Last year the Kennel Club of Jersey was invited to attend the Association of Dog & Cat Homes Conference which was being hosted by the JSPCA at the Hotel de France. Due to the Icelandic ash cloud this was postponed until this year.
The Conference was held over 16th & 17th March and Steven Edwards, Elinor McFadden, Sam Kezourec and Angie Seedhouse attended. We were especially interested in attending as one of the guest speakers was Caroline Kisko, the Secretary of the Kennel Club.
After the welcome, the first of the various talks was given by Adrian Burder, from Dogs Trust, entitled – ‘When the going gets tough – maintaining your income during economic uncertainty’. Even though this was focused on charities our new Treasurer found it very informative & gave her some good ideas.
The next talk focused on controlling infectious diseases in the Kennel/Cattery environment.
It was then time for the Caroline Kisko to talk about the Accredited Breeder Scheme and Puppy Farming. During the talk Caroline advised that they now have 7500 Accredited Breeders following another increase at Crufts, which are monitored by 22 breed advisors. She did ask that if any Dog home did discover any unscrupulous Accredited Breeders they should contact the Kennel Club so that they could investigate & where needed remove them from the scheme. She also emphasised all the work that is being carried out by the Animal Health Trust which is partially funded by the Kennel Club Charitable Trust. Caroline thanked the Dog homes for all their good work & pointed out that the various breeds all ran breed rescue.
This was followed by an interesting talk on ‘The Legal Side of Welfare & Ownership Issues’ given by lawyer Trevor Cooper. He pointed out the complexity of proving ownership as there is no one document that proves you own the dog. Possession is not ownership. It was also surprising to discover that it does not matter who owned a dog when an incident occurred it is who ever owns the dog when proceedings are brought that will be convicted if found guilty.
Unfortunately one of the talks Angie was looking forward to had to be cancelled, which was ‘Use of Rescue dogs by the Armed Forces’, but due to events beyond their control they could not attend. However, this was replaced by a very interesting talk on the Dangerous Dogs Legislation in the
Behaviour Modification talk by Steve Goward of Dog Trust was interesting on how they identify the behaviour, particularly using body language to work out the state of mind of the dog. Then it is identifying the training that is easiest for the dog, as all dogs differ. Most behaviours can be modified but any coping mechanisms are likely to return if the dog experiences any stress. It is all about creating a positive learning set.
The day ended on a talk by Maggie Roberts entitled – ‘Dogs are from Mars, Cats are from Venus’. This showed some of the very diverse ways in which Dogs & Cats differ. Principally down to the fact that dogs are pack animals & domestic cats are descended from an African cat that led a solitary existence. She put this very succinctly by saying dogs have owners & cat have staff!
Unfortunately due to the timescales none of the sessions had a question and answer section, but people were available during the breaks, so it was a great opportunity to network and ask any burning questions.
We all found the various talks interesting even the ones about cats that have not been included above, and felt it was a worthwhile experience.