15months to debt free - I hope

badmemory

Isn't it annoying when animals are owned by people who don't even try to teach them the basics.  The older they are the harder it is.  Just like with children really.  My son learnt from an early age that this voice means "right now" you are in danger.  Even my rescue dog knew that one tone meant do it now, and she was a true nutcase but had obviously been very mistreated.  But then she used to cower if you raised your hand to open a high cupboard door, but being a sheep dog cross (by then probably about 5) she used to shepherd my son.  We were afraid that because she was so excitable that we would have to get rid of her when he was born.  How wrong were we.  She could not have taken more care of him if he had been her puppy.  She was the one who got him up to help him to walk at 5 months.  At under a year he lifted her rear end off the ground whilst she was eating - a real no no.  If I had have done that I would have expected to get a serious (& justified) bite.  Funnily enough she never did get the op & as far as we knew never had pups & only came into heat once.  I suspected that something very serious had happened to her in the past.  I know that they said if she went back this time she would be put down & that was not going to happen on my watch - even after she smashed my (fully glazed) back door & peed all over my carpets.  Is it a power thing that makes some people really nasty with animals?

Sorry about that wall of text but it is something that gets me going.

ladyholly

I share your anger with some people over the ill traetment of their animals. Having worked with a rscue in the past we have seen some horrible things in the past. One to cheer you up. A friend of mine had a son who although not tall could be intimidating saw a man hitting his dog (a staffie) whilst in a pub . My friends son went to him, stood over him and just quitly said you are not taking that dog out of here. The man tried to get up off his seat but was prevented.  The dog went with my friends son who gave him tthe best life and it was this staffie who taught our little how to behave. Many of the dogs we have had have had poor lives before coming here but with time and patience they have all ended up as reasonably well balanced happy dogs. I just hope we can do the same for our latest. He is a happy boy but not exactly well balanced. We dont think he has been physically harmed just a lack of proper training and discipline. I dont mean that in a cruel way but in the way of learning what is appropriate behaviour which isnt barking at everything that moves and trying to pull me off my feet while walking under my feet nearly trpping me up.

ladyholly

Well its been an interesting 3 days. C has been doing well until yesterday. More of that in a minute. The barking at birds is getting  bit less but we have to be vigilant to catch him as he does it or just as he focuses on them. His walking is still all over the place but I keep encouraging him to walk on the left. He continues to be good in the house and we are now letting him upstairs to sleep. Once he has settled he i pretty good other than the snoring. 

Right yesterday. We took him to our usual green and he wasnt being too bad except for the birds - there were quite a lot of them. We got to the far end when someone joined us on the other side with their dog chasing  a ball. Suddenly he went from 0 to 10 barking, lungeing. wrapping himself around Mr LHs legs and almost pulling him over several times. It took both of us to pull him to the other side of the trees where he was still fighting us. He wouldnt/ couldnt even focus on treats to help us move him. To give us a break we looped his lead over a concrete post and when we had got our breath back got him to the other side of the road, at this point he could probably still see the other dog and was continuing to bark and pull. When we got out of sight of the dog  he calmed down and we got him home,  fortunately it isnt far. We were shocked to see the escalation and seriously considered sending him back to the rescue. We talked and talked most of the afternoon and evening having been in touch with the rescue who said he had never shown that behaviour whilst in their care. The upshot is we are keeping him but have asked that the rescues behaviorist comes  and works with us preferably bringing a dog and handler to try to recreate the circusmstance so they can see the intensity. Thinking back to all his behaviours I think the trigger is fast movement. The day before He sat about 5 foot away from 2 barking dogs and just waited for us to finish talking to their owners and another one was walking by and there was no reaction.  To complete the day Mr LH took him out briefly and while he was out a friends dog ran towards him. Fortunately his owners called her and she responded well and went back to her owner while Mr LH got C home. I saw the dog from the bedroom window although partly obscured by a tree and my night vision is poor and ran to give hime some help but by the time I got out he was hom. so not to much stress.

I am waiting for the rescue to get back to us. We have changed his harness from the halti one that we didnt like anyway to a T touch one that we had for Miss W. For anyone that doesnt know T touch is a training method using touching and gentle training which we used a little bit for Miss W. The harness is designed to be able to be put on without it going over the dogs head and has numerous closing clips to help the dog be comfortable. We are also taking a second lead with us in case of futher problems. 

