Julia's Creations: Dogs

Showing posts with label Dogs. Show all posts

Ten Rules for Being a Responsible Dog owner

1. My life is likely to last up to 15 years. Any separation from you will be very painful.

2. Give me time to understand what you want of me.

3. Place your trust in me – it is crucial for my well-being.

4. Don’t be angry with me for long, and don’t lock me up as a punishment. You have your work, your friends, your entertainment, but I only have you.

5. Talk to me. Even if I don’t understand your words, I understand your voice when it’s speaking to me.

6. Be aware that however you treat me, I’ll never forget it.

7. Before you hit me, remember that I have teeth that could easily crush the bones in your hand, but I choose not to bite.

8. Before you scold me for being lazy or uncooperative, ask yourself if something might be bothering me. Perhaps I’m not getting the right food, I’ve been out in the freezing cold or sun too long, or my heart may be getting old and weak.

9. Take care of me when I get old. You too, will grow old.

10. Go with me on difficult journeys. Never say, “I can’t bear to watch it” or “Let it happen in my absence”. Everything is easier for me if you are there. Remember, I love you!

Treating a pet with kindness is a choice. Make smart choices!

Unconditional love

A dog will teach you unconditional love.

If you can have that in your life, things won't be too bad.

Ollie the Collie

Well what can I say about Ollie?!
He really is quite a character!

After losing Moss, our first Border Collie, we were devastated.
We had decided that we didn't want another dog. Having Jake, our other dog, was enough. Besides we could never replace Moss. (You can also read about Moss and Jake on this blog and of course our cat, Suzy)......and now our latest addition, Kaya!
But Jake grieved as much as we did...he lost his usual smiling face and would just sit around looking sad, so after some debate, we decided to get another brother for him...and yes, it HAD to be a Border Collie!

After phoning round several animal rescue centres only to be told that there were no Border Collies available for re-homing, we started to trawl the internet.
We saw a photograph of a tiny, gorgeous, fluffy, tri-coloured, most adorable looking Border Collie puppy up for sale! Like a little ball of fur with eyes and ears!
And we immediately thought...
"He's the one! We must have him!"

On arriving at the house we were greeted by a mother Border Collie and 2 of her puppies...a pretty female called Dorca, who the owner had decided to keep, and an odd looking scrawny thing, with a very long face, long gangly legs, short fur and an extremely long thin black tail, which was that far under his legs that it almost touched his chin!

THIS WAS NOT THE CUTE LITTLE FUR BALL WE HAD SEEN IN THE PICTURE!!

We were told by his owner that he had never been socialised, had lived outside and that he had never even stroked him, in fear of bonding with him! (Stupid man!) So at almost 5 months old this poor little pup hadn't had any human contact....huge, huge, HUGE mistake! (Which we were to find out to our cost in the coming months) Fido, as he was then called, was the last of a litter of 5 that were up for re-homing.
The guy told us he had always known that he would keep one of the female pups, so of course Dorca was friendly as she had been stroked and loved.
He said a couple of people had already been to see this funny looking male pup, but had decided that he wasn't the dog for them.....I'm guessing that this was because, not only was he NOT the puppy advertised online, but he also ticked every box in the list of "Reasons why NOT to choose this particular puppy"

Whilst chatting with the guy, who was rather odd to say the least, this scrawny looking creature hid from us trembling. He peed every time we looked at him...
What a pitiful animal he was....
So yes! We brought him home with us and changed his name to Ollie.
(There was no possible way we could leave him there!)
And even though, unlike all our other dogs, he wasn't a typical 'Rescue' dog....we really did feel like we were rescuing him!

And so began a life of chaos!!

Looking back I have no idea how we managed!
I lost count of the number of times we held our head in our hands saying.....
"What on earth have we gotten ourselves into?"
He completely destroyed our home! He chewed through the walls, right through to the bricks, he chewed the banister rail from top to bottom, went through countless cushions, a very expensive rug, 7 pairs of shoes, a remote control, my battery charger for my laptop and my phone and smashed and totally destroyed my brand new lap top!
He would steal food from the kitchen worktops, eat the contents of the cat's litter tray like it was the tastiest treat ever and...well! You get the picture!
House training him was a nightmare!...and so the list goes on...and on....
He was petrified of visitors...in fact he was petrified of everything!
He suffered Separation anxiety and had phobias of just about everything!
He would completely go to pieces every time I left the house and go into 'destruction mode'
We started off not leaving him for any longer than an hour and then slowly built it up to 4 hours, even now we won't leave either of our dogs home alone for longer than 4 hours.
I would dread coming home and seeing what he had destroyed this time!!

