It’s been three months, give or take, since that fateful day when, before even getting foster dog Annie home, she broke her collar and bolted into the night. Three days of searching ensued before she was found, safe but completely exhausted and totally traumatised. She lived under the dining table for another three days coming out only to eat and drink (ever the Labrador). She growled and lunged at the doors and window if Little Bear or the cat ambled past and was so worried about leaving her new refuge, we ended up having to carry her outside to go to the loo for fear that her bladder would pop.
It took countless weeks before she felt brave enough not to hide behind my legs when visitors came. Weeks more of air-lock type conditions to keep her and the cat apart until we could be sure that her early growls weren’t anything serious.
Walks, to be polite have been ‘challenging’. LB is reactive – but Annie took it to a whole other level. A dog a football pitch away would set her off into a frenzy of barking and lunging so determined that I couldn’t physically hold her without OH’s help. So much for our chilled out foster dog! I was kicking myself for thinking that a second dog would be part of the solution and trying hard to ignore the nagging voice which was whispering triumphantly “Well, you’ve done it now.”
They say that you don’t see a rescue dogs’ real personality for at least a few months and we can certainly testify to that one.
Thankfully, what started out as scary just gets sweeter and kinder by the day. Three months in and Annie no longer barks and lunges at other dogs when we’re out. She’s met more dogs than we can count and is beautifully mannered and fluent in ‘dog’. The Cat’s given her a couple of pastings for putting her nose where she shouldn’t and we’ve seen not an once of aggression in her. We’re still working on the heel and on her reactivity at night (three nights fending for herself probably hasn’t helped that), but she’s getting there.
So, Annie is now officially part of the family!
Little Bear & Annie
Little Bear & his big sister Annie
The Little Bear Dog Blog 
We haven’t signed the paperwork yet!! 😉
OK, OK – she’s staying! She’s a sweet dog, a quick learner and has the patience of a saint. Could we have found a better dog?
Probably not.
Welcome to the family Annie Margaret Williams-Young.
🙂
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By the way – love the new header pic!
🙂
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Congratulations! When I was reading the post I thought that Annie had going to a different home…what a happy ending.
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Thank you! So glad we hung in there – she’s a complete delight, she really is. I had so many things crossed that it would work out.
Stu has done an AMAZING job with her socialisation so he’s the hero of the hour! Annie knows it too – you should see her flutter her eyelashes at him! 🙂
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