Dogs, Cats & F1: Alex Albon’s Adorable Battersea Visit!

She's better behaved than my dog. Hey everyone, Alex here. As we head into some shutdown, we've come here to Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, where they look after stray animals, all kinds of different animals. It's an amazing thing that they do here. It's obviously something that's close to my heart. Let's have a look and see what they get up to. Hi Alex, lovely to meet you. Welcome to Battersea. Thank you very much. So we're going to have some really fun experiences today. We've got some lovely dogs and cats for you to meet. So if you want to come on with me, we'll show you the way. Okay, thank you. Obviously, it's a rehoming centre, and sometimes people give up their pets because they can't actually work with their behaviours, and they find it hard to manage. So we will take them in. We'll try and work with rehabilitating them in a way that makes those behaviours less problematic for an owner, and then hopefully find them a new home. Yeah, sure. So once you've evaluated all the dogs, how does it work in terms of rehoming? So once we've done all their behaviour assessments, we write a rehoming criteria for each dog, and then we'll look at that in terms of matching with an appropriate owner. So we'll always make sure that the dog is suitable for the owner, and also for the owner that they're suitable for the dog. So that's how our rehoming process works, essentially. Okay, amazing. Brilliant. So what we're going to do now is meet our new resident, lovely Fiz. So we'll go into here, and we'll do some training things with her. So we'll head right in. Okay. There we go, there she is. Hello, Fiz. Hello. So this is Fiz. She is an 11-month-old German Spitz. Hello. There you go. I don't have any treats on me. She's thinking, where are the snacks? So she actually came to Batzi because the owners were struggling a little bit with her adolescent behaviour. So because she's 11 months, that's the age where sometimes behaviours can become a bit more tricky for owners to manage. A bit hyper. Yeah, just a little bit more excitability, arousal levels kind of going up a bit more. Yes, yes. It's harder to regulate that. So they brought her in because they couldn't actually give her the time for the training. So we've been doing little bits with her here, which we'll probably give you a go and have a go with her in a second. Fizzie, do you want to say hi? Hello. Who's that? There we go. She looks really well behaved. So she's been here a couple of weeks now, so I've got her on foster. She's ready for rehoming now, so she's just looking for her home. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So if you just ask her to drop. Drop. And you show her a second one. Okay, okay. Yeah, so you can hold on to the toy, and if you kind of like tug it a bit. Oh, really? Yeah, you can tug it. She's better behaved than my dog. There we go. There's the other toy. Take that. I think she prefers the crinkly one. She has her favourites. I like the elephant one too. Yeah, it's a nice toy, isn't it, Fiz? So jumping up is another kind of behaviour that is typical for adults. Yes, sure. So what we've been working on is teaching her a sit. So when she's jumping, we just wait till she's got four paws on the floor and say, sit. Can you sit? Good. Good girl. So if she starts jumping up at you, you can just do the same thing. And in two weeks, has she learnt that? She's learnt quite a bit in two weeks, yeah. She knows a couple of tricks. So she does a middle. Good girl. In two weeks? Yeah. She's very smart. Yeah, she's been learning a lot. And then also because what we wanted to do is get her to be a bit more calm and relaxed in the home, because you can see she just jumps on things. Off. Good girl. So we've been working on a down as well with her. So if you kind of like just get her to come back on the floor. Off. Yes. And then we go down. Nope. Down. Good girl. So if you want to have a go at training with her, go for it. Sit. Good. Good girl. Wow. Good girl. You can try the down as well if you like. Okay. Can I try the middle? Yeah, you can try it. I need to teach my dog this. So what you do, just stand with your legs slightly apart. Yeah. And then if you just go around the back of yourself and say middle, with your finger. Yay. Good girl. Amazing. Perfect. So that's just a kind of a little trick that we've taught her. But also it actually helps with her being, she's slightly a bit, a little bit nervous sometimes when she sees bigger dogs coming towards her. Yeah, for sure. So we've taught her that just so that she's got a bit of a safe space to come in between whilst the other dog passes. Yeah. Now that she's ready to be adopted. Yeah. How long would that take? It can really vary. We want to make sure that we set her up for success in terms of making sure that there's an owner that can provide her that training time. So we want to make sure they've got enough time to give, to give like sort of mental stimulation. Yes. But also physical stimulation. So giving her enough warmth. But mental stimulation is equally as important. Yeah, okay, okay, okay. So that's why we do lots of training. Yeah, amazing. To keep her brain kind of keep ticking. Can you do paws? There we go. Wait. Super cute. Good girl. So have you got any dogs of yourself at home? I have one dog. I have a Border Collie. Oh, lovely. We're more of a cat. So we have 12 cats. Okay, lovely. Which is a bit crazy. 