Pit Bull Seizure, Dementia Dog and Horse Therapy Animal Saints and Sinners

Good boy.

Nearly half of Britain owns a pet.

Nice one, mate.

It's the council and the police. Can you open the door, please?

But man and beast don't always live together in harmony.

I have reason to believe it is your dog

and you've had it for a fair few years and not two weeks.

When things go wrong, animal wardens are there to protect our pets...

..and keep their owners in check.

I'm not having my dog taken off me!

I love you too.

But for some of us, our animals are more than just pets.

I wouldn't know what to do without him.

They can change and even save lives.

I owe my life to these horses.

This is Animal Saints And Sinners.

Coming up, welfare officers need the help of the police

when they try to seize what's reported to be

a banned breed of dog.

Listen to me. Just calm down one second.

An ex-soldier finds peace in the company of wild horses.

I was the calmest I've been for the last 15 years.

A dog warden in Kirklees has to deal with an aggressive, chained dog

that might be a pit bull.

We've had some concerns about the dog being tied up

in the garden all the time. People are frightened of the dog.

Newham in East London is one of the capital's poorest

and most populated boroughs.

It's obvious that somebody's home, so can you open the door, please?

Animal welfare manager Tina Delaney and colleague Sue Heathcote

are on a mission to improve the lives of pets in their borough.

Come on. It's all right.

First one is a pit bull. He's not completely...

Tina and Sue's first call will need police back-up,

so a briefing is being held for the team.

PC Pickering runs through the facts of the case.

Gentleman's rung up telling them that he's lost his pit bull.

Then he's rung back again to tell them

that he's now found his pit bull.

Tina needs to know for certain that the dog is a pit bull -

a banned breed in the UK.

As it's on private property, they need a warrant to seize it

and have it assessed.

As it's an unknown dog to us, the warrant gives us power

to search for any articles relating to dangerous dogs - i.e., documents.

If there's any drugs there to give to the dog

for post-fighting, or steroids for it fighting.

Bear in mind we have got power of entry into this place,

but with dogs being unpredictable

and there being an emotional attachment to these things,

it'll be a very softly, slowly approach.

We don't want to aggravate any situation

where the dog could be agitated.

Tina will be dealing with all dog sides of things,

we'll be dealing with all the human element.

That's all we're going to be dealing with.

Any other questions?

Right, in five minutes out the front.

We get to know the police officers that we work with,

because we work with two or three different teams

and we get to know the teams. We know each other quite well.

It's quite good cos you know that when you go into a premises,

they can trust us with knowing that we'll make sure nothing happens

with any of the dogs, and we know that that's the same with the people.

Cos, you know, we go into all sorts of houses.

We go into houses where people have drug addictions

and there's, you know, needles and stuff like that.

The last thing you want is somebody coming out

and stabbing you with one of the needles.

They're there to make sure that we're protected,

and we're there to make sure that nothing happens with the dogs.

It works quite well.

As this could potentially be a volatile situation

and a warrant has also been issued, the police attend as well.

KNOCK AT DOOR

With no response from the front, the team covers all exits,

and one of the officers has spotted the dog in the back garden.

Hello, darling. Hello. Are you frightened or are you cold?

The dog's owner has finally opened the front door and lets the team in.

The dog and anything related to your dog,

such as dog towels, dog leads, dog paperwork.

-Are you the...?

-Are you the owner?

-I reported my dog lost before.

Tina and Sue head straight to the garden to get a look at the dog.

Hello.

Hello. Are you all right, darling? Hello. There you go.

Oh, it's people. It's people.

There you go.

Tina's immediate impression is that the dog

is one of the banned breeds, and it's against the law to own one.

The maximum penalty for having a banned dog is a £5,000 fine

and possibly six months in prison.

Dog belongs to you, does it?

You're making him anxious. Look at that.

OK, you're making him anxious, because he's been absolutely fine.

Listen to me... Just calm down one second.

How can anyone give you any random information,

-I just come in and knock on someone's door.

-OK.

As the dog is beginning to show signs of agitation,

Tina decides to remove him

so he can be properly assessed to determine if he is a pit bull.

Come on, then. Come on, come on. Good boy. There you go.

Good lad.

Tina briefly returns to the house to explain to the owner

that she has the right to take the dog, who's called Tyson,

and that he has to be assessed.

Yep, we've seized what we believe to be a prohibited dog.

