In 1993 Coryn Shields lost her own dog (Sam the Boxer) to cancer, and when she felt ready to rehome a rescue dog she answered one of Pat’s adverts. Two year old Bruno was suggested as a suitable match, and an introduction followed; it was love at first sight. A special bond was formed and Bruno became Coryn’s new companion.

Having seen the good that Pat was doing Coryn offered to help if she could ever be of use.

Little did Coryn know that just a few hours later she would be driving around in the dead of night hunting for a missing dog with Pat, and another new friendship was born. Thanks to Bruno bringing them together Pat and Coryn worked together for two years, developing Rochdale Dog Rescue and rehoming more dogs in Rochdale and the surrounding areas, and in 1994 Coryn added to her family with Zara, a bitch who’d come into rescue heavily pregnant having been found as a stray.

In 1995 Pat moved out of the area, and Coryn took over the day to day management of rehoming.

As time went on, Coryn was contacted on occasions by a local Dog Warden, asking for help to save a dog in the pound who had run out of time. Although this was not a regular part of the work of Rochdale Dog Rescue, Coryn realised that there was a whole group of dogs whose plight she had previously been unaware of, and between 2004 and 2005 she began to develop a relationship with this particular pound.

In March 2005 a formal link with the pound was formed, and Rochdale Dog Rescue began to offer help for all of the dogs reaching the end of their 7 days.

The team developed too, with new volunteers joining Coryn to take on other roles. In January 2006 the website became live and Rochdale Dog Rescue in its current form was born.

They desperately need help. Please visit the website and see how you can help them.

http://www.rochdale-dog-rescue.com/origins.html

Click here to visit the “Help Tinker” main page for full details, the latest news and more.

In The Beginning

We registered with the Blue Cross Foster scheme and we went through the interviews and the home visit. We were told by Denise Young (fostering project development officer) at the Blue Cross that there were training opportunities for both handler and dog. We were quite excited about this and we told Denise Young (fostering project development officer) to let us know the details and we would do our utmost to be free to go to them. After all, what do we know about advanced training of dogs.

We were contacted by our area co-ordinator to say that there was a dog available. We went to the co-ordinators house to see the dog and decided to take her on. She was a black Staffie cross puppy with little white patches called Nala.

Denise Young (fostering project development officer) came round within a few days and again talked about training classes, behavioural classes and socialisation classes. Again, we agreed to do all of the classes. We were warned that we may have to travel for some of the classes up to a few hundred miles. We said that was fine, but we would probably make a weekend of it if that was the case. This was all fine and was left in the hands of Denise Young (fostering project development officer) to arrange.

Nala needed some development with Training

Over the next month or two the dog developed a few minor problems that we couldn’t understand or break her from. We contacted our local behaviourist, Carrie Evans, who had a very bad attitude and said she could only do training face to face and that it would have to wait as she was preparing for a holiday and was really rude to us. Each time we called her and she refused the telephone advice we had been told she offered, we contacted the Denise Young (fostering project development officer) and informed her of this.

During following visits to our home by the Denise Young (fostering project development officer), we again asked about training courses as we had not received a single lesson. We were getting so desperate with the dogs basic problems that we had tried to find information online, but we couldn’t find any advice that worked.

We were told on one visit that the behaviourist had been fired as there had been a lot of other complaints about the same problem we had with her. On Denise Young (fostering project development officer)s next visit she told us that a new behaviourist was being hired and we would shortly be able to contact them instead. After a few weeks we again called the Denise Young (fostering project development officer) to ask when we could have training and socialisation classes and when we could contact the new behaviourist. She told us that they had re hired the old behaviourist and she had forgotten about the lessons but would make sure she got us the details.

Denise Young (fostering project development officer) said that the behaviourist should offer some advice over the phone. Again we called the behaviourist and again she refused to give phone advice and could only do face to face meetings during school hours as she refused to get childcare.

We needed supplies

By this point the dog had outgrown the largest dog bed we had. We had told Denise Young (fostering project development officer) we needed a bigger bed and she had told us she would drop one off along with some wet food. On her last visit to the vet, we had been advised to give the dog a mix of wet and dry food as she seemed to have a sensitive stomach. Denise Young (fostering project development officer) had told us she would deliver some canned food with the dogs new basket.

We kept buying canned food from the local shop, waiting for Denise Young (fostering project development officer) to deliver the correct food.

In the meantime, with the dog now having no bed, we had tried to crate train her for nights. We had been trying to crate train her through the day with mixed results. We started crate training her at night downstairs, but she would constantly whine and bark no matter how long we left her.

