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We had a bit of a break-through with Abbey today. We have been working on her watching dogs through the window and getting her to be calm and not hackles-up trying to get at them. Today she managed to do it twice - once at the front door with a dog on-lead the other side of the road and then again from the bedroom window with a dog off-lead and running back and forth to its owner. Until today she would not have been able to control herself and would have been a nervous wreck and remain agitated for sometime afterwards but today she just watched and although unhappy it was there she dismissed it when it went out of sight and went back to what she was doing.
I know this is a tiny step in the big scheme of things but it is a big one for Abbey and shows that she is making progress in her own time. Up-date on her home offer – the home-check was passed with flying colours and so she will be moving on to a new family who will continue her training. I have no doubt that she will blossom with security of people she can call her own. Abbey had some people come to meet her on Sunday. They are well aware of all her ‘issues’ and still think they could get her to fit into with their house. This is just one of two possibilities and hopefully the other home-check is to also go ahead. They are two quite different homes: one is where she will be an only dog and the other she will be part of a collie pack and children which she loves.
Sometimes it is a hard call to decide on the right choice and the perfect forever home. Well the meet-and-greet went really well for Abbey Katz so the next stage is to get a home and vet check done so that if all goes well when they come to introduce their two dogs she will be able to go off to her new home. I hate this bit of fostering. I can’t help worrying that it will all go pear-shaped and that we will be back to square one with finding a home mind you I then worry that once they have gone that they will be happy. Fingers crossed for Abbey, it is time she had a forever family to call her own. . The rewards of working for a rescue far out-weigh the negatives but there are times when it just doesn’t all make sense and you have no idea why.
We have a potential owner’s information sheet that is completed when people are interested in adopting one of our dogs. People often sound fab on paper and even speaking to them convinces me that they would be suitable but ... and that is a big BUT ... when I start checking into details a bit more stuff starts not adding-up. We know in rescue people lie, well are economical with the truth if I am going to be polite about it but do they really think that we will not check out the details they supply. Simple things like telling us their last dog has passed on when a vet check does not confirm this or stating that they have had several dogs and then when you speak to them they say they have only had two. When they state that they live in the country with no roads near and a Google search shows them in the middle of a built-up area. I am confused. All rescues want the very best for the dogs that have been unfortunate enough to need their help. They have often already been through quite a bit and the last thing, as a fosterer I want to do is to get it wrong but it does happen and when it does and the poor dog bounces back I feel awful. All our dogs are microchipped which will identify them as one of ours but there is always the horrible worry that the dog could just be ‘passed-on’ or abandoned without us knowing. It feels like trusting your child with a stranger ... remind me why we all do this again ;-) Well we have had an eventful weekend - some good, some not so good but a learning curve non-the-less.
Poochies Play Day event at Castle Hill, Huddersfield on Saturday was a bit wet to say the least. It was raining when we got up (and had been all night by the look of things) and just did not give up all day. We took Kali to be a calming influence as it was Abbey’s first real jaunt out since her training with us had started. That, as it turns out was our first mistake. Far from being the calm, placid little thing she normally is she took it upon herself to be Abbey’s guardian and protector. To say Abbey was scared does not really sum it up. She was fine on the walk to the bus stop and loved the bus but we didn’t see a sole so there was nothing to spook her. As we walked down the lane to the event she started to get stressed. The more people and dogs the more stressed. We had taken the precaution of putting her muzzle on (a soft one that she was now used to wearing about the house) so there was no danger of any accidents with other dogs. Dogs pick up on body language and so it was really important for us to just treat this as anything else we would do so when a group of people with pocket-sized pampered poochies (all dressed in identical pink coats and bling) emerged from a car by the side of us we just kept walking. However, Abbey was twisting herself into knots on the lead to get to them so, to prevent her strangling herself and to rescue my hand I stopped to un-knot us with Abbey continuously lunging for these little fluff-balls. Rather than just walk on the humans of the group stopped to see what we were doing allowing their dogs, at full leads length to yap towards us. Abbey was wearing a dog coat printed with deaf – easily scared on it and the group made all the sympathetic sounds associated when people realise but didn’t back off. Grabbing Abbey firmly by the scruff I held her down and asked the group to walk on as she was scared and hubbie explained that we were working with her for a rescue and that she was deaf with little socialisation skills. Did they move? Nope, they then wanted to know how I was going to stop this now writhing mass of wet collie and what her training involved. Did they reel their dogs in? Nope, they came closer so they could get a better look. Dogs are now a couple of feet from us and Abbey is intent on having them (fight first mode) I eventually, calmly but briskly walked away and Abbey had no choice but to follow me back down the lane. Once they were out of sight and I’d done some training things with her she knows (sit, paw etc.) and given her treats for doing as she was asked she calmed right down. This was not a good start and I very nearly just gave-up but there were not many people there and as Abbey was now responding well we decided to try again. I am glad we did. Most of the stalls were for dog rescues and these people are a different breed from the general public. They do not know best, they respect the dog and approach the handlers and let the dogs come to them if they want to. They understand the difficulties and they often give some great advice gained from experience. This is why I wanted to take Abbey to this event. We came away with some really useful tips. Abbey did brilliantly after the initial set-back. She eventually stopped lunging so hard that she pulled herself off her feet and twisted us up in the lead in the process and we learnt to read the signs of when she was going to do it and stop it before it began (like giving dogs a wider birth or distracting her before she got a chance to think about the dog coming towards her) There is no magic cure but towards the end of the two hours we were there she had relaxed enough to touch noses with a border collie pup and even wag her tail when doing it. The rain never ceased and so, as we were all wet and muddy we walked home along the footpaths and let Kali have a run off-lead. Not sure why but Abbey made a bid for freedom in the field behind out house and took off like a rocket (heart in mouth time or what?) Kali hived off after her but she only has little short legs and couldn’t catch-up so instinct clicked in and she went into full tracking mode constantly running back to make sure we were following and she found her up on the hill. Ever tried to keep a calm exterior (back to that body language thing again) while your insides are like a box of frogs? We didn’t want Abbey to pick-up on anything being wrong and so we just wandered along as if it was all just a nice walk. Kali had other ideas and herded her sheep-like towards the corner of the field with us flanking the sides until we were re-united and Abbey happily surrendered to being put back on her lead. As it turns out in the throws of all the writhing at other dogs her harness has broken but because it was under her coat we didn’t notice. We won’t make that mistake again. To be fair to Abbey although she had her own agenda when she was off-lead she didn’t actually go very far from us and I wonder if we hadn’t perused her and just stopped if she would have come and found us again. Mind you at this point in time it is not a theory I am going to try out. Bonus to all this was that Kali and Abbey got an extra hour charging about a field and so after a bath (which Kali hates and Abbey as it turns out loved) they settled down to snooze the evening away. I wonder what they dream because they were both running at one point. |
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December 2023
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