BROADSANDS BEACH to ELBURY COVE

GSDR volunteers and friends in the South Devon area met up for a group walk on Thursday 16 February 2012, the occasion was inspired by a visiting member to the area, Jayne and her husband, Terry from the Midlands.

ATTENDEES

THE MEETING PLACE

GSDR volunteers and friends in the South Devon area met up for a group walk on Thursday 16 February 2012, the occasion was inspired by a visiting member to the area, Jayne and her husband, Terry from the Midlands.

The meeting took place at Broadsands car park, adjacent to Broadsands Beach situated between Brixham and Paignton, in Torbay, Devon.

Bo, a beautiful 20-month-old shepherd and my Pippa were the first GSDs to meet. Both are strong personalities and they started out with a polite end-to-end check-out, when one of them slightly sparked, both barked, nobody took much notice and that was the last of their uncertainty!

Soon afterwards the gorgeous Lady Rio, now 13 years old arrived. Once she was lifted out of the car by her chauffeur, she glared at the younger sheperds and curled up her lip. That was all that was necessary, Pippa and Bo had immediate respect for The Lady. all was calm.

Kes appeared next, he was re-homed from GSDR last August and underwent an operation to remove a growth on the side of his mouth. He is now well and happy and is a lovely big, steady teddy bear. When he joined the other sheperds, he wagged his tail on seeing Pippa, they had met the previous month for a walk. Pippa gave him the once over, put on her smiley face and started to prance around with a swaying tail.

Pippa: I’ve met this boy before, he’s OK, laid back and is good as a walk mate.

Then Roxy from Somerset appeared followed shortly by two of the Plymouth shepherds, Kyloe and Qwenna. We set off to the headland, having already checked that the tides on Broadsands beach would be more suitable for exuberant sheperds on the way back!

HEAD to HEADLAND

One by one, we let our shep’s off lead and one by one they started to investigate each other, curious at first and then warier into an enthusiastic free run, obviously enjoying each other’s company and the wide open space.

We glanced back towards Broadsands, when it came to our attention that Dude had arrived, we had understood that his chauffeur was unable to join us, it was a nice surprise. He was looking fit and well, the last time we had seen him he was painfully thin, having only just come out of rescue that very month. What a difference and what a stunner he is now, with the most wonderful, gentle and carefree nature.

Pippa: Yes, if Dude plays his cards right, he could make my ‘Favourite boyfriend’s list’.

Dude was accompanied by his mate Koby and a little black sheperd crossbreed called Ky, who was only 15 weeks old and walked with an air of confidence for such a young one walking towards all those GSDs.

While all the dogs were sprinting around, Kyloe went to approach Pippa with a spring in his step, they had met on a few occasions and Kyloe had a purpose, to get his girl! He succeeded, playing it cool by going into a play bow and then within seconds Pippa responded and they went into full play mode. It was lovely to see and everyone involved stopped to enjoy the moment.

Pippa: Hmm, a handsome chilled boy, he will have to go on my ‘Favourite Boyfriends list’!

The VIPs in the group consisted of 10 sheps between the ages of 15 weeks and 13 years old and each and every one of them were well behaved and enjoying themselves. Lady Rio and Qwenna remained on leads.

We continued along the headland, with a beautiful view over the entire bay (Torbay), Brixham to the South West and Torquay to the North East, the bay was calm and clear, the weather, mild. To me, Torbay is always beautiful, in sun, rain and storm, but today it was serene and calm. Perfect, for a winter walk.

ELBURY COVE & the AMPHIBIANS

When we arrived at Elbury, a pretty little cobbled stone cove., as soon as the sheps spotted the sea, they all took off enthusiastically towards it. All we could see were happy flowing bushy tails!

Neither Roxy nor Ty had ever seen the sea before and after the initial caution, curiosity took over for Roxy and she embraced the experience with a certain ‘joie de vivre’, it was lovely to watch her obvious delight. Ty was a little more wary and hovered on the shoreline.

Kes decided that Dude smelt good and followed him around very closely, but there was no animosity or issues and the rest of the pack continued to have a wonderful time in and around the water’s edge.

The youngsters (Jamie and Connor) proved to be great playmates, carefully throwing pebbles and sticks into the water, much to the joy of the amphibious dogs!

Pippa: The boys can join us every time on my walks; it was great fun having them at my beck and call.

Young Roxy decided that no other GSD or any dog should be in her space, on her part of the beach, have her stones or go anywhere near her sticks. It was amusing to watch her behaviour, typical for her age. Not one of the other shepherds took any notice of her trying to boss them about, which am sure taught her much more than if she had an anxious owner reproaching her and/or correcting her for behaving instinctively.

Pippa: Roxy was a bossy girl, but suppose I cannot comment much. Mum reminded me that it was not so long ago when I thought I owned the entire beach, which I was playing on!

One couple with a Cocker Spaniel decided to leave the Cove after seeing the GSD invasion, but they were alone with their concerns. A Golden Retriever pup was not in the least perturbed by 10 German Shepherds , he playfully approached them with confidence and glee!

