Dog Rescues UK

I am going to have a bit of a rant so if you are in a good mood then don't read any further.
Something is happening in the dog world, dog rescues are cropping up everywhere and no one seems to be particularly interested in why the explosion, who is the governing body for a dog rescue centre/charity/hobby/society? Firstly I will give 2 examples of recent rescues:
A 6/7 year old collie when viewed was in a crate in a hallway with dogs in crates above him, no history with the dog at all and not sure of his charactor with other dogs as he had not mixed. The other room viewed in this house had wall to wall crates all stacked on top of each other and to stop any barking the lady went down the crates spraying the dogs faces with water, this included a crate with pups in. The Collie was rehomed by my friend, and when re-registered with petlog (he had a microchip)  she was able to find out his previous name and what area he had come from.
So this particular rescue, stacks dogs in crates.......is that right or wrong?
Next example, a young labrador found as a stray, 7 days wait at a rescue before he is rehomed, he has a collar with his name and phone number on, but no one is answering the phone!. On the 8th day the dog is rehomed, the rescue centre microchips him and sends him to his new home with medication for Kennel Cough as there is no point treating him at the kennels!!!!!! this dog had a skin problem and went to a different vet immediately and he actually had 2 microchip numbers and was easily traced to his original home. The outcome was that although traced to his first owner, he remained in his second home and was re-registered with the new details.
So this particular rescue did not run any checks on the dogs microchip, is that right or wrong?

Petlog charges to log your dog onto a database, they record your details and it is a business.
Can someone tell me why a rescue centre cannot make a phone call to Petlog when a dog which is microchipped is found. Surely a well run dog rescue would inform petlog that they are the guardians of the dog, and to safeguard that dog, their details should remain with petlog forever even as a second contact number.

In the UK a few years back, all the talk was about the terrible puppy farmers mainly located in Wales. So many campaigns to try and stop people buying these pups as if people didn't buy the puppies then puppy farms would not have been  such a viable business.Puppy Farmers made money......
So a dog rescue which is bringing in 40 dogs a month from Ireland, and placing the dogs in foster homes until  new homes are found, good idea? or when you hear that within a very short period of time one dog is rehomed into its forever home 3 times.....hmmm  it costs £200 to cover costs, non refundable per dog! so three homes means £600 for that dog. Guess what, this particular rescue is bringing in rather alot of puppies!!!!

So is there an answer? I think if you want to rescue a dog then be prepared to do some research and don't just be fooled into looking at websites where you can almost order your perfect dog or a website that features 'donate' buttons more than they talk about who they are. I am not against dog rescue, sadly we need them and there are some fantastic people out there who are doing a grand job for the love of dogs. At the end of the day, a dog doesn't choose where it is born, and all these dogs coming from Ireland are being found homes and having new and fantastic lives, my only fear is that no one seems to be monitoring the volume of dogs that are now flooding our Country.

When Julian and I last travelled through the tunnel on our way back from Belguim, we pulled up next to a large white van at the pet passport office. The van had Romanian plates and was crammed full of dogs bedded down in crates lying on straw, there was a dispute between the occupants of the van as a charge was being made of over 300 euros, was this a tax for commercially traded dogs? we moved away from the van as Martha was scared of all the barking and growling, so those poor dogs had been in that van for how long? and where were they going?

Still in Belguim there was a fantastic documentary on the television about the problems of pedigree puppies with forged paperwork coming from Slovakia ( I think although I could be wrong).These puppies were being sold with pet passports which showed they were a certain age and had been vaccinated against rabies. A few checks on these pups showed they had no immunity against rabies, and that the stickers in the passports were fake as were the batch numbers written. So who in the UK is checking whether all these puppies and dogs entering the UK are not doing so with forged paperwork, if it is happening to France and Belguim then it will be happening here.

There are some wonderful charities out there folks, who are making a difference by helping the dogs in their Country of Birth, http://www.animalsos-sl.com/index.html and they need help but you have to look for the donate button!!!!
I am not an expert, nor have I spent hours researching my view on this blog I have just stumbled across and been listening to accounts of some dog rescues and alarm bells are sounding......am I really inferring that money is being made? at £150-£200 a dog or from overseas can cost you £600 , it seems impossible or is it a case of the quantity of dogs and puppies that make it more viable.

I shall end how I started......Who is the governing body for 'Dog Rescue'

Naughty Hallie

Now this settee was bought for us (Humans) to be able to sit in the evenings and  have some quality time in the kitchen with the dogs. Hallie has different ideas about the settee, it is certainly her launch pad for attacking Bobby as he walks past, if she stands on the arms of the settee she has a great view of the entire kitchen and as she is now a qualified counter-surfer she can see any food left out from her increased height! We have a few times managed to quietly sit on the settee without her knowledge as if she spots you, her manners disappear and within seconds she will land on your lap, throw herself backwards for the ultimate tummy rub. It is rather sweet, but I do wonder what would happen if someone ever came to our house that didn't like dogs.
Hallie is growing up rather nicely, she has a brilliant coat still and a lovely brown hue to her curls, so some days she looks completely brown and other days she looks black, its a bit like owning 2 dogs.The best news of all is that Bobby has learnt to share his toys with Hallie, they spend most of their time together and the best game is a piece of cardboard that measures an inch square, they must both hold it with just one tooth, and their heads look like one, but hey it keeps them quiet and they seem to enjoy the challenge!

Importing a barbet

Good news for our breed.
January 1st 2012, the quarantine/importing rules are being relaxed inline with the rest of Europe.
This will mean that a barbet can come into the Country at 16 weeks, after he/she has had a rabies vaccination at 3 months, and then the standard 21 day wait.
This really does mean a green light for new barbet bloodlines, which can only be good news for our limited genepool.
Our breed does like most breeds need socialisation from an early age, importing at 11 months old means that a new owner misses those vital months and its hard to expect breeders overseas to give a puppy the one to one attention it needs.