Clever Pets Ireland

22/08/2025

Nell was spotted yesterday evening near Balheary Church & again this morning near Lawless Farm on the R108 road in the Nevinstown/Knocksedan - please keep an eye out for her & let owner Helen know of any sightings asap. Hopefully this girlie will get home soon 🤞

07/08/2025

Some very good questions in this post to ask ourselves when considering working with our horses.

Many of the same points can be applied to working with our dogs (and other animals in our care as pets or companions, or that we use for sport/competition) too.

Tank has been my teacher for many years, in honor of her passing i'm sharing the many lessons she's taught me.
Today's lesson is about give and take and compromise. When i first got Tank i very much had the mentality of "she should do it because i ask, because she loves me, because i care for her". I quickly discovered that whether i used R- or pure R+ or a combination of both, i could easily set Tank up to do things for me she was truly not ready for. She would push herself as hard as she could for me and then break into and explosive gallop away because she just couldn't keep it together anymore.

I learned to moderate my own training, not to focus on what i'm convincing her to do for me, but rather finding comfort, relaxation, and even fun in the games we do TOGETHER. I had to learn what was worth pushing her for and what was not. This became an ethics game, more than a training game. Because i could convince Tank to comply, but she would be on edge and emotional. I knew with enough work and practice she could overcome some of that, but there were things it was important to do this for and things it was not.

I first had to ask myself, why does she not want to do this? Does she understand? Is she physically capable? Is she emotionally capable? Is there a competing factor in the evironment? Which legitimate reason does she have for finding this behavior difficult or stressful?
Then i had to ask myself, who is this behavior for? Is it for her health, safety, and wellness? Is it for my safety? Or is it for my fun and enjoyment?
How fast do we need this? Is it a big emergency health problem? Is it a health thing we have time to work on? Or is it just for fun and we can take the slooowwww road?

I had to learn, when is it appropriate or even necessary to push, to use more coercive R+, limiting choices, accepting mild stress signals and working through it. And when it was not appropriate. When she needed a more slow, steady gentle path to bring her over. When i need to let something go because it wasn't for her.

Ultimately Tank is super cooperative for all of her health care. She had a year i needed to do DAILY injections for allergies, within the first week she started galloping up, excited for needle time! She does hoof care like a pro, teaches all the kids to clean hooves. She loves the vet so much she tries to get her to come play with her when they are actually here for another horse.
Tank loves tricks and brain game training, this is fun for her. Tank is a pro at agility, but only when the weather is right. Too buggy or too windy and it's stressful for her. This is where compromise sets in. Agility is for fun for me (and our kids). She enjoys it, but there are days she doesn't, so we don't.
Then finally riding. She finds this extremely stressful. She tolerated riding as best she could, holding in her anxiety. We could have spent the year focused on breaking this down and making it something she could handle. But she hated things over her head, she hated the stress of having to keep her human safe, she was overwhelmed by the experience. And riding was just for me. So we let that go into the wind. Our relationship had so much more, so much we both love and find fun in. We could let that go.

29/07/2025

25/07/2025

A

⛔️ENCLOSED GARDEN and want to help??⛔️

I'm currently looking for enclosed gardens for a number of disabled hedgehogs that I have in care. These hedgehogs have a disability that compromises their ability to survive completely independently in the wild but not enough to warrant ending their lives. You would be fostering them for the rescue and all retention licences, if granted, will be held by the rescue.

Please get in touch if you would be willing to take on a hedgehog such as this but ONLY if you meet these strict requirements ⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️

Requirements:

🦔100% enclosed gardens ie. Walled, fenced etc. No gaps, open areas, large gates etc. 100% enclosed!! I can't stress this enough!! ...
🦔LARGE gardens, i.e., not standard housing estates
🦔PLENTY of cover, ie. Hedges, compost heaps etc.
🦔no ponds, no dogs (no exceptions)
🦔nobody thinking they are pets. They aren't. You will probably never see them.
🦔willingness to supplement feed every evening, 365 days a year.
🦔absolutely no use of rodenticides, pesticides etc (goes without saying)
🦔nobody looking for pest controllers-slugs and snails make up about 2% of their diets. Ie. They don't eat slugs and snails.
🦔no "allotment" type situations for above reason.
🦔nobody that thinks it's ok to bring them into schools or "show and tell" type situations (goes without saying, but...)

Even with all that, I will get hundreds of messages from people living in housing estates with dogs, fake grass and the obigatory trampoline. pls don't be offended when you don't receive a reply. I simply don't have the time 😪

There you go, ive done my best to describe what's needed.

