I think Dd1's new kitten might have been studying at Hogwarts. I might need your help Vall, Salem, WTWTW, Bella, anyone?

[DooinMeSizers]

And yes, I know this is the Dog House

I was offered a kitten for dd1 earlier. Unfortunately the lady decided she couldn't part with her. But then sent me a message saying she knew some one who had a puppy they wanted rid of TONIGHT. I explained that I already have a dog and I'm not looking for another one at this time, but if they struggle to get rid of it, bring it here rather than the pound.

'If they don't get rid of it tonight, he says he will kill it' came the reply. So, naturally, there is a 10 week old Whippet on my sofa and not a kitten.

I had said we would contact a rescue wrt a finding a forever home and it could stay with us until then, rather than go into kennels and take up space etc. But Dh, the big softy that he is, now wants to 'see how things go' which if you knew DH you realise this translated to 'You pry MY puppy out of my cold dead hands, but if it shits on the floor I will remind you it's your dog'

Is there anything I need to know about Whippets? Do I need to contact a rescue now, even though we might possibly be keeping it?

I know how challenging puppies and adolsecent dogs can be and I'm up for the challenge. I'm actually quite taken with her, but while Dh adores her when she curled on up a cushion on his lap, he doesn't think he will be able to manage two ferel children, a cat with ibs and an adolesecent, ill trained terrier and a bouncy puppy on his own while I work .

Normally I don't listen to Dh, but he is going to be home a lot more often. So I'm going to contact the rescue tomorrow, I think.

In the meantime I am on damage control to make it as easy as possible for DH to cope. Scruff will be exercised more than usual so he is calmer and his training will upped. I have three sessions already paid for with his trainer so I am going to call him tomorrow and get him to come around and help us with the puppy.

The puppy will get a crate, so she can be kept safe and quiet when we are unable to watch her. And I will get her a coat in the morning so she can start making the use of the yard for toilet training and to burn off a bit of her energy. I'm also to get a few puppy toys for her and get dd1 involved with training and playing with her.

DH has agreed that she can stay with us until she finds her forever home (however long that takes), so that she is not taking up space in kennels and so that her training and socialisation etc is not interrupted.

I'll let you know what the rescue say Lara and maybe you could contact them?

I'd really like to keep her but I don't think it is fair on her or our existing pets if keeping her causes tension in the house. And like DH says I can be happy the knowledge that she was not drowned in a bucket last night because I helped her. I have until she finds her forever home anyway to change his my mind don't I?

Hopefully after the madness and excitement of the first few days settles DH will see that things will be no worse than he expected when he first considered keeping her.

im in teesside larahusky

Our pup loves running off, chewing bog roll by the ton, and eating face cream He's getting there, and usually comes back with a blast of a whistle and a treat. He needs to have something to do, and is a typical collie.

We take him to training and although he has much more off-lead time, we still use a long line. He's still not neutered which is annoying. We have been told that he is still very young. Our older dog finds it a bit confusing having an entire upstart in the house. It's not all fun and games, but we'll get there. 3 dogs, 2 children, 2 ducks and a few chickens.

Well things have been a lot calmer today. Scruff is getting used to the pup so she is not such a source of excitement and the pup herself has settled better and is not holwing and clinging to your trouser leg if you try and leave the room.

The dds got up at an ungodly hour and let Scruff out of his crate (which they are not allowed to do) and at some point the pup has had a go at him and cut his head, but it's only minor.

We have done some leash training, recall and socialisation with Scruff, which went really well. A lab walked within inches of him and his eyes stayed on me and my treats. He got distracted by a rowdy Boxer dog when we were doing recall with the longline but could ignore the quieter dogs completely. He didn't take his eyes off dd1 (who had his high value toy) most of the time and recalled to me insantly about 50% of the time. Which is 50% more than usual . He recalled eventually the rest of the time, bar once when another terrier tried to swim accross the beck to get to him.

I have finally found a food he will work for, although the butcher tells me I don't even want to know what it is, so I am imaganing that it is mushed up insides of things , but he likes it and it's cheap.

So all in all things are looking positive and DH is happier.