Oh my giddy god......

[HangingOver]

I can't actually believe I'm finally typing this... I think I'm getting a dog!

I've wanted one of my own my entire life. I had one growing up and look after friends and neighbours at every available opportunity as I adore dogs so much. A rescue came up locally and I thought he looked lovely, he was snapped up immediately, but came up again yesterday! Me and DP are meeting him this afternoon.

Any tips for meeting a rescue for the first time? Other than being gentle and calm? He's 8 months so a bouncy chap.

ARGGGH! So excited. 😁

Yep my rescue girl definitely has been starved, she is genuinely utterly shocked and surprised and delighted and absolutely thrilled three times a day without fail when her food arrives. Two and a half years and the joy in it has not subsided one bit.

He is a fabulous Pod. Congratulations OP.

Ah he's making his own clothes!! How entrepreneuriail....
*don't shoot me if that's the wrong spelling!!

He looks like Spock

This thread and Pod Dog- does he have a name- are giving me life in a very hard time!

Still the best thread ever! I’m so glad you and giddy dog are working it out between you.

He's hilarious :)

Just look at that sad, sad face 😍

I do love how he's coming to you got help. He's obviously worked out that you're a person to rely on, his person

I think he has found his forever human💖💖

He’s definitely become Mumsnet latest ‘ Blue Peter dog’!

Nervously went upstairs to hang laundry during a rare moment of calm. Nothing in this room APPEARS to be accessible or dangerous but how to know for sure? What if he gets in the sink?

Anyway, miraculously he didn't even get up from his sofa. What a good boy.

That's great, OP!

Mine has rarely chewed anything soft and still has all the soft toys she inherited from my previous dogs some years ago.

But what she did chew was hard plastic, as in kitchen knife and scissor handles, a ladle and a trowel handle as well as plastic storage boxes that I'd foolishly used to store her food.
That was a sharp learning curve for me!

I'd like to say she doesn't do it now but nothing is left out to tempt her, as I really can't be sure!

Oh I forgot, two unexpected good effects so far of having Rescue Pod:

1. cured lifelong nail-biting literally overnight as constantly handling revolting treats and have zero desire to put hands anywhere near face...
2. when doing 10 sec timeouts due to nipping me and DP have a quick cuddle the other side of the door before going back in.

Feel v.close to DP through all this! We've never wanted DC but starting to feel like some of of weird interspecies family.

@MaxandMoritz kitchen knife? 😱

You probably know already but I just wanted to recommend Kongs, the large black ones have survived years of chewing from my two large dogs.

Both are getting old but one (a very hyper 8 month old when I first got him 12 years ago) still has his moments when he just won't settle and a kong with a small amount of peanut butter smeared inside and bits of raw carrot jammed in with it keeps him occupied for ages and calms him down enough to go to sleep.
There are loads of ideas online, some people use an allowance from daily food intake, and there are lots of "recipes".

Yes thanks he loves him Kong ☺️ I put it in his crate at bedtime with goodies in it and if i need to do a work call and he's being an arsehole

Current scenes:

Yes, the kitchen knives with the black plastic handles. She didn't cut herself, not once.

This trowel had a roughly five inches long handle. It's now half that. I left it by the kitchen door to return to the shed.

Looks like he has decided that he is the Master of the House, and you are the unpaid help, only there to serve his every need.

Kongs are a good idea, we just put wet dog food in ours taken out of the puppy’s daily food allowance. Good for calming him.

All of you posting about Kongs - I am sure you all know it but worth saying again, make sure you use Kongs which are not capable of going into the dogs mouth size wise, due to choking, sadly incidents have happened, especially if you leave them with the dogs when you are not there.

Size up is always the best thing to do.

Good advice. I noticed dodge king suddenly looked small and just brought the next size up (which seems huge, and has a much bigger apperture to fill).

Another thought on Kongs - sometimes a dog will find a Kong too difficult and frustrating, so as with any enrichment toy, fill them carefully, and observe how your dog resolves the problem, rather than make them as long lasting as possible and then leave the dog to get frustrated by themselves!

I recommend Toppls a lot at work as easier to fill, clean, and do, but you can still make them harder, freeze etc. You can also lock consecutive sizes of Toppl together to make a bigger longer lasting puzzle.

Another good (if spendy!) toy is the K9 Connectable, a range of pieces that can be smeared/stuffed and joined together for the dog to pull apart.

And for dogs that like to pull things apart the Tearribles range is good (again, not cheap but robustly made!), though thats just a soft toy with velcro off parts (the velcro sits in a channel so the pull off bits are quite hard to pull off!).

@HangingOver what does he smell like? All warm and furry? Is his tummy all warm and soft and smooth or is there a bit of silky fur there?
What about the bottom of his ears? Silky soft too?

Seriously - thank you both for being such good doggy parents! It's so sad to think of the other families giving up on him. And he's so cute! Those little feet!

So adorable and yay for getting out the room for a bit!

And yes you always remember they are dogs and treat them like dogs but in many ways they resemble kids 🤣

He doesn't smell at all really. We both noticed that the first time we met him, if you stroke him and smell your hand there's no smell. His fur smells sort of like dry sand or earth. He loves his face being stroked and his ears are SO silky and soft.