Featured in the Nation’s “Sunday Sun” was the Hope Sanctuary, an organisation in Barbados which rescues cats and dogs, cares for them and tries to help by rehoming the animals.
The Hope Sanctuary was started in 2003 and rents a location which currently houses over one hundred dogs and over twenty-five cats. According to the reports, the location they rent is up for sale and they are desperately trying to find a new location to continue their role in rescuing dogs and cats on the island but their preference seems to be the desire to purchase the location they are on. They say their deadline is March 31st and they are trying to raise the funds to purchase the location they are on which is up for sale. US one million dollars is a lot of money to raise to purchase a property in such a short time frame.
There should be other options other than putting down all the animals if they do not achieve their goal and I hope they will come up with alternative arrangements.
I don’t know much about the organisation but I know people who have taken rescued dogs from them, instead of buying pedigree dogs or mixed breed dogs. I know The Hope also assists by spraying and neutering dogs and cats. There is no cost to persons who genuinely cannot afford the costs of a private vet to do the process. That has been a lot of help in keeping down the stray dogs and cats population in Barbados.
You can read about The Hope Here
It has been part of the Chinese, and other Asian countries’ culture, to butcher and serve in restaurants, dog and cat meat. It is done openly and the dog meat appears on the menu.
In the Western world it is not part of our culture to eat dogs and cats which we regard as our pets.
China has been getting more of a middle class society and with it the Chinese are discovering a love for dogs (as not as in the plate).
I noticed recently in an issue of the UK “Our Dogs” that China is now having dog shows and inviting judges from all over the world to assess their dogs in the conformation ring.
If the proposed legislation gets passed, it will be part of a larger animal bill designed to prevent animal abuse. You can read about the story here
In Barbados we have several Chinese restaurants and they are popular with most locals as well as the tourists.
I remember this joke about Chinese restaurants and a Bajan. The story went like this: A Bajan had a restaurant in Bridgetown which was doing well until a Chinese restaurant moved next door to it. The Bajan watched sadly as he saw his customers trickle in to try the Chinese food and then watched more sadly as his tables became empty.
He talked to one of his friends and they hit on a way to get his customers back. At peak meal time in the Chinese restaurant when it was packed, a scruffy looking Bajan man came in holding a struggling, thin, and sickly looking street dog. He walked into the middle of the room, and yelled “Boss man, this is the only dog I could find out there for you to cook today”.
In no time at all, the tables in the Chinese restaurant were empty and the Bajan man and his crew had their customers back in their restaurant where they assured their customers they would never be served dog! 🙂 🙂 🙂
Dogs although they might have grounds to play on might not be motivated to exercise unless they are puppies at play.
And their humans might be like wise. But put the two together, and a walk might do wonders for the health of the owner(s) and the dog(s).
Barbados is a small island surrounded by beautiful beaches and rough seas in some areas, and also usually calm seas in other areas depending on the part of the island.
Barbados has eleven parishes, and only two of those parishes are not surrounded by a border of sea.
But for walkers and nature lovers, the country area is a very beautiful place to be.
At this time of the year, Barbados will be getting ready for the sugar cane crop and a lot of the cane fields are looking rather dry.
Barbados uses a mechanical harvester for cutting canes where the canes are planted in flat terrain but unfortunately some of these canes will get burnt. Where the canes are cut by hand, it might be imported labour from other islands and when the dreaded “cow itch” pods are in the area and this is the time they ripen, the canes might be burnt by the same people who are supposed to cut them. Unlike, some of the other islands, Barbados does not have a snake population, so snakes are not one of the reasons for burnt canes on the island.
I am a lover of beaches and the sea but I also love the country side. And my home is on a ridge lot with a panoramic view of the sea and country side, especially at night with the light of the cruise ships, and the Barbados Hilton Hotel and buildings such as Central Bank.
I love fruit trees and growing things and where I live is good as it usually gets good rain fall. I live in a cul de sac so I don’t get the noise of traffic and most of the lots in this area are spacious so the neighbours are close but not overly close.
A drive to a beautiful beach on the South, North, West and East coast is just 15 to 25 minutes away. And I am about ten minutes drive on the highway to major amenities like supermarkets, banking, etc.
My home has an area which some of my neighbours like to walk or bike. It is probably about a half a mile with a nice slope to work muscles. And I like to walk this area about twice a week with either Rita or Rhapsody.
