Police dogs die from heat stroke.

SGT Craven, from Egham, Surrey, was slated by many national newspapers at the start of the week after 2 police dogs were left un-attended in his car, Belgian Malinois bitch Chay and 4month old German Shepherd pup Tilly both died from heatstroke.

SGT Craven left both dogs in his private vehicle without ventilation or water parked at the Metropolitan Police training unit in Keston while he attended a meeting in Stratford East London on June 26th. It was there at 11am in 30'c heat officers were alerted to the car, and broke into the vehicle to try and rescue the dogs. Chay and Tilly were rushed to an emergency vet but both later died. SGT Carven went missing shortly after the incident on Sunday and was later admitted to hospital after throwing himself from a collogues car, he is apparently now a patient at the psychiatric unit.

In July 2004 a cocker spaniel at the training centre where Ian Craven was attending died from heatstroke but it is unconfirmed who the PC responsible was. He was later made a Sargent and then acting boss of the Metropolitan dog centre in Keston, Kent.

The recent deaths follow those of two German shepherd police dogs, who were left to die in a car in extreme heat outside Nottinghamshire police headquarters in July 2009. The dog handler responsible PC Mark Johnson was handed a six-month conditional discharge after he was found guilty of animal cruelty.

Working dogs often have to be contained in cars and vans in order to attend incidents and do their job but all police vehicles that transport animals are fitted with special features. There are ventilation systems & cooling packs for water bowls as standard and in many even air conditioning to keep the dogs safe and healthy in all weathers - even a heat wave. Private dog owners and private dog handlers (like myself) know that it is irresponsible to leave a dog in the car, particularly in hot weather.

Whilst out working my dog Monty is often travelling in the car but always safely, he has with ventilation, available water and we stop for regualr breaks. I would never do anything to put my faithful K9 partner in un-necessary danger. A spokesperson for The Dogs Trust said "It can take just 20 minutes for a dog to die and temperatures can reach over 40'C in some vehicles." with weather like this in baking sun and a British heat wave with temperatures from 28-31'C its easy to see how an unventilated car can heat up quickly. If you love your dog don't leave him to suffer in a locked car!

A Zombie in your home?

Each night people go through several cycles of non-REM and REM sleep. Sleepwalking (somnambulism) most often occurs during deep, non-REM sleep (stage 3 or stage 4 sleep) early in the night. Sleepwalking can occur at any age, but it happens most often in children aged 4 - 8 and appears to run in families. It can be effected by hormonal changes, stress, anxiety, diet and medication. I have always had parasomnia (unwanted actions during sleep) and vivid REM sleep dreams and realistic night mares but the sleep walking has been an on and off issue during my lifetime. I started as a child but that was only for a few years, from around 8-15 was not affected at all and during puberty it came back briefly. As an adult (from 19 to present) it generally only occurred at stages in my life when I was stressed about money or work. My mum has very strange vivid dreams and my dad has history of sleep walking too - the most famous was him trying to climb on-top of a wardrobe to escape aliens during a very stressful time in his life, I was very young and my brother was a very sick baby.

When people sleepwalk, they may sit up and look as though they are awake when they are actually asleep. They may get up and walk around, or do complex activities such as moving furniture, going to the bathroom, and dressing or undressing. Some people even drive a car while they are asleep - or in rare cases become violent. I can get very physically active during sleep but this due to vivid dreams, night terrors or nightmares and not related to sleep walking. Generally a sleep walker will use muscle memory to calmly do every day tasks, tasks they could literally do with their eyes closed or without thinking.

The episode can be very brief (a few seconds or minutes) or it can last for 30 minutes or longer. If they are not disturbed, sleepwalkers will eventually go back to sleep. Sleep walkers are vulnerable and suggestive, its easy to guide me back to bed. Its thought that sleep walking inspired the first voodoo stories of Zombi's - the walking dead. It actually your subconscious that does all the work whilst sleep walking, that is why you dont remember any of it, the part of you that makes you "you" is not actually present, a body without a soul if you like. Voodoo zombies were slaves to their mistresses and were very suggestive, slow and methodical in their tasks much like real sleep walkers.

