Curioser and curioser.

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” If you dont know where you are going then you can start from almost anywhere” Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland.

The parallel universe into which Alice descended in Lewis Carrroll’s hallucinatory novel was an obtuse satire of it’s day. The object and intent of Carroll’s  commentary would be  lost on us today. Except that in the broadest sense if one suspends disbelief as Alice had to, the colour, pomp, nonsense and impossibilities of Wonderland find parallel in political events this week in our dull Autumnal, bewitched, bankrupt emerald isle.

Alice’s disbelief in Wonderland was rebuked by the Duchess ” Sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast”. Today’s  impossible untruths are spun from an axis at the centre of Ireland’s ruling politico-financier-eurocrat matrix such that those who seemed the fringe madhatters a year ago now  worryingly make more sense than the official narrative. Arthur Morgan’s few words on “the books” made sense last week, heaven help us; Joan Burton’s grasp of macroeconomics has an air of assurance; Declan Ganleys take on market and bondholder management sounds eminently like what “you and I” might do. All because The Two Brians spinning impossibilities into conventional wisdoms from their Wonderland citadel of Leinster House,  like a riddle-spouting Tweedle Dee & Dum ask of us a suspension of disbelief too far.

I give you six impossible things before breakfast this Sunday. Firstly that the 30?Billion plus debts of banking folly our government has stood over will be repaid by this community of one millionish  taxpayers. Secondly, that a 3% target of  GDP deficit will be met by 2014. Thirdly,that Ireland’s borrowing requirements in the next 12 months can be met without recourse to the IMF or European Stabilisation fund. Fourthly, that a 15 Billion target of cuts can be acheived by this Government without recourse to major public sector restructuring such as Fine Gael’s new reform plan outlines. Fifthly, that a mended sustainable economy can emerge wthout radical stripping down of Ireland’s framework of “Big Government” to use the US Republican phrase. Sixth, that a reimagined better Ireland can be delivered by the same Government which created the imbalanced directionless society we have become in the last decade.

Not to argue readers to despair, I offer converse beliefs. Firstly, the impossible arguments which Tweedle Brians, our Dukes of spinning Wonderland, maintain are part of a crude twohanded roulette. An attempt to spin out electoral damage on one hand and play a massive hand of eurobluff with world lenders at Berlin’s bidding on the other. Quite where plans for the future welfare and fabric of Irish Society fit into all this is hard to figure out. Perhaps the EU, taking up the slack on Irish bond sales as they were this Summer, have quietly promised to allow us default quietly in the quiet future. Perhaps our Brians believe in their own plan in which case we should all be very afraid. But I doubt it.

National and world economic affairs are, like Alice’s adventure in Wonderland, getting curioser and curioser. Ordinary working citizens being mere pawns and bit players will find it harder and harder to distinguish everyday reality and discern where  freedoms of choice start and finish. We can all only influence our own circle of people and events around us. Proactively let us look after our own individual reality and security. Through the looking glass our politicians hold up to us, nothing else is as it seems.

Things that go BANG in the night.

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Have you noticed a quieter than usual build up to Halloween this year? Reports suggest that rockets, blockbuster candles, blackcats, flares, crackerjacks, parachutes, other fireworks as well as bangers  are scarce on the ground.

Trade on the streets is well below normal seasonal levels. If your pets breathe a sigh of relief this year you can thank Irish Customs Officials for a smaller than usual supply to market of Halloween contraband.

 A friend stationed in one of the Dublin Garda Stations confirmed that inner city Dublin as well as the rest of the country is having a quieter and more peaceful Halloween this year. You may assume this is another recessionary consequence. In fact a major campaign of clamp down on sales of illegal cigarettes  and tough new penalties for smuggling and  contraband trading is the real reason for this year’s fireworks shortage.

Losses to the Irish exchequer from black market sales of  smuggled cigarettes had reached billions of euros according to Retailers Against Smuggling.  The  estimated loss to Irish Retailers in 2009 through the black market cigarette trade was placed at 700 million euro while losses to the Irish state from the avoidance of tobacco duty are believed to be worth 600 million euro.

Retailers group, RAS pointed out to government that  their cigarette sales had fallen 40% in recent years and signalled that fresh redundancies in the retail sector throughout 2010 would be inevitable. Supported by the tobacco industry it is thought that the group’s input influenced  Ireland’s finance bill in March 2010 which increased the maximum fines for smuggling and sale of contraband cigarettes from 12,000 euro to a new maximum of 130000 euro.

The new legislation has had a marked and immediate effect in halting supply of smuggled cigarettes and restoring excise duties  as customs officials have increased their efforts and had a number of recent successful seizures. A seizure in Dublin port in June was valued at 7.2 million euro with another in August worth 4 million euro.

The reduction in supply of fireworks and  traditional Halloween contraband is a welcome side effect of these successes as gardai confirm that the illegal firework and cigarette trade have always gone hand in hand. Tough new deterrents and greater vigilance at ports are improving the lives of pets at Halloween as well as the bottom line of cigarette retailers. For now at any rate.

The advice to pet owners at Halloween remains the same though, this year as any other. Keep your pets indoors for the next few nights as far as possible. Livestock and horses on land near built up areas should likewise be housed at nightfall. For the particularly nervous and night averse we can dispense some valium, acepromazine or other aids to a good night’s sleep. For your pet’s night’s sleep, that is.

Winter of discontent for Ireland’s most vulnerable horses.

