Anyone fancy a rescue survival thread?

[JesusInTheCabbageVan]

We got our girl (lurcher) yesterday. She's one. She's actually good as gold, but obviously there are the inevitable teething troubles. I'm at home with her all the time, and it's a bit knackering having this very intense, one to one relationship with this smelly creature that's just parachuted into our lives. Tonight I'll be sleeping on the living room floor because she won't settle at night otherwise. We are working up to leaving her, but I just don't want to come down to a trashed living room.

BTW we do love her. Just feeling the same way I did when DS was a newborn - kind of: what the fuck have we done?

She's 100% hound 😍

Blimey Jesus that's a lethal mix in terms of training! So glad she's settling.

My boy is gradually getting the idea, and exercise is the key with him. He is absolutely not a dog who you can get away with a short walk when raining. Difficult to juggle with my other oldie Goldie who only needs shorter walks due to Arthritis. So we do a short one together so he can do zoomies round us in a field, then I take him out on his own while old girl sleeps.
I had thought when I got him, that at 8, he'd need slightly less exercise than a young 'un ....... still good for my step count!

Hello again! Thought I'd do a little bump in case anyone else fancied joining. Funny rereading all this, as it feels like DDog has always been here nowadays. She's calmed down and settled in fully now, and rules the roost. She does have some kind of food allergy (waiting to get her tested) and still has the occasional accident, which we now think is partly due to having a very small bladder.

I’m in. We have recently adopted a lurcher that sounds similar to yours, just saw your dna results. Ours is supposedly a mix of those 3 too. A sleeping/sprinting dustbin on legs! A great addition though!

We had our dogs dna tested as well. He’s mostly border terrier, border collie, collie, whippet, Fox hair terrier. Dogs trust had him down as a yorkie cross.

aged wow, that is some mix, Bet he's a strong personality!

Phil welcome in! Yes, that sounds exactly like ours. I think the saluki element is what makes her a bit of a wild card, as our last two (greyhounds) were pretty calm and predictable. So far she has:

Thrown herself out of an upstairs window.
Jumped on the table and eaten DS' dinner when he left the room for 10 seconds.
Brought me a live, unhurt chicken while out on a walk.
Run face first into a (large, unmissable) tree, at full speed.

Jesus Oh my goodness that is a few crazy things! Ours is a really bad scrounged/food thief. She’s about 2yrs ish (they thought) so still very playful and bouncy. Loves shredding cardboard!
Was she ok after tree crashing?!
Do you have any recommendations for good coats? Ours aren’t great.

Phil She was absolutely fine - if I hadn't been watching (and heard the crack) I wouldn't have known anything had happened. Think she has a charmed life, as she was fine after her Eddie the Eagle impression as well.

For coats, we only got her in March so have been making do so far with a fairly rubbish one from Pets at Home. We've just ordered a proper one online, but it's taking forever to arrive. If it's any good when it finally gets here, I will let you know!

I've just picked up my little girl today, we think she is a 3 year old Shih Tzu/Jack Russell Terrier cross. We had her at the weekend for a few hours as an introduction and she seems to have settled in today quite well. She was spayed yesterday and also had a hernia repair so she has been having short bursts of energy and sleeping.

She is recovering from a bad flea allergy so her fur is very thin on her hind area with red itchy dry skin. She has also had a deep clean of her teeth as they were in quite bad condition, the rescue said she had only been fed sugary tit bits and wet food before she arrived.

She doesn't really respond to her name or seem to know any basic commands at all but she has the saddest eyes and a gentle nature.

Joining in please! we get our new rescue lab tomorrow, having lost our old one at 11 and a half in the summer. The new girl is nearly 3; was used for breeding and then dumped; needs to be spayed in Nov; she is an absolute sweetie, very cuddly and loving, but needs to learn how to walk on the lead and how to react to other dogs while on the lead - from a brief walk with her and the rescue people today I think she will be fine, but she is quite full on with her affections! (euphemism for omg it's another dog lunge lunge lunge)

Can I join?We've had Bella three months now, she's a Lhasa Apso who is almost nine. She is a joy mostly although now she seems to have decided she is staying she doesn't seem to feel the need to be on her best behaviour all the time She barks at a sparrow's fart which drives me mad so do resort to closing blinds and shutting doors because she doesn't seem to grasp that it's the barking that makes me oust her from her spot in front of the window and she still gets me up every day about 6am so that I can watch her go back to bed until 8am.
The positives though are that she is getting better all the time with other dogs, Eric has helped enormously with this and whilst they aren't best friends they play together or ignore each other when the fancy takes them. She has learnt to play and can fetch now although only drops it for a treat and she walks well on the lead and has the basic commands, recall is a work in progress though.
We love her and we are happy to have her although I would like a lie in some time in the next six months.

Ooh love this thread! We got our latest rescue 18 months ago, an Irish dog from DT. Had his DNA tested an he’s- pomeranian x JRT x Staffy x Springer! As breeding would suggest he’s a bit needy and hyper, but lovely!!

Tammie arrived at lunchtime today - so far she is an absolute dream, but also quite tired! Very gentle, I think quite happy to be away from the other dogs in her foster home - she used to be snatchy about food and treats but none of that here. Done 3 pees, no poos, been asleep on the sofa and in her bed, and had a slight contretemps with 2 out of 3 cats - think she came off worse. Maybe she will be worse when she gets her confidence up properly! But love her to bits already, she is so cuddly.

