Meet Poppy

[Fifyfomum]

Poppy is six months old, she is a Spaniel crossed with a Husky and has had two previous owners, the first kept her in the kitchen all the time, barely walked her and as far as I can tell gave her away when she wasn't 'puppy like' enough for them.

The second owners already had a dog and 5 children in a 2 bedroom house and when I arrived it was clear she had not been walked and was in a dirty, tiny kitchen. I found out about her through face book and immediately went to get her.

We pretty much fell in love straight away, I walked her as soon as I got home and we've been out once more today, I am just about to take her for another hours walk before settling down for the night.

She hasn't eaten much today, I put some bisto gravy in her biscuits but that didnt seem to entice her and she also hasn't passed urine or had a bowel movement since I collected her.

She is quite pulley on the lead and doesn't seem to have been trained at all, still she is very clever and has come a long way even since this morning, she is jumping up at us less and less and she is wonderful with the children.

I suppose I would love any advice on how to get her off the lead, because we live near lots of fields and I want her to be able to run and jump and do all those things that dogs do, I also want to throw balls for her and so on.

I got the best dog food that I could and a chew toy and a ball and rope thing but she hasn't really been played with so shes not really interested in any of it.

We are used to dogs, I grew up with dogs and helped my dad train our boxer and she was amazing, really calm and happy and friendly. I am sure that my husband and I can train Poppy very well. Any support or advice is greatly received.

thank you

So getting a dog on a whim and after 48 hours of dog ownership thinking you know more about training than people who've made it their life's work isn't arrogant then?

Thanks though thinking you've given DH and I a bloody good laugh today. People who say no to a dog are unable to look after them. It's just ludicrous

You came on this forum looking for advice. You were given advice. Some of the posters are experts, some are behaviourists, some have worked in rescue for years and years.

They have all generally said the same thing. You have chosen to ignore this advice. I am not sure why you are posting.

And please reply to the Facebook advice, as it's disrespectful to ask for free advice and then not acknowledge it.

I think you should Google Cesar Milan, I think you would agree with his methods, your DH certainly would.

I have received and taken lots of advice. Not all of it has been the same.

Just because I am not doing things 'your way' doesn't mean I am doing things wrong or that I am cruel. The only advice I haven't taken is to send my dog to the pound or to ignore it when she displays behaviour I don't want her to display. Pretty much everything else I am happy to get on board with.

I think it's pretty arrogant to offer support to someone and demand they take it. I've got friends who have asked my advice about raising a kid and I've given it but I don't expect them to follow it, they can do their own thing.

As I've said, Poppy is showing less and less of the behaviours we don't want. If that stops we will seek more advice about how to do things differently.

Off you go then, you know best.

I don't need to go anywhere needa this is my thread to share the adventures of my dog. You feel free to close the door on your way out though.

A spaniel and a husky are VERY VERY different.

STOP referring to spaniel behaviour. That is only half the mix and ime you are far more likely to have the stronger husky traits coming through.

For example - Recall is going to need a lot of work. You have a dog who wants to follow its nose to go exploring in the undergrowth mixed with a dog who wants to do his own thing and run.. You are going to have to work REALLY hard to override that

In all honesty I think you are expecting and wanting to do too much and are at a real risk of creating a monster as said above.

Plus, you've only had her a few days. Wait a few weeks when she really settles in and you get to find out her TRUE personality and behaviours..

I don't think we are going to start on recall for a little while. Well we've got a couple of really fun games we can play that will help her get it, but just around the house.

Like playing 'hide and seek' with treats and calling her from different areas of the house, that sounds like great fun!

After that I was thinking of just incorporating it into our daily walks, just every now and again calling her to me, getting her to sit and giving her a treat, then we will get her a longer lead and do the same thing but with a ball to throw...

Only when we are absolutely certain that she is happy to come back to us will we attempt recall and we have a great large area near us that is completely sealed where we can work on it.

Right well updates today are that Poppy managed to survive without me here (Husband and children were here though) and I am preparing to leave her tomorrow eek!

She was fine though pined a bit and she was Very excited to see me when I got home which was lovely.

Enjoying our walks still, I got up and walked her at 6am this morning before I left which is great for both of us really. She is much less pulley on the lead but hasn't really got the hang of crossing the roads with me rather than just trying to fuck off so we are working on that obviously with every road we cross (keeping to really quiet ones) I have just bought her a lead that extends so I can start practising recall (and not I am not expecting anything yet!) but it means that while we walk she can go and toddle off a bit further in suitable areas. So once again really looking forward to our walk tonight even though it looks like it going to absolutely chuck it down any minute. I think spring is a good time to get a dog, I get a full spring/summer walking before having to deal with cold winter mornings and nights.

fify, good on you for taking on a rescue dog. We have two dogs, one we brought from a breeder, he has his own problems as he came to us as an under socialised puppy at 18 weeks, lot's of hard work, money and time have and are paying off now, whilst we know he'll never be a confident dog we also know that he's 100% better than when he came to us.

Our second dog is a rescue, we've had her 4 months now and came to us at 8months. She had in that time before we had her been in 2 homes and spent 2 months in kennels. The first 2-3 weeks she was an absolute dream - didn't put a foot wrong, then once she started to feel more settled her problems came to light (all normal adolescent puppy problems which she seemed to magnify by 10 because of her poor earlier upbringing) she got so bad at one point I wanted to send her back to the rescue, she belongs to my grown up daughter and she ended up injuring her badly enough to need a week off work with her injury (this wasn't caused by naughtiness, just lack of boundaries from an early age and remember earlier in my post we thought she was an absolute dream?). With a lot of imput from my daughter, along with time and money spent on training and a behaviourist and proper socialisation we can see a totally different dog to the one we had a couple of months ago.

What I'm trying to tell you is please don't be fooled by her good behaviour now, you may be lucky in that you don't have many problems arising once she feels more settled, but on the other hand please be prepared if this is not the case.

With regards to walking our rescue lab we started off very very slowly with the amount of time we walked her, bearing in mind we don't want to risk her joints in later life, even now at a year old we don't walk her for as long as we would have done if we'd have had her from 8 weeks, she gets several shorter walks a day instead with off lead time too.

Re the extending lead please don't use just on her collar but on a harness (hope I'm not teaching you to suck eggs!)

Thanks Henni I will look into getting a harness for her asap.

My biggest worry is that she will snap at the children again so I will not get lax with that, particularly after what you've said. I am limiting her walks to 2 or 3x35mins a day now so that should be fine for her puppyness!

She grew up with children and another dog so I am hoping that her socialisation is not as bad as we thought and that she is literally just settling in, she seems to be displaying good behaviour like coming (to me) when called and urinating/pooing in the garden rather than in the house which is all very promising.

I will definitely stay vigilant though for the next few months at least. Particularly around the children, she is never in a room alone with them anyway and this will never change. Heard too many horror stories!

Thanks