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The Irish Horse Welfare Trust  are running a campaign called A VOICE FOR HORSES on their website www.ihwt.ie and in the public domain. The IHWT are the largest advocacy group for the most vulnerable animals in Ireland today, those horses which have fallen off the bottom of the horse industry’s value chain.The IHWT campaign asks for the Animal Health and Welfare Bill in Ireland 2010 to be developed and progressed into legislation as a matter of urgency.

The public and political controversy which arose during the passage of the Wildlife Act Amendment Bill which outlawed stag hunting and the Dog Breeding Establishment Bill which provided regulation for  puppy breeding led to defections from the government ranks and was seen as diverting energies away from more pressing national budgetary concerns. Another Animal welfare bill of any sort will thus now be viewed in government buildings as too radioactive to handle in the life of this government and will probably be “held over”.

Minister Smith gave statement of intent  in the Dail in March 2010 to have the new Animal Health and Welfare Bill ready to pass through the Dail before end 2010 as was outlined in the programme for government 2007. The consultancy phase for this Bill was completed in 2008 in which Veterinary Ireland, IHWT, ISPCA, Dept of Ag and Dept of Environment participated.

This Act will update and amend all existing legislation concerning farm and  companion animals, equines, exotics and provide a single set of provisions to ensure welfare and health are defined,regulated and protected. Animal cruelty cases are still dealt with under the Protection of Animals Act 1911 while penalty guidelines for animal cruelty are currently referenced to a 1965 amendment of that 1911 Act.  It will stipulate increased penalties for offenders, describe new offences of mutilations such as ear cropping, tail docking and offences of omission or neglect as understood under modern parameters of  “the five freedoms of animal welfare”.

There exists an anomaly whereby control and regulatory responsibility for food animals is the remit of the Dept of Agriculture while Dogs and other companion animals are the responsibility of the Dept of the Environment. Horses fall into both which in practice amounts often to a legislative neither. Minister Smith wants correctly to bring all animal legislation into the Department of Agriculture which is where Veterinary, Animal Husbandry, Health & Safety and Disease Control expertise all reside already. This consolidation of responsibility for animal welfare into the Dept. of Ag  is identified by groups like the IHWT as perhaps the most important part of the Animal Health and Welfare Bill.

This catch all bill will bring Ireland’s animal cruelty policies, penalties and listing of offences into line with the UK’s Animal Welfare Act 2006 which is robust enough to prosecute owners of hungry horses for neglect, dangerous dog owners for derogation of responsibility and puppy breeders for overcrowding or inhumane management.  Yesterday in Lewes Crown court a woman from  East Lewes, Sussex was fined 10000 pounds and baned from horse ownershpip for ten years for five counts of horse cruelty. One mare  had to be put down as her hooves were so badly overgrown that she knuckled forward on her hind fetlock joints. A former Crufts winning Breeder was found guilty of keeping 92 dogs in crowded and dirty conditions in Aidenshaw,UK last week. An offence which can lead to up to six months in jail under this tough 2006 legislation.

Groups like the IHWT, frustrated by Ieland’s outdated legislation and laissez faire attitudes to animal welfare expect an Irish bill which would similiarly empower local authority inspectors, stiffen penalties and deterrents to irresponsible animal ownership.

Horses dont have a single defined route to market or a single function. There is no certainty of outcome at the end of the demand curve. Horse owning and breeding is a meritocracy because they are not a food animal in our culture but may be all of athlete, investment, hobby, pet and luxury depending on your point of view. A horse may be all of those at diferent stages of it’s life, it’s usefulness and it’s value. A horse’s  value proposition is a chain that a horse will rest at or fall off at different phases of its ability or health. The value chain may have started off as a dream for an owner several years ago but end now as a nightmare for a hungry horse ina field somewhere this winter.

The most vulnerable of those horses at the end of that value chain are the ones that would benefit from a robust legislative policy on Animal Health and Welfare. It IS all about the economy at the moment. But government have a responsibility to legislate for society as well as the economy. Societies are judged by how we treat our most vulnerable.

Trap, Neuter, Return- Ireland’s feral cats.

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 Alley  Cat Allies are a catchily named US organisation which are behind a US wide campaign to help the 86 million feral or wild cats in the US on Feral cat Friday, today October 16th. The thrust of this campaign is to educate both general public and animal control officers to the fact that the traditional catch and kill solution has not worked as feral cat numbers world-wide continue to multiply. The Allies are over 20 years in existence, are US-wide and promote a policy of Trap, Neuter, Return as a viable method of feral cat population control.

The campaign is spreading and Ireland’s animal welfare groups have come together to highlight Ireland’s wild and semiwild stray cat problem.  October 18th-24th is Ireland’s National Feral Cat Awareness Week which is hoped will raise knowledge and action on the issue of the estimated one million strong feral cat population in Ireland.

Domestication of cats began about 10000 years ago coinciding with the introduction of  farming. Cats began to hunt the rodents associated with the storage of grain and have lived on the edge of domesticity ever since. Cats will readily revert to the wild in order to survive which means that abandoned cats, strayed cats or cats left behind when owners move house will melt into the local environment foraging food and shelter by hunting and scavenging. Their existence is one of our sins of omission in that they are feral and most likely nonneutered largely because of human neglect.

Do feral cats cause problems or pose animal welfare concerns? Yes and No. Yes, in that too many cats in an area cause disharmony. Competitive rivalry for resources, territory and young females amongst wild feral tomcats will lead to fighting which spills over into the domestic cat population. The feeding of feral cats without an accompanying neutering plan is a widespread, wellmeaning and misguided practice.If numbers are not contained by prevention of breeding the result will be the undue suffering and fatality of kittens and the spread of diseases such as feline aids ( FIV), Feline Leukaemia ( FeLV) Viruses both amongst ferals and neighbourhood domestic cats.

