Our Fostering Journey

In 2011, when Amber was around 16 months old, we knew we would love another dog some day. However, we weren't ready for the long term commitment another puppy would bring, so when we heard about fostering we decided to look into it some more. Initially, we wanted to do fostering with an animal rescue charity but they were a long distance away and wouldn't accept homes with young children. It was then that we heard about an Autism Assistance Dog charity who we're looking for puppy fosterers and we decided to apply to see if we'd be eligible. 

The puppy coordinator called around to our house, met us and Amber, and said that they were happy to accept us as fosterers! They said they had a black Flat Coat Retriever puppy who they'd be needing to place in a few weeks time and we could take her. We were so excited and couldn't wait. This was 'S' puppy so needed to have a name in that letter, we had a few suggestions, and they picked one of them - Skye.

Skye came to us in March. She was 9 weeks old and a very cute little girl. Over the next year, she came loads of places with us - shops, restaurants, cinemas, children's play parks, pet stores and more. She had a few health issues (ear problems mainly) but luckily these cleared up as she got older. She was full of energy and very clever. She hated her working jacket which was weird, eventually though she was okay with it. Skye was a handful but we felt very privileged to have spent a year with her!

Just before Skye left, my sister got her dog, Holly (Papillon X Cavalier). I also took on another assistance dog puppy, Bramble, who was a Labrador X Newfoundland. She was totally different to Skye, overall more chilled out and mellow. She was rough with Holly though and would freak out in butchers - we worked on that and she improved lots. She left us at eight months, and she had great potential. However, over the next few months everything unraveled and she turned into a nervous dog who would shake with fear whenever you tried to bring her into a busy place. It made me so upset to see what this dog had turned into. The trainers thought she had had 'something in her' which suddenly switched on at as she got older, but I don't agree with that. I think something went wrong with the other fosterer she was with, she had some bad experiences and that caused it. Whatever it was though, it meant she was no longer able to qualify as a fully trained dog and instead is now living as a pet.

We had a break for several months whilst Amber had her litter, one of whom was our Cody. I needed to spend time working with Cody and wouldn't have been able to give a service dog puppy everything they needed.

In March of this year we took on Louis, a Labrador Retriever puppy. He was so easy, took everything in his stride, a truly fab little pupster. I really think they should have considered using him for breeding (health tests pending, of course) but they decided to castrate him. He stayed with us, like Bramble, for six months. Cody and him were best buddies and loved hanging out together. Louis is still young and won't enter formal training until early 2015. I hope he makes it!

We have also had a few puppies for boarding - Abbey a Labradoodle, Rozie a Labrador Retriever X Golden Retriever, Chester a Chocolate Labrador and Orla a Labrador Retriever.

It's hard to cover in one post everything about fostering these dogs, but to sum it up in a few words - it's hard work, but extremely rewarding!

We won't be fostering  in the upcoming future, for a few reasons, but I have another project, involving a puppy in the pipeline, which hopefully will work out! Stay tuned :)

Anna xoxo

Skye with Abbey (with us for boarding)

Skye just before she left..

Bramble

Enjoying the beach, she was a true water baby

Little Louis...can it get any cuter!!

Smiley boys, Cody & Louis

Holly & Wilson's Toileting Problems..

This blog is mainly about my Bernese Mountain Dogs but today I'm going to be talking about my sisters little dogs, Holly the Papillon mix and Wilson the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. Holly is 2 years and Wilson is 18 months.

Over the last few weeks, they have started toileting in the house. We were finding Holly peeing on dog beds and Wilson cocking his leg on random things in the house. They were also both pooping around the house. This for us was very annoying, because we put a lot of effort into housebreaking them as puppies and by this stage they should be reliably clean in the house.

We think they are doing this because they hate going outside in the dark, cold and rain. And fair enough, it's not all that pleasant to be outside in that kinda weather, but they still need to go out to toilet. Our dogs have a dog flap with access to a secure grass pen 24/7. So it's not like were not letting them out enough! Both of them know how to go through the flap and will happily do so.