Obviously it needs to be examined,

but I'd be very surprised if it's not a pit bull type.

He's obviously very upset that his dog's been seized

and doesn't believe that it is a pit bull.

I think it's definitely going to be a pit.

He's a nice dog. He's not very old, but he's a nice dog.

Tyson is taken to the kennels at a secret location

where he is scanned to see if he has a microchip.

There you go, good boy.

He'll be left to settle in for 24 hours.

Considering he doesn't know me,

he's handled really well and he's behaving really well.

He's got a little bit of a bald patch.

We'll just have a look at that tomorrow

when he's calmed down a little bit.

Good boy.

Tina believes that Tyson is a pit bull,

but he will be assessed by an independent specialist

to confirm this.

It's a big responsibility to own a pit bull.

Some people don't want that responsibility

and some people are quite happy to have that,

or will have that responsibility because they love their dog

and they want it returned.

As long as that dog doesn't pose a danger to the public

and it's neutered, microchipped, third-party insurance,

registered with DEFRA, and on a muzzle and lead

for the rest of its life in public places,,

then that dog can be returned to its owner.

But, again, the people have to comply with the restrictions.

If Tyson is found to be a pit bull,

his owner would have to agree to the strict conditions.

Otherwise, Tyson will be destroyed

because it's not possible to re-home banned dogs.

Good boy. TYSON BARKS

We'll find out later what the future holds for Tyson.

Near Dundee, one dog has made a transformation

to the way one elderly couple live.

Our dog is a champion.

He works absolutely wonderfully well.

He's saved me, I can tell you.

Moira and Alex White have been married for 55 years

and have three children and eight grandchildren.

I first met Alex at the dancing.

It was a fortnight before my 16th birthday.

My friend and I, we were planning to emigrate to Canada.

But because I met Alexander, it didn't happen.

We got engaged in 1956 and married on Midsummer's Day 1958.

Moira was a stay-at-home mum raising their three daughters,

while Alex worked in telecommunications.

We had our own lives and our own things to do.

Alex always was involved in football, but what we always made sure of -

we always had Sundays together with the children.

Alex retired over 20 years ago,

and he and Moira enjoy travelling around the world,

spending at least two months at their holiday home in Malta.

Then around seven years ago,

Moira started to notice a difference in her husband.

His personality began to change.

If we were in company, he would fly off the handle

and just do things that weren't him.

I used to say to the kids, "There's something wrong with Dad,

"but I can't put my finger on it."

Soon after, doctors confirmed that Alex had dementia.

When Alex was first diagnosed, we were...

..just absolutely gobsmacked.

'We knew it would be a slow process.

'But he would be really aggressive and really difficult to manage.

'I think part and parcel of that was the fact that he wasn't

'so far gone down the road that he didn't understand.'

He knew what he had and he knew there would be no cure.

Dementia is caused by diseases of the brain, lots of different ones.

but basically it's caused by the loss of nerve cells.

Symptoms may move on from small memory problems and they may evolve

as well as long-term memory, the can have language difficulties,

problems with numbers, or perhaps problems with planning,

whereas before they've managed to plan a full day,

perhaps they can't quite manage that any more.

Often it is quite difficult for family members.

Carers do have to make quite big adjustments to live with dementia.

It can also be almost a bigger adjustment for them.

Have another biscuit, Alex. How many have you had?

Don't know. Two? Three? Two?

Wait a minute. One, two, three, four, five. You've only had one.

You can have another one then.

'We didn't initially think of how it would change our lives

'because we were still Alex and Moira.

'We were still together and he wasn't all that bad.'

But later on, you could see Alex wasn't able to...

For instance, he used to help me 50% help in the house.

He didn't know what end of the Hoover worked,

'and he would get annoyed

'because he would be looking at this piece of equipment,

'and he knew that he used it nearly every day of his life before,

'but he just couldn't figure out where the plug went.'

Moira and Alex coped as best they could for five years,

but very quickly the disease took hold.

I remember our minister said to me one day, "How is Alex doing?"

I said, "Well, you know that bit in the wedding service

"'To love and cherish, till death do us part'?

"It's getting hard."

In 2012, a pilot scheme training dogs

to help people with dementia was set up.

BARKING

Dogs love routine.

They like being fed at the same time of day,

they like going out for their runs at the same time of day.

It's also shown that people with dementia like their routines

as well, and benefit from having consistent routines.

