For a while there, talk of getting another dog was simply put on hold. But after Fred was found on our neighbour's property, exploring his boundaries we decided that it was time Freddie had a new companion to keep him company and hopefully keep him on the straight and narrow.
We live in a farming community, and it's been lambing season for the last few months. If Freddie had been seen by any of these farmers he would've been shot on sight. Not exactly pleasant for me.
Having had such a bad experience with our last companion dog I was very wary of what kind of dog we would pick for Fred. Having had Fred to ourselves for the last year it's been a wonderful opportunity to get to know him better. I certainly think he's bonded a lot closer to us.
I've been searching on foster care sites, dog rescue forums as well as subscribing to pounds so that I could be notified if new dogs came in.
My requirements were:
* A wolfhound type dog. Once a wolfhound owner, always a wolfhound owner. I have yet to meet any other dog which can beat the wolfhound temperment.
* Submissive - don't want any more aggression aka Rosie
* A girl. Better for Fred than a dominant male.
* People orientated. Rosie never cared for us much and she was more of a cat than a dog. She chose when she wanted a cuddle and was never really interested in us giving her that much attention. She was more focused on Fred and getting him to chase her around the yard. Of course one of the worst things was, she was constantly in 'game' mode. So if you took her for a walk off lead, inevitably she would run off, and when you called her, she'd come a little close and then run off again, as if daring you to chase her. And 9 times out of 10 you couldn't get her back on lead. Talk about frustrating.
* Non food aggressive. Another Rosie trait that I disliked very much. If you fed her and then came near her while she was eating she would growl at you. Whereas you can take food out of Fred's mouth. In fact, if you feed him and then stand next to him - he won't eat. He looks at you as if to say, 'do you want some? coz if you want some, you can have it. I can wait!'
* Long haired. Our winters here are very cold, and since the puppies will spend the majority of the day outside they need to be protected from the weather. Making a short haired puppy not really suited to the climate here.
* Fairly young. Hubby felt that part of the reason that Rosie was so untrainable was because she was already 2 when we got her, and must've had quite a spoilt life before she came to us. As a result she didn't seem to believe that anyone else was top dog except her. Hubby wanted our next dog to be younger so that they could better integrate into our family and essentially be easier to train. Ideally for him would've been a puppy - which I wasn't 100% keen about. 3 meals a day, toilet training, teething, etc. Talk about a full time job!
There have been a number of wolfhound crosses available through the pounds and rescue groups lately, but most of them have either not caught my eye mainly because they haven't met my requirements or were simply too far away/not convenient for us to go and look at.
Finally last Thursday I got an email from Queanbeyan Pound (I was on their mailing list) and they had in an Irish Wolfhound x Staghound. It sounded promising and was local, so I rang them up for more information. I was directed to their website where I saw a picture of a greyish looking girl who looked quite big. She had the shaggy hair of a wolfie and seemed quite nice. It helped that the description described her as a lovely social girl. It all sounded promising.
Here is her pic from the pound website:
Doesn't she look sweet?
I teed up with Hubby to see her on Friday morning (the Queanbeyan pound has such weird opening hours), and off we went.
I must admit I was slightly dubious when I met her. She was smaller than she looked in the photo. She'd also only just been let our of her pen (we were there at opening time) and as a result she was quite jumpy/scattered. Having said that, when I came in, the first thing she did was jump up at me, and licked me on the nose. Then she proceeded to run around the pen sniffing. Reminded of Rosie's tendancy to be jumpy and scattered/not interested in her humans, made me a little wary.
The ranger had warned us to give her a bit of patience, since she was in a pound environment and locked up overnight meant that she was just starting to ease into the day. But even with that caution, it's hard to not make judgements. We spent about 15mins with her (we had to go to work aftewards) and I left still not 100% sure. I was worried since she was so jumpy that she might try to scale our dog pen fence. And I wasn't sure she was going to be affectionate enough.
Having said all that, I did make a booking for the next day, so that we could bring Fred along to see how she would go with him. I guess I was trying very hard not to be judgemental, and I knew due to past experience that girl wolfies don't come around often through pounds. They're just not as popular a dog as your staffy, cattle x or mastiffs. So I was keen to give her a proper chance despite my initial concerns. It didn't help that she hadn't had a bath and stunk to high heaven. It's hard to give a dog a cuddle and see if she reacts well when she stinks so bad!