On the other hand removal of entire colonies of ferals in isolation is not the answer. Neither do feral cats belong in shelters where kill rates for cats unsuited to rehoming is above 70% and where they take up spaces better utilised for dog control. Wild cat numbers are so high now that animal carers who have attempted a catch and kill plan find  very quickly that a vacuum created by removal of one family or colony is quickly filled by another group of feral cats move in to fill the territory. Especially if humans in that area have been providing a source of food.

The cheapest, most effective and most humane solution in an area overpopulated by wild cats is that advocated by the Alleycat’s Alliance which is the use of a large light portable cat trap such as can be borrowed from dog wardens or ISPCA officers. It may take a week or so of feeding to win the trust of a genuinely feral cat before luring it into the trap with food.  Once trapped bring the cat to a Vet to be examined and if found to be healthy it should be neutered, wormed and vaccinated before being returned to the wild. We should also remember to snip or mark that cats ear as a universally understood sign of a cat already neutered to prevent needlessly trapping the same cats twice.  Animal charities have some funds to assist with these costs. Most Vets undertake this type of work as a “loss leader”.

Fiscal Rectitude and medieval medicine. .

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 FISCAL RECTITUDE-MEDIEVAL MEDICINE

 About two years ago just after Minister Lenihan undertook the bank guarantee scheme and before the full collapse of Ireland’s  economy was apparent, I attended the Fianna Fail Ard Fheis. I sat in on a forum on the Banks and Economy with Minister Lenihan and had the opportunity to contribute to debate.

The recurring  theme of debate that day was a  desire for equitable distribution of the financial loss, a theme which has come to be known as “sharing the pain”. The same theme which has come to sound so  relentlessly negative and recriminatory. There weren’t any socialists in the room but rather the traditional Fianna Fail  audience of small business owners, self employed professionals, teachers and civil servants. This is the group who invested and expanded in an expanding economy and became the upwardly mobile “new Irish”. This is the group which are now in arrears or default, whose rental properties are empty, whose businesses have contracted or even closed. But nobody in that forum that day said they expected to have their losses softened. Nobody said capitalism was a one way street.

 The anger that day was directed against the underwriting of subordinated bondholders, in particular of course Anglo Irish banks’. These are risk-taking investors- can they not take loss as well as the rest of us? The logic of that seemed undeniable in November 2008 so why in October 2010 are these subordinated bondholders still underwritten and we as a nation seemingly on a path of national penury? Why have one million tax payers in an economy the size of Manchester agreed to “pay back” merchant bank debt of 30+ Billion euro? Are the government  for real in the pursuit of this plan? I think possibly not.

I made a speech myself that day to the Minister in which I discussed the reality of professionals being judged by results. When I used to treat racehorses I said, my clientele expected one price if a sick horse lived, another entirely if the horse died. Reputations survive by results. We still see little or no results-based decision making within the entire governing matrix of financier-bureaucrat-Trade Unions in Ireland and no equality of loss.

 Equitable loss or “sharing the pain”, would mean indigenous Irish business and our paltry one million tax payers would pay more tax, charge less and pay each other less to pay for our own stupid credit greed over the last ten years BUT would get value for money in our public service, cheaper politicians, less semistate cost and an internationally shared payback for bank failures in return.  An economy restructured on  living within our means?

  In stead we get political blame games.The recriminations and the blame games are largely being fuelled by the entertainment industry, media and by politics itself. Business people will learn, move on and rise to the  challenges. Should have rented instead of buying? Should have stuck to what you were good at instead of dabbling in property? The lessons are hard for each and peculiarly personal.   The problem for Ireland’s business owners is not loss of wealth, not the winning or losing. The problem is the bailout and the selective nature of it.

My comment to Lenihan was an obvious performance management analogy. It is still true that the rules of results-driven performance have not been applied to Banks, Politics, HSE, Local government and that serious steps towards these reforms are now only contemplated as billions are added to the national debt and Croke Park agreements and the like threatened by slowness to reform.

There is another analogy which I would describe to Minister Lenihan today. In medieval medicine the treatment for a condition known as red water in cattle used to be bloodletting.  Just as we all know that bleeding with leeches was applied as a universal “cure” in human medicine. Perhaps sometimes it worked by accident if cows (or patients) did not first die of anaemia. In fact the modern cure for this condition is blood transfusion and not bloodletting.

 The cuts, savings and bleeding of Ireland’s economy undertaken in the last two years at the nod of M’sieur Trichet etc is nothing short of  a bleeding with leeches cure.  It is self evident that paying the bond markets will secure further borrowings, but at what cost if the underlying pathologies are not addressed?  Pathologies such as Ireland’s reliance on investment and imports from abroad,  fondness for bureaucracy and fear of new ideas in government.  And we have got to come up with something smarter than the “Smart” economy for a generation skilled in construction.

The mood in a similar gathering to that Ard Fheis if held in October 2010, would not be anger as much as fear. The addition of much-publicised bank debt to our national deficit has replaced anger and lack of confidence  with fear. Fear of the government attempting to squeeze a small indigenous business sector to pay an impossible debt.  More Taxes for all in the face of rising utility costs and falling prices of goods or services? The result would be further pressure to cut prices which would close yet more businesses. There is a vicious cycle of deflation set to continue. Again, are the government for real in planning to take that much money away from an economy the size of Manchester?

