Labrador Rescue South Africa first associated ourselves with Tamasine Smith in January 2012, having received notification of her upcoming seminar which covered working with dog owners, on the topic of understanding their dogs better. As a rescue organisation this appealed greatly to us as we often re-home adult dogs to new owners who would benefit greatly from this course.
We furthermore sent Priscilla, the owner of a dog called Joey to contact Tamasine and attend this seminar. Priscilla had contacted us wanting us to rehome her Labrador as she found her unmanageable. Whilst screening her, we detected that perhaps she was not quite ready to do this, and was willing to try work on their issues together, hopefully with the result of her keeping her dog – always the better option. Priscilla and her 11yr old son attended to course, Tamasine worked with them as a family, then Joey the dog came to stay with Tamasine for some training, and are all now living a wonderful life together at home, in harmony.
Alongside this, Tamasine mentioned she had several families looking to adopt a Labrador, so we promptly sent her our lists of dogs available for rehoming, and she selected likely options and distributed the list, very much working as a voluntary field-worker for our organization, conducting screenings and homechecks for the prospective families, as well as follow up checks. The most vital part of this was the settling, integration and training of the adopted dog, which often came with behavioural issues, which Tamasine was able to make manageable, not only by working with the dog, but by guiding and councelling the new owner with advice, skills and tips on how best to handle their new pet. Labrador Rescue benefited hugely from this service as it further encouraged potential owners to take on dogs even if the dog was accompanied with issues, as their was assistance and support from Tamasine and her expertise.
As our Rescue organsiation also take on a lot of strays for rehoming, we used Tamasine and her set up with her farm-style and loving home environment (including her own dogs and livestock) to further assess and train these strays, in order for us to rehome the dog in the right environment. As the dog wouldn’t have come with any history, Tamasine would help us with understanding the needs of the dog,
its behaviour towards children and cats (and other farm animals), and swimming and retrieving tendancies. With Labradors we mostly work with families with young children, so the dogs assessment received from Tamasine proved to be vitally important prior to rehoming the stray. I specifically refer to a young female call Rhani, who we picked up pregnant and if poor condition in a township, sadly had to abort her puppies, sent her to Tamasine for assessment and rehabilitation, and rehomed with a perfectly suitable family in Port Elizabeth. We received a full report and pictures of all the stages and sessions of Rhani’s rehabilitation and progress and all Tamasines work efforts, captured in a file presentation and on a cd. This is standard procedure for Tamasine and issues such reports on all the dogs she works with. Very professional, and a pleasure to work with somebody with such dedication.
Generally, Tamasine has been our eyes and ears and our advisor especially on matching the right dog to the right family, and problem and stray dogs. With reference to Rolo, a stray chocolate Labrador who we removed for a shelter moments before he was due to be euthenased for aggression. We sent Rolo to a training camp for service dogs to see if as a last resort they could make something out of this dog as we believed he had potential. Tamasine oversaw his wellbeing and progressive training and provided us with constant reassurance he was thriving. Rolo is now trained as a revered bomb-dog, for which the calmest and most controlled and disciplined behaviours are required, and is loving and affectionate especially toward his handler. Without Tamasines involvement on Rolo’s progress, we would never have been reassured of having made the right decision for this dog.
Tamasine is a valuable asset to our organization. She has a very kind, understanding and modest nature and is always willing and available to help. She loves to share her knowledge. Tamasine does not take on anything she feels is out of her league though will always willing to help with pointers and to research answers. She is always available for advice and guidance, assistance in decision making and assessments with anything to do with dogs is concerned. Her knowledge and expertise is priceless. We have no doubt that any organization who associates themselves with her can only benefit from her dedication and will to increase her knowledge – all for the sake of helping dogs and their owners.
Yours Sincerely
Ricki Goodman (Mrs) Head of Labrador Rescue – Cape Town