Hope Tammi is settling in ok @yolofish

Elsa is doing well but she is fear aggressive and highly anxious with strangers that come into the house and try to touch her. We found this out when the vet called to the house to check her spay wound and to give her first set of vaccinations. In the end the vet fed her treats and I had to hold her firmly when he treated her.

She will be needing a groom/trim in a few weeks when her skin has properly healed from her flea allergy and I am really worried that she will not react well at all and be aggressive. I have started brushing her everyday as she has lots of dry skin and I feed her treats as I do it. We have had some progress as she has stopped growling and will stand still now but I don't think she will tolerate a stranger doing it. I really don't want to but I think she may have to be muzzled and this will really stress her out. I think I may have to cut her nails myself but I wouldn't have a clue how to clip her.

Has anyone experienced similar issues?

Tammie is now off lead in our (huge) garden, and I am discovering bits of it I havent been in for 20 years! Getting to be good with the rabbits in their runs, still wants to chase the cats (but they have exclusive use of upstairs and can come in and out via catflap on the landing window). Chased a fox this morning - she's really fast.

On the downside, she has the squits - I think because she's been eating fox/cat poo and it's difficult to stop her when she's off the lead but on the other hand she needs to be able to run as has bags of energy.

Met some other dogs through the gate - I suspect she is quite territorial, and she has started barking at the odd passer-by.

sunbursts I think feeding while grooming is a good plan, and also she may still be quite sore? I guess the groomers will be used to potentially tricky customers.

Hi all!

Got our rescue yesterday evening, he is 6 months and a mix, we think lurcher.

Such a sweet boy but has completely attached to me and seems nervous of DH. He is fine if we approach DH but if dog and I are in a room and DH enters it's an immediate fear response and barking. Any thoughts? DH has put out his food but he won't approach unless I am with him.

Shelter did warn he was better with women than men.

sunbursts My rescue Staffie cross (been with me about 20 months now) was fear aggressive. She would bark at anyone coming to the front door, strangers coming into the flat, etc. As her confidence grew and she started to relax in her new home, she learned not to rush to the front door ahead of me but to wait at the top of the stairs (second storey flat) and watch me open the door below and not approach until I called her. (From the off, I told her it was "all right" and to go back upstairs and she was a very quick learner and accepted I had the matter in hand). I was told by Battersea that she did exhibit guarding behaviour and would need to be trained out of it. Also, they said she might need muzzling at the vets. In fact, she's been OK at the vets but I have always warned them (if they were taking her away behind the scenes for an injection or something) to be careful and they might need to muzzle her. For your Elsa it is very early days and she will take months to settle down and become more confident (even after one year with me, my friends and family are still noticing that JoyfulDog is more confident every time they see her). With that confidence, she should eventually come to realise that she does not need to keep defending you/herself. I always hand any "new" visitors some dog treats and encourage them to offer them to JoyfulDog while she's looking them over so she realises they are nice people. This has been quite successful but I still have to be careful with JoyfulDog; she accepts my relatives dropping in when I'm out but I found out recently that I cannot leave her alone with a workman coming in to do some work while I'm away at work (she is more suspicious of men). My plumber (who is also a friend), who has met her 2-3 times before whilst doing work in my home and who made friends with her with treats on previous visits, came last week again. She did let him in but later he walked into the room where she was "sleeping" in on a chair and she bit him (no skin broken). A day or two later, a neighbour came round in the evening to walk her for me and, though she knew her quite well and always very friendly with her outside, she growled a lot and retreated to her chair and hid in it, so she obviously thinks she should guard the flat when I'm out but finds it very scary, poor thing. She has a huge fear of children and footballs and that is never going to go so we avoid both (obviously suffered abuse from both in the past).

Anyone got any advice on dog that wont sleep at night? She's very good all day, quite happy to snooze in her bed but come bedtime... Her bed is in my study and I would like to shut her in at night so the cats can have the run of the house. The minute I shut the door at night she starts howling, and I've just spent my second night on the sofa with her.

Was thinking of trying her with a kong at night, didnt last night because she had had the squits. Would it be ok to leave her with it? She's been fine shut in the study with the kong when I've popped out for up to an hour.

Not helpful, but we gave in and let our rescue lab cross sleep in our bedroom. He was whimpering all night and scratched the shit out of the door of the room he was in. Now he's as good as gold at night and doesn't disturb us at all. We are gradually moving him back out - his bed is now in the hallway and he sleeps there most of the night but still comes in to sleep on the rug every now and then.

My dogs have access to kibble all day and just pick at it. Never have weight issues as a result. It's a good thing really. Stops you being tied to a routine.

we had a breakthrough last night, DH idea: let her sleep with the fleece I'd been wearing all day. Worked a miracle, took her out for final pee, dropped fleece in her bed - straight to bed without a peep and nothing until I came down this morning! Now re-wearing fleece to reimpregnate with my (gorgeous!) scent and hoping for same again. Dont want to do the upstairs thing so the cats have run of the house while she is shut in her 'bedroom'.