We did try crate training him, for our home's safety, as well as his! But he broke free time after time! He was perfectly happy in there whilst we were home with him and would go in there himself to play and sleep...But it seemed he just didn't like being left alone in an empty house in there. We even tried padlocks but he still broke free and cut his poor little nose quite badly in the process, so we gave up on that.
To this day he is still a bit of an escape artist. You can't shut him in or out of a room because he jumps up, pulls the handle down and opens the door. We have to make sure that we always lock our front door, because he went through a phase of letting himself and our other dog, Jake, out whenever he pleased! Plus if anybody rang our doorbell they would get the fright of their life when the door came flying open and they were greeted by 2 dogs barking their heads off!

Initially, whilst he bonded with us immediately, he would cower in the corner hiding, shaking and peeing every time we had a visitor Then once we built his confidence up he would charge, growling and snapping, at any strangers that we came across, either in our home or out on walks.
'Fear aggression' was now added to his list of emotional problems!
And so 6 months of Intensive Confidence building, Socialising and muzzle training began....

I'm a great believer in positive reinforcement training...ie ignore the bad behaviour and praise the good....Trust me! This wasn't always easy! Many of his antics were very difficult to ignore!! But I'm pretty sure he picked up on our disappointment through our body language alone....It was very difficult not to sigh after walking in the house and finding bits of furniture or pieces of brick chewed up and spread around the house lol.
It wasn't just the bad behaviour we ignored, if we returned home or got up in the morning to find he had chewed something then we ignored HIM too, we ignored those big brown eyes, little wet nose and waggy tail.
And oh! how he hated being ignored!!
Good behaviour, obviously, resulted in lots of praise, cuddles and treats!! Which, of course, he loved! Even through the most difficult times, the one thing that Ollie always wanted to do was to please us and make us happy.
Eventually it seemed to 'click' with him that when he was ignored it was always following behaviour that we found unacceptable and when he was good, we were happy and he got treats and extra attention.

And now, several nervous breakdowns later (on our part!), HEAPS of love and even more patience! He has grown into a marvelous family member. His fur has grown, he now has a splendid tail! And is now quite handsome.
He is intelligent, incredibly well behaved, extremely loving and loyal and every day he does something that makes me smile. He is my baby.

He still has a few issues, is still a nervous dog, but is much happier around strangers now and no longer needs to be muzzled....he will go up to them wagging his tail and sniff them, but won't allow them to stroke him.....No growling though, he just backs away.

We are getting there!! And are very proud (and grateful!) for what we have achieved with him so far. He still gets a few things wrong....like peeing on the cat for instance, because she hisses at him every time he looks at her! (We are very fortunate to have a cat that likes being bathed! lol)

24th Decamber 2013 - Update..
Just back from the Vets, took Ollie for his booster jab. I was really proud of him...he greeted everyone that came in and wagged his tail, no growling or snapping at everyone! He saw a Vet, that was also an animal behaviourist, that he had never seen before and the first thing she said to him was "What a lovely sociable dog you are" Which really made me smile. When she read his records she said that we should be really proud of what we have achieved, because most people would have just given up on him and had him put to sleep.
The previous animal behaviourist I had spoken to several months earlier had said that he needed either 6 months of regular intensive training at £90 a session (which we just couldn't afford!) or should be put to sleep, she said there was no way we would be able to get the aggression out of him on our own and that his behaviour would only get worse.
Don't you just love proving people wrong!

OLLIE'S FIRST DAY WITH US

NOT EVEN MY UNDERWEAR WAS SAFE!

AND OLLIE NOW!

If you have loved many dogs, your heart is big

If you have loved a dog, your heart is big

Have You a dog in Heaven, Lord?

Is there room for just one more?

Cause my little dog died today;

He'll be waiting at Your door.

Please take him into Heaven, Lord.

And keep him there for me.

Just feed him, pet him, love him, Lord,

That's all he'll ask of Thee.

When God had made the earth and sky

the flowers and the trees,

He then made all the animals

the fish, the birds and bees.

And when at last He'd finished

not one was quite the same.

He said, "I'll walk this world of mine

and give each one a name."

And so He traveled far and wide

and everywhere He went,

a little creature followed Him

until it's strength was spent.

When all were named upon the earth

and in the sky and sea,

the little creature said, "Dear Lord,

there's not one left for me."

Kindly the Father said to him,

"I've left you to the end.

I've turned my own name back to front

and called you dog, My friend."

--Author Unknown

The dog has an absolutely uncanny knack

The dog has

an absolutely

uncanny knack

of knowing

not only what

we are thinking,

but also of what

we are feeling.

If you can't think of anything nice to say....

Please feel free to comment :)

Dogs are not our whole life

Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole

My beautiful Kaya

Kaya is a very stubborn girl, she is very inquisitive, friendly to everyone she meets, fears nothing and she sometimes has a look that sort of says "Yes, I WILL allow you to love me" (Unlike Ollie, my other dog's, look of "Ohhh! I just love you so very much indeed, you are wonderful and amazing lol!") She is beautiful to look at and she certainly knows it!

