Advice about stray/dumped dog.

seven-day-weekend

Hi there, wonder if anyone could offer any advice about this,

Where we live, in the mountains of southern Spain, we are always seeing dumped dogs. Most of them are starving. We have tried to help them but they are too terrrified to come anywhere near us and just bolt. It upsets us both, but my husband in particular, it rips his heart out.

The last few days we have seen twice, the same dog. It has a broken leg, but is managing OK with three. It is thin, but not starving.

We have tried to get it to come to us (we would keep it and look after it if it would let us), but it won't come. It does look in the car to see who is in it, but then runs down the road again; it is heart-rending. We have seen it twice and the second time it came a little closer to the car, but we were obviously not the people it was expecting (probably the ones who dumped it :mad: ) and just ran down the road.

Each time we have seen it it has been in the road, not on the mountain.

Has anyone any ideas how we can get the dog to trust us enough for us to get it in the car and take it to a vet?

tankgirl1

perhaps start putting food out so that it comes regularly. dont try to go near it for a few days- just hunker down a little way away, and gradually move a little closer - and dont look it directly in the eye . if you do get close enough with this, dont try and grab it - put your hands out palm up, and let the dog approach you.

sounds as if the poor pooch has been through hell

seven-day-weekend

We did think we might carry some dried dog food in the car. The poor thing has not been in the same place though - just two different places along the same road, but between the same two villages.

Thanks for your advice.

pboae

If you know roughly where it is roaming you could try leaving food and water out for it regularly. The difficulty is that there are probably other animals in the area that will eat it too, but dogs quickly learn where regular food sources are, and will hang around there. Then you can start putting the food down at specific times. Once you have him in a regular location at set times, you can work on building up his confidence, or you can ask the vet to gice you a fast acting sedative to put in his food.

The latter is a risky business though, (you wouldn't usually sedate on a full stomach), but I would imagine that he will be put to sleep anyway, unless you plan to adopt him. The unwanted dog situation in Spain is horrific in it's magnatude, it's hard enough to find a rescue space for a healthy dog, let alone one that requires vet treatment.

seven-day-weekend

Thanks for your advice.

We would keep the dog providing the vet said it was healthy. I would imagine its leg would have to be amputated, but if it was otherwise OK, we'd take her.

Yes, there are loads of stray/dumped dogs, that's what happens to them here when they are no longer required. Seeing as everyone is so keen on hunting with guns here, I don't know why they just can't shoot them.

Oh well, there are not very nice things about every country. It's not up to me as a foreigner to make a fuss.

Thanks once agin, we'll let you know how we get on.

foreign_correspondent

oh dear, how sad. I had a dog when I was a kid that had been booted out near my house - she was roaming the fields for days and i kept going up the field early in the morning to try and catch her. I was advised to dry bits of liver out in the oven and to use them to tempt it, as dogs cant resist the smell!
I did come close to catching her, but in the end we called the rspca, who I think caught her with a net! We thought she had been kicked out from a car as she kept going up to cars and looking in them too. We adopted her, and she was my dog for several years.
I dont know how much help this is for you, but the liver thing might be worth a try, but if the dog is hungry enough I think anything that smells tasty would be irresistable!
I guess the tricky thing is, it will be scared, and possibly in pain cos of its leg, so may be likely to snap. Are there any animal chaities at all in spain that might be able to offer advice?
Perhaps as well as carrying some dog treats in the car you shuld take something you could slip over the dogs head and round his neck to get hold of him should you be able to...
anyway, good luck, wish i could help more
FCx

seven-day-weekend

Thanks all for your replies.

Although Spain is renowned (and quite rightly) and is to be applauded for its emphasis on family values and its love of children, animal cruelty is very high here. As well as the dumped dogs, there are dogs left tied up all the time on their own on the mountain to guard some farmer's nave (a small stone barn) - they hardly ever see anyone, are never untied and probably get fed every other day. Cats and dogs, certainly in the rural areas, are agricultural equipment the same as the plough or the tractor - something that works for you and gets scrapped if you don't need it any more or it won't /can't work. There are also of course highly skilled sheepdogs and hunting dogs and these are usually treated somewhat better as they have to be fit. The cats and dogs are almost never spayed or castrated. There is a little cat who comes to us for food (although she does have a home and they do feed her) - she has four lots of kittens a year; we never see any of them, they are drowned in the irrigation channel.

Anyway, as I say, thre are things that are not very nice about any country, it is not up to me as a foreigner to moan about it in Spain . But the animal cruelty is something I have found it very ard to come to terms with.

Thanks all for your advice. I will keep you posted.

A

MOLLYBRUSH

It really saddened me to read your posts and I do commend you for trying to help the poor thing. There is a recipe on another post on here, sorry I don't know how to link you, but it is for some biscuits made with liver which are apparently irresistable to dogs. Good luck and well done for being so caring.

MOLLYBRUSH

It's in the "Home made treats for cats and dogs" on here. HTH

seven-day-weekend

Just an update to say several people are trying to help this poor dog. It is still around, still has a useless front leg, but doesn't look any thinner.

Still will come no-where near anyone. I don't think anyone is going to be able to help it other than by leaving food down.

Thanks for your advice.