The answer I hope lies in the lessons from the Treaty of Versailles. After World War One, Germany was penalised by huge debt termed reparations by their victors at the Treaty of Versailles 1919. John Maynard  Keynes sat in on the Treaty negotiations for the British. The famous economist warned that the burden of costs on Germany would prove  too high and that Germany would suffer civil unrest and  social breakdown. He believed that the allies were risking a backlash by the next generation of Germans.  He was right. Germany’s Weimar Republic which followed the Second Reich was blighted by a decade of hyperinflation, unemployment and economic depression. The backlash was the rise of Nazism, Hitler’s Third Reich and the Second World War.

Last week Germany announced that its  exchequer  had just paid off that debt  imposed by the Treaty of Versailles. The burden of WWI reparations has only lifted in 2010. I expect they got a significant write off on the last tranche of loan as the governments of the world  clamour for credit.

 The human and social cost of that vindictive financial penalty imposed in 1919 affected two generations of Europeans. It is my hope that Germany as the controlling force in the EU today will not forget the lesson of its own history. In return for holding up our corner of the Eurozone, in return for an unflinching stance towards the chancers of the world bond markets I am hopeful that Irelands bank debt may at some quiet point in the future be viewed as “nominal”. To give our government any credit one has to hope that a deal has been done to eventually move that debt “OFF balance sheet” or write it down quietly in return for “taking one for the team” now.

You have to hope that. Or else the Lisbon Treaty could go down as Ireland’s Treaty of Versailles.

Heroes, Huskies and survivors of the Antarctic

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In 1991 due to fears of Canine Distemper Virus spreading from husky dogs to native seal populations, a clause was added to the international Antarctic treaty ” Dogs shall not be introduced onto land or ice shelves and dogs currently in those areas shall be removed by April 1st 1994″. Thus ended over 100 years of sled dog use in the Antarctic and created an anomaly whereby man’s best friend and explorers’ best asset was deported from an entire continent.

Huskies, descended closely from Arctic wolves, have been used by Inuit tribes for transport, hunting and survival in the frozen Arctic for over 2000 years.The Husky dog is not one breed but rather a strain of canine adapted for cold living and bred for sledwork, hunting and survival alongside the world’s northernmost people. Alaskan malamute, Siberian husky, Samoyed, Norwegian Elkhound, Inuit Sled dog, West Greenland dog; all are considered separate breeds yet evolved by cross-breeding, out-crossing and adapting dog bloodlines over centuries.

Huskies were first brought to Antarctica from Norway for the Southern Cross expedition of 1898-1890. The long wooden Norwegian sled was built to carry up to 300 kg of tents, supplies of seal meat for dog and man and was pulled by 12 to 15 dogs either in train or fan formation. A well managed Husky team would pull twice their own weight across ice, remain surefooted through snow blizzard, reach speed of twenty miles per hour but more significantly could cover up to twenty miles per day over all manner of rough terrain. Norwegian-born Roald Amundsen became the first man to lead a successful expedition to the South Pole in 1912. Amundsen’s team reached the South Pole one full month before Robert F Scott’s British expedition.

The deaths of Robert F Scott, Captain Oates and the British expedition team were cast as a heroic failure. Amundsen’s entire party made it home to Oslo on schedule. In contrast to the British the Norwegians made the South Pole conquest look like a workmanlike cross country ski hike. Scott’s expedition was hampered by poor weather, unsound horses and inexplicable last minute changes of plan. Amundsen met more favourable weather conditions. Yet even the weather was part of Amundsen’s plan and timing. Historians attribute Amundsen’s success to superior knowledge of polar conditions, attention to detail, ability to endure and his knowledge of dog handling.

The Last Viking, as Amundsen became known, was born in 1872 near Oslo. His father and brothers were sea captains. As a child he was cativated by Norwegian heroics of Arctic exploration. He slept with the windows open to harden himself to cold and developed endurance and survival skills from an early age. His mother wished him to become a Doctor but after his mother’s death when he was 21 he left medical school and followed the family seafaring tradition. A childhood of sailing, skiing and learning Inuit sledding skills from his father became part of Amundsen’s preparation for Antarctica. He was the first man to travel the Northwest Passage connecting the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans in a specially built boat, the Gjoa, to determine the position of the North magnetic Pole.

In 1910 Scott’s plan to lead a British expedition to the South Pole attracted world publicity. Amundsen’s Arctic experience was by then renowned and Norwegian pride in the feats of their polar explorers was not to be undone by the British. Amundsen prepared secretly and assiduously, decided to beat the British to it and set off from Oslo on August 9th 1910 on the Fram, a bigger tougher boat than the Gjoa, eight weeks after Scott’s Terra Nova expedition left Cardiff.

Amundsen’s small team were all skilled cross country skiiers and dog handlers. All seasoned explorers who numbered amongst them a skilled carpenter to repair sleds, a tailor for tent repair, a cook and several with polar experience to equal Amundsen’s. Crucially Amundsen brought 97 Greenland Sled dogs with long light wooden Norwegian sleds and supplies for two years. The Fram reached the Ross ice shelf on East Antarctica some four months later and established winter quarters and base camp at a site 60 miles closer to the south Pole than the rival Scott team.

The race was on but the next stage of preparation and survey took almost a year as Amundsen and his team waited on the Ross ice shelf for suitable weather for the final sled drive to the South Pole.

On august 24th 1911 Amundsen and a team of eight set off with 86 dogs pulling 7 sleds. What follows might make uncomfortable reading for 21st century animal lovers as Amundsen conserved men, rations, weight and dog power in a ruthless, clinical drive to the Pole while racing against Scott and the onset of a second Polar Winter. For 16 days men and dogs covered 11 miles per day. The men travelled by ski, pushing and steering sleds carrying tents, rations, stoves and seal meat for the dogs. On September 8th Amundsen whittled the forward drive to 5 men with 4 sleds each pulled by 13 dogs while the rest fell back to base.

