Greyhound Welfare South Africa attended Battersea Academy’s most recent Practical Week in April.
Dean Bush, Director at the Johannesburg based rescue has taken the new skills and knowledge gained and used them to successfully help dogs in Greyhound Welfare’s care.
Murphy, a German Shepherd/Rottweiler mix, is the rescue’s ‘honorary’ greyhound, as he is the odd one out amongst all the greyhounds awaiting adoption there. He was picked up as a stray from the roadside earlier this year, extremely malnourished, full of mange and very scared on arrival.
Unusually for a stray in South Africa, Murphy had been neutered and Dean soon discovered that Murphy knew the command “sit” when given his meals. This led Dean to believe that Murphy may have been given away or stolen and had previously had a home.
Murphy showed himself to be a highly intelligent dog and true to the shepherd in him, he needed a lot of mental stimulation, different to that of the greyhounds in the rescue’s care.
Once Murphy had recovered physically and blossomed into the healthy dog he is now, Dean started working on training with him, as Murphy was hesitant to leave the kennels.
Murphy’s training really improved after Dean’s trip to the Battersea Academy Practical week, which he describes as a ‘game changer.’
"The Animal Centered Education (ACE) module assisted us to take things to the next level with Murphy"
The ACE free work sessions allowed Murphy to progress with his confidence building, to the extent of moving on to some of the obstacles in Greyhound Welfare’s one-of-a-kind, new dog park and training facilities. The fully fenced park is the perfect environment for fun and interactive training sessions, including a maze and bone-shaped swimming pool for dogs.
Murphy’s socialising skills with other dogs also flourished. Many of the rescue’s greyhounds, being ex-hunters, are not good around smaller dogs, so Murphy wasn’t able to socialise with them, but he became much more at ease socialising with smaller dogs.
“I cannot stop talking about my experience at the Practical Week among my welfare colleagues and if I could sum it up, this would be it - The Battersea Academy: Providing learning opportunities, building communities and changing lives.”
