Podenco Post

Podenca Rosely enjoying the local dog park

As we now only have a small garden, on a Sunday morning I take Rosely to a local dog park to meet other small/medium size dogs. We've been going for abour 3 months now and she has blossomed from being a terrified little dog afraid of everyone and the other dogs to gaining confidence and coming out of her shell.

So I decided that for International Day of the Podenco, Rosely and I would celebrate it in our own way and for the first time I let her off lead to run free. It took quite a while for her to realise she was off lead and leave my side but she gradually wandered away to sniff piles of twigs and nettles bordering the enclosure. It does help that the hawthorn is now in full leaf and the nettles are grown, which adds depth to the sheep fencing surrounding the park.

By the end of the hour, she was watching a group of excitable little dogs playing on and around the A frame. Hopefully next week when her special friend Springer Spaniel Milo may be there, she will be off running with him.

From Spain to Wales - 2 happy podencos

Dave Owen lives in Wales, UK, and has 2 adopted podencos. He's busy writing a story featuring a podenco but, in the meantime, he has sent us this story of his podencos and how he came to adopt them.

'Not long got back from walking the dogs on the beach, Maude loves to chase her ball and when it’s warm enough she enjoys swimming.

Edith on the other hand isn’t keen on water but does have a tentative paddle with Spook her westie friend. We have only recently considered it safe enough for her to be let off her lead because she doesn’t have a focus like Maude and is more interested in the massive rabbit population located in the sand dunes but she’s not allowed in them because of the adders. She does chase the rabbits in the garden but they have escape routes which are always kept open.

Living with a blind dog

A few weeks ago I introduced you to Bo (Bocelli), a blind podenco we recently adopted from life on a chain in Lorca, Spain. Having both had dogs for all our seven decades of life, we have never had a blind dog. So it is a new experience for us. He has now been with us for a couple of months and is settling in very well. He can now find his way out of the kitchen into the garden to the toilet, and back again. Luckily we have a ramp at our back door rather than steps, which is much easier for him. He hasn't so far ventured into the rest of the bungalow but no doubt he will do it one day, in his own time.

He shares his home with Rosely, a sighted podenca, and very often shares his bed with her. She wears a bell on her collar so he always knows where she is. He is at the stage of wanting to play with her in the garden, but after 6 years shut in a shed breeding babies, Rosely doesn't know how to play. Her main interest is her stuffed toys, baby substitutes I suspect.

Galgo's Rescue Almeria - old podenco finds his forever in Italy

From Galgo's Rescue Almeria

4 years ago Lucky, an old podenco, came to us. We followed him for several weeks and tried to gain his trust and on January 18, 2018 he let himself be caught.

What he didn't realize was that his life would change drastically “ from street life to sweet life “.

Lucky was a vagabond, a loner who had probably roamed the streets for most of his life. He had leishmania, a few months later he also got distemper. But Lucky is a survivor with a huge will to stay alive.

December 2020 Lucky left GRA and could spend his retirement in Italy at Casa degli Elfi Rescue OdV - Podencos & Co where he also stole everyone’s heart.

Introducing blind podenco Bocelli - a new learning curve for us

Bocelli (known as Bo) is the second of our newly adopted podencos. Unusually for a white podenco, he is blind rather than deaf as some white dogs are. My OH was actually looking to adopt another galgo but he spotted Bo on the Ibizan Hound Rescue website and was immediately drawn to him. Bo was also on the website of Blind Dog Rescue UK and so I completed the pre-adoption form with them and kept my fingers crossed!

Bo had been in a wonderful foster home in the UK after apparently spending most of his 8 years on the end of a chain in a 'horrible place' in Lorca, Murcia. His fosterer believes he can see shadows/shapes and he adapted well to living in a home environment with other dogs.

Life with Podenca Rosely - she makes us smile every day!

