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Location: Surrey
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 4,313
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Week 1 foster report
Blake has now been with us for one week. Through our experiences, his previous foster reports and his formal assessment, the following can be said about him:
- Whilst settling into his new home, Blake can be seen as timid and unsure. He is initially nervous and requires time to both familiarise himself with his new home and owners and to understand the rules of his new ‘pack’.
- Once settled, he is an unbelievably affectionate dog. He enjoys cuddles and grooming and will sit with you for hours on end. He has shown no reaction to his ears or paws being played with or to checking his teeth.
- Blake is an incredibly intelligent dog. He is very food orientated; has grasped training principles quickly and is very receptive to verbal correction. He is learning basic commands and already knows the areas of the house that he is not allowed into without invitation. To increase his mental stimulation, we have also begun clicker training and he is proving to be very responsive to this.
- Blake has begun some agility work and seems to really enjoy this.
- He lives very well with other low energy dogs. Anxiety or high energy from other dogs seems to unnerve him and he has ‘grumbled’ at them on occasion. He has lived with a number of dogs successfully over the last six months and is currently in foster with a male golden retriever and a cocker spaniel bitch.
- Blake is currently being walked on a gentle leader. Using this, he walks well to heel. He has no issues with the other dogs in his pack whilst walking on lead.
When passing another dog on lead, he becomes fixated on them until the moment that he becomes level with them. At this point Blake makes low grumbling noises, whilst rearing, lunging, twisting and throwing himself around. Once the dog has passed, Blake calms down.
We have been advised that this is likely to be a ‘fear aggression’ response and could be corrected by continued and frequent exposure to this situation providing the proper correction is applied and the situation handled correctly. This week we are going ‘dog stalking’ with our trainer to judge Blake’s response to an experienced, male handler giving him the support he needs whilst walking on lead.
For the first five days, Blake was not muzzled when he was walked. However, he has started to put on the weight that he lost in kennels and is becoming stronger. For this reason, and for other dog owners peace of mind, we began to walk Blake muzzled from Friday. Interestingly, he has started reacting to traffic. We think this is because, on the lead, he is unable to flee a situation he feels threatened by but the muzzle now also hinders any defence mechanism that he has.
Conclusion after week 1
There is no doubt that Blake is an absolute angel when indoors. Affectionate, intelligent and loyal, he is a wonderful companion but we believe that Blake will definitely need a dog experienced owner who has the physical strength to deal with his current behavioural issues and offer him the continued rehabilitation that he requires.
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