organisations and individuals who meet four times a year to discuss events and issues that affect companion animals and some working animals. It also acts as a driving force for positive changes through submissions to the government, and has been instrumental in driving the writing of draft codes of welfare for a range of species. Each year the NZCAC holds the New Zealand Companion Animal Conference which focuses on a specific topics and brings keynote speakers from around the world to speak on a wide range of topics, along with local and regional speakers to provide depth and breadth.

This years keynote speaker was Jonathan Balcombe from the Humane Society University (HSU) and he gave two very interesting and engrossing talks over the two days - one about his new book the Exultant Ark, and the other on the inner lives of animals. These were interesting talks for so many reasons, and we are all planning on reading his books to see more about what he was talking about. Ideas included animals doing things for pleasure, and about animals showing memory and emotions. For some people these would seem anthropomorphic ideas, but they are really just common sense. Jonathan was an engaging and energetic speaker who had a passion for his topic and really encouraged people to connect with what he was saying. If his books are anywhere as engaging as his presentations then they will be well worthwhile reading.

Another interesting speaker was New Zealander Annie Potts, an Associate Professor and Co-Director of the New Zealand Centre for Human-Animal Studies. Most people think of chickens as stupid (bird brained) brains that don't deserve the same protections as other animals because they are just a food source. Annie had an amazing presentation that was really too short as she obviously had to shorten parts of her presentation to fit into the time frame. While there was an element of trying to educate people about the cruelty of the food production around chickens and eggs, it was more about opening our eyes about chickens as a species that has a lot to give, a companion animal species with all the quirks and affection of cats and dogs. Some of the chickens that Annie mentioned by name were real characters that brought a smile to your face, and the history of the chicken and the development of farming practices way back in Ancient Egypt and China was a real eye opener. She has a book coming out shortly about the chicken and again if the book has the same charisma as he talk it will be a fascinating read.

Another speaker, Russell McMurray from Victoria in Australia talked about the campaign to stop tail docking in Victoria. This was an amazing talk as it showed some of the mind blowing advertising they used, and showed the alarming fact that most people thought that docked breeds were born that way, and once people understood Boxers and other breeds were born with tails, there was a change of public opinion. The presentation also showed the sad fact that people will try and come up with any loophole they can to do what they want, including sending bitches to New Zealand to have their pups so the puppies can be legally docked here before being sent back to Australia. It really is time for a change, if you are docking tails merely because it is the breed standard that is not good enough.

This year also saw the return of Steve Glassey from Massey University. Steve spoke at the conference in Christchurch last year and had some fascinating, and scary, facts for people following the September 2010 earthquake. Steve was joined by representatives of the SPCA and VERT who had worked through the aftermath of the February 2011 earthquake that caused so much devastation in Christchurch. Their presentation left everyone very moved (there were more than a few tears around the room) and Steve and the panel again raised the fact that people need to be prepared for their animals as well as themselves. There are some simple things you can do to help with an evacuation situation:

• Make sure you animal is microchipped (not just your dogs) - something like 85% of microchipped animals were reunited with owners within 2 hours
• Have a carry cage for every cat you own - not just one cat cage for all your cats
• If you have dogs look at getting a muzzle - muzzled dogs are safer for everybody to transport Keep an emergency kit for your pets as well - food, water, and basic first aid supplies

Overall this was a great conference and the chance to network was amazing, and there are so many people there who were interested in talking to us about who the dogs were and the jobs they do. We are all looking forward to the 2012 conference in Wellington.

Isn't it cruel?

One of the surprising questions we get every now and then is people asking us (or pointing out to us) that training dogs to work with people with disabilities is inhumane or downright cruel. For all of these people we have a simple answer that we then expand on - the dogs love the work, and if they didn't we wouldn't have them working or training. The welfare of our dogs is very important to all of us, and all of our dogs enjoy their work and the time they spend with their puppy raisers, trainers, and handlers.