Amundsen pushed on for 21 days to the foot of Queen Mauds Range with 52 dogs now whittled to 42. Ten dogs sacrificed on route now fed the remainder. Four days later at the top of the range 24 dogs were shot to further conserve supplies and lighten the journey. The five men rested for four days before heading off on November 25th into raging blizzard on the final leg of the journey with two sleds and 18 dogs. On December 14th the lead sled was halted with a loud cry as Amundsen’s compass signalled their destination at the magnetic South Pole. To put the journey in context, they had travelled 340 miles in 22 days from the final camp at Queen Mauds Range to the Pole. The men celebrated with seal meat and cigars before five more dogs were shot leaving a light, swift team with fresh meat supply for the drive back to base. The return to the docked Fram of all five men and final eleven dogs took 39 days.

Amundsen did not lose a single man. Robert Falcon Scott reached the Pole one month later. Scott and his men pulled their own supplies on sleds with shoulder harnesses. Although Scott brought dogs, they were poorly utilised and left at base camp as Scott, Oates and three others pushed for the Pole. All Scott’s team perished on the return journey.The success of Amundsen’s plan hinged on the speed and endurance of the Greenland Sleddog and the native skill of Norwegian sled drivers.

The Husky is the ultimate hardworking, coldweather and multipurpose dog. They are a muscular dog with a thick double coat and can weigh up to 40 kg. They are tough beyond belief and have an innate urge to work. They are also said to be belligerent,wilful and independent. Like other confident working dogs they will test, push and respond to authority. Skillful drivers have driven since childhood as sled steering, guidance with a 20ft whip and a series of verbal commands are required. Sled dogs must be staked and chained apart on a “span” at rest as they will fight if tethered closely.

Husky descendents’ suitability as pets must be taken under advisement. We regularly underestimate the exercise requirements of a working breed dog such as the Samoyed, Alaskan Malamute, Siberian Husky. They are attuned to pack hierarchy and require constant attention, affirmation and training to avoid boredom and frustration. They are also vocal breeds. Many do not bark but emit a plaintive howl, a throwback to pack hunting calls. They exhibit what some call “primitive behaviours”. Perhaps their ancestry is closer to the Wolf than many of our domestic breeds. Behavioural problems in huskies are often caused by their needs for attention, defined hierarchy, work and by their unsuitability for a life of isolation, inactivity and boredom.

Double coated dogs like the husky breeds are prone to heat stroke. Thermoregulation in dogs is less efficient than in humans because dogs do not sweat but simply pant to cool themselves. Dogs bred by Inuit over two millenia for Arctic cold will particularly suffer on a (rare) warm Irish Summer day. Many huskies are also intolerant of cereals and may develop Inflammatory bowel Disease, Eczema or other allergic responses to processed dog foods. But they can also be excellent family pets, guard dogs and need nothing more than an open garden shed to thrive outdoors.

Amundsen’s story is one of the courage, loyalty and endurance of the Greenland Sled dog. His team of men and dogs were fit for purpose and chosen wisely. Had Amundsen chosen a pack of Jack Russell Terriers, English Foxhounds or German Shepherds his Norwegian explorers may have joined Robert Falcon Scott as corpses on the frozen ice.
Perhaps we should all choose our dogs as carefully.

The Leadership myth;politics and perception.

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Is modern charismatic leadership a mere construct of media framing? We all know that modern high impact leaders like Tony Blair and Bill Clinton have feet of clay because amongst others they have had their carefully framed images dismantled by the media they used so well. In Ireland only our dead leaders have escaped the revisionists’ savaging and then only if they got out while the going was good.

On the cusp of the stock market crash of 1929 Jack Kennedy, father of all the Kennedys took an elevator down a building on Wall Street. On the descent  the Bellboy cheerily chatted about market trading and conspiratorially tipped Kennedy the great beneficiary of prohibition, a “sure thing” for the day’s stock market. That day Kennedy sold all his shares and bonds. When the bellboy is trading shares it’s time to sell. I am reminded of that story when I hear stories of ordinary Irish people in 2006 or 2007  buying houses in Bulgaria but moreover this week when I hear taxidrivers on the Joe Duffy show critiquing the qualities of “strong leadership” which “Ireland needs”.

Mr Brian Cowen’s version of “strong leadership” is certainly no media construct. His defenders claim that his is a leadership of “taking the hard unpopular decisions that need to be taken”. This was the type of defence used by George W Bush in Congress during one debate on the Iraq War when he stated ” At least I make strong decisions, I lead”. Senator Joe Biden, now Vice President responded ” Mr President, look behind you. Leaders have followers. No one’s following. Nobody.”

At what point then do the actions of a leader cease to imbody Leadership but become Dictatorship? Is it that Cowen and others now supposedly providing Leadership in Ireland today are doing so in such a deeply unpopular way that we may as well be living in a dictatorship? Or is it that Cowen’s Government COULD acheive consensus towards those same decisions if “The Leader” was sound and vision packaged for a tabloid image?

You may read Vincent Browne, Fintan OToole, Kevin Myers or other great men of action espouse fashionably that clarity of communication is the essence of Leadership and is just what we need. But do they really mean that what THEY want is a politician, leader, Taoiseach who simplifies a story they can report, packages the villians for TV, constructs a recovery narrative with heroes and a yellow brick road? Would that not be propaganda? That constructed view rings as false as the 1929 bellboy tipping stocks options to millionaires. There are some jobs that look too easy just as there are some things too good to be true.