'Dogs also could help with reminders for different things,

'with alarm clocks, with fetching medication,'

which would take the onus a little bit away

from the partner or the other half.

Moira and Alex heard about the project

through their local dementia support group.

'I don't want my husband to go into a home and sit in a circle'

just doing nothing.

I want him to still be active. I want him to still be fit.

That's why we applied to have the dog.

That dog has made the biggest difference.

In 2013, they were matched with a black Labrador,

also named Alex, who Moira calls Alex Four-Paws.

His impact on the family was immediate.

Alex Four-Paws is a saviour.

'He's so calm. He's so laid back. I call him the horizontal champion.'

Look at you, you lazy lump.

Alex was originally in training to be a guide dog.

Unfortunately, Alex didn't make it as a guide dog

because he didn't have enough confidence to fulfil that role

in guiding someone. So I looked at Alex for this Dementia Dog project.

He loved to retrieve and loved to pick things up,

so when I was assessing him

and realised that he enjoyed that sort of thing,

I thought he would be quite a good dog

to perform the Dementia Dog tasks.

ALARM SOUNDS

He does medicines in the morning and in the evening for Alex.

Then he does the lunchtime task where the alarm goes off.

ALARM SOUNDS

Off he goes and nudges Alex, gets him to follow him.

Follows him into the kitchen,

and Alex reads the note and hopefully follows through on the note.

And the dog has turned out to be not just for Alex's benefit.

The feelings before I got the dog were...

.."I can't go on.

"I can't do this every day" I used to waken up in the morning and say,

"Oh, not another day like this."

Now I don't do that.

Alex, sit.

Now their days follow a pattern,

which always involves taking Alex Four-Paws out for regular walks.

Good boy.

I think the dog has made a huge benefit,

not just to Alex but to Moira as well.

I think that's what we're finding through this project -

that the dog's giving as much benefits to the carer

as much as the person with dementia

because it's given them a focus,

it's given them a break from everyday life.

I feel it's brought them a lot closer together.

There is less tension in their relationship, I feel.

I've seen a big difference in Alex.

He has really mellowed since the dog has been in there.

Come on, then, hon.

You OK?

'I can't tell you the difference there has been

'since that dog came into our life.

'Alex is much calmer.'

Less aggressive, less irritable.

'And I am a lot happier'

and a lot more energetic, I have to say.

Come on, baby.

See what I've got.

'We all go to bed at the same time, the three of us. We work as a team.

'We take him everywhere with us.'

Only place we haven't taken him to is the cinema,

and we got a baby-sitter for him when we went there.

Once you get into a good routine, it's a lot easier all round.

As far as I'm concerned, it's been very helpful.

He's stopped your wife from shouting at you.

No, the good thing is that you worked

in a vet's place for long enough.

Oh, but that was when I was 16, for goodness' sake.

When you were a young lady.

-Now you're not so young as you used to be.

-Ah-ah, watch it.

I don't think there'll be a...

a cure for Alzheimer's in Alex's lifetime or mine,

but it's going to happen one of these days.

It'll be better for everybody else.

But as far as Alex Four-Paws is concerned,

the hope is as my husband gets worse, which is inevitable,

Alex will be able to do more for him

because he's part of the family now.

We're Team Alex, that's what we are.

-We're just going into the car park.

-We're going home now.

Ah, yeah.

In Kirklees, West Yorkshire,

Tina Shaw is one of the council's dog wardens.

We aren't giving bags out today.

It's simply if you haven't picked up, it's a fixed penalty.

Tina and the other four wardens patrol the area

looking for strays and people who let their pets foul pavements.

If I could just ask you to put your dog on a lead when you're walking?

Right, what sort of dog is it?

They deal with reports about nuisance dogs, animal welfare,

and help the police prosecute owners of banned breeds.

A dog like this will be very difficult to re-home.

Today Tina's responding to a number of calls

about an aggressive and very noisy dog

that's said to be kept tied up outside a house in Huddersfield.

Hello, dog.

DOG BARKS

Some of the dogs we come across can be very aggressive.

Any dog that we meet, potentially, will attack because we're entering

the property - they guard the property, often they're frightened.

Yeah, we've got to be really careful.

Today Tina's taking no chances.

DOG BARKS

There's no answer,

but she gets close enough to take a proper look at the dog.

DOG BARKS Come on, then.

