Last Thursday the CfD Educational Team was on tour to the Prem School in Mea Rim. Hanna, Judy Black and myself were invited by Erica Baird to come and talk about our work. Fully prepared with a Powerpoint presentation on the computer, lovely Judy Black as the most wonderful cuddle dog you could ever hope for and even a “Dog Song” we were welcomed by an equally prepared group of very attentive 5 year olds. Erica Baird, their teacher, had had group discussions with the class, had showed videos about dogs, informed parents about the project and had list of questions from the children, some people are just born teachers, I mean; how prepared would one like to have it.

It turned out to be a very enjoyable morning; the Powerpoint presentation was highly appreciated and the “Dog Song” was a piece of cake for these multi-talented kids. Judy was a hit by just being calm and cuddle able.

As a thank you the children had made some beautiful drawings that are already on the wall of our office.

If schools are interested in a visit from E.T. just send an email: contact@carefordogs.org or call us on: 0847 52 52 55 (English) or 0869 13 87 01 (Thai)

On a beautiful August afternoon I drove my motorbike in front of Nandachart school in Hang Dong. The school is bilingual with teaching both in Thai and English, and they have pupils from preschool up to 12-13 years. The area was really nice with chickens, rabbits, geese and tortoises that the pupils looked after. After admiring the beautiful yard with little classroom houses I went into one of them with Emma, our volunteer, who is teaching English and Math in the school. I was there to tell to the kids about homeless dogs, needs of s dog, about the work we do at Care for Dogs and how to be safe with dogs.

The children were lovely, 5-6 years old, very active and enthusiastic young ones. Many of them had a dog at home, so they knew a bit about the subject already.

We talked about homeless dogs that they see on the streets, and I even told them about spaying and neutering which is very important for reducing the numbers of dogs without a home. I think that this subject was maybe a bit too difficult for them to understand though.. How to be safe with dogs-colouring poster was a success and the kids loved to look at the details. Afterward we took some colouring pencils of these “How to be safe with dogs” -pictures and had a good time when the kids sat by their little tables and did their artistic magic colouring the pictures. I had a great time and the children were so lovely and enthusiastic although some of them didn’t even speak or understand English very well! They really liked the big soft toy dog I had with me and were just so sincere with their emotions and attitudes. Hopefully we are helping to raise awareness for a new generation of animal lovers to take care of animals in need!

Hanna

Care for Dogs is looking for volunteers to keep our animal awareness education –program going, so if you like children and dogs and even have some experience with teaching (not obligatory), contact me by email or phone. We get regular contacts from school (both Thai and international) to give lessons about dogs, and we have school groups visiting the shelter and run also temple dog programs. All materials will be provided, and we are supporting our educators. Together we can raise awareness and educate the future dog owners and decision makers to make a better life for dogs and animals here in Thailand! My contact details are: hanna@carefordogs.org, 0847 5252 55 (Education coordinator for Care for Dogs)

Our partner project with Nakornpayap International School “NIS Care For Dogs Temple Aid Program” is going in its fourth year and it’s really time to highlight that.
So here it is and this time a little report not by a teacher but by one of those dedicated students who are so essential for keeping that program alive:

The NIS Care for Dogs Temple Aid Program is an after school club dedicated to helping and insuring the well-being of dogs in various temples in Chiang Mai. We have “adopted” two temples in the area, Nam Phak Rung, and Wat Baan Tor. Our obligation as volunteers, is to feed the dogs, give them shots, check them for ticks and fleas and just show some love to these dogs.

My first day at Care for Dogs was at Nam Phak Rung. The moment the van was parked, dogs from everywhere around the temple ran out to greet us. Everyone was up and out and started distributing the food among the dogs. The older members ran around the temple searching for the dogs from last year, looking for where their special friend was hiding.

There were dogs of all colors, shapes and sizes: A cream-colored shaggy dog with the biggest deep brown eyes and the friendliest personality named Buey, a light-brown muscular dog with matted fur named Indu, and a giant white dog with brown spots named Bie. After the dogs had been fed and checked for ticks and fleas and things started to calm down, you could see people scattered all over the place, just giving the dogs some love which we call “giving them sugar.”: Scratching them behind the ears, petting their bellies when they rolled over, and talking to the dogs as if they were babies.

