cCOC THE COCKAPOO TIMES

THE NEWSLETTER FOR MEMBERS OF THE BCS

NEWSLETTER 7 APRIL 2014

ALABAMA

ROT

WHAT IS

IT AND

HOW TO

RECONISE

IT TEACHING BITE

INHIBITION TO A NIPPY

PUP

TASTY RECIPES FOR

YOUR FURRY PAL.

YUM-YUM!!

TIME TO BOOK FOR THE CLUB

HOLIDAY!! DISCOUNTED PRICE

FOR MEMBERS!

CLUB

NEWS

AND

UP-

DATES

WISHING EVERY-ONE A VERY

HAPPY EASTER

P A G E 2

ALABAMA ROT You may have heard the upsetting news of dogs

becoming seriously ill, and dying, after becoming

ill following walking in the New Forest area.

This outbreak started to appear at the end of 2012,

but since then incidences have continued and the

areas affected have spread.

Dogs have been affected as far apart as County

Durham and Cornwall. The number of confirmed

and fatal cases is still only in double numbers but

the worrying thing about this disease is that the ex-

act cause remains unknown.

WHAT IS ALABAMA ROT?

Although very little is known about what is causing this outbreak, it is thought to be similar to Alabama

Rot, a disease initially reported in the USA in the 1980’s . Known as a disease that affects greyhound but

now affecting different breeds, it is caused by the E Coli bacteria.

Dogs have been getting ill and dying for some years in this country, and in 2010 the Institute of Zoology,

Natural History Museum and Animal Health Trust launched an investigation. In that year 54 dogs were

affected and 10 of them died.

They labelled the illness Seasonal Canine Illness because it seemed to occur in the Autumn months and

they recognised similarities with Alabama Rot although at that time the affected dogs did not develop any

skin lesions.

The cause of the current outbreak affecting dogs in the UK is unknown as no trace of the E Coli bacteria

has been found in affected dogs, so there are still question marks over it, but it bears some similarities to

Alabama Rot and is thought to be associated with that illness.

How it is being transmitted, how it is carried is also a mystery as tests on water and soil samples have all

come up negative and because the cause and transmission route is unknown it makes it impossible to take

precautionary measures.

WHAT ARE THE SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS? Wounds and lesions appear on the dogs legs and/or face which just will not heal and which start to spread

across the skin, affecting the abdomen and chest. The dogs become listless and have been described as be-

ing severely depressed. They lose their appetite and interest in their surroundings, start vomiting and even-

tually die from kidney and liver failure.

Veterinary advice is now that if you see a lesion on your dog and are concerned then you seek advice as

soon as possible. The lesions may not appear till a week after a walk in an affected area so all owners are

advised to keep an eye on their pets in case any develop.

It is only a small number of dogs that have been affected, thankfully, and places like the New Forest have

people walk their dogs without any problems at all so the message really is to keep your dog under supervi-

sion, and be aware of anything it might pick up, chew or eat.

You can track the outbreaks of the disease nationwide on the following link -

https://www.newforest.gov.uk/index.cfm?articleid=14110

P A G E 3

FROZEN PEANUT

BUTTER CAKES

INGREDIENTS

2 1/2 cups low fat natural

yoghurt

1 cup peanut butter

12 cupcake liners

12 small treats

METHOD

Put the yoghurt and peanut butter in a bowl and stir. When well mixed, place the liners in a cupcake tin and fill them with the mixture. Smooth the tops of the cakes over with with a spoon.

Add a treat to each cake.

Store in the freezer until needed

TURKEY AND VEG DINNER

INGREDIENTS

4 cups of water

1 pound of ground turkey

2 cups of brown rice

1 cup of carrots, chopped

1 cup of green beans, chopped

1 tablespoon of fish oil (optional)

METHOD Cook the ground turkey in a non-stick skillet over me-

dium heat until the meat is cooked through.

Add the brown rice, turkey, and water to a large pot and

bring to a boil.

Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook an additional

15 minutes, or until the rice is soft and tender.

