Rhianna, Cross x Staffie, 5 years old

Rhianna, Cross x Staffie, 5 years old



Her Story: Found stray Jan 09, Kent. Homed for 4 months via the pound returned having not been walked for 3 months … haven't had time!

Salient points: Rhianna is a lively older cross breed dog ... old fashioned Heinz 57. Lovely smiley temperament. Over weight currently and beginning to shape up. Walks keenly, learning to meet dogs well.

Advert: Rhianna is a Heinz 57 bitza. Bitza this and Bitza that! She probably has Staffie blended in there giving her the willing smile and people focus. Rhianna has found herself in controversy this year: Found stray, homed straight from the pound to people who talked the talk and just didn't walk the walk. In fact on enquiry when they handed her to us they were unable to tell us how she got on on walks as she had just been around their house and garden … not walked. Oh Rhianna, we are going to get it so right for you! She is spayed, vax'd and chipped. Came in overfed probably on poor quality dog food or human titbits. Now having good a quality diet and she is beginning to shape up as much as a kennelled existance allows.

Rhianna's beauty shines through. Her willing smile, enthusaism and companionship ... out on her walks there she is steaming ahead enjoying it as though its Christmas Day come early. Tried to let her energy settle through a long walk, but to be honest she was as keen coming back as setting forth! Her spirit wins through and she will be loved for herself. She should be the most popular dog on our books that old fashion cross breed, as tough as old boots, grateful for everything, involved in the heart of the families activities. She probably is going to be an only pet, in our currently situation she is learning to be settled with dogs everywhere, and beginning to meet them and walk with them nicely. We are taking her nice and slowly; she is forging ahead full speed!
"Please note that this dog is currently in kennels and is also available for foster until a 'forever' home is found".

I hadn't met Rhianna before so was quite surprised as I expected her to be a larger dog. She is chunky, but not as big as I expected as you will see from the photos with Cathy (my friend). Very sweet natured with beautiful eyes that just tug at the heart strings. We enjoyed out walk together and she is quite calm in nature so very much easier to photograph Sometimes she looks so sad Here is Rhianna our pretty girl ... so photogenic that I couldn't decide which photos I liked best ... sorry

Can't get enough of this girl, she really is very pretty! A few more photos courtesy of Cathy ...

Rhianna had a weekend break out of kennels with one of our volunteers - here is her update:

"I picked Rhianna up on Saturday to take her home for the weekend.

She is a real sweety, a really easy dog to have around. The first thing I did as she pulls a little bit on the collar is buy her a halti, which she accepted first time and then walked nicely with no pulling at all.
We met my friend in the park and went for a nice long walk. She was so well behaved. She will let dogs have a small sniff of her before seeing them off, she seems nervous rather than aggressive. She is happy to walk past them and doesn't pay much attention. We wandered around North London's many parks for most of the day stopping for tea and bowls of water. She is totally relaxed with cars, buses, kids running about, skateboards, bikes, deer behind fences, everything really.

There are two little issues. She is football obsessed. If she even hears someone kick a football and she cant get to them she throws a tantrum. Its not a bad tantrum, its just a throw your toys out of the pram tantrum on the floor. With the halti its fine and it got better over the weekend (lots of football playing in the park in the sunshine) but people do look at you a bit strangely. Its not even the movement of the football as later we were walking down the street and a man had a football in a carrier bag as he had just bought it and she tried to pinch that one too. How she spotted it I have no idea. When we got home in the garden she found a football and was happy to play with it with us, she doesnt get possessive over the footballs, in fact my friend and I had a great game of football with her. When we got bored she just lay down holding it in her mouth until it went pop.

The other thing is she will not go to the loo on a walk. We tried letting her sniff behind trees in privacy but nothing worked. She is house trained but you have to let her in the garden when you get back from walks. Apparently its because she is unlikely to have walked when she was a young so she doesnt know that's what she is supposed to do.

She is also a floosey with the boys. She was very friendly with myself and my friend, but if a man talked to her she was wiggling and throwing herself on her back to have her tummy tickled - shameless. When my brother visited she was all over him. She adores men.

She was fab in the house, she is sweet natured and cuddly. She is great in the car, she is easy on walks bar the footballs. She is just a really great little dog".

RHIANNA IS STILL LOOKING FOR HER FOREVER HOME!

She sounds fab, i hope she finds the kind of home she deserves soon!

A couple of our volunteers just gave Rhianna a break from kennel life and took them on holiday to the Highlands with them! Here is their feedback on the week:

"We are back after having a really lovely week in the Highlands with Rhianna - want to go back!

She was so well behaved, especially considering her limited experiences, you would never have guessed.

Firstly she travels really well in the car. Its a long drive and even though we stopped for regular short walks it was a big test for her. She passed with flying colours.