About a year later we adopted our second temple, Wat Baan Tor. At first, the sight of the dogs was horrifying. The dogs looked wretched. They were skinny, their ribs were sticking out, almost half of them had mange. The puppies’ bellies were round and huge but you could still see the ribs–often a sign of worms. Some dogs that were extremely sick or needed to be spayed/neutered were sent to the Care for Dogs shelter.

Often they would come out to the temple to pick dogs up for us. The second we unloaded the food, the dogs were up on their feet and some were coming closer in curiosity. It took us a couple weeks for the dogs to get used to us. Every week we had to give the dogs shots or put medicine in their food to treat the mange and other diseases. Now their health is better than ever and they come flocking around the van every time we arrive.

Dogs come and go. They get adopted and dumped at the temple all the time, and some simply don’t make it. But for the most part we have managed to help many dogs and even find new homes for some. The best part is coming home every Wednesday knowing you’ve made a difference and possibly even made a new friend, like the time Buey came over for a pet, how could anyone resist such a playful nature? It’s like they say… “Saving one dog won’t change the world, but surely, the world will change for that one dog.”

Anandita Thakkar Shingala

I am a 9th Grade student at Nakornpayap Interntional School, and this is my third year as volunteer at NIS Care for Dogs Temple Aid Program. I was born in Hong Kong and moved to Chiang Mai when I was seven. I have three dogs: Bubbles, who’s a cute, playful toy spaniel, Lucky a black spaniel-poodle who snores in his sleep, and Mouse a tall, white street dog who will eat just about anything.

Many thanks to Anandita and all the other involved, students as well as teachers, showing their compassion for our fellow creatures not only by words but by their dedicated work helping these temple dogs.

More pics from the temple here:

This past week two teachers and 10 students from Nakor Payap International School visited the Care for Dogs shelter. The shelter is always open to young people wanting to learn more about dogs and the issues that surround them. However, the class form Nakor Payap has already had an introduction to temple dog life.

Teachers, students and CFD staff, discus issue faced in animal rescue

The youngest visitor form the group helped socialize the little ones in the Puppy Palace.

In a fabulous mix of crazy and pure fun many of the dogs took the gals out for a walk.

Both of their teachers, Katherine Le Roy and Elissa Francemone, are avid dog lovers as well. Great teachers are the best tool animal rescue groups have in educating the next generation about kindness to animals and responsible pet ownership. That consciousness showed in the students.

While at the shelter everyone pitched in. After an educational talk and tour conducted by Karin and Hannah, the group went in every direction. Dogs were walked, socialized, bathed and outright cuddled.

It is always a real pleasure when the youth form Nakor Payap International School stop by the shelter for their visits. They give a real sense of hope for the future of dogs while sharing their hearts with our own current lovely shelter pets.

Dog pile on the teachers! The ladies in charge were exceptional dog-lovers and exceptionally good sports.

A student from Nakor Payap spent time with the irresistibly handsome Cupid.

Cupid again hogs the camera by charming another student into giving him his weekly bath.

The shelter is always open to visitors but today we held the gate wide open for some very special guests.

As part of their Thailand fundraising programme, WSPA have introduced a Face to Face campaign in Bangkok and as part of their background work to build their teams experince & knowledge, today WSPA are visiting Care for Dogs.

It was a pleasure to discuss some of the case histories or certain residents at the shelter and introduce some of the characters (dogs to people & people to dogs!!).

Here are a few snaps of the visit.

Judy and I always love to visit children. This time we were invited to Prem’s K3 class. They were studying Community Helpers and wanted to know about the work we do at Care for Dogs. All the children were very excited when we arrived and could barely listen to the lesson when Judy rolled over to ask for belly scratches.

They asked many questions and shared stories as I talked about all the important chores that needed to be done to take care of the 150+ dogs and puppies at the shelter. We discussed the importance of sterilization and proper care of pets. The children already knew a lot about what dogs need, especially attention, playtime and love.

We ended the hour with a very important subject – safety. Children are sometimes victims of dog bites, often by dogs they know. Most of the time this happens when they are not being supervised by adults and they mistakenly chase a shy dog, corner a scared dog, approach an unfriendly dog or cuddle a dog that doesn’t want to be cuddled.

