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Max as you are probablt aware has learnt to swim. He loves clambering in… no jumping in as yet and swimming for his stick or even more importatnly his ball.

Well, Jayne, Moose, Max & I ventured out for a walk and after doing a walk through our little park, then through past one of the pubs (no stopping for a drink this time), we headed up one of the many paths in Bursledon to the salt marshes. This is a big area of smelly mud that floods at high tide floods to some degree or other.

We went down there at high tide and after a gentle stroll across to the sea edge we started to throw sticks in to the water. Both the boys had a go at getting the sticks, then they both realised they could mug the other 1 for the stick and gain that stick… saving a swim…. very cute to watch.

Max continued to go for the sticks and Moose over saw this and saved his energy. Max soon got wise and took verious routes up on to the bank and ensured the stick was dropped at our feet to be thrown again. After a while of doing this we headed back along the dry bit of the marshes and up the path.

At this point Max & Moose were doing their locomotive train special hurtling around the path and surrounding marshes and down to the dirtiest smelliest water. A few times the boys hurtled back up to the path and we stood aside to watch them dash past.

Then….
Max chasing Moose they hurtled down towards the smelliest water, I stupidly commented “I hope they don’t fall in!” Guess what, next splosh and Max stops to panic as his mate disappears over thedge in to the smelly green water. Moose rose from the stench and came hurtling back with Max to continue his game, with a quick stop to show Mum how wet he was and to let us have 1st wiff of the his new perfume.

We carried on up the path and Max and Moose trotted on ahead, venturing off to smell and to try out new paths…. we came to the end of the path and the 2 dogs stood to have their leads put on. The smell from Mo was quite strong and pungent, Max had a more salty taint to his smell.

We walked back up the path and Marcus met us at the end of the road we use to get to the marshes. He saw how wet Max was and stepped out the way of a Max hug ( 2 paws plonked on his torso and a lick). Then saw Moose and we told him about the adventure. He said he knew we would be at the marshes and was sure Mo liked his new after shave… lol Moose did not look so sure.

We wandered home, the boys walking next to each other where ever possible and enjoyed a natter and a laugh about the gentle aroma of salt and marshes. Moose tail and bum waggling. Max’s tail going and enjoying the company.

Max now loves water, Moose is one of Max’s best mates. If Max goes up to the park he looks for Moose and if he sees Mo the other side of the park he hurtles off to see his mate and they meet in the middle of the park tails wagging.

By the time we got home Max was pretty dry, we wiped off his paws and dried his tail. I think Moose was going to be sponged down to remove some of the smell.

A good walk was had by all, maybe next time we will try to keep the boys on the path when the tide is high on the marshes.

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Hi All,

With all the great work that all the rescues do there are 2 things that you may be able to help with, as with so many dogs around the country there are some dogs through no fault of their own join a club known as the No Hopers Club. This is the dogs that due to breed, need for training or even colour are left at the rescues while other dogs pass through in a few weeks. So, how about this… have a look at www.manytears.co.uk and see if you can find a space in your home & heart for 1 of their little gems that are in the NHC. I admit to 1 favourite… Crackers. He is a large staff who needs a dog savvy home, but would be such a faithful friend and companion that you would never know till you meet him.

The second more some would say easy thing is for anyone interested in winning a prize to join in the Many Tears Raffle. Tickets are £1 ago and there is a brillliant list of prizes all on the Upcoming Events Section of www.manytears.co.uk… including hotel stays, a potrait of your pet and lots more… all kindly donated to pay towards the new employee to assist Sylvia and her volunteers.

Anyway have a great weekend and when you are out on your walk, maybe to the pub or round the area you live in…. imagine having a dog running alongside or investigating the countryside with you. It is the best and ou find out all sorts about the area you live in.