In the Highlands we walked and walked and walked. She loved it, especially when we got to areas where there were no sheep and other dog walkers and she could just run about off the extender lead. I wish my camera had a faster shutter speed so I could have got some pictures of her boinging through the heather. It was like she had springs on her feet. Her recall is a bit dodgy but she never lets you out of her sight. If we wanted her to come back we simply walked away and there she was suddenly by your side.

I will up load the pics that I have got of her later today as we are just going to go via Richmond Park on our way back to kennels.

As Lynne said she has also learnt to pee and poo on walks! Yeah! That made life a lot easier.

She really looks fantastic. Her pictures don’t make her look like the prettiest of dogs but in the fur she is a real sweetie with such an expressive face. She has also lost a bit of weight, her collar is too big!! She also has a bit of a waist - holiday didn’t have the same effect on me sadly. She so loves life and people and would be a really easy pet as long as she could continue with her lovely long walks.

Hmmm.. what is bad about her? Nothing really. She isnt great with other dogs. She doesnt go after them but she also doesnt want to have anything to do with them. She is happy to walk past dogs but if they come too close she will growl at them. In the Highlands it was easy as there are surprisingly few dogs (apart from working collies). I live in a high population Staffie area and I still don’t find it a problem here. She isn’t fussed as long as they dont invade her space.

She will also chase cats and rabbits (or try) on walks. However, she isn’t interested in my ferrets when they are in their cage. I think its probably because they don’t try and run away, they move forward and that throws her a bit. I wouldn’t put her in with cats or small furries. However, it might just be a walk thing she probably needs properly testing.

We had such a good time with this adorable dog. My husband is totally in love with her as she is with him. She still loves the boys. He loves her so much that he even got up at 8 this morning (on a Sunday!) to take her out to the local park just the two of them. He doesn’t do that, she is very, very charming and this is proof! She has been following him around like a little shadow.

Right we are off on our last walk now - cr: We will miss having her around. She is a really special dog with so much to give. A lovely nature and a smiley face. She really deserves a forever home, and if you could provide a home containing some boys to hang out with she would be very grateful"!

RHIANNA IS STILL LOOKING FOR A FOSTER OR FOREVER HOME!

Here are pictures of Rhianna from her break …

“Ok - I hope these pictures work! Sorry there are so many - there are more” …

aw what a gorgeous dog - she sounds lovely, good luck sweetie hope you get that forever home soon

An update from our kindly kennel walkers who gave Rhianna a break from kennels at the weekend:

“Rhianna came to stay this weekend with us again. What can I say, we missed her!

Lynne met Seb at Richmond station - apparently she was very pleased to see him. Seb and Rhianna got the train back to Highbury. It was a busy train as it was 6pm and apparently she was brilliantly behaved. So that's another thing on her list of things she is good at.

We went to Hampstead Heath twice this weekend and she was great. She is absolutely fine walking past dogs, bikes, skateboarders everything, really well behaved. She wasn’t great with dogs sniffing her, but its a warning to leave her alone. She doesn’t 'go after' dogs at all.

We ended up walking for over two hours. She made a bit of a plonker of herself, we stopped at the pond and she suddenly just launched herself off the side - a big dive so the water went right over her head. What she hadn’t thought about though was how to get back out once she had jumped in as it was a drop down to the water. I had to get down and pull her out by her collar. People laughed at us - thank God she has lost some weight!!

Saturday evening after a nap on the sofa we went up to Clissold Park for a lap as she had been out already quite a lot before having a quick drink in the pub. She has improved so much with footballs. She is still very interested but she will come away if you call her, I think that she has realised that there are more interesting things in life than football! :P
Today the three of us went for another walk in Hampstead Heath, this time three hours! We met a nice lady with a little Staffie boy who does behavioural work with dogs. She and her dog helped us to get her to a point where she allowed the other Staffie to sniff her without growling. It took us about 20 minutes. She was happy to sit beside us while we chatted with the other dog really close to her. She was so good! I will do some more of this with her next weekend. If she can be this good with another dog after only 20 minutes then who knows, maybe she will be able to have doggy walking friends! Her grumpiness with other dogs is a confidence thing - as her confidence grew she visibly relaxed about other dogs being near her.

We put her back in her kennel in Gatwick this evening, with a brand new kong toy to play with. She loves that toy - she even fell asleep with it still in her mouth last night.

This dog is so special and so willing to learn, she will make such a special pet".

Another update from Rhianna's weekend fosterer!

"Sorry, just found this pic of her and she looks so sweet that I cant resist posting it. She knows how to relax after her walks



I wish we could have her permanently - whoever gets to give her a home is a very lucky dog owner. She is so fabulous and she always makes the saddest cry when I put her back in her kennel which is why I have to go back the next weekend to get her again.

She is such a special lady".