We were unable to get extra behavioural support

I made the point that this support service is useless for anyone who works as they will be unable to get any evening or weekend appointments. This must have really pissed off Denise Young (fostering project development officer) at the Blue Cross because she sent us an e-mail claiming that we had resisted the training and socialization classes. She said that it was maybe time to transfer Tinker to a kennel so that they can train out the problems she has. However, she has a major problem with being left alone. The last time she was in the vets over night, she cried the whole time. So much so that the receptionist at the vets screamed at her to shut up. We complained to the Blue Cross about this when we found out it had happened, but the Blue Cross didn’t care.
In the e-mail she also mentioned that she was going on holiday the following day. We later found that she had instructed the area co-ordinator to “Get the dog transferred to kennels and Ignore adopters”.

That’s right, she ordered her to “IGNORE ADOPTERS”. The co-ordinator agreed to hold off on transferring Tinker until we could contact the Blue Cross.

We sought advice from higher levels

I called the Blue Cross and talked to Steve Goody (director of companion animal welfare) who said that he would talk to Denise Young (fostering project development officer) at the Blue Cross when she gets back from her holiday. He agreed that we could keep her until he had had a chance to talk to her and in the meantime he would arrange for their behaviorist to call us.

The behaviorist called and arranged a meeting 2 hours drive away. We agreed to it and were very happy that we were finally getting some movement on the training.

The day before the appointment we were called by Denise Young (fostering project development officer) at the Blue Cross. She said that she had just got back from her holiday and was going to be at the lesson the next day. We were concerned as she had been told about our complaint and really had no reason to be at the lesson. She lives hundreds of miles away from the training center. We were also concerned that she would try and transfer Tinker as we would be unable to contact Steve Goody (director of Companion animal welfare) of the Blue Cross as he does not work weekends and she had called us after he left on friday night. We left a message on his PA’s answer machine voicing our concerns.

We were given an ultimatum

We turned up at the training lesson and spent 30 minutes on a field. We were then taken into an office and they explained that Tinker was not up to the level she should be at. Plus the same reason we were ideal fosters (me working from home) was now a negative and was one of the reasons they wanted to send her to a kennel. But we know she would not survive in a kennel, plus we wanted Steve Goody (director of Companion animal welfare) to confirm any actions and he would not be available until monday at the earliest.

They said that they wanted to take the dog immediately. We were shocked, we hadn’t packed anything for her. She had nothing that was hers. We begged for them to let us think about adopting her. To start with they would only allow us to make this decision in the car park, but eventually they agreed to let us take her home and think about it over night. During this time, Julie Bedford Head of Behaviour had said that “had it been up to her she’d have given us a week, but it was up to Denise”. Denise gave us less than 12 hours.

They then revealed that the kennel center we were at was being refurbished and had no dogs in it AND that she had already arranged for someone to pick up the dog the next day to transfer it to kennels in the Midlands.

Thats right, before we even arrived at the training session they had already arranged the transfer of Tinker.
The reason we had been set up like this, thinking it was a legitimate training session when in reality it was nothing of the sort, was because they said “It would be a logistical nightmare getting Tinker picked up from where she was being fostered”

We were lied to throughout

We have been lied to again. I am refusing to accept their decision as Tinker has came along in leaps and bounds since the training class. She is showing fantastic signs of improvement and using what we were taught, we should easily be able to train all her problems out of her. Like most things it’s not complicated, it’s just a fact of knowing how to properly manage it.

We got in touch with Steve Goody (director of companion animal welfare) who said it was his fault. He had arranged the transfer and he had told Denise Young to do this. We were also told by Steve Goody that Denise had said in her interview on Wednesday that she had left the training in our hands. We were shocked. Not only that he had talked to Denise Young on Wednesday but that he had not bothered himself to call us and tell us so that at the very least we could have defended ourselves. Why would we go to so much trouble calling all of the time if had been in our hands. It was a lie but Steve Goody seemed uninterested. Who knows what other lies have been told? We are absolutely disgusted and will most certainly not be fostering anymore. The Blue Cross, it seems, do not care about their foster carers.

We are only wanting what is best for Tinker and we honestly think that a kennel environment will make her much worse as she is not good with new people. She gets too over excited and will jump up at them trying to play with them. In a kennel she would get a lot of new faces and would from time to time accidentally nip someone. This could easily be misread as aggression and she would be put to sleep.