We had two options at this point, whether to proceed around the coast, through the woods and walk to Fishcombe (the next cove along) or stay where we were, let the dogs continue enjoying themselves, then head back and walk along Broadsands Beach. By this time, the tide would have gone out and would provide a better playground for all these lovely dogs to play on a sandy beach.

On account of Lady Rio’s mature years and baby Ty’s lack of them the latter was chosen, but not to the detriment of the others, they were having a lovely time and the chit-chatting between shepherd ‘owners’ remained constant!

As we walked back over the headland, I noticed the confidence in the dogs, some were just walking on and some, including Pippa were playing with a toy, but all of them were enjoying themselves, what a wonderful sight!

The baby of the group, Ty, was perfectly at ease with all these big dogs, probably drawing on Koby’s confidence. Koby was a young, shepherd, keen to introduce himself to every dog that came along, just a lovely friendly boy, obviously a stooge dog in training.

TEA BREAK & CAKE

When we arrived at Broadsands, some of the dogs had fresh water to drink, after swallowing some salt water and a few of the crowd ordered a cuppa at one of the beach kiosks. Out came Paul’s vegan fruit cake and muffins, a very welcome gesture, now everyone wants the recipes, Paul, please?

The tea break lasted about 20 minutes, while the dogs sat around waiting patiently. That is until the photo call, which seemed to be the signal for the GSDs to start a choral group, Lady Rio and Pippa came top of the ‘noisy contest’!

BUILDING CONFIDENCE

This was the point when some of the group said their goodbyes, while the rest of us started towards the beach.

Lady Bo and Pippa had long since forgotten their doubts about each other and they started running freely along the sandy beach, joined by the handsome Kyloe, Lady Rio and Qwenna..

Qwenna, a five-year-old, has shown nervous aggression with other dogs and she had been kept her on the lead for the duration of the walk. Even she had started to relax and realise that the other dogs were not a threat to her and perhaps, even could be her friend.

We are going to work with Qwenna on future GSD walks and aim to give her a good association with other dogs to build up her confidence. She is quite obviously not aggressive, but wary and slightly anxious of other canine company that she does not know.

There was a result for Lady Rio, she was able to come off the lead, apparently the first time when walking in a group. She was loving it and was not in the least bit intimidated by the other shepherds.

We enjoyed a conversation about helping nervous sheps to mix with other’s and perhaps one of the best things to come out of our newly formed official walk club will be just that, supporting and helping un-socialised and nervous shepherds.

It is my belief that it is essential for this wonderful breed to experience the ultimate freedom, running as a free spirit, mentally and physically.. ?

As we turned up at the car park, I checked the time, we had got there more than 4 hours earlier. As I turned to look at the view, I noticed Pippa had run back a few metres towards the beach and had turned back to see if I was following, there was a mischievous sparkle in her eyes.

Pippa: Come on mum, we could just go back and play for another hour on the beach...

GSD Walk Club

A few of us in South Devon have met up for walks previously including the Haldon Forest GSDR Charity Walk last September.

As a result of the success of this particular walk and others, it has triggered the start of a South Devon GSD Walk Club and from 26 February 2012, we will be known as the ‘Sunday GSDR Walk Club’. We will be meeting on the last Sunday of every month at different venues, to be decided a week or more before each event.

All GSDR members from other areas are of course, very welcome.

GSD Walk Clubs – Nationally?

Now this walk has instigated another GSDR Walk Club in the Midlands and hopefully, this is the start of something great.

Imagine the potential of National GSD Walk Clubs and how it can raise the profile of GSDR. It has the potential to:

• Increase public awareness of GSDR
• Help people understand the importance of rescue work
• Reach out to volunteers and adopter’s
• Help and encourage people with their newly adopted GSDs
• Give confidence to owners with un-socialised and nervous sheps
• Help people to deal with various doggy issues
• Exchanging and sharing information, hints and tips
• Educate people about the dog abuse that prevails and the necessity to decrease the dog population in the UK
• Increase volunteer numbers
• Potential adoption/foster meetings
• Communication and brainstorming for the benefit of GSDR
• Public relations, publicity and sponsorship.
• Gain the general public’s confidence observing well trained, well behaved GSDs.

Walk club can provide support and confidence to GSDs and owners alike, it provides an excellent environment for socialisation, training, stimulation, education and knowledge.

Your Walk Club

The feedback we have received from starting a walking club in this area has been phenomenal, which makes me think that many of you out there would like to form a walking club in your area.
So, come on guys, anyone can form a new walk club, just reach out, communicate and collate email addresses and arrange one day per month, or whatever suits you.

It is fun for us, but much more importantly, our shepherds have a wonderful time mixing with their own kind and learning from it.

JUST go for it...

Donations are always welcome

Please help us by making a donation so that we can help re home more unwanted German Shepherd Dogs. Donations can be sent to Jayne Shenstone, German Shepherd Dog Rescue, Little Vauld, Marden Hereford HR1 3HA. We also accept Paypal payments - just click on the Paypal button below. Thankyou.