There were also concerns that the dog may be one of the banned breeds.

We did suspect that this might be a pit bull type dog,

but having a better look at him now, I think he's more American bulldog.

If Tina is right in her identification of the dog's breed,

it doesn't stop her worrying about its aggression or its welfare.

We do need to make things better for that dog.

The longer it's left there tied up under the trampoline,

the more aggressive it's going to get,

because it's got absolutely nothing to do.

It's just going to get more aggressive and protect the property.

So we need to get in there and try

and sort it out before we have a disaster.

Find out later what happens

when Tina returns to talk to the owner of the dog.

In Scotland, animal welfare is the concern of a charity -

the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Hello, it's the Scottish SPCA, could you come to the door, please?

The charity investigates over 20,000 reports

of animal cruelty a year,

and are one of the first responders to calls throughout Scotland

for any animal welfare issues.

I had a complaint about the dogs.

They have the power to seize animals

if they're being neglected or abused.

Oh, you're great.

Senior Inspector Billy Linton

has been with the charity for eight years

and covers a large area around Glasgow.

I was born in Glasgow. There's no better people than Glasgow people.

The people that I encounter most of the time look after their pets.

But animal abuse is there.

The SSPCA are there to address that.

We've had a complaint relating to your dog.

'This job can be confrontational.'

If you turn up at somebody's door

because somebody else has accused them of beating their dog,

not feeding their cat, you suddenly become very unpopular,

but you have to have a body in place who are authorised to investigate

and ensure the welfare of an animal,

because the animals can't speak for themselves.

Billy helps many pet owners,

giving advice about how to look after their animals correctly.

Today he's responding to a call about the welfare of a husky dog

that's kept on a lead in the front garden of a house near Paisley.

And it's tied up outside.

Billy needs to assess the dog for signs of neglect.

Hiya.

You've got a cheeky face.

-Good morning, it's the Scottish SPCA, Inspector Linton.

-Right.

Somebody's phoned in saying your dog's thin.

Do you think he looks too thin?

I don't think he looks too thin, I think he looks OK.

-He eats like so much.

-Yeah.

But they're saying it's tied up with cable.

Yeah, he gets tied there cos he jumps the fence.

It's not the best thing in the world

because if he does jump the fence with that

he's going to end up in quite a bit of a state.

Dog faeces needs to be lifted, right? Things like that.

You're going to cause a problem with pathogens with him

if he's going to be stepping on it and then cleaning himself later.

That kind of thing. Do you have access to a back garden?

Yeah, yeah, but it's in a real mess now, that's why he's...

Billy is concerned that the dog is in the full sun

in the front garden and wants to take a look at the back.

You've got a good-sized garden. It's not bad.

-When you said the garden was bad, it's not bad.

-It's this.

He's certainly not going to get over the barrier fence.

If he gets out here, he's not going to escape or anything.

I know he's out there and he's out in the sun,

but being tethered like that is not the best idea,

cos he's not got any water out there either.

-Right.

-You know what I mean?

-Yeah.

It's nice right now, but who knows what going to happen in half an hour?

-Right.

-Huskies are built for really cold, sharp frost weather.

They're not really great for wet weather that's windy with it.

Their coats are not really designed too good for that.

When he's indoors, Austin the dog is kept in a cage which is adequate.

But as he's mostly kept outside,

and his owner prefers him to stay in the front garden,

Billy has plenty of advice to give Austin's owner.

Clear the front garden of any injurious material.

Give them a good brush-out.

Bring your bins a bit further this way

so he's not got access to them.

Make sure he has water at all times when he's out there,

and if he's out for any length of time he really should have shelter.

Any animal should be able to express normal behaviour,

and he's only able to take a few steps in any direction

so he should be able to move properly.

-Has he been neutered yet?

-What?

Has he been neutered yet?

-What's that?

-Castrated.

-He's not had his testicles removed?

-No.

You know, it stops any...

..possible risk of any cancers

and it's a healthy aspect.

A lot of people don't like to neuter their dogs

because they think they'll put weight on.

They shouldn't put weight on,

so long as they're not getting fed too much and get exercise regularly. OK?

Billy is satisfied with the general welfare of the dog

and feels the owner has taken on board all the points he's made.

You can tell she genuinely cares for the dog.

The dog was OK, it was happy,

it was very friendly, it was lively,

just needed that bit more thought put into the way it was being kept.