Add the carrots and green beans and cook for an additional 5 to 10 minutes, until the vegetables

are tender.

Allow to cool before serving.

Store extra dinners in the fridge for up to five days.

Giving your dog some tasty home cooked

tasty treats or meals is a great way of expand-

ing their dietary choices without the worry

about unnecessary additives, colourings or

preservatives.

Give it a go—your dog will love you for it!!

BITE INHIBITION

Maybe one of the most important things you have to teach your puppy is Bite Inhibition. It is essential that

your little bundle of fun knows just how to play without causing pain and biting.

Initially bite inhibition training comes from Mum and siblings. Bite too hard and it will lead to a telling off

from Mum and lots of squealing from baby puppy brothers and sisters. Once your pup has been taken

away from those influences though, the training needs to continue, and this is where you, its new family,

comes in.

As always we do not recommend or approve of any aversives being used in dog training, so patience,

praise and tasty rewards are all that is needed.

Firstly, it may be useful to acknowledge that play biting is normal for a dog, it is how they explore and

learn and that is fine, what is important is that your pup learns that it is not necessary when playing with

people. So how to teach your dog this important fact?

When playing with your pup, they may start to view

YOU as the toy, and use their mouth—and those puppy

teeth are VERY pointy and sharp. Initially you need to

teach pup that pressing too hard with those teeth causes

pain and that is not good.

If it does this say ‘OUCH’ or yelp loudly as if you are

really hurt. Move away from the pup and leave it for a

minute or two and then go back to it and carry on as

you were. Do this every time pup starts to bite you.

Eventually your pup will learn that pressing with its

teeth is not good. You can also start using a ‘Leave It’

command.

When your pup has learnt that biting is not right, you can then build on things so it learns that mouthing

generally is unacceptable. When your pup tries to mouth you, use your ‘Leave it’ command and then re-

ward immediately for stopping.

Like human babies and toddlers, puppies need a lot of sleep and rest or their behaviour deteriorates so

factor in rest times throughout the day—times when it can sleep in its crate undisturbed by family mem-

bers. Time out periods in its crate regularly throughout the day, with maybe a chew toy or a stuffed Kong

to keep it occupied and give it something to chew on, is essential and will help with behaviour

You can help avoid over tiredness by keeping game time down to short periods.

It is generally advised that Bite Inhibition training is undertaken before your dog reaches about 14 weeks

which is about the time when its jaws start to develop more power and strength and any biting could do a

lot more damage.

It is an essential part of your dogs training and could avoid lots of problems for you and your dog as it

matures.

PAGE 4

P A G E 5

MAY BANK HOLIDAY CLUB GETAWAY

CLUB NEWS

CLUB INFORMATION

E MAIL admin@britishcockapoosociety.co.uk

WEBSITE www.britishcockapoosociety.com

FACEBOOK STATIC PAGE https://www.facebook.com/

britishcockapoosociety

PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT TO

VISIT OUR FB PAGE AND ‘like’ IT.

We use it to spread the word about our

great club but still have our Group FB

page to chat and share info and advice.

DOG WALKS

We have had some great meets organised lately and more planned in

the next few weeks too, all over the country.

Want to have one in your area? It is so simple to do and a lot of fun

to attend.

Just think of a venue—somewhere with parking and maybe a café

for a post walk cuppa, then decide on a date and time. THAT’S IT _

DONE!!!

Just tell Mary or Di the details and we will send the information out

to all members on FB so they can let you know if they can attend.

APRIL DOG WALKS

COMPTON ABBAS DORSET 6th APRIL @ 1100

DUNSTABLE DOWNS

BEDFORDSHIRE 6th APRIL @ 1100

More may have been planned since this news-

letter was written so please check on FB or

website.

Have you booked your May Bank Holiday break? This year we are

organising our very first Club Getaway to Forest Glade Holiday Park,

Devon.

It caters for people in tents, touring caravans, motor homes and also

has wooden pods and static caravans too.

Facilities include a small heated swimming pool, kids play area, games

room, shop, take-away and woodland areas where the dogs can be

allowed off lead.