The other concern I had was that she had simply been left in the outside pens. She wasn't microchipped or desexed and hadn't been surrendered. It made me wonder what her past was like.
While the listing on the pound site had said she was 1 1/2, the ranger said the Vet had been by the day before and had judged her probably closer to 1 than 1 1/2. Which was a bit more reassuring.
I slept on it and still wasn't 100% sure. I decided it would probably depend on a second viewing. The more I thought about her, the more I thought, gee, she sure is small - would she fit in with us? Since having Fred I've taken to liking big solid dogs. I'm fairly rough with Fred and it never matters. As a result I always forget when I'm around little dogs that I have to be gentle. This girl looked so thin and frail and practically danced on her feet in that pen. I worried that I'd have to change my perspective while owning her. I wanted big solid dogs, not delicate ones that I had to watch out for in case I stepped on them!
She also had more of a greyhound build/face than a wolfie. And to be honest, being picky the second time around I was more interested in wolfie looking dogs than the santa's little helper types.
I'd asked hubby how he felt and he was fairly indifferent. Said she was a nice girl but that it was up to me. I'd said I wasn't sure, and he said to me, 'look if you don't want her, don't get her'. Which meant the decision was totally mine to make. Talk about pressure! It's a big deal to know that you are responsible for whether or not a dog gets to get out of the pound.
Anyhow, the next day came and we went out to see her, Fred in tow. It was strange seeing her the second time. Next to Fred she was in fact not as small as I'd remembered. In fact she was probably only about a hand smaller than Fred. That was very reassuring as it meant that while they were playing Freddie couldn't hurt her or accidently squash her flat.
Interestingly, when we let Fred into the pen, he was more interested in marking out the pen as his own, peeing everywhere, than he was interested in her. She tried a few times to engage with him, doing the bowing/bouncing moves that dogs do when they are trying to play and getting the other dog to chase them. Usually Fred does that with other dogs and they ignore him. Similarly this time he ignored her and continued his rounds, sniffing and peeing everywhere. I felt bad for her and got down to her level to see if she was interested in us.
I'd done quite a bit of reading on greyhounds the day before and a bit on temperment testing, so decided to see how she would react to things like me wrapping my arms around her for a hug, lying her down on the floor and rolling her over. Each time she was submissive - which was a good sign.
After I spent a few minutes with her, Freddie came up to inspect, and started to get interested. Looking at the two of them (she also has a brindle coat) it was like watching a family/pair of dogs. It was a pleasant sight to see and they definately looked like they were getting along. I think that, combined with the pound's report on her temperment (they'd done a test before we came) that was what sealed the deal. Knowing that she was big enough to handle Fred and that Fred seemed to quite like her just made it easy. And she definately seemed interested in us.
We had a chat with the ranger who told us that she had passed her temperment test with flying colours. No aggression with any dogs. Knew how to 'sit' and 'shake hands' and that she was one of the nicest dogs they'd ever had in the pound.
It was interesting comparing the two dogs side by side. Freddie's brindle coat gleamed in the sunshine. He's a big strapping boy. In comparison, she was bony (you could feel her ribs and chest bone), her fur was all matted and grey, even if her head was brindle, and just looked.. washed out. She had little short patches on her legs and her fur just looked scraggly. It looked like she'd definately been through the mill. Scrawny would probably sum her up to a T. It definately made me feel good knowing that we'd been responsible for getting Freddie to look so healthy and loved. He just looked so.. prosperous in comparison to her.
We sorted out the arrangements and settled on picking the girl from the Vet's on Monday for desexing.
Considering my initial concerns and worries, it's interesting to see how quickly I flipped from 'not sure if i want this one' to 'let's get her!' I think Freddie's interaction with her was the deciding point. Being able to see her size in comparison to his was a big factor for me, and knowing that she seemed quite sweet and people attentive was also very important for me.
So now it's down to waiting for Monday to pick her up from the Vet! Wish us luck!
No comments:
Post a Comment