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Last August we picked up a very scared boney bundle of black and white fur that at the time was called Windsor by the rescue. We had no idea of his background, just that the pound had passed him to Many Tears as unclaimed. We believe he was picked up on the Welsh hill near Carmathan as a stray, probably dumped by a farmer who had too many puppies or who felt he was not right for his requirements of a sheep dog.

Max although being lanky and very tall is a border collie, there are 2 broad types of border collies those that you see at Crufts - the ‘pretty’ dogs. Who are fluffy, short and cute to look at. Then there is the working border collies who are taller, broader and not as pretty. Max is also short haired so he looks even more lanky than other working type border collies who have long hair.

Anyway, Max arrived sat in the corner of the garden petrified of all kinds of things and then met his 2nd doggie friend… Lennox. Lennox who is a staffy / whippet arrived with Marcus’s parents and bounded up to Max to say hello and kept encouraging him to play but Max had no idea how to. Soon Max got over his first night nerves and began to enjoy his visits to see Lennox, learning to pea on 3 legs by watching his cousin, learning to chase a ball and retrieve it from him and also learning that playing with toys generally was great fun.

Last night we went up to the field near us and Marcus went for a run. Max chased his ball as I threw it and as we moved across the field a gorgeous pointer appeared from the bushes near the edge of the field and came bounding over to Max. Max did his normal, dropping his ball and jogging over to meet her. Noosa was barking and wanting to join in, so I threw the ball and Max ran after it… then realised Noosa was faster than him and put on a spurt of speed.

Noosa’s Mum Pam came over and was laughing at Noosa chasing Max and Max chasing at the ball. (We introduced ourselves and our dogs). Max and Noosa continued to run after the ball and a few times Noosa picked the ball up and dropped in near her Mum.

You see, Noosa is a rescue dog. Pam got her a few days before Christmas from the Pointer Rescue. She is still learning what being a dog is all about and in the last few weeks has begun to pick up the toys that other dogs are playing with and as Max played with his ball she started to learn to pick up the ball.

Noosa’s old owner said that she was a wimp, that she was not right and as Pam gets to know her Noosa is coming out of herself.

Basically all dogs have to learn all things, if their Mum is not there or their owners do not encourage behaviours a rescue dog will need time and paitience to learn things. Noosa is gorgeous and is totally adorable. She barks in new situations, but Pam is working on this and her barks became less as we all ignored them and she came to realise Max was not scary.

The funny end to the story was that Pam and Marcus knew each other from where Marcus still works. She retired and now works part time locally for another company….. small world.

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Max is a collie and as such he is very quick and a bit too intelligent for his own good. LOL

He is known by the neighbours as a previous regular visitor. Jumping through 1 side just after we leave to raid their garden and say hello to Elaine, then back over to our other neighbours to eat the bread left out for the birds and say hello to anyone in the house by popping up to the patio doors and having a quick look in. ;D

He is now confined to his own garden by our new 6 ft close board fence and is quite content to open all the doors in the house, then snooze with the cat on our bed. They now have their own duvet with an old cover on it that we put on the bed when we go out.

As one of the trainers pointed out on Dog’s Borstal collies are very intelligent and when you live with one you see how intelligent and quick they are.

Great dogs to have, with such a responsive gentle nature and a dog that as far as I have found is always thinking about something.

Collies are not dogs that need hours of walking and acres of space. All they need is to be walked twice a day… we try to do 30 mins in the morning and an hour in the evening and longer at weekends. They need a secure garden, a place to snooze and lots of input in the form of training. I would also recommend investment in some boredom toys for any dogs left for a few hours at a time. Fill the toy with dry kibble (their breakfast or tea) and leave them to work out how to get it out of the bone, cube, ball or molecule.

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Before I got a dog I thought that a dog was like a duck… they found water jumped in and swam. This is not the case. Many dogs are scared of water, most dogs need to be carefully introduced to the experience of swimming or even paddling.

Max was one of the dogs that for him swimming and paddling took a lot of thought and forsaking all our gentle attempts he would only waide in to kneck deep to retrieve his ball.