You can book for as long or short a time as you like—the choice is

yours, and you will be entitled to a Club Members discount on the price when booking—e mail club

for code.

P A G E 6

Well April is upon us and Spring on the way—thankfully after such a

terrible Winter for some.

Easter is on its way with all the

chocolates, Easter Eggs and flowers

that are usually given at that time,

which is lovely but PLEASE make

sure that your dogs don't get near the

chocolates.

Keep them out of the reach of

inquisitive noses and mouths

because they can make dogs very ill

and in some cases cause death so

better safe than sorry.

March saw us reach and go past 500 Facebook members which

is a huge milestone for the club and one that we didn't expect to

reach so soon.

We are starting to get more walks and events organised, and in

various parts of the country too which is brilliant, but we could

do more.

We have a list of members who have agreed for their details to

be shared which shows counties so you can see who is in your

area, or surrounding county. You can check the list here -

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?

key=0ApXDuj1P8x3NdGlUZDNTdGFKdGxlTlZDYVdGN1R

Hc1E&usp=sharing#gid=0

If there is any way you would like to see us improve things, or

try things for members please let us know, we want this to be

YOUR club and one that you enjoy.

CLUB NEWS

Don’t forget you can order car stickers of the Club logo to make your

car look brilliant!!

These stickers are for the inside of your windscreen and are available

in either the round logo version or the rectangular club banner style

too. Easy to fix, you just make sure your windscreen is clean, moisten

the sticker and place in position, they can also be easily moved and

reaffixed in a different position.

ALL proceeds from sales go towards our fundraising so as well as

making your car look brilliant you are helping a really good cause

too.

Stickers cost just £4 each, postage is FREE and they can be ordered

from our CLUB SHOP website on the link below.

http://shopcockapoopawtol.weebly.com/

MEMBERS DIS-

COUNTS

Don’t forget to check out

our Members Section on

the website. Details of

Members Discounts, pic-

tures of members dogs,

Newsletter archive and

more.

CLUB NEWS

When we set the club up back in August 2014, one of the things

we knew we wanted to do was to have Hearing Dogs for Deaf

People as the charity we would support. This was maybe an ob-

vious choice, given Mary’s deep connection with the charity and

the fundraising that she has done for them over the years since

losing her hearing.

It costs approximately £50,000 to breed and raise the puppies,

socialise them in a caring home, then train them to alert a deaf

person to all the sounds they can’t hear. The charity also offers

ongoing support when the dog is allocated to its lucky recipient.

Demand for a Hearing Dogs vastly outweighs their availability and currently there is about

a 5year waiting list—that’s 5 years that a deaf adult or child suffer from isolation, lack of

confidence and the vital assistance that a trained Hearing Dog can give.

This is why it is vital to continue to raise money and we are really, really grateful to every-

one who has helped us support this wonderful charity. We are a non profit making club so

any money we make through competitions or events go to HD via our JustGiving page or

towards preparing for future events. Donations can also be made directly to it on the

following link. Our goal now is to reach £2000 and over the coming weeks and months we

will be holding more events to try and achieve this—

https://www.justgiving.com/BritishCockapooSociety

Registering with EASYFUNDRAISING is easy, free, and helps raise money for Hearing Dogs for Deaf

People without costing you a single penny.

There are many shops which are participating in this scheme—John Lewis, Marks and Spencer, Asda,

Tesco and many more high street names that will be familiar to you. Whenever you shop online from a

participating store, they donate a percentage of your spend to our savings page for Hearing Dogs.

It doesn't cost you anything at all, it all comes from the store.

Don’t worry if you have already registered with EASYFUNDRAISING for another cause, that isn't a

problem. Just go through the registration process again and put BRITISH COCKAPOO SOCIETY as

your charity. Whenever you do your online shopping at a participating store you can then choose which

of your charities you want the donation to go towards.

TO REGISTER— Go to the following link and fill in your details. If asked what charity you want to

support, put BRITISH COCKAPOO SOCIETY.

http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/britishcockapoo

P A G E 7

CLUB NEWS