Tomorrow he goes for neutering and hopefully that may, in time help him a little.

I havent been anywhere and have done very little as C is taking up a fair bit of time at present. I did wash the net curtain in the lounge and clean the window frame, washed out the decanters ready for sherry which we only have at Chistmas and cleaned the silver candlesticks and silver plated tray that we use.  Roast chicken and all the trimmings for dinner. Shopping list started and bed changed. For me a busy day. I have also done the ironing - hooray. I hate doing it as its nearly all Mr LHs shirts.

Relief in this house that  the world cup has ended and some annoyance that the news on BBC seemed to have been either delayed or cancelled with repeated bits from the football. Its on again tonight so to cancel stuff just to reshow what has just been on and will be repeated later really irritates us. Football seems particculary prone to this.

Anyway the trainer from the rescue has just phoned so have a good evening.

jwil

I hope you get some good support from the rescue centre.

Sun_Addict

I also hope you will get the support you need from the rescue centre. I suppose this is the downside of getting a rescue dog, you don’t know what the underlying problems might be. I’m sure with your wealth of experience you can work on him. 

I’m also relieved the football has finally finished 🥳

ladyholly

The rescue trainer has given us her phone number to ring her in the New Year. We are waiting until then due to Cs neutering. We dropped him at the vet at 9am yesterday morning and I did a some tidying up and laundry. main shopping for the week done with just a few bits left to get at the last minute including my prescription. C was home at 1pm which was a bit earlier than they would normally release him but he was getting stressed. Collies are very sensitive dogs. He was definately not good on his return, could only stagger and really didnt know what was going on. He was also uncomfortable - not surprising. Constantly keeping an eye on him so nothing further done.

He has been much better today. Still having to watch him though as he keeps trying to get to his wound despite having a body suit on. The difficulty is keeping him amused. Collies are too clever for their own good sometimes. We are using Kongs for his meals, and playing games with him as well as indoor training on basic commands. This means nothing much else is getting done however I have managed to get the Christmas tree up (Mr LH spent the morning in bed as he was up with the dog all night as he was worried about him). We had a friend visit today for an hour or so which was nice. I have also made the face cloth dogs for a gift for another riend. I have had the stuff for ages but typically have left it for the last minute. Tomorrows big job is making about 5 dozen mince pies as gifts for family and friends. This will take most of the morning along with amusing C as he is only allowed very short walks for a couple of weeks by which time he will be bouncing off the walls. Vet appointment for a check up in the afternoon so I might get Mr LH to drop me at the pharmacy to get my prescription. I wont get him to wait as there will no doubt be along queue and they probably wont be ready so I will have to wait for them. I can walk home as long as I take it slowly.

Off now to walk the dog so sweet dreams.

ladyholly

Yesterday I thought I had finished the food shopping and then Mr LH announced that 1 litre of sherry wasnt enough. Its only him that drinks it and i have only ever bought one bottle so I am not sure what he wants. Anyway like the dutiful wife I went to Sainsbury this morning and got a bottle of sherry. Shame they only had dry when he prefers medium. Oh well it will have to do for him. I then took presents to our daughter, sil plus the ones for the GKs which they will collect boxing day.

I think thats it for Christmas and I am not doing anything else except a tiny bit of ironing in the morning and strating food prep for Christmas day, well getting the beef out of the freezer and putting the wine in the fridge. We dont do anything in the way of picky things except smoked salmon about 4pm and dinner about 6.30 - 7. Mr LH doesnt do lunch as he doesnt get up untill middayish and after breakfast doesnt want anything much until dinner.

I have bought a squeaky toy for the dog as a distraction when we are out. Have only tried it once but seemed moderately successful as a change from calling him and will reduce the number of treats he is getting. He is definately getting bored despite my attempts at keeping him amused. I will have a bit more time for this now as Christmas stuff is mostly done.

Thats it for today. Have a peaceful night.

jwil

Have a lovely Christmas 🎄

ladyholly

A very happy Christmas (or whatever celebration you keep) to anyone reading this. 

Blackcats

And a merry Christmas to you too