He is cutest, largest 6 month old puppy I have seen in a long time... But really really loveable, although scared. I found him at the local SPCA, Society for the Prevention of Cruelty of Animals, so with the good deed comes all the hard work and responsibility of rehabilitating a damaged dog. With my research on dogs with difficult pasts the biggest issue is gaining their trust and patients, lots and lots of patients.
When we, Carel and I, went to the SPCA to eventually collect our beautiful "black terrier" he just had his first injections and was also sterilized, so on the day he met us, he was in a great deal of pain. We believe he is a cross-breed between an irish wolfhound and a black retriever or collie? SPCA could not give us that details.
The car ride to our house was extremely peaceful and he was cautious but very excited when we stopped at our home... He was extremely scared of us if we picked up our hand or our arms and almost laid on the gound or rolled onto his stomach, obviously scared that we will hit on his head (shame), so that was our first step to building trust.
He later came accustomed to me picking up my hand to pat him on his head, but was still very scared of my boyfriend, Carel. This made me wonder if he wasn't hit by a man when he was a small puppy?
We decided that for the first day we would just give him a lot of love and say his name alot to get accustomed to be called upon a name.
The biggest thing I have learnt is that dogs are wonderfully complex creatures and Rome was not built in a day, everything should be handled with patients and great consideration.
Now, you should know that our other dog in the house (owned by another owner) was not there. So, when I felt he was settled in as well as he can be I left for the shops to buy him some doggie accessories. He got the bowl, leach, collar (all green) pedigree, doggie treats, some toys and a huge bed.
It atleast seemed as if he would like to play, but just isn't sure if he is allowed to. Like for example he would go for the ball and then stop until I encourage him to go for it. But at the end of the day everyone was happy and I believe he slept soundly.
I don't know if this was a good idea, but I decided to sleep in the living room with him for the night, which he seemed to enjoy very much, he even trusted me so much to put both of his huge paws on my lap, without me asking him to do it or initiating it.
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