We decided our 'training plan' was to take them outside on a regular basis (ideally every 1-2 hours) on leash to toilet. Then rewarding them with a treat when they go. They've already learnt a cue for this 'busy busy' which should make the process easier, I hope!

We've started doing it today. Mostly I'm doing it to begin with, then in a week or two when they are getting into the hang of things, my sisters can take over and then we can wean it down until they'll take themselves out.

So yeah, hoping they'll break this annoying habit because we're fed up of cleaning up after them in the house!

Here's a picture of the two pups. I'll update next week about how we're getting on!!

Anna xoxo

Chilling with Simba :)

Dog Training Classes Continued...

Following on from yesterdays post, I thought I'd update on how Cody & Holly got on at dog training last night. When we first arrived, as I predicted, Holly started barking non-stop! So this meant Cody got really excited (he usually does anyway, when he realizes where we are!) and started pulling on the leash. However, within a few minutes he calmed down. We started off doing musical sits - you walk around with the dog on a loose leash, when the music stops your dog sits, the one that takes the longest to sit is out of that round until you only have the winner left. We also did musical downs - Cody won a bag of treats, which he thought smelt very tasty! However, as he's still getting used to his new kibble, he hasn't tried them yet.

After that we moved onto doing routines and each person added a new cue each time until there were so many cues you couldn't remember how it went! For example - we had touch, down, sit, sit, down, touch etc. Cody really enjoyed this one.

Then we did some recalls. The other dogs were stood not that far away, and the dog had to run past the other dogs who were to the side, in order to come back to you. They used a long line in case the dog tried to run off - Cody really doesn't like it for some reason (normally he's fine with it as I have used one with him in the past) but he is very hesitant to run with it attached, it's like he knows he isn't supposed to pull on the leash (the trainer is holding the end of it, you see!) However, he still recalled back to me which was good.

Next was 'stays'. I was really pleased with how Cody did with these. At one point I was 50 yards away from him, and he didn't brake his stay, I was really impressed! I sometimes ran away, sometimes had my back to him, sometimes faced him, sometimes walked zig zag, sometimes straight, so really mixed it up and he did brilliantly every time :)

Holly did good too, she barked but not as much as we had expected! She was awesome at her stays - my sister did a 75 yards away down-stay with her at one point, which considering it was her first class, was fantastic. In the middle of the class the trainer had a pug doing a recall and Holly started barking at it, Cody tried to run over to it but managed to come back to us before he went right up to her. It showed us how much Cody responds to Holly's barking though, he wouldn't have done that had Holly not been there. We're hoping working on Holly will in turn help Cody's behavior at times too.

I also did some loose leash walking where I would change pace, sometimes walk really slowy,  then my normal pace, then jogging, then running and mixing that up. Cody loves that, he thinks it's a great game, and it's good way to keep his focus on me.

Really pleased with how the pupster did. They gave us a Agility tunnel and hoop jump to borrow for the week, so we're going to have some fun working with those in the garden. Cody did the hoop jump at class, but as it was on sand, when he ran through it, it fell over! Luckily these things don't faze him.

Amber & Wilson got a long walk in the afternoon and then stayed home with the rest of the family whilst we were out. I tried to get a picture of Cody at dog training but they all turned out fuzzy (annoying phone camera!)

Enjoying walkies

Dog Training Classes

Tonight we are taking Cody to dog training classes. At the end of September we enrolled him into a six week obedience course and we've now got three weeks left. It's all taught using positive methods (not that we'd ever use anything else) and it's held in a local horse barn, meaning there's lots of space and it's weatherproof. Cody normally comes home with sand in his fur, but that's not a big deal, it brushes off!!

There are about half a dozen other dogs and owners attending so it's a good opportunity for Cody to socialize and learn in a distracting environment, something that for the first week he struggled with at times, but is focusing brilliantly now and it's not just at classes, out and about generally too. 

He's shy with new people, always has been. Who knows why, since we've always tried to make meeting new people a fun thing. I've worked hard with him and he is making good progress. He will now go up and sniff new people, even wagging his tail when he sees someone. However, if they go to pet him, he backs off :-/ So I'm hoping this class will help with that, and certainly so far it is - he will now take treats from strangers for the first time! Onwards and upwards :)

He's also met a toy poodle, Mossie and a pug (can't remember her name!). He was friendly with both of them. Sometimes he gets on great with other dogs, sometimes not so much - it's more with males though, especially larger breeds. 