DOG WHIMPERS

If I'm in the area, I would certainly leave it at least a fortnight,

certainly if the weather improves

and it gets really hot, and I think that

she might not have complied with what was asked for, I would

have a wee look and just make sure everything was OK.

If it was any worse, or still in the same situation,

and they'd obviously not taken the advice,

then the welfare notice may be required.

Having a pet to care for

is thought to be good for our health,

but there are some animals who help people

who are suffering in surprising ways.

If anybody suggested to me

that a horse would be the route to getting my life back on track

after trauma,

then I would have laughed in their faces.

43-year-old Hugh Forsyth joined the Army

when he was 16 years old.

Army life is fantastic.

You get to see the world. You experience a bit of danger,

which is good when you're younger,

and it's a tight-knit community within the military,

and it's almost like having a second family.

His speciality in the Royal Engineers

was one of the most high-risk in his unit.

Bomb disposal.

You didn't know when you'd be called out.

You didn't know what you'd face when you did have a call-out.

And the dangers Hugh faced were very real at times.

My first major trauma was when I was 18

and my first tour in Northern Ireland.

I was with my team on a patrol

to protect the finish line

of a charity fun run.

Six soldiers were on that run

and when they'd finished the run they got into their vehicle

and the vehicle blew up in front of us.

Pretty harrowing, yeah.

When he was 26, Hugh was threatened at gunpoint

while helping clear land mines in Bosnia.

Then, after a spinal injury, he was discharged from the Army on medical grounds.

It was like the whole world had been taken out from under my feet.

It felt like I was orphaned.

Everything that I knew about life as an adult

was completely the opposite to civilian life.

So when you leave the military and have to

make your way in the civilian world,

it is just as frightening as walking up to any bomb.

When I came home and got my first job

in civvy street, in telecommunications,

I just got on with it and I thought that I was coping.

But actually I wasn't coping.

I was having flashbacks.

And I was terrified

of going onto buses and trains and dealing with the public.

I was also very, very scared of

dustbins and backpacks and people looking at me a certain way.

It really narrows your lifestyle down to

literally nothing.

At the time Hugh was married with two young children.

My marriage was beginning to fail.

I was having arguments at work.

I couldn't form relationships with the people around me.

I didn't have that team network

that I felt with the guys I'd served with.

Things disintegrated. Within 18 months I'd had a nervous breakdown.

I was divorced, and life was just totally, totally black.

Hugh spent the next decade trying to keep a lid

on his anxieties.

I did turn to drink.

I wasn't me, but there was nothing I could do about it, either.

You know what you're doing is wrong.

But the pain is so bad that you just

will do anything for that pain to go away.

At mu utter lowest point I just wanted to actually end my life.

So I attempted to commit suicide.

At that point your brain isn't functioning

in the way it would normally function.

So ending your life seems to be

a good step, actually, at that point.

I know it's quite strange and quite shocking to say that,

but that, compared to what you're dealing with,

is a really good option at the time,

and it's really scary that is an option.

But thankfully I didn't succeed.

Hugh was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder

and spent six years in cognitive behavioural therapy.

But his experiences in the Army kept resurfacing.

Hugh had almost lost hope,

until a friend suggested equine-assisted therapy

and a programme called Dare to Live.

I was recommended to come here

as part of an alternative therapy, fully expecting

just to come down and stroke horses and that would be the end of it.

Well, actually what I did attend was a three-day

psychological retraining programme.

What we're going to explore today

is the idea that we have different boundaries

for different reasons.

I would say they're survival instinct boundaries.

The Dare to Live programme is a transition programme,

specifically designed for servicemen

as they come out of what might be termed a very institutional

way of life into civilian life.

The horses at the centre aren't stabled or ridden.

Instead, they live an almost wild existence.

They live in the woods, they use each other for shelter,

which is the more natural way horses are out in the wild.

What you're getting is a much more realistic

behaviour from the horses here.

The theory behind the work here is that, as horses are highly sensitive

to humans' intentions and feelings,

they're naturally able to help people understand

how their actions or behaviours appear to others.

I arrived on day one,

Coley came forward out of the herd of six horses that are here

and stood by the fence and literally put his

head out to me as soon as I got out of the car.

And there was an instant connection.

It was like a bolt of lightning. For some reason,

the anxiety dropped away.

Nice, warm feeling throughout my body.