The sensible strategy then is to look for reality cautiously. Media are a window on the world around us but the view depends on where the window is and who is looking out it. We can all choose our Leaders after a fashion. We cannot however see through the carefully constructed leadership myth we view through that media window. The only true leadership then which any of us can rely on is our own.

This morning in Dublin one desperate man drove a large cement mixer at the gates of Dail Eireann, the Irish parliament. Some two thousand demonstrators outside those gates today protested their own view on our leaders. I write not to bury Mr Cowen (nor to praise him) but Cowen himself now must be reminded of Joe Biden’s words ” Leaders need followers”. Leaders above all else must listen.

On the same day two years after a national crisis of failed bank gambling forced our government to underwrite those gambled billions one man and his cement mixer emblazoned with the words “Bankrupt by Anglo Irish Bank” gave youtube, twitter, Sky News and the daily redtop newspapers the potent image of one man leadership they have asked for. Behind the TV Cameras, the political spin and creatively mobile national budget deficits all we can rely on are the convictions of ordinary individuals. Today’s demonstrators may be tomorrow’s leaders.

Strategic puppy management Jan 2011.

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Its all about behaviour. Speculate as we will about the instincts or “psychology” behind animal behaviour, our companion animals are loved, judged, accepted or rehomed by their actions. Actions can be measured and recorded. Behaviours make the perfect pet. You, as the owner of a new puppy could set criteria for how you want a new puppy to behave and set these criteria as targets on a training plan.

The line between a perfect puppy and a badly trained one might be slim. The difference between one perfect location for a steaming puppy turd and another less suitable ( like the turkish rug) may be too subtle for a canine mind. Your newly chewed Jimmy Choos will taste the same to a teething retriever as the sanctioned old boot. Practically though, one behaviour will lead to harmony, the other to mutual frustration. You are in it together. Puppy behaviour needs to be targeted as part of a training plan.

What do I mean? Imagine you are the manager of a large business. You manage people to perform diverse roles such as assembling, packaging, delivery and selling. Your people are your best asset in business and in corporate parlance your Human Resources ( HR) are “where its at”. Your people each need job descriptions both to know where they stand and to be useful to their employer. Then they need targets.

Work targets are a win-win IF incentives are built in. Build a time frame, an end goal and set standards into a work target, add a meaningful bonus and corporate management all over the world now find all but the most exploited of workforces will respond to this contract of trust. Strategic Human Resource Management is what managers now call this. And it works even when the Strategy is purely profit.

Its all about behaviour. A Trinity Professor who lectured me through a Masters of Business, recounted a problem in the ESB years ago when the power plants kept breaking down causing electricity blackouts to customers and huge overtime bills to electricians pulling extra shifts to repair faults. A meeting between HR managers, Bosses and Electrician’s Union reps reached a eureka moment. Just before talks seemed about to break down in disagreement one Union leader casually stated ” Youse are makin’ money when the Plants r runnin’. We’re makin’ money when the plants r down”.

The solution was to reward electricians for preventing faults, not just for fixing them. A bonus scheme was agreed and implimented which set targets for flawless customer supply. Management replaced overtime for repairwork with financial motivations for electricians to keep plants running.

The lesson for dog owners is that you can apply a motivation based approach to training a new puppy how to behave in your family. You can be a motivating manager of your puppy by teaching them that they get what they want by sticking to house rules and motivate them to behave how you want by incentive. Call it Strategic Puppy management. The Doggy Times, a popular US magazine calls it the ” Nothing in Life For Free” plan.

Your ” Nothing in Life for Free” plan is like the Strategic HR Management plan of a big industry boss because you too can write a Job Description-for your dog. Put on that list what you want from your pet companion. Jobs such as 1. House trained by night, 2.House trained by day, 3. Stay off the furniture, 4.Dont jump on the grandkids, 5.Do come when called, 6. Do bark at visiting strangers! It’s your a la carte list. Like any manager you can also set targets. Reward to incentivise good behaviour. Treat unwanted behaviour by withdrawing approval and remember that physical force punishments dont work.

“Nothing in Life for Free” means they go to their basket when visitors arrive, exit out the back door at mealtime in return for treats or a full dinnerbowl. Free lunches only demotivate. Who would exert themselves at work if paid just to be there?

More about targets. The targets are more for you as trainer and manager than the dog. This is because a dog’s natural window of socialisation is from 4 to 16 weeks of age after which their learning becomes steadily slower. After 16 weeks of age pups begin to fear the unfamiliar and fear itself becomes a major roadblock to learning. Your targets then have that timeframe and can be staged by order of priority at age stages. Hygiene tasks first, safety and manners tasks next, social and public skills taught from 3 months onwards.

Most canine misbehaviours are caused by stress and boredom. Most stem from an instinctive response which get switched on inappropriately in situations of neglect or improper training. Aggressive behaviours such as chasing or menacing are manifestations of territorial and food-gathering instinct gone awry. Digging and inappropriate chewing behaviours are caused by boredom. Dogs which spend time jumping and mouthing/vocalising are communicating and probably lack appropriate socialisation/communication.

It’s all about behaviour. The demand for a science of pet psychology is merely filling a void of misunderstanding between Us and animals. No knowledge of psychology could solve the ESB’s industrial relations dilemma of how to get the electricians to keep the power flowing until management focussed on worker motive and behaviour. Strategically manage your pup with goals and targets until your pup, like the rest of us learns that nothing in Life ( not even a dog’s dinner) is free!