Bouvier Rita by cane field
The benefits are better muscle tone for the Bouviers for their shows and the Bouviers like to socialise with the children in the area. For me, it is extremely relaxing to view the area and run up the sloping area – good for muscles and bones, great for Vitamin D from the evening sunshine, and good for the cardiovascular system and I would like to think it would burn some calories as well. 🙂
It is a very enjoyable walk but I don’t think I would be motivated to walk it unless I had dogs and I can just step out of my front door and walk it. I love the area I live in.
I do have friends who like to hike, and they seem to find the steepest hills in Barbados and I did participate in the B’dos. National Trust Hikes sometime ago but their hikes tend to work out to close to four hours on a Sunday.
I would like a shorter walk/hike as I have other things I like to do.
Barbados has been having a very dry January which is good for some trees like mango trees. I have a lot of fruit trees and four of them are mango trees. Two of my mango trees are covered in blossoms and young mangoes and mango trees need a period of dryness to stimulate the blossoms. The other two mango trees seem to bear out of season.
I know breeders may used threadmills to build muscles in dogs but I believe in the natural method and I walk at a fast speed so the Bouvier walking with me will be exercising the muscles used to gait in the show ring.
Walking this evening, I turned back from my usual sloping area as although Rita would have been okay with the cows, the cows were steadily advancing towards us and one cow was obviously pregnant, so although I feel I have very well trained dogs, I do not have much knowledge about cows and the ropes the cows are tied with are rather long 🙂 🙂
Barbados cows
Tags: Barbados, walking dogs
Haiti is receiving help from all over the world. Caribbean islands, such as Barbados, have been doing collections through organisations like the Red Cross, banking institutions, major supermarkets, and radio appeals, with popular local sports people and entertainers getting involved, on the roads, and appealing for help and support. I believe over one hundred thousand dollars Barbados has been pledged from one activity alone and should be collected with several corporations playing their part of not just being a good corporate citizen but extending it to a Caribbean neighbour.
Barbados is a small Caribbean island with a population of around 275,000 people and we depend mainly on tourism for our foreign exchange. We are feeling the recession period like the rest of the world but I believe most Barbadians will give what support they can to the Haiti earthquake cause.
Containers with food, medical supplies, clothing and other items will also be shipped from Barbadians to Haiti.
For some in Haiti, the help will be too late and mass graves with endless human bodies tell the tragic tale. Reports are that the number believed dead is now double what was first envisaged. It is thought that over 200,000 people have died as a result of the earthquake.
For some survivors, besides the emotional trauma, they will have the physical trauma of adjusting to limb loss and/or severe injuries. The people of Hait in the Port-au-Prince area which was affected by the earthquake would now be homeless, and with most of their possessions gone.
Bringing hope and help in finding live bodies which are trapped in the collapsed building are sniffer dogs with their handlers who have flown into Haiti from all over the world. Two types of dogs are on the island, those which will search for the living and those who will search for the dead.
Interestingly enough, some of the dogs which are used for the search and rescue of humans, are themselves “rescue” dogs.
It is a very tragic situation in Haiti and it is possible that the death count could be over 100,000 people as a result of an earthquake.
In an earthquake of a magnitude such as Haiti’s, one of the most important things to save lives would be to find and save the people still alive but trapped under the collapsed buildings and structures.
On the ground, urgent help and supplies are needed for the survivors but the trapped people must be found before their air supply runs out.
Here is where trained dogs and their handlers come in.
The word is that all over the world, UK, USA, Holland, China, France, Germany and several other countries have either sent sniffer dogs or have made arrangements to send their sniffer dogs and handlers to find the buried people.
You can read more about this from Read about the dogs here
The link above is to one of my favourite sites as it supports and tries to protect our environment, please visit it and give any support you can towards Haiti.
It really is sad as Haiti is one of the Caribbean islands which has been devastated by hurricanes on more than one occasion and is regarded as the poorest of the Caribbean countries where its people are struggling and suffering.
Dogs in winter time
The above came from my friend Roy Weston, of Farleycross, in Wales.
“Jovi” one of my Bouviers came from Roy and his wife and “Jovi’s” pedigree name is “So Far so Good at Farleycross”. That is because Roy knew that I wanted a show quality Bouvier and it was really so far so good up to the time she arrived in Barbados by ‘plane and she turned out to be a very nice Bouvier, at home and at shows.
She is still the boss of the Bouviers here although she is now over 10 years old and that is how long I have been friendly on line with Roy.
Roy also has a Bloodhound and an Italian Spinioni for Bouvier company as in the above picture. What a combination of breeds.
I am told that dogs love the snow, can’t say I envy them. I can sit here and enjoy the warmth of the sun while watching them in pictures surrounded by snow. 🙂
Rita, a Bouvier Des Flandres
Rita is one of my Bouviers. She is large with a forbidding beard and moustache which is typical of the Bouvier Des Flandres breed.
