Labrador Rescue

Here is an email I receved to day from Bob & Myra who recently adopted Mollie from us( hope you dont mind Bob did try to email you but email addy kept returning back to me.) :) anyway here is the email,please please remember some dogs need to settle in, you are not alone if you have recently adopted, they do settle in time...


Kathryn,

First of all apologies for not keeping you informed of Mollie's progress, so here we go.
She was good in the car but finished up on the back seat with her head on Matthew's knees. She was partly house trained but after a while with little progress I realised that she had a problem with cystitis, the vet put her on tablets and she is fine now. She also had a problem with her ears, she was always scratching at them, at first we tried an ear cleaning regime twice a day, which helped but didn't really cure the problem, but a course of antibiotic eardrops has solved it.
The day after we got her home I took her for a walk along a local bridleway which is well fenced, let her off the lead and she came back to me when I called, so she has plenty of free running exercise.
She managed to destroy two pairs of my shoes and a pair of Myra's, plus her bed, and the bottom of the staircase carpet, had a chew at the newel post as well. Terrified the cats, sadly we lost one of the cats two weeks ago and Molly and the remaining cat are coming to terms.
She is calming down a lot, loves people and doesn't try to eat them now, and gets on well with other dogs, loves chasing and being chased and she is very fast.
She has become a very strong swimmer, there is a lake, across the peat bogs we can walk to from home and she loves to swim after sticks, we also walk through Styal woods along the Bollin valley and she and the two grandsons usually end up in the river. The other place she loves is Alderley Edge, running through the Beech woods, I throw the stick down the slopes and off she goes sliding through the dead leaves, but then she comes back up the hill as fast as she went down, she is a very powerful animal.
Last week she helped herself to half a dozen eggs from the kitchen worktop, carried the box into the dining room and destroyed the box, eat two of the eggs, shells and all, but I found the other four intact under various pieces of furniture! She also destroyed a large orchid we had on a low windowsill in the kitchen, but we can forgive her, she is still young.
We often wonder what happened to her brother, but I'm sure you found a home for him, he was a fine looking dog.
That is the news up to date, we think she knows now that she is home for good and is enjoying life.

regards Myra & Bob.

Many thanks to Bob & Myra for "hanging on in there"..!!

:D Ah - How I was :D to myself reading this email. Sounds like she has settled in like a typical Lab. They are funny, they do push their luck to. Sounds like she has the perfect home with Bob and Myra.

Another happy doggie :blob5:

Nicky x

Keep at it...things will only get better...i talk form experience. Much love xx

sounds exactly how Henry reacted when we brought him home :D

Thanks for posting that Kathryn I get so disenchanted at times its so nice to read that people are prepared to stay the course with their adopted dogs.

Why do people adopt froma rescue and expect perfection instantly ? when we take dogs in we try to give people an accurate resume on the dogs but of course we are at the mercy of whoever brought the dogs in the first place to give us a proper history.
We prrovide an adoption form which clearly says that we can only pass on information in good faith.

Some weeks ago I had someone who hadnt ecen had the dog 24 hours when they were giving up luckily I insisted they gave him a bit longer now they wouldnt part with him for the world but can people please not ask for a dog if they are not prepared for a settling in period.

Thanks again for the isnpriring post above Myrs and BOB

Well done Myra & bob, just shows how giving the dog a chance makes all the difference, just think how we feel ourselves when we move home, they reckon its one of the biggest upheavals in life so just imagine how it is for a dog, strange house strange people no wonder they are anxious, it took about a month for my paddy to start settling, the first week i was beginning to wonder had i done the right thing, but now when i see how perfectly he has fitted into our family i know i did, so stick at it it worth it in the end, jan xx

A lovely story Myra and Bob. Kathryn is so right in asking for dogs to be given time to settle in. We had a different situation with Fudge when he came to us 4 years ago. He never misbehaved and to other people seemed the perfect dog, but he was unable to respond to the love we showed him. He never seemed to be having fun and never wanted a cuddle - that was quite worrying as we wondered if we were doing things wrong. It took 6 months for him to come for a hug of his own accord and from then on we never looked back. We share the sofa every night - he has two seats and I have one and he regularly climbs onto Roger's knee. Rescue dogs come with a variety of behaviours.

Marie and Fudge