If you feel like you are one of those special people that can provide the perfect retirement sanctuary for hedgehog that needs a little extra care then please get in touch with pictures (more than one) and rough dimensions of the purposed area.

Again, please do not be offended if you don't get a reply. Im one person with 60 odd hedgehogs in care. If your area meets the above criteria you WILL get a response.

HOME CHECKS WILL APPLY TO ALL POTENTIAL SITES.

thanks so much, Yvonne x

15/07/2025

Every day across Ireland, rescue organisations respond to calls no one else will: abandoned litters in sheds, elderly dogs dumped at the gates of shelters, once-loved pets surrendered because of housing, behaviour, or cost. The work is essential. The people behind it are extraordinary. But we have to ask, is rescue solving the problem? Or simply responding to it?

Rehoming a dog feels like a solution. It feels like progress. But in truth, rescue is a reactive measure, not a proactive one. It treats the symptoms of a much deeper and more systemic failure: a national dog welfare system that has yet to prioritise prevention.

According to the Department of Rural and Community Development, over 10,000 dogs passed through Irish dog pounds in 2023. Rehoming organisations absorb the overflow, but they are stretched to breaking point. And for every dog placed, more are waiting. The numbers do not drop, they shift.

Rescue saves individual lives. But it does not stop the flow of dogs into the system. In fact, it can unintentionally enable poor systems to continue giving the illusion that the problem is being "handled" when it is, in fact, growing.

To be clear: rescue is not the problem. The lack of state-level action is. Rescue work, carried largely by underfunded charities, exists because of political inaction not in partnership with the government but in place of it.

What Ireland Needs:

- Independent regulation and transparency in breeding operations
- Mandatory, evidence-based dog welfare education at national and school levels
- A unified dog welfare strategy, backed by data, not guesswork
- Subsidised behavioural support and veterinary care for owners at risk of surrender
- A cultural shift, led by government, that reframes dogs as lifelong companions, not commodities

We must stop viewing rescue as a solution to Ireland’s dog welfare crisis. It is an emergency response, not a cure. Until we commit to tackling the root causes of unethical breeding, lack of support, poor education, and housing inequality dogs in Ireland will continue to suffer, and rescue organisations will continue to drown.

Kindness isn’t enough. Policy must follow.

27/06/2025

A great post by Suzi Walsh of Dog Behaviour & Training

Imagine living in discomfort every day without the ability to tell anyone. That’s the reality many dogs face. They may not cry out, limp, or yelp, but that doesn’t mean they’re not hurting. Because of how stoic dogs can be, the only clue we often get is a change in behaviour and that’s where so many people go wrong.

Behavioural issues like aggression, reactivity, withdrawal, or anxiety are assumed to be purely emotional or psychological. But what if it's pain?

This is your wake-up call.

A pain trial involves a veterinary professional prescribing pain relief for a set period to assess whether there is a behavioural or physical improvement. It's a diagnostic tool, not a final answer. If your dog has had a behavioural issue for a long time, the pain trial should last at least 6 to 8 weeks to give enough time to observe any meaningful changes

Critically, it’s often used when there are no overt signs of lameness or injury, but the dog’s BEHAVIOUR suggests possible pain, think sudden reluctance to be touched, changes in posture, agitation, growling, or even withdrawal. Dogs don’t dramatize. They cope.

Let’s be brutally honest. If you don’t do a pain trial and the dog is, in fact, in pain, you risk:

- Prolonged suffering: Dogs endure silently. Pain can cause constant distress that no behaviourist or training technique will resolve.

- Worsening behaviour: Pain-induced behaviours can become ingrained and more extreme, including biting or phobia-like shutdowns.

- Misdiagnosis: Your dog may be labelled “anxious,” “aggressive,” or “stubborn” when in reality, they’re simply hurting.

- Unnecessary euthanasia: Tragically, some dogs are put down because their behaviour was misattributed to temperament or training failure, when the true cause was untreated pain.

The most common objections: “I don’t want to medicate my dog unnecessarily” or “I can't see any pain”

Here’s the reality: A properly managed pain trial is safe. A short-term use of analgesics is extremely unlikely to cause harm. The risk of side effects is minimal compared to the risk of ongoing undetected pain.

The danger of a pain trial? Almost none.

24/06/2025

21/01/2025

Holly the Red Setter puppy & her family have just completed their 3rd Puppy Package training session & she’s doing amazing!! 👏