Be a benevolent leader, not a fairweather friend.

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Red-eye mornings. We all know those mornings when the day already feels too long before it’s even started. Mornings when you view work through the smarting blur of tired dry eyes. Maybe you’ve a tight hoarseness in your throat or the blockage in your sinuses weighs your forehead like a Neanderthal’s frontal ridge. You’ve a workload way more daunting than a morning Ireland interview and you’ve never even been to a Fianna Fail drink-in? You know you’ll find sympathy in short supply though because only one type of person has zero per cent proof and one hundred per cent street cred on a red eye morning. The Novice Parent.

I’ve a friend who is one of my drug dealers. He calls to Kildare Vet every couple of weeks for the re-up. Over the past nine months or so, as we do the weekly stocktake in the pharmacy our conversations have had a pattern which goes something like this.
” Mornin’ Paddy, How’s the family? Are ye gettin’ any sleep?”
Sad shake of the head ” Not a bit of it. He cant get enough bottle into himself”.
” Wont settle at night at all?”
Sadder shake of the head ” He’s rulin’ the house”.

Paddy is proud but bowed. A first time father of a nine month old boy.

Except for this most recent time when Paddy bounced in to fill his sales order, the red-eye syndrome replaced by a sparkle ” We got one of those night nannies for a few nights. She has the young lad organised. He takes an enormous bottle at about eleven and that‘s all we hear of him now till seven when he roars the house down again”.

First time parents will tell you they get sick listening to experts. There are always aunts and grandmothers with the answers or smug yummy mummies with a child that slept twelve hours “from the day we brought her home”. Usually in the end you figure it out for yourself. Or as in Paddy’s family’s case, the supernanny figures it out for you.

When they get older other complexities of parenting invade your comfort zone. My wife as a teacher of teenagers simplifies behavioural difficulties in teens into a couple of categories. The kid whose parents have tried too hard to be their friend reacts badly when the going gets tough and boundaries are finally redrawn or forcefully renegotiated. You cant be a child’s fairweather friend. Worse perhaps, is the child whose parents for whatever reason havent put in the time. A child who just doesnt know better or just wants attention. Teachers will tell you teens want to know their boundaries. They want an adult, parent or teacher to define these limits and above all be consistent. Like the reliable equilibrium of a dependable moral compass.

A good parent is always a work in progress. You are not your child’s owner or master. Mostly you will be your child’s friend. But not a fairweather friend. I believe that parenting is the purest form of leadership and that mostly a parent should try to be a benevolent leader.

I wouldnt dare simplify child behavioural problems. Except to say that I see parallels every day in animal behavioural problems I am presented with. And parallels in the mistakes and misconceptions of animal owners.

There are the owners who treat their pets like humans. Psychologists say that “anthropomorphism” which is the attribution of human emotion to animals is an inevitable part of our making sense of the whats and whys of animal behaviour. But like the parent who tries to be their own child’s “best friend”, animal owners sometimes give their dog or cat too much credit for comprehending the human world. The result is a pet which “rules the house” with a combination of tyranny and confusion.

A caller to Midlands 103FM told me on air the lovely tale last Monday of the one year old male Chi Hua Hua whose reaction to the arrival of a new baby horrified his owners (and radio listeners). For the past two months Ming (I kid you not) had registered his jealous displeasure at the family’s new bundle of joy by urinating nightly on the upstairs landing and defecating daily on his mistress’ pillows. I could speculate charitably about separation anxiety, canine insecurities and the angst at the heart of Chi Hua Hua delinquincy. But there are some behaviours to which the only response is a sharp ” enough, already!”. Ming needs neutering. That family home needs to become a Ming-free zone.

Then there are pet owners who embark on dog ownership unaware that the job of making a new dog fit into their busy lives rests solely with themselves. This is the dog which if still untrained by adolescence will exhibit the traits of a delinquent unparented teenager. I once rehomed a black labrador named Nelson at one and half years of age from a busy double income family when Nelson’s penchant for eating number plates, especially the mercedes and BMW variety (09D) eventually became too much. He also loved digging up rosebeds. If we hadnt rehomed Nelson to a farmyard in Wales I imagine he could have dug down to reach those Chilean miners by now such was his boredom in well-tended suburbia.

Charles Darwin wrote that animal intelligence evolved on a continuum from basic reptilian intelligence up to the cerebrally advanced primates which included ourselves. It follows he argued that we humans share some thought processes and deductive characteristics with other mammals. To win his nineteenth century British audience over to this view of the interconnectivity of life he used stories about the very humanlike African Apes and the very domestically familiar working dogs.

Make no mistake though, in the popular media of today from children’s TV to whalesong documentaries the similiarities between your worldview and the instinct, intelligence and motivations of your pets and mine are overplayed. Too many animal owners dont realise that many pets wont easily fit into our world unless we make it so. The dog pounds are full of pets whose owners were fairweather friends who couldnt cope when animal instinct turned into aberrant behaviour. Being a benevolent leader means practicing tough love when training a new pet to avoid behavioural problems later.

As for Ming the Defecator. Is it too late for Benevolent Leadership to reform the delinquint Chi Hua Hua? Watch this space.

The BAD RAP dog – misunderstood pet or sinister status symbol?

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The passage of the Dog Breeding Bill in Ireland earlier this Summer followed rancorous amendment of the Wildlife Act to ban staghunting. Both issues were dismissed by opposing voices as sideline distractions from the real business of our economy, Stupid.

