BARN DOGS

RESCUES, TALL AND SHORT

Four dachshunds and two greyhounds are GEOFF TEALL’S pack.

Geoff Teall, head trainer and owner of Montoga in Wellington, Florida, is a force in the hunter world. He has trained champions at all major horse shows and several jumper riders from the start of their careers through their first grand prix wins. He has judged most major hunter shows and served as the National Vice President of the USHJA. He lives with his partner, Charlie Moorcroft, also a professional trainer and a conservationist who runs the Moorcroft Conservation Foundation, a nonprofit organization which teaches children and adults about global conservation issues.

I’ve always been a dog lover, but I was very allergic to dogs. When I was a kid, I couldn’t have a dog until I was about 8, and then we had a succession of poodles because they were hypoallergenic. My allergies have gotten better since then, so now I’m able to handle short-hair dogs. Charlie and I have had 20 dogs together.

We have six dogs at the moment. Pepper, is a dachshund from Danny and Ron’s Rescue. Two greyhounds and a dachshund are rescues saved from the meat trade in China, and the other two are from Dachshund Rescue of South Florida (DRSF). We have adopted or fostered a lot of older dogs or the sick dogs from DRSF.

I have always had a keen interest in greyhounds because I think they’re very cool dogs, but I never had one. When the dog tracks in Florida were closing in 2019, I reached out to Sonia Stratemann, who runs a rescue called Elite Greyhounds in Loxahatchee, Florida. She originally started saving greyhounds from the racetracks and then got involved with other rescues across the world and began to save dogs from China. I met with her to learn about greyhounds because I was intimidated by their size. I told her, “I don’t think I can handle a greyhound yet. But if you ever see a dachshund in China, I would certainly be interested.” Within a week she had found one in the meat trade in China, and we adopted him. It was the beginning of COVID, so we had to board him in China for 11 months before he could come to the states. While we were waiting for him, I spent time with Sonia to get comfortable with greyhounds. I adopted one and quickly realized that greyhounds really like to run, so I adopted another one to keep up with him. One is a greyhound-whippet cross puppy whose mother was rescued from the meat trade while she was pregnant. The other is an older dog that also ended up at the meat trade. Everybody says, “Why would you use a greyhound for meat?” But, what’s interesting is the meat trade isn’t really about the quality of the meat or the kind of dog. When anybody in China wants to get rid of dogs, that’s where they send them. It’s horrible.

This dachshund’s name was Penny (photo) when she came from Danny and Ron. She’s black and white and has what we call ticking—her little black spots— and so I changed her name to Pepper. Honestly, the last thing in the world we wanted was another dog, but Ron has a way of making things happen. He called and said, “Listen, we have a great, great dachshund, just the best personality, and we really want her to go to a good home. So, if you know anybody...blah, blah, blah.” I finally said, “Well, maybe I’ll come meet her.” And so I drove over five minutes later and brought her home. She is a blue and tan double dapple with ticking, which is very rare because breeders breed to get double dapples. But the problem with that is a majority of double dapples are born either with no eyes or bad eyesight or hearing. So, it really shouldn’t be done, but Pepper is one of the lucky ones. She’s now totally normal and healthy, but she arrived with severe bladder stones that had to be removed, and she had 17 teeth pulled. She was extremely overweight at 14½ pounds but now she’s a fit and trim 10 pounds. Ron was right, she is one of the cutest, sweetest, easiest, dogs we’ve ever had. Just a very happy a dog.

I’ve known Danny for years, and he was always an animal lover. Then when Ron came into the picture, he was equally an animal lover. What they’ve done is just beyond description, the number of dogs that they’ve saved, and the number of great homes they’ve been able to find for them. I don’t know how they do it, but we’re all very thankful that they do.