One, two, three
We have taken three dogs in over the last five years; we have had two rescue dogs, and a friends’ dog, in five years and the differences between the three dogs we have looked after have been huge.
Dogs in rescue are mostly scared (for a LONG time). They are waiting for the home you’ve provided to fall through and the world they expect to become uncertain again.
Living in a shelter in a concrete room our Rita was delighted to have sofas and cushioned beds and Theo our newbie has travelled from the Irish pound which could have been similar but he also has farm stories with brothers and sisters unconfirmed.
First dog was Chloe the collie has older and had LOTS of fur. We were hoovering that for the last two years. As she shed lots from her double coat.
Two girls and a boy. A border collie, a doodle, and a collie cross. Theo is our newest family disrupter, and I say that fondly with a caveat, as he is still needing trained in a lot of ways. Anxiety has not disappeared. In only three weeks he has not done the things we expected and a lot of the things we really don’t want him to do. Puppy training is hard in a nearly adult dog. But we will do it because he has filled a big space in our family we knew was needing filled after Rita left us. The madness of a doodle will not leave us for a while.
But we don’t know if Theo has a nervous tum at the moment as he is in a new environment or whether we’ll have to experiment with costly dog food to find the perfect blend which will be a forever option because he can’t have the bogstandard varieties. A bag of Irish kibble similar to the one he travelled with was purchased on the interweb and it was not cheap. The shelter didn’t say he needed a special diet… just provided us with the bag he arrived with. He came from death row in Ireland…
Update: The kibble from Ireland is not good quality. The dog training has been underway for five or six weeks and our trainer advises on all sorts including feeding brands which are fortified and giving the best value so we’ve adopted a new brand which thank goodness has been digested well. The ribs are not as obvious anymore and we are seeing more confidence and demands from our boy.
Gardening within LiMitS 