I was the calmest I'd been for the last 15 years.

It was life-changing.

Hugh is a prime example of somebody who came

very crushed, thought he had no hope of ever working again,

was starting to settle for

a fairly limited way of living.

And certainly had a lot of stress in his life.

I wasn't living very much of a life, to be honest,

and now I've got a job back,

my children are much more at ease around me.

And another great reward from this is that now

I've progressed on to become a facilitator.

I'm now watching other veterans and their families

benefit from this fantastic programme.

And it warms my heart to give them their lives back as well.

If you try and take a nice, big, deep breath...

HE BREATHES OUT

Today he's with Army veteran Ben Meade,

who was in a plane that was shot down in Afghanistan.

I'll give you around ten minutes.

Sleep was a big problem.

Eating was very hit-and-miss.

But, really, it was the stress levels that were very high.

And then realising, waking up one morning, that you've got nothing,

from having everything to nothing,

you put it into perspective and think, "It's time to get help."

Working with the horses, what it helps us do

is really understand, "What is it I'm doing

"and what effect does that have on the other?"

What we're looking for is every ear movement, every eye movement,

the position of the mouth, the position of the horse's body,

they all mean something

in horse language.

What we get from that is a visual representation

of what is resonating from the client.

When she turned to face me, she was quite relaxed.

And she offered a lot there.

She did, she offered a lot.

I went to her but she got a little bit tense again.

So what we'll try again is if you approach

with even more noticing than you have done before.

Then every time you notice any change,

just take that step back and sigh.

And see if you can take more time.

Something like this does make you find your inner peace.

I know from being ill in hospital

you can do relaxation therapy,

but coming here, working with animals,

it really does make you find your true self.

So what do you think you could use from this experience,

this session today?

Understanding each other's boundaries,

and don't encroach on somebody's space.

You don't have to be overbearing on someone.

And understanding their needs.

Brilliant. Good work.

Over the last four years, the horses here have helped

around 350 people.

Because of the traumas I've experienced in the military,

I will more than likely always have

post-dramatic stress disorder to some extent.

However, because of the work I've done here with the horses,

the post-traumatic stress will not control my life any more.

I'm in more control of it.

Just being in a field with the horse,

for more than five minutes,

it's like the world doesn't exist out there

and it's just you and him,

which is fantastic and it helps me

be in the moment, not worried about the future,

not worried about what happened in the past.

And that is the way I want to live my life.

Like other boroughs across the country,

Newham receives its fair share of hoax calls from timewasters

and those trying to get someone else into trouble.

But they all have to be followed up,

just in case.

Today, Tina Delaney and Sue Heathcote

are responding to a report about some dogs

that are dangerously out of control.

-Do you have any dogs on the premises?

-No, I've got cats.

Come in, and you're more than welcome to see my gaff.

Tina and Sue immediately realise the information

they've been given is from one of those

nuisance calls.

-How many cats do you have?

-Three.

-Are they neutered?

-Yes.

Oh, brilliant.

But the tenant is keen to show Tina and Sue

that she's a responsible pet owner.

Here, look, come...that's what they've got left over from last time I got paid.

There's their biscuits.

If you want to find fault with me, find it.

But the only fault you'll find with me is I have

a hangover and I ain't fed 'em this morning.

-Sorry.

-No, that's fine.

Tina and Sue try to reassure her that they're not

concerned with the welfare of her cats.

There's three bowls there.

That's fine.

The only thing I would suggest is that maybe

you have two litter trays.

That's the only thing I'd suggest.

That's only cos the litter has built up.

Tina explains that there have been no complaints about the cats.

She's keen to move on to their next call.

But the cats' owner has other ideas.

There's their blanket, look.

No, I'm absolutely fine with the cats. Where are they anyway?

-They're hiding from you.

-All right, OK! I'd hide from me as well.

All right, then. You can go back to bed now.

I'm going to feed the cats before I go back to bed.

OK.

I'm not concerned that there's any dangerous dogs on the premises.

-And, like she said, she wouldn't have dogs there because she's got three cats.

-No, makes sense.

Each call-out they receive is different,

so Tina and Sue never quite now what's coming next.

You have some really unusual things,

cos you go into people's homes and you never know what to expect.

We've had goats running along the road and stuff like that.

I suppose that's unusual for a London borough.

We had a pig along the A13.