12 cats? Oh my gosh. I just literally overheard what you said. So I guess my family have always loved animals. Yeah. Especially my sisters more. I guess growing up and all these kind of things. And we were very lucky. We lived on a farm. Oh, wow. So we had all the space. Yeah. And we always had Border Collies as children. I'm sure you know then all about the sort of physical, mental stimulation side of things. They need a lot of collies, don't they? Yeah, exactly. We had a dog that needed a lot of work. Yeah. Like every time after school. Training requirements. Exactly. Oh, okay. See, you must be a pro at yourself then. Yeah, we try our best. Yeah. Yeah, I guess it's always been in our lives. So where did your love for animals come from? Was it just sort of like childhood growing up with them? I think so. And I think maybe Thai people as well, they love animals. They love dogs as well. Okay. So cultural. There's a cultural theme to it too. You guys work in Thailand as well? Yeah, so our Global Programmes team works with a lovely organisation in Thailand called Jai Dog. Yes. I don't know if you've heard of that one. No, I have, I have. Yeah, perfect. We basically work with them in the way of supporting dogs in the community to stay in their communities. Yes. Rather than trying to kind of export them to the UK. Yes. It's so important for animals to kind of actually thrive in their natural environment. Yeah. And for those dogs, it's really important to support them that they're comfortable living there. Yes, yes, yes. So we've got a capture, neuter, vaccinate and release programme that we support the animals with just to make sure that there's no excessive breeding in the community. Yes. So that's a really lovely thing that Batsy's able to do. Hi, Claire. Hello. How's it going? Welcome to the Cattery. Thank you very much. Thank you. I know how much you love cats. Yeah, I do. I do. And a soft spot, that's for sure. Yeah. Did you want to meet some cats? Yeah, please. I'd love to. Try not to bring any back home with me. Yeah. Or maybe you do want that. I don't know. Well, this one's got a lot of energy. Hasn't he? Yeah. What happened? Yeah, he's a very interesting little fella. He's had lots of medical go on over his time. He's actually got some of his vertebrae fused together. No. So he's, yeah. He doesn't act like it. No, no. He's got a huge amount of energy. We'll go in and meet him in a second. He is a bit of an escape artist, so put your foot in first. And if you just want to... What happens, do they just end up running around? Yeah, yeah. I can't let you come in. Escape. I've heard you're an escape artist. Hello. Yeah, he's a really, really sweet little boy. Yes, tiny. How old is he? I think he's about 10 weeks now. He's been with us for quite a while. Him and his siblings came in probably just over a month ago. And the siblings have been... Yeah, they've been rehomed. Oh, you're the last one. Just him left. Don't tell my mum that. She will take you back. I promise. So definitely in the past kind of four or five years since COVID, the number of kittens coming into us is skyrocketing, really. Yeah, neutering is sadly a big issue with cats. Yeah, yeah, sure. Yeah, there's a lot of unwanted kittens in the world, which is a very sad thing. We're really lucky here. We have lots of volunteers who come in. We have lots of foster carers as well who are willing to look after our cats in their home, which is an amazing resource for some of the cats that don't cope well in the cat tree. I can imagine. I say that in many ways, I'd love to have your job. We'll be checking you on the way out to make sure you haven't stolen him. Oh, yeah, exactly. I said that we have 12 cats at my house. Oh, wow. So we are... I don't think we have the capabilities to have more, but we would if we could. Yeah. I hope you guys enjoyed seeing what Vitalsee Dogs and Cats Home do. This is just a small part of it. There's a huge team around. As I've said, they have multiple locations. It's just amazing to see the passion, the energy and the good that they do for these animals. Do remember, if you are thinking about getting a cat or a dog, think about rescue. Obviously, they're doing an amazing job here. It's been an amazing day, amazing to see the passion and what everyone's doing here. Yeah, very special.