We ask all of our clients to ensure their dogs have a minimum time each day where they can relax, chill out, and just be dogs. Where possible we ask for some of this time to be spent off leash playing with other (suitable) dogs - this helps the dog experience a different kind of exercise, introduces them to new environments, and allows them to really burn off some energy. This isn't always possible for all of our handlers or clients, so for them we ask instead that a minimum time is spent each day where the dog can play, relax, or just generally be a dog. Dogs learn a great deal through play, and play can be a wonderful bonding tool, particularly for new handler and dog teams.

We also strive to educate all our potential clients about the needs of the dog, ensuring that they understand their disability assist dog is a living, breathing animal who has needs and feelings. We have only had one person sd far who has not gotten this concept, and needless to say they are not one of our clients. So far the dogs coming into the programme that are privately owned already have strong bonds with their owners, and the owners have all shown an intense interest in maintaining the psychological as well as physical welfare of their dogs.

On our Facebook page we maintain a photo album called "dogs just wanna have fun" where we post some of the photos we have taken of the dogs out and about individually or as a group where they have been able to relax and have some fun.

Here is a photo taken yesterday of Angus at one of his favourite off leash parks, you can easily see that he is happy, healthy, and enjoying life. At times it may seem difficult to balance the needs of clients with disabilities and disability assist dogs - but if you make good matches then the bond that develops between the handler and their dog, and the dog and their handler makes almost anything possible.

Welcome to the family

Perfect Partners has a new member of the family, a black Labrador puppy which has been named Angus (Gus for short). The past few weeks have seen Gus settling into city life after, a big change for a young puppy who grew up in the country near the scenic Lake Taupo.

He has been a wonderful addition to the Perfect Partners family, settling in well with his puppy raising family and his new friends Odin and Dini. Gus has started going on outings in the past two weeks, starting with small short trips, building up to a trip to Sylvia Park which is possibly the busiest mall in New Zealand. His first trip to Sylvia Park he travelled in style in the shopping trolley on a towel (for hygiene), but on his most recent trip he spent most of the time walking on his own four feet meeting people and learning to follow his puppy raisers lead.

We look forward to updating you all with further progress about Angus and his training, and about the other dogs in the programme. New adult dogs have recently entered the programme and we now have clients from all over the Auckland region, as well as clients in the South Island. We have been receiving a lot of email queries, and we are working through these as quickly as we can.

Taking a deep breath

The last few months have been an amazing (and at times frantic) experience. Since the PPADT gained the ability to certify dogs for public access in December we have been meeting with a wide variety of people to assess their dogs for work as Disability Assist Dogs, taken people through our public access test, and talked to people who are interested in either a Disability Assist Dog or a Skilled Companion Dog. In January we even ventured as far as Timaru and Christchurch to meet with potential clients and clients in the area.

We have met some lovely people, and some amazing dogs over the past few months, and judging by the number of emails we are receiving at the moment we are likely to meet many more people over the coming months. If you have emailed us and the response is taking more than a week then please email us again as occasionally some of our emails vanish into the blackhole of the internet.

We have recently been in contact with a person who may be donating a puppy to the Trust from a litter of Labrador puppies. This is exciting for us as it means that we can reduce the amount of fundraising that we need to do as the purchase price of a puppy is usually $1,000 - $1,500. If one of the puppies is a suitable candidate then we will soon have a new puppy in training, so watch the website, and watch this space.

If you are interested in donating a puppy, or if you are interested in being a puppy raiser for the Trust then please email us with your details. At the moment we are only looking for puppy raisers in the Auckland region, but that will change in time as more support becomes available throughout the country.

If you have visited our page on Facebook you may have seen the photographs that were recently taken of Odin, who belongs to one of the Trustees. The photographs were taken by the PixieFoto team at Sylvia Park, and the high quality images are perfect for promotional work for the Trust.

If you have any comments or questions then please do not hesitate to contact the Trust. You can find out more about us by visiting our website or you can become a fan on Facebook. Or you can email us via contact_ppadt@yahoo.com