I must say thank you to friends’ dogs and one lady in particular we met at Queen Victoria Country Park (Netley). Her 2 dogs saved us loosing yet another ball to the will of the tide… thank you

Anyway, on with the story.

We went out with Tina, Nigel and Levi (the dog) for a walk and headed down to a lovely stretch of river where Levi proceeding to head straight in to the water with Max running along the river bank… wanting to go in but not knowing how to take the first steps.

After kajolling from all of us and a gentle encouraging push or 2 as well. Max did not want to go out of his depth. Levi was doing an admirable job collecting the sticks before they headed down stream and crunching them, bringing some back to be rethrown.

Eventually after a few tentative gos at getting in the water the boys decided that they would try getting in the water and waiding with the dogs. So, Nigel & Marcus entered the water with Levi ad after a bit of a think Max joined them.

Max went after sticks and ran through the water, he even swam a little.

Now, this does not sound a lot, but to dog owners who live on the South coast a dog scared of water and who you are not sure can swim is a niggling concern. We are concerned no more.

Thanks to Tina, Nigel & Levi we now have a dog getting more an more happy to dive in and out of the water. This means we can walk by water without worry and also that we can have fun throwing balls and sticks in to the water for Max to chase and hopefully retrieve.

So in a year Max is now happy to walk on a lead, go in cars, sleep on a bed (preferrably ours), be left for a few hours on his own and enter water to chase sticks.

Yippee!!

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Just over a year after adopting Connie, my older brother took a job at the Dogs Trust in Evesham, and soon afterwards I got a weekend job as a canine carer at the same centre. A few months before I started there we decided to start looking for a third dog. It was going to be hard to find a dog that Connie would live with, but we found one called Harvey at work - another male black Lab, who seemed a likely candidate as Connie has always liked Labs (because of Wilbur) and she is usually happier with male dogs. Unfortunately it didn’t work out as he was very boisterous and Connie was more scared of him than anything, and just didn’t seem comfortable with him around.

Walking round the centre afterwards we came across a dog called Ria. She was sitting in her kennel, not barking or drawing attention to herself, just looking at us. She had saddest looking face you could imagine. The kennel board said she was a Rhodesian Ridgeback cross, that she couldn’t live with dogs or children, and that people tended to pass her by as they thought she was ugly. I remembered seeing her picture on the Dogs Trust website a few years earlier, and I remember thinking to myself thatshe was the kind of dog I’d like to own - she was defiantely unique, and you wouldn’t forget that face easily. We gave her some treats and a fuss, but knew we didn’t have a suitable home for her what with having 2 other dogs and 2 children in the family!

My brother asked about her later and we were pleased to find out that her carer did think she’s be fine with kids and dogs - it was just that in her only previous home she had quickly been brought back and they claimed she had bitten them. She was such a gentle dog however that the staff didn’t beleive this was the whole story. So we did a dog mix, and to our amazement Connie took to her straight away - they ignored each other most of the time but even had a little run together. Wilbur tried to mount her and got snapped at (understandably) but he didn’t try it again. So after going through the usual procedure we brought Ria home.

She’d been picked up as a stray in Ireland before being sent over here where she stayed in kennels for almost 4 years with little interest in her - considering we were her first real home she fitted right in. We had a few scuffles between the girls but Connie soon realised that Ria is bigger and older than she is and was happy to take a lower position than her. Looking at Ria it’s easy to see that she’s got a lot of Staffie in her as well as the Ridgeback and probably some Greyhound aswell. She must have had pups at some point as her nipples are stretched and she’s just very motherly - she’s made a little nest under the trees where she hides her toys, and she always licks the other two dry after walks! She’s so keen to stay with us that she never strays out of sight on walks, and wouldn’t dream of running away. She was quite reserved when we brought her home but now she’s very affectionate and a lovely girl who’s really come out of her shell. It’s funny that having been overlooked all those years in kennels, now when we’re out and about she gets loads of comments - people saying how lovely she is and asking about her breed. Since she has a sob story as well she always gets lots of sympathy from her admirers. She’s gentle, great with the children, good with other dogs and will do anything for food - a typical Lurcher. Once she’s had her run in the morning she’ll laze around until we take her out before bed. The picture opposite is from her first holiday when we went camping in Wales - she’d obviously never seen a beach before as the sand made her go crazy! That’s another nice thing about rescuing a dog - seeing them enjoy all the things they’ve missed out on. Seems like we’ve always had her.

