Story of 2 Irish Setters in Beijing

[Matti&Ning]

2008-02-15.

Few days ago we got our 2nd Irish Setter. Notice, we are not professionals, but just "dog lovers" as big dog owners calls themselves here (We are living in China, where was lot's of problems with big dog during end of 2006 and early 2007).

Tom, which I have been talking more in our introduction page, is getting used to live again inside and with family. He is very jealous boy. I guess due to fact, nobody has paid attention to him in his passed one year. We are thinking of what to do with him. There is no males Irish Setter which we would know of in Beijing, but we want to make at least one set of puppies with our girl.

Our home has been big mess after Tom came to our home. Luckly, I have been unembloyed now here, so my time goes for retraining him. We know, that he has been trainned to be showdog when he was around 1 year old. He still follows leach so well, with headup. But we don't have any papers about him. I was even wondering, could I some how find the kennel from Belgium who sold 1 male + female puppies to China around 2005 (Beijing).

Our Female, Emily, has papers for passed 5 generations, but we have never been so much into shows. I'm sorry that we are not really so professional.

If anyone would ever read this, I would really like to ask help and guidance from more experienced Irish Setter owners. Below is few comments about Tom;

1. He has been marking home few times. I have been thinking that it's because passed years conditions he has been in cage, so he don't have house manners anymore. Now it seems to be getting better as I am taking him out 4 times a day.

2. Well, medical. I can't ask too much help from that. I just have to trust our "doctors". Believe me, they are nice, but totally in different level than in Western countries.

3. Food. I give him now food 3 times a day and about 100 g each time... but he could eat horse. Our female, she knows well how much she wants to eat. When Tom is eating, I stand next to him and force him to have a small break during eating... (he's our pig... where he has been living for 6 months... pig farm).

4. He wants to fight with all other male dogs. I don't know if that's because we have our girlie with us always or because he has been living about 4 months in "dogs farm"= local kennel with 40 dogs (I guess that's where he got all his scars from. Do you thing, that he can still learn to be well with other male dogs? At least I'm trying to train him so.

Even thou, he is giving us lot's challenges, I just love him. I keep thinking all the time that he have just had long bad experience and now what he needs is good and loving family. By the way, he is going to look great in a future. Wish to take our dogs into Inner Mongolia and run wild in a forest like we were able to do with our "girl" when living in Finland.

I have to add some pictures later on.

[" Lordly " Jean en Rita Struyf-De Groof]

Hello Matti & Ning,

We are breeders from Belgium.
If you have a Tattoo number or the chip number we can find out the breeding and breeders of Tom.
It is nice that Tom has find a good home now.

kind regards
Jean

[Susan Stone]

Hello Matti and Ning and welcome to this site. I am very happy for Tom that he has you to take care of him and wish you all the best for his future training.
It is not easy to give advice just in writing, but maybe we can all contribute with help and ideas.

Tom will have lived a hard life with many endurances. He probably had to learn to fight for survival. Give him time to settle in and hopefully some of the problems due to anxiety may disappear.

1. some entire males will mark in the house where there are bitches around when they first arrive. If you start with putting a few dog biscuits down in those areas where he is marking, this could break the habit. Dogs do not normally mark where they eat or sleep. Keep taking him out at regular intervals and praise him when eliminates outdoors.
3. food 3 x 100g of what? It sounds a very small amount for a fully grown male setter. Don't worry about him wolfing things down - that is normal dog behaviour and another sign he has probably had to go without food often enough. I would not force him to pause while eating...
4. aggression towards other dogs can have many reasons, one of which may be apprehension after all the bad experience Tom has had.
For the moment try to keep him away from other dogs until you have established trust and a training routine like sit & reward. Then try to start rewarding him with food when he sees a dog in the far off distance, do this before he gets tense... This is called counter-conditioning but should be done very slowly with great distance to the other dog.

Plaese consider breeding from your irish very carefully and only when you have a list of people willing to give them good pet homes. You do not want the puppies you have bred with much love to end up in similar conditions to Tom. Irish Setters usually have large litters and it is not easy to find good homes for lively setters.

I wish you all the best with your two setters and hope Tom settles in to lead a happy life!
Susan

[ursula wilby]

I would also like to add that it would be better to take the two dogs for walks seperatly at this stage. Lost of dogs will show more agression when they have another familiar dog with them. Not due to the "protecting" the other one, but more due to "moral support" they may feel they are getting.
Good luck with Tom!

[Johanna Blacklake]

Hello Matti and Ning and your doggies!
It was so sad story about Tom, but fortunately it seems to be much happier life from now on. I'll keep my fingers crossed for him, for all of you!
Wellcome to join a Finnish Setter Forum too! Maybe you'll find some help there too: http://www.foorumi.info/setterit/index.php

[Matti&Ning]

Hi all whom have given your valuable comments and help for us. I will answer few here.

Jean. Thank you so much for your great support. Unfortunately, I checked today, but Tom don't even have a chip. Tattoo's I had checked earliers. Most likely it will be difficult to find orginal breeder. It might be also some foreign-Chinese person, friend of Tom's 1st owner. Who knows. Maybe Tom's origin will always stay mystery.

Susan, Thank you so much your comments. I will take a hint of those. Good help for us.

Ursula, same to you.

Johanna, etunimestäsi voisi päätellä, että puhut suomea, mutta sukunimi kertoo toista. No, olemmehan mekin suomi-kiina pariskunta. Poikkeas sivuille heti pikemmiten. Terveisiä vain kotisuomeen.

[Vilja Vehkaoja]

Paljon voimia ja jaksamista uuden perheenjäsenen kanssa! Työ kannattaa aina, ja pian Tom on kiinteä ja toimiva osa perhettänne.
Edellä tulikin jo hyviä ohjeita, jotka kannattaa huomioida.
Ihmettelin minäkin tuota ruoan määrää. Omat irskiurokseni syövät noin 450g rasvaista kuivaruokaa päivässä.
Aggressiivisuuteen kannattaa kokeilla nameja. Jopka kerta kuin koira näkee toisen koiran, joka todennäköiosesti aiheuttaa aggressiota, annat siklle namin. Pian koira ehdollistuu siihen, että toinen koira tarkoittaa namia, eli jotakin positiivista negatiivisen sijaan. Oma urokseni rähjää lenkillä vastaantuleville koirille, joten olen treenannut sen kanssa namitaktiikkaa. Nykyään uros etsii koko ajan katseellaan muita koiria, jotta saisi namin :)

Odotan innolla kuvia koiristanne. Hauskaa, että setteri-ihmisiä on ympäri maailmaa. Olen käynyt kerran Pekingissä ja minua myös kiinnostaa kovasti, millaisessa ympäristössä ulkoilutatte koirianne? Millainen kaupunki Peking on koiranomistajalle?