Once we had spoken to Steve Goody, we were contacted by Denise Young who said we could either drop Tinker off at Thirsk adoption centre or they could drive up for her the next morning. She said the preferable option was for us to drive down. We chose to have her picked up from home the following morning for a number of reasons. We wanted to say our goodbyes and needed more than 10 minutes to do it in. We needed to make it easier on both us and on Tinker. She would be upset and whine for us if we walked away from her, whereas if she was taken away by someone else she would be a bit better.

We spent the whole night with her, cuddled up together in her favourite spot watching her favourite tv program. She got to chew on her rawhide chews and eat a nice meal of boiled chicken and rice. The next morning, we took her for a nice early walk and she looked adorable running around and getting dew on her muzzle. We came back home and she was sick and seemed very quiet. She wasn’t interested in her breakfast and instead lay in her bed.

The two staff from Thirsk centre arrived and piled her things into the van. We then lead her out of the house and into the crate that had been placed into the van. She whined and clawed at the crate to be let out and once we had said our goodbyes, we had to go back in the house, hearing the doors to the van slam shut. We burst into tears and spent the whole day feeling heartbroken. Even though we had done all we could, we still felt that we had failed her.

We had the option to adopt withdrawn

We had been given the option of adopting Tinker but had only been given a very short time in which to think about it, cost it up and commit to Tinker. It wasn’t enough. We had people that we still needed to get in touch with. We simply did not have enough time to fully investigate adoping her so that we could be sure we could offer everything she could possibly need. Given that the blue cross point blank refused to give us any extra time to assess this, our only other option was to hand her back to the blue cross and continue investigating the possability of adopting her.

Today (Wednesday) we finally had all of the information that we needed and it proved that we could get everything that was required, including immediate training, socialization classes and all of the other stuff the blue cross failed to provide.

We got in touch with Steve Goody and asked if they would revisit the option of us adopting Tinker. We were flatly refused. Here is the email that was sent to us:

Dear Heather

Thank you for your email.

We have a great deal of work to do with Nala before any decisions are made regarding where we eventually place her.

When the time does come to find her a new home, we’ll consider very carefully her requirements and find the home which suits her best.

I appreciate how you may be feeling at the moment, but take comfort from the fact that you did as much as you reasonably could for Nala and are grateful for all your efforts.

Steve Goody

We responded to this email detailing all of Nalas needs and showing that we met each one. We got this reply:

Heather

Thanks for the email.

I advised you of our position this morning which remains unchanged.

As I said, we will work with Nala and progress to placing her in a home appropriate to her needs at a suitable point in the future.

Steve

Again no explanation and another brick wall we are having to bang our heads against.

Where we are now

We are shocked and disgusted. Only a few days ago adoption was a viable option but now we aren’t good enough. We were homechecked as foster carers which is different to adoption in the fact that we are homechecked for any dog rather than a specific dog. We were willing to travel hundreds of miles, stay in a hotel at our own cost just so that we could bring her home and this was rejected. We feel that we are being penalised for making a well thought out decision and not being rash about this. We made extensive enquiries and all we needed was an extra day to get all of the information together. We have compiled evidence that we are in fact telling the truth.

An update

We have emailed Kim Hamilton, CEO of the Blue Cross with this story so far. This was her response:

Dear Heather,

Thank you for your email and bringing this to my attention.  I will investigate and revert to you as soon as possible.

Kim Hamilton.

Telephone records

We have collated our telephone records and going on mobile phone calls and SMS alone:

In May 2008 we made 7 telephone calls and 29 SMS messages to Denise Young and our Foster co-ordinator.

In June 2008 we made 2 telephone calls and 11 SMs messages to Denise Young and our Foster co-ordinator.

In July 2008 we made 1 telephone call and 11 SMS messages to Denise Young and our Foster co-ordinator.

In August 2008 we made 4 telephone calls and 8 SMS messages to Denise Young and our Foster co-ordinator.

In September 2008 we made 3 telephone calls and 21 SMS messages to Denise Young and our Foster co-ordinator.

In October 2008 we made 7 telephone calls and 10 SMS messages to Denise Young and our Foster co-ordinator.

Why would we be trying to get in touch to this level if the training sessions had been left in our hands? If we had been left to organise them ourselves and had the facilities to do so, we would not have been contacting them so much because the behaviourist or trainer would have been working with us and Nala’s issues would have been resolved.

Keep checking this page as we are collating evidence on this every day. Please feel free to contact us with regards to anything written on this post.

How You can Help Us

Please show your support of this by leaving a reply to this post as we need all the help that we can get. Please also look at our “How you can help us” page to help us in our cause. We are not taking this refusal lying down and your help will count.