Regular readers may remember that at the end of November Podenca Andaluz Rosely joined our household. It's a big learning curve for her after a few years living in a shed producing litters of babies for an unpleasant hunter. When the hunter had no further use for her, he handed her over to a local rescue in Alhaurin le Grande in Malaga province. Ann Marie Payne of Ann's Canine Care took her into the finca and introduced Rosely to life in a home, preparing her for eventual adoption.

Rosely is a very sweet podenca, not surprisingly very fearful of men as Spanish hunting dogs very often are. She is my shadow, to such an extent that the first time I left home to go to my volunteer work at a local animal charity shop, she rushed into the lounge, up on the sofa and got tangled up in the vertical blinds!! Luckily my other half heard the commotion and rescued her without injury to herself, but the blinds will need serious attention from a repair man!! Needless to say, the lounge door is firmly shut every time we leave the house!!

Podenca Andaluz Rosely - our new arrival

Regular readers will know that since moving from France to the UK at the beginning of 2021 we sadly lost our last 3 Spanish hounds, galgos Polar and Bracken, and my little pocket rocket Podenca Bebe. It was a shock to lose them so quickly - Polar with lymphoma, Bracken with a bleeding tumour on his lungs, and Bebe at 18 years old had never lived on her own and just gave up on life. We took 2 months out to grieve and visit family and friends in the UK but, having both of us grown up with at least 1 dog in the house, we missed having a canine companion.

Now our travelling days are over and this week Podenca Andaluz Rosely joined the family. She's bigger than little Bebe, about 12 kgs, and 6 years old. Unusually for a rescued Spanish hound, her Pet Passport shows she was chipped and vaccinated from birth. Of all the hundreds of galgos and podencos I have helped the French rescue association bring back to France for foster and rehoming, there has never been one with such a vaccination record!

Muzzle a podenco? Never!

I have been involved with podenco and galgo rescue for 14 years. I've travelled regularly into Spain with a French rescue association to bring Spanish rescued galgos and podencos back to France for foster and adoption. I have NEVER met a podenco which needed to wear a muzzle!

I was horrified to see this photo, especially on a senior dog. Yet it should not be a surprise since the podenco seems to be with a greyhound from a UK retired racing greyhound rescue, some of whom believe every greyhound/galgo should be muzzled.

Since moving back to the UK in January 2021 I have met many greyhounds who are companion dogs and not one of them wore a muzzle. Naturally all were on leads when walked in public but their adopters had never felt the need to use a muzzle. To me, it creates the image that the dog is dangerous!

Have any of my readers felt the need to muzzle their adopted Spanish dog?

I've had an email from a reader to say dogs have to be muzzled on ferries. However, when we have travelled our dogs on ferries they are not muzzled as they travel in cages, as do the dogs on official pet transport. If the dog is loose in the vehicle, then they could be muzzled, perhaps?

Podenca Truffle - happily homed in Italy

From Salva Podenco de Gran Canaria.

'This lovely Gran Canaria podenca was originally called Iris. Now she's called Truffle. When she came to us she was a terrified dog, she lived tied up in a dirty chenil until that time. She knew nothing about the world and was afraid of people, especially men.

Today she lives super happy with hers family in Italy and almost overcame all her fears of the human being. Thank you so much to her family for taking care of her and everyone who helped us through the process for her to get to her forever home. We are so glad to hear from her adopters.'

Farewell to Podenca Bebe - the last one standing

After losing my galgo Polar in April, galgo Bracken a just over a week ago, I had to take little Bebe to the vet on Saturday...her body just gave up on her. She was the last of my Spanish rescue hounds...but she had a good life with us.

Bebe, 7.5kg Podenca Andaluz, was injured on a Seville road back in 2008. Early days for my Podenco Post blog but a young Spanish volunteer with Refuge Sofia Escuela, Marisa, contacted me to publicise for a foster home for Bebe to convalesce after operation. She had named the Podenca Bebe. My daughter's name is Marisa and my nickname at school was Bebe, so of course the little Podenca had to come to me! Booked into my excellent French vet to repair her injury, from the state of her teeth Florence assessed her age as between 4-6 - her teeth were not in a good condition.