Also typical of the breed is that you generally do not find any shy or subservient Bouviers as you may find with other breeds. The Bouvier is a breed which loves its owner(s) but it is still a very independant thinker. It is playful and gentle with its owner(s) but known to be an excellent and fearless guard dog.
Rita can move with great speed. However, when she gets in the obedience ring, Rita, shows her boredom by lagging. And with the recall, where she could come at full speed which I have seen her exhibit when she wishes to catch something, she holds her head high, and deliberately looks around her, left and right and comes in, but not with any sign of hurrying. Sometimes, if she could talk, I think she would ask why is her pack leader calling her and then she knows to sit, and wait for a hand signal or command to go to the heel position and sit. There is nothing to chase nor challenge, so why should she rush to come in, Rita probably thinks.
Our scores were high and going well on Monday night and she was moving in the last stages of the heeling at a fast speed.
Then came the stay exercises which I always regard as a gift as Rita usually stays like a rock. Murphy’s law, I moved off after putting her in a “sit and stay” position in line with the other dogs, And she took a step forward which failed her.
At the trial on Monday night. Trevor O’Neale successfully completed the CD title and Sue Blandford the CDX. Think this is the first title for Trevor but Sue Blandford, I believe, has achieved the CDX before. Congrats to both.
Rita had not been to any classes after the last trials and maybe that is why she passed the off leash heeling without much lagging and had a lot of enthusiasm for being out.
My training of her to this level has helped me as a few evenings ago, I walked her calmly on a pasture with cows close by on either side and she noted their presence and walked on happily The person who had the cows watched us closely and I suspect he thought she was going to react to the cows, but she didn’t. And she made no effort to come out of the heel position she was in but if she had, I would still have been okay as she was not off leash.
Bouviers in early days used to herd cows, and I know people in the USA and other countries have fun with them herding, ducks, sheep etc.
A neighbour’s child, about six year’s old, came out to walk her and I gave him her lead, only taking it back when we passed homes with dogs who came to their guard walls to bark. Rita made no effort to respond to the other barking dogs, most of which were small dogs. And the child, was, like wow, he would like to get his dogs to walk as calmly as Rita.
It is important to train dogs, especially ones Rita’s size and especially if they are going to be out in the public.
Even off leash, and at home, good training can come in very useful. Rita jumped one of my back fences chasing a monkey and luckily I was there when the monkey came down from a tree and the dogs chased it.
I caught Rhapsody, a shorter Bouvier just when she was going over the fence and called Rita the same time. To my delight she stopped in her tracks. But I had to let her return through a gate, as it was adrenalin that helped her over the fence and she did not jump back over. Since then I added about a foot in wire to prevent her jumping it again.
Each dog, like people, is different. Rita is very unlike my Bouvier Dena who sailed through the A, B and C trials and passed the CD title easily and with high scores.
The important thing to me is that Rita is well trained and the CD title is just a piece of paper demonstrating that she has a CD title, and it would be the fourth CD title I have achieved in training my Bouviers so it is not like a novice person achieving it the first time.
Rita runs in agility as she is trained to be off leash and Rita also competes in conformation shows where it is useful to me to stack her and tell her “stay” while a judge runs his/her hands over her.
Rita is very sociable and enjoys going to dog shows and agility and I expect her CD title will come some day 🙂 I am currently working with her towards the CDX title and so, hopefully, she will achieve both titles.
Tags: Bouvier Des Flandres
Watch more National Geographic Channel videos on AOL Video
A lovely video coming from National Geographic about an Orangutan and a dog. It appears to be a strange friendship at first but both seem very happy in each other’s company.
And I love how the Orangutan smiles for the camera 🙂 🙂
The star of American Idol is currently staying at Sandy Lane Hotel, Barbados. Yes, the Sandy Lane Hotel which Tiger Woods booked (the total hotel) for his wedding several years ago in Barbados.
Simon Cowell is a friend to dog rescue groups in Barbados, such as the Hope, and he usually helps with their fund raising activities.
In Barbados, at this time of the year when snow and ice cover a lot of the world, we have bright blue skies, sunshine and warn oceans. Our nights are very cool and some Barbadians might even regard them as a bit chilly but pleasant.
For years now, Simon Cowell has been visiting Barbados around this time of the year and it is great that he takes time to help in fund raising activities for the dogs which were abandoned, rescued and are still hoping to find a loving home.
Tags: Simon Cowell
Recent Comments