Since I've been pregnant I was very worried about sleep walking, I was worried if I tripped or strained myself I would harm the baby. I've not hurt myself before but have gone out side and often move furniture or go about every day tasks. My husband sleeps like a log and doesn't wake up most of the time, I have tried shutting myself in with towels under the door - the idea is that my zombie brain can't work out why it wont open and I just got back to bed. We have bells on the bedroom door handle now, its not enough to wake Dave but for some reason it seems to work. Given time my mind will get used to the noise and it will stop working and we will have to think of something else. Its not enough to wake me up, it can be very traumatic for the dreamer and is much like coming up for air whilst drowning and seems to take a very long time - not a pleasant experience in the least.

I think the dog gets a bit confused by me walking about, if I spend too long roaming around Monty (our German Shepard dog) goes up stairs -which he is not allowed to do normally- and wakes up Dave my DH who then wonders where I am and comes to find me. Last week I woke myself up (doesn't usually happen) and the dog was laying on the stairs. I assume he'd gone to get DH and after finding him missing given up, Dave had been away with work. Around me were dozens of folded / screwed up bits of blank paper and some sticking out of the letter box, on inspection there was plenty of paper on the door stop too >_> I do worry myself sometimes.

Since being pregnant I often woke up craving burgers / junk food and meat quite a bit in the first trimester but now that has chilled out and I wake up in the night thinking about food. I cant go back to sleep before I've had a piece of toast or cup of tea and biscuit, so the dog must get thoroughly confused by my midnight snacks and sleepwalking. I do wonder if I give him commands in myself, I certainly tell him to be quite enough times in my waking hours!

Court Dates

Many of those reading will know I lost my job last year, my employer owed me a lot of money and we had a disagreement regarding said money shortly before the company went under. I wasn’t asking much; wages owed to me and expenses that were agreed upon before hand -namely vet bills for the company owned dog. At the time of our disagreement the largest chunked owed to me was from 6 months prior and I had enough of waiting. I had been supportive and patient as the company was getting off its feet but had been fobbed off too many times, I’d had enough, my demands for payment were met with some choice words from my “delightful” former employer and he then ignored my calls and attempts to contact him. I decided to take him to small claims court and fight for my money.

It wasn’t about the cash (although it was substantial chunk of our family income) but more about not letting him getting away with it. He was nice enough guy to start with but due to his poor management and business skills the company was struggling and left many employees and contractors without the simplest of rights – their pay. I believe that as managing director he had a responsibility to those people, whom were owed hundreds of thousands, and should be held accountable for his actions. It’s taken me over 5 months but I feel the end is finally in my sights!

It has been stressful and has meant sleepless nights, health issues and general hair pulling but it is great how everyone has been so supportive. I am feeling very positive about the court case as it draws to a close, its been heard and tried now its just final stages of getting a CCJ against my former employer and then enforcing that with the sheriff (&bailiffs if he doesn't comply). It finally feels like the hard work is paying off, the only shame is can’t charge him for the many man-hours I spent putting forward and representing my case!


Specials thanks to Lorraine for letting me complain, my dad for his counsel and to my David for his calming influence and patience, I couldn’t have done it alone xxx

Dog Training

In April I finally bagged a full time job, a good one too, as a dog handler and I was pleased with the new job -still in secuirty industry- although it is very challenging.

I am self employed and work for TBW, I have a company owned dog Monty to care for, he was passed around the houses and hasn't had a female handler/trainer before so at first completely ignored my commands, taking a preference to any male present - even strangers. He was police trained at 18 months old but was passed up for government work and has spent his career in private security as a guard dog. He has been with me for a few months now and has learnt that I am the master, he is generally obedient and quiet although has some behavioural issues when out on walks or around other dogs - the worst of which is that he is male dog aggressive.

I have been trying to train him to heel but with little success, and he nearly always kicks of when we are at work. He knows when he is working and enjoys being on guard, but when colluegues with thier own working dogs (all of which are un-nurtured males) are around he becomes very defensive and aggressive.

In the next few months I am hoping to teach him to "watch" only on command, he is a big dog and is hard to handle; he can easily pull me over. It will be hard work but I plan to update the blog as I go, hopefully giving you guys an insight into the mind of a Working Dog : )