We were trying to catch him and people stopped in a car,

shouting things like, "Are you trying to catch the bacon?"

What do you think's the most unusual thing?

I think it was the alleged porcupine somebody had in their garden.

We never found it, so I don't think it really existed.

But it was interesting for a while. You ought to go left here.

We've had snakes in people's toilets and all sorts of things.

I suppose once you've been doing a job for a long time,

I think it's very hard to define what's unusual,

cos you get used to things being different.

It's only when you start talking to somebody else

that you realise that's not

everyday occurrence, really.

Over in Kirklees, Tina Shore's returning to a house

in Huddersfield where there have been a number of calls

about an aggressive, noisy dog tied up in a yard.

DOG BARKS

There had been suspicions that it was a banned breed,

but Tina wasn't convinced.

It's an American Bulldog.

As you can see, it's not the most ideal environment

to keep a large dog on the end of a chain

in such a residential area.

The dog itself is in good condition,

and they've given it some bedding, but it has no

real exercise area.

So what I need to speak to them about is how often it's exercised,

who takes it out, whose dog it is,

and so on, and just have a general chat with them, really.

Good boy, good boy.

Good boy.

DOG BARKS

Hello?!

Hiya. The reason we've come, really,

is because we've had some concerns

about the dog being tied up in the garden all the time, and people

are frightened of the dog.

We've come across dogs that are tied up to chains.

These dogs need exercise.

If they don't get that they become aggressive, they get bored

and they bark.

It's really not good for anybody to have it tied up all the time.

The residents explain that the owner

of the dog isn't in.

But what I wanted to ask you to do is, really,

if you can just make sure your dog's always got water,

if you can just make sure you keep the area clean for us, yeah?

But people in the area are a little bit frightened of the dog.

Because when you're not in the house,

she's here on her own, isn't she?

That can be dangerous cos anybody could just walk into your garden,

so it's a little bit dangerous as well.

Dealing with families and pets is very emotive.

The animals may not be kept in good conditions,

but they love them, and it's just getting people to try and think differently

about how they're keeping them,

and looking for a better way forward.

If I leave my card do you think your brother will give me a ring?

-Erm...yes.

-OK.

We're not just all out to sort of

tell people off all the time,

we're trying to help people as well with the dogs.

OK, thank you for your time, then.

-See you later.

-Bye.

-Bye.

Tina will pass on her advice

once she finally gets to speak to the dog's owner

and will continue to monitor the dog's welfare.

Earlier in Newham, Tina Delaney

responded to a call which required police back-up.

A pit-bull type dog, called Tyson,

had escaped from his owner's garden.

And a warrant was issued to seize him.

Hello.

Pit-bulls are a banned breed in the UK,

and any that are allowed to be kept as pets

must never escape from a garden

and must wear a muzzle at all times in public.

Good boy, he's a good boy.

Tina took Tyson away to find out exactly what breed he is.

Both Tina and an independent assessor agree

that Tyson IS a pit-bull.

Tyson's a really nice boy, as you can see.

He's lovely.

He's actually been well trained, he's quite a nice dog.

The only thing that concerns me is that he may go home

and escape again.

This is such a common occurrence of dogs escaping

through gardens, and one of the things we always say to people is to make sure

that you regularly check your garden

that your dog's not escaping and it can't get out of there,

especially when there's been storms or high winds.

You should always check your garden, regardless of the breed of dog you have,

because dogs do readily escape out of gardens,

especially with fences that are made out of wood.

As Tyson is a good-natured dog, and his owner has agreed to comply

with all the strict conditions of the Dangerous Dogs Act,

Tyson will be returned to his owner.

We have explained to the owner that this is his second chance.

If he doesn't make sure that Tyson never escapes,

and he escapes again,

then the dog will be seized and there's a very strong likelihood

that he will be prosecuted.

And, ultimately, usually

that dog pays that cost with its life.

And that's something we don't want to happen.

It's a happy ending for Tyson

and a good day's work for Tina.

I love my job because it varies.

It can be very, very heartbreaking

but at the same time it can be very, very rewarding.

I absolutely love working with animals and always have done,

so that's one of the reasons I love my job.

The owner of the American Bulldog has been spoken to

and has taken on board Tina Shore's comments.

The Husky dog, Austin, is still with his owner,

and the SSPCA are happy he's now being well looked after.

Tyson, the pit-bull, has now been reunited with his owner.