We talked about which dogs to approach and how to approach them. The only dogs that are safe to approach are dogs with their owners, only after asking permission first. All the children took turns meeting Judy properly, approaching slowly, asking permission, then extending a hand for Judy to smell.

Thank you to the children at Prem for their generous donations of blankets, towels and toys. We’re happy to see community service start at such a young impressionable age.

We at Care for Dogs welcome every opportunity to help anyone, children and adults, to better understand dogs so we can safely and humanely live together.

If your class or group would like us to visit and do a short lesson on care or safety, just contact us to make an appointment.

5 students from Payap University in Chiang Mai visited the shelter this week, asking lots of questions, showing great interest in the shelter activity, picking up poo, chatting to the dogs and helping to keep the place tidy and all promising to come back again in the near future to help out.

These folks have a project called Truth & Service which they hope to generate assistance for various needy areas in local society.

Keen, bright & happy people refreshed the atmosphere at the shelter during their stay.

School visits are a big part of Care for Dogs. And on Tuesday, we were host to International School Eastern Seaboard all the way from Pattaya. Ms. Kristina Solheim arrived with 10 sophomores (10th graders) who had chosen to come and learn about the shelter and lend a helping hand as volunteers-for-a-day.

We began with a short lesson on pet overpopulation and the importance of sterilization. In this lesson, the students found out that just ONE unspayed (unsterilized) female dog can be responsible for over 90,000 offspring in the course of only 6 years! We discussed some misconceptions of sterilization and they learned that it is a quick and painless operation that could single-handedly solve the overpopulation dilemma. We all agreed that sterilizing one dog today is definitely preferable to caring for/dealing with 90,000 of her offspring later.

At the shelter, the children met dogs who had been abandoned, abused, neglected, injured or sick – many as a result of overpopulation. The groups of children and their chaperones spent the afternoon working as volunteers – bathing dogs with special skin conditions (such as mange), walking dogs that needed exercise, socializing dogs and puppies in order to prepare them for adoptive families and learning the ins and outs of everyday shelter life. Although there were some kids worried about the cleanliness of their designer sneakers, most of them dug themselves right into the work and got good and dirty.

We at Care for Dogs feel that the way to end the suffering of homeless dogs (and many owner dogs) is through education. We would like to thank Ms. Kristina Solheim and the young people from International School Eastern Seaboard in Pattaya for their interest, hard work and donations. We hope that they will pass on what they’ve learned from their visit so that in time the world may be a kinder place for all animals.

Recently a Thai television crew visited the shelter to capture various scenes and footage for presentation on Thai Television.

The programs were recorded for Children’s television and will be shown on ThaiPBS channel this next Saturday 26 September 2009 and a week later, Saturday 3 October 2009 at 07:30 in the morning.

If you have UBC in Thailand you can find this channel on preset channel 6, it is also on terrestrial tv via a coat hangar out the back of the set and for those reading this on the internet you can simply, follow this link which enables you to watch Live Thai TV on your computer.

In case you have difficulty viewing that link outside of Thailand, here are a couple more !

http://365boxs.com/tvonline_titv.html
and http://watch.squidtv.net/asia/thailand.html

So, fearing the obvious accusations of repeating ;

Don’t miss the show !

Presentation of the Care for Dogs Foundation at the Ratchamankala University on 27 August 2009

by Maggi Albiez:

I was asked by a friend of mine, Khun Sitang Jenwinitthai, Assistant professor and dean of the Communication Design Department, to give a presentation for her students. I was to choose between three topics: presenting my country, Switzerland, presenting the animal care non profit project, which I accomplished from 2002 to 2005 on Koh Payam or to present the Care for Dogs Foundation in Chiang Mai. I chose Care for Dogs, because I live in Chiang Mai for eight months now and am an active volunteer in this organization.

AApprox. 30 students were present and very interested in this topic. A lively discussion arose when I showed the PowerPoint presentation and the web page of Care for the Dogs.

On Wednesday, 2 September, the whole group will visit the shelter in Hang Dong.

Parallel to it the students will sketch road signs and stickers for Care for Dogs in a group work.

7 students are interested in being a part of our team at the Sunday Market and after their visit in the shelter they will know what it is all about.

I am so much pleased that I had this fantastic opportunity to pass on so much information for the improvement of the situation of the dogs of Chiang Mai and the surrounding areas.