Yet occasionally animal welfare or ownership issues are thrust onto the headlines of mainstream media as events occur which impact on the lives, routines and fears of every consumer. Events such as Foot & Mouth outbreak, rabies threat or dangerous dog attack. The latter phenomenon is more particularly a UK concern and is exacerbated by their all-pervasive tabloids and urbanised culture. But in common with other social phenomena, Irish Vets invariably notice the next epidemic, animal trend or welfare issue happening first in the UK.

The BBC broadcast a Panorama programme on August 10th from the Battersea Dogs & Cats home, a major player in the stray, rescue, welfare sector to highlight growing crises of abandonment of dogs, stray dog population increase and irresponsible pet ownership. ” A shocking rise” was reported in numbers of aggressive dogs taken in this year, particularly of Staffordshire Bull terriers and an increase in numbers NEEDING to be euthanased.

The Battersea home, among other centres said that about a third of dogs they see are unsuitable for rehoming in spite of good health and are put to sleep on grounds of animal behavioural issues. The problem is on the rise and is a reflection, they believe, of a growing trend for aggressive-looking “status” dogs.

For every advocate ( like myself) for strict registration of dangerous breeds, compulsory mocrochipping, breeder licencing, there is another viewholder. Those who decry persecutors of Pitbulls, Staffies or Rotties and say that these breeds are misunderstood, unfairly tainted, get a ” bad Rap”. So just what are the facts about dangerous breeds, Pitbull terriers and otherwise? And what are the truths in the Pitbull-owner relationship?

Truths even though not the whole truth, make bad reading for defenders of the dangerous breeds. There are sixty million dogs in the US and five million recorded dog bites on humans each year. Four hundred thousand of these people require hospital care. Pitbulls, Pitbull crosses, Rottweilars and Wolf hybrids account for 70% of fatal attacks and 77% of those causing bodily harm.

Closer to home in Dundee, Scotland just last month a ten year old girl needed plastic surgery to her face and arms after an unprovoked attack from two Rottweilars. Also in August, in Plymouth a Policewoman investigating a domestic disturbance was grievously attacked in the backgarden of a house by an unsecured Staffordshire Bull Terrier. The animals involved in both incidents were euthanased.

In the UK where 5220 dog bite cases were treated in hospitals in 2009 of which 1250 were children under two years old, one proposed solution is an upcoming amendment to the dangerous Dogs Act to raise the burden of responsibility on all dog owners. The UK differs from the US in that the UK having already banned breeds such as the Japanese Tosa and Dogo Argentino ( both listed as dangerous but not banned in Ireland), most dog attacks are made by legal family pets.

Clearly then all dogs can be dangerous. Listing and even prohibition of of dangerous breeds is not the whole answer.The debate is further informed by the fact that intact (non-neutered) male dogs are responsible for 95% of all attacks and six times more likely to attack than a female or neutered male dog and three times more likely to bite if kept chained. Animal welfare groups whose aim is education about dangerous breeds or breaking of the “myths” about Pitbulls such as US group BAD RAP www.badrap.org often deny the validity of dangerous dog lists and classification of dog attacks by dog breed. Many of these groups say that irresponsible dog ownership, neglect, lack of training and criminal practices are wholly to blame.

The American Pit Bull Terrier Association (APBTA) states its aim as “the securing of the future of the American Pit Bull as a cherished family pet”. Their answer to myth and misuse of Pit Bulls is to educate Pit Bull owners. They advise that interdog aggression is a trait of the breed, that leaving terrier breeds alone together unattended no matter “how much they love each other ” is unwise and that “a tired Pit Bull is a happy Pit Bull”. They will also dispute the accuracy of statistics on Pit Bulls’ attacks on humans and offer a view consistent with my experience that Pit Bulls and related breeds will generally not show aggression to humans and that in fact fighting Pit Bull blood lines were selectively bred for both interdog aggression and loyalty/passivity towards human handlers.

The answer to those attack statistics can be found on the flipside of selective breed traits and on the darkside of the dog-owner relationship. For example Pit Bull loyalty can be intense and the bonds they form with owners are very strong. Such a dog however becomes high maintenance and owner-dependent, even needy. In the hands of uncommitted owners Pit Bulls become depressed, bored and destructive. There is also a high maintenance aspect to their exercise needs. They are a very athletic breed which were bred for purpose. A dog which is feared or stigmatised will most likely spend its time locked up and deprived of socialisation. In the same way as bored zoo animals exhibit aberrant activity frustrated Pit Bulls or any dog will thus develop stereotypical behaviours.

The issue of interdog aggression is complex. All breeds have a tolerance threshold for other dogs and aggression potential. Pit Bulls, and for this read also Staffie, Bulldog and their crossbreeds, have a lower threshold but not only that. Their aggression potential alters at different ages and stages of their temperament maturity. Many owners will not spot these subtle temperament changes until one day their erstwhile passive Staffie appears to suddenly “flip” and viciously attack another dog. Even a familiar companion dog in the same household. This trait has been pointed out as the dark side of the extreme confidence and bravado of the Pit Bull types.

In my experience interdog aggression happens when one of these dogs escapes from their confinement. Owners regularly underestimate their ability to climb, dig, jump and underestimate just how much stimulation these dogs among others really need.

American Pit Bull Terriers and Staffordshires are highly intelligent, hardworking and have immense physical and mental reserves of stamina. They make great prison dogs, customs dogs and excel at sniffer and search-retrieval work. The question must be asked then of a dog as different from the average domestic mutt as is a greyhound on a racetrack- should we really allow these dogs to be casually kept as unregulated pets? Or more to the point expect them to adapt to the life of domestication and partial confinement which we expect of them as pets?