Saturday 6 August 2016

My 1500 blog post - Our rescue dog - three months on

Thought I would do an update on how we are getting on with Lilly. I had done an initial post two weeks after we got her, here, if you want to read it.

Lilly has come on in leaps and bounds.First of all we have totally put a stop to her jumping up on people, When we first got her an people came into the house she was jump, jump, jump, as high as she could get at you over and over. I have never liked this in a dog but by ignoring the behaviour it has gone away. If we are in an area where there are no other dogs and she gets off her lead she still likes to go over and see people and a lot of members of the public are quite happy to stroke her.

She now goes into her bed automatically whenever we dish a meal up, she knows her bed is where we want her to be, and will stay there until we have finished eating and we then shout her out reward her with a small treat.




 She is amazing with the grandchildren. The twins love to walk her round the table on her lead if we go down to visit. When ever the two of us walk in they immediately look for her. Dinky is not quite so keen as when we first had Lilly  she was full on and would lick lick lick at anybody. While Minky and Bob are quite happy with this Dinky was not so keen. But Lilly has calmed down and Dinky has learnt not to sit on the floor where Lilly will interact with you.







She eats just about anything we put in front of her. She does not like eggs, potatoes or fish but that is all we have found so far. It is funny because she will eat her food and then wander through to the living room and let out an almighty burp. I do not think I have ever heard a dog burp before. We ring the changes with her and add cooked vegetables or raw carrots either grated or chopped, sometimes
she gets cooked pasta.She can be strange sometimes she will lift out the pieces of raw carrot and put them on the floor next to her bowl, but will then go back and eat them later on.

Up until about six weeks ago we did wonder if we had made a mistake taking her on and whether we were the right people to deal with the major issues she presented when out in public. One day when we had her out and she went nuts, and when I say nuts I mean totally nuts, way out of control, and totally unable to be reasoned with or calmed down, then I was very very tempted just to divert in round the local SSPCA and hand her back. She did not even need to see the other dog, this was after just smelling one that we saw. We are not pulling on her lead here, she is jumping and tugging that hard she risked injuring herself.



I was so angry and thought she may well be better off rehomed with somebody else. But we brought her back home and discussed it.  She was and still is the most loving adorable dog who just had an issue and so we made the decision that we would keep her and if it came to it she would become a back door dog and never go out again. My reasoning was if we gave up on her and then she went to somebody else who also gave up on her she was going to live a miserable life and she deserved better than that.

She enjoyed playing with next doors dog, so proves she can do it.



From the time we have spent with her we think she was never socialised with other dogs in the past as she does not know how to behave. It is a bit like taking an only child and throwing them in with my daughters brood of five, siblings behave in a totally different way to an only child. We also feel she was abused as if she is sat near you and you go to lift your hand to scratch your head or pick something up she will duck away from you. If she is near you and you lift your foot to put on a slipper or pull up a sock she cowers and runs as well. Hopefully she will realise that this will never happen here and this over time will settle down.



So we are now working on training her. When we take her round the field at the back there are rarely other dogs in there. So she is let off her lead and she just loves to run and run and run. There are a few gates in the field, when we first got her we put her back on the lead to pass the gates, now hubby is working on "here" and making her come in to heel while we walk past the gates, or cross the back country road to carry on along the dirt track. We are working on shouting her back while she is off and running free, to teach her to return. We reward her with a treat when she comes back. I realise if she was on the trail of something or spotted another dog we would have no chance of her coming back when called but hopefully in a few months she will. We are also letting her off the lead in other places to allow her to learn to go into the undergrowth and have fun, again working on getting her to come back.

She is a little nutter in the house and loves to chase her ball that is thrown for her. She plays at play fighting on the bed chasing hands as they move and pouncing on them. It really is nice to see her coming out of her shell and becoming a happy dog that will have a good life.

enjoying the sun in the back garden

getting dried after a wet walk


getting ready for her holiday


Have to say she had a great holiday and enjoyed some new places. You can read about her holiday here. 



walking round the fishery








Out the back garden with Bob

mountaineering up piles of slates

quite happy to sit with Fifi

enjoying the fan in the hot weather


We try and take her to places she can get of her lead, and she had a ball up at Failford for 2 hrs


checking out one of our geocaches 

spotted a bird




She had great fun learning to go further off the path and get out of sight of us. All good for her confidence building.








So yes beginning to feel that we have done the right thing in taking her on and that we can give her a good life. 



Linky

3 comments:

  1. It definitely sounds like you've done the right thing. Thanks for linking up to the #BinkyLinky

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well done that's amazing 1500 fab photos Thanks for linking to the #binkylinky please come back next week

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  3. Well done on 1500 posts!!

    We had a rescue dog before. They might be a bit more work when you first get them, but they more than make up for it.

    Lilly looks so happy with you.

    #binkylinky

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