Holly's also coming along, although tonight will be her first time! My sister is going to be working with her on her barking habit whenever we meet a new person or dog on a walk (she thinks she owns the forest!!). As she barks, she sets Wilson off, which then makes Cody very excited! Hopefully she'll get on well, I'll report back tomorrow :)

The first night, Cody working on some sit-stays.

Our Backyard Animals - Meet the Goats!

We have pygmy goats, four of them - Hermione, Neville, Harry & Ron (yes, they're named after Harry Potter!!). We got goats in 2012 and so that makes them all around 2 years old, as they were all born within a few months of each other.

We first were interested in goats, as we loved their personalities and we had a area of our garden with steep banks that was really hard to mow - perfect for goats of course, as they could keep the grass down and are mountain animals. A lot of people ask if we milk them, the answer is no, for a start three of them are boys, and as they are pygmies they wouldn't produce enough milk to make it worth the effort. So, they're basically pets who help with the lawn mowing!!

We got them from a farm in Carlow when they were a few months old. Hermione's mum died so she was hand reared so is totally people orientated. Ron and Neville are brothers and Harry is the youngest by just a week. When we first got them, the boys were quite scared, but they soon came out of their shell, helped by Hermione's confidence too. 

We've made them a big field area with lots of toys for them to jump and play on. They are such fun to watch and love lettuce leaves as treats. They get on really well with the chickens, they all share together. Although, saying that, sometimes the chickens will go into the goat shed, and if the goats come to the door, the chickens will flap and cluck and scare the goats away, lol!

Anna xoxo

Amber with Hermione

Ron, Neville & Harry exploring the wheelbarrow. Just a few seconds after this picture was taken, they all jumped out!!

Hermione climbing on one of the toys, this picture is from just a few weeks ago

Happy Halloween!

Overall, we had a fun halloween. We walked the dogs in the morning, it was a short one because of time pressures, but at least they did get out. Our cousins then came around in the afternoon, and the dogs were in the 'den' aka dog room, as Zoe is quite nervous around the dogs. We did some Halloween craft and then some of the children wanted to watch a spooky DVD, the annoying thing is the player is in the den, so I have to get the dogs out for them to do that and it means the dogs don't have a haven to get away from everyone.

They said hello to some of the visitors, but Cody was quite hyper so I decided to take them outside. We played with our new ball, a JW Hol-ee Roller, amazing toy!! Then we had a walk around the garden and did some training, practicing working with two dogs at once - leaving Cody or Amber in a stay whilst I work with the other dog. They love training time. By the time we were coming back inside, the movie had finished (it was quite a short one to be fair) so I put the dogs back in the den and fed them their dinner. 

The humans then ate and we carved our pumpkins, although we did it in a rush so they weren't as brilliant as they could have been! We did a Bernese Mountain Dog for one of them, just like last year - it was Cody's first Halloween, and being such a young puppy, he was in to chewing everything and ate the nose!! 

Later on in the evening, using my sisters 13 euro tiny barbecue, we made a bonfire to toast marshmallows. I kept burning mine, but it was fun! We started doing it last year, as we don't go trick or treating, so it's a fantastic way to celebrate Halloween. 

Then our cousins left, and we put the bonfire out. I let the dogs free and they sniffed around looking for crumbs from dinner. 

We are lucky that as we are out in the country, we don't get fireworks, which makes Halloween a lot less stressful! I don't know how our dogs would react to them, as they've never experienced them but it's a relief to not have to have that worry. We also haven't had trick or treaters for two years running, we keep the front of the house dark and don't put a pumpkin out. I wouldn't want people coming in dressed up and spooking out the dogs. 

I wanted to get a Halloween picture, but with the chaos yesterday I didn't get time, so here's this one instead!

Anna xoxo

P.S. Our cousins left yesterday to head back to England, so it's back to normal for us here! We did pop over yesterday again and went down to the beach, had a really windy walk but it was lovely.