The moral of the story? Go for the ugly ones that nobody else wants - they’ll pay you back a thousand times more.

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Since it was Connie’s 4th birthday on Easter Sunday, I’ll tell you about her first. Connie is a female crossbreed, who I’ve decided is probably Border Collie and Golden Retriever, but then a lot of people tend to ask if she’s a Nova Scotia Duck Toller. I have to agree that she looks very similar to a Toller, but you’d expect her to be crossed with something more common, wouldn’t you? Still, that’s part of the fun of getting a rescue - you never quite know what could be in their ancestry.
We were asked by a friend if we’d like to take her on as her owners couldn’t handle her anymore, and they knew we were looking for a friend for Wilbur, our black Labrador who was 5yrs at the time, and we said yes. Her first owners had adopted her as a cute little puppy, but as she grew older they discovered that she clashed with their holiday plans. She’d clearly never been properly groomed, as her long coat was severely matted and she hated having a brush used on her. She didn’t like men or children due to lack of early socialisation; according the the owner they had socialised her with kids by tying her up outside the school gates, and were surprised to return and find her being teased by children. She was also quite handshy - her first owners hadn’t deliberatley tried to mistreat her but they had obviously been misinformed and thought that Connie needed to be “shown who’s boss” by being smack on the nose whenever she greeted the children! She’d been passed around from temporary home to temporary home when her owners wanted to go away for the weekends, and didn’t really seem to have much confidence at all.

Though she got on perfectly with Wilbur and they were fast friends within a few days, and we never had a disagreement between them, we quickly found that Connie was dog agressive; not all the time, but when meeting dogs she would either love them or take a sudden dislike and attack them. Though she never caused any serious injuries we decided it was our responsibility to ourselves and other owners to muzzle her in public. There were times during the first few months when we wondered if we’d made a mistake in taking her on, but when I looked at how happy she clearly was with us and Wilbur I realised how much I already loved her. The thing with a rescue dog is that they aren’t always used to such a good life, and you can tell by the way Connie loves our attention that she has bonded very strongly with the whole family. Our first priority once she’d settled in was to give her a much needed bath and haircut. Then I started socialising her with dogs and people, taking her to agility classes (which she is a natural at) and trying to work on her problems. Every little improvement was incredibly rewarding, and the agility was a great confidence builder for her - I’d recommend it to any rescue dog owner, as it also strenghtens the bond between you. You don’t need a Collie to take part either, and there’s no need to go in for competitions if you don’t feel like it. After about a year she’d improved so much around people. Within the first few months of having her she’d tried to nip two men - now adults and children alike can come up and stroke her without me worrying about what she’ll do. The dog agression is still there, and it seems to be more a question of managing it now, but having properly introduced her to the muzzle she has no problem wearing it and can go offlead and play with other dogs like any other pet.
All in all, she’s a pretty happy pooch, and though she can be trying sometimes, I wouldn’t swap her for the world. The day we knew she truly was pleased to be with us was when her old owners came to visit her. As they were leaving, one of them held the garden gate open and called Connie’s name, trying to prove a point by getting her to attempt to follow them into their car. Connie promptly ran full speed into our house and hid under the dining room table! Our next rescue dog would come a year or so later, but I’ll write another post for her.

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