She is very lazy and incredibly greedy.
But she also has an incredibly soft side to her too.....If ever I am unwell or sad, she knows....She just knows. If I am in bed sick, she will be thereright by my side and won't leave me until she knows I am well again.
On one occasion, a few months ago, I got very upset about something and started to cry, I was sobbing (It's very, very rare that I cry like that, if at all)
Kaya was in another room, but she suddenly appeared from nowhere and placed her head on my knee and then lay on the floor beside me.
I then had to go out to work, just before Paul arrived home from work. So I quickly pulled myself together and off I went.
After a couple of hours Paul texted me and said he was really worried about Kaya, because she was lying down, hadn't got up to greet him, she wouldn't go for a walk and she wouldn't eat. He thought she was in some kind of pain, she was just staring blankly at him...He told me he was going to take her to the Vets first thing the following day.
As soon as I arrived back home, 3 hours later, she got up to greet me, she was incredibly giddy, jumping up at me and running up and down the hallway excitedly wagging her tail. It was like she hadn't seen me for a month! lol She then ate all her food up and went and sat by the back door looking at Paul to take her for their usual evening walk......All the time that I was out she hadn't moved from the spot I had been sitting crying....And yet as soon as I returned home she was fine....It was almost as though she was really worried about me until she saw I was ok or that she thought I was crying because I was leaving and not coming back.......
DO YOU HAVE A STORY TO TELL ABOUT YOUR DOG(S)?

My Ollie Collie

When we got Ollie he was almost 5 months old, he had lived outside and had never been stroked or had any human contact. We suspect he had also been badly treated in other ways by his previous owner/breeder too as he cowered away from him.. He was very nervous and terrified of us to begin with.....He peed every time we looked at him frown emoticon
He soon formed a VERY strong bond with us, but remained terrified of anyone he didn't know for quite some time. He was an incredibly naughty puppy (Separation Anxiety) he completely destroyed our home!
We tried crate training him, but failed miserably, we would leave him in there quite happily, but each time we returned home he greeted us at the door! (We even tried padlocks!) We couldn't lock him in or out of a room because he would just jump up, pull the handle down and open the door....He has never yet come across a door that he can't work out how to open.
As he matured and we got his confidence up he became aggressive towards strangers.
Lots of patience and HEAPS of love turned him into the lovely, really well behaved boy that he is today. We are very proud of him and often get praised by strangers for his good behaviour.
He is still very wary of strangers that come to the house and still gets anxious about anything new or different, but is now fine with everyone when we are out on walks.
He trusts us 100%
Last year he ripped one of his claws out and boy! did that bleed a lot.
As much as it must have hurt him (he would flinch when we touched his paw) Every time he saw us with a clean bandage. without us having to say a word, he would sit down and put his bad paw high in the air (almost like a high five) and leave it there until we had changed the bandage.
Unlike Kaya, my other dog, he isn't greedy, he only eats when he is hungry. He is bursting with energy and really enjoys all his walks. He can run like the wind!! He has 3 or 4 good runs a day....Sometimes more if the weather is good. I think he would continue running all day if we didn't stop him to take breaks.
His level of understanding never fails to amaze me! We go on frequent camping trips in our caravan, the first thing I do when we arrive is take the dogs bowls to the water tap (Which is quite a distance away from our caravan) and fill them up with water. I always say to Paul; "I'm just getting some water" Before I know what's happening Ollie is running off and racing me to the tap (it goes without saying that he always wins!) where he just sits and waits for me. On one occasion Ollie was playing with a small boy, the boy's mother shouted him and asked him to get some water. The boy looked at me and asked me where to get it from, I said "Ask Ollie?" He did and to his amazement (and mine if I am honest!) Ollie started running circles around him, herding him. Once he was happy that the boy was heading in the right direction he raced ahead of him and sat at the tap smile emoticon
It tooks us like forever to house train him, eventually we got him to do it in the garden! To this day, he will go on a really long walk and not do a poo until he is back home and in the garden!! One time, when during the night, he couldn't get into the garden, he pooed inside my husband's shoe...It must have taken great aim to do this so accurately! lol (Yes! He has many talents! Far too many to mention here lol)
He LOVES swimming!
He tries very hard to boss Kaya about, by herding her or pulling the most ridiculous faces at her (I think he thinks he looks fierce) Kaya completely blanks him and isn't phased one bit lol.
He is very funny and he makes me smile every day with his antics.
He has this thing where he starts to gently nudge things with his nose to move them along...This can be something on the coffee table, on my dressing table or the doorstop keeping the living room door open...He doesn't stop nudging until something happens...ie whatever it is falls on the floor, or the door closes because he has moved the doorstop...He watches in fascination every time he does these things lol. He isn't being naughty, he just likes to do things that make other things happen, it amuses him. We are in the process of thinking about some kind of a puzzle toy that we can make him that has a similar effect...Any ideas?
He is my baby and always will be