Fostering Floppy 1. In the beginning

hi everyone I was recently talking about the extra help that some Greyhounds need to get them ready for a forever home sometimes that extra help is enough to do the trick but for other dogs just a few they need even more help and that's where fostering can come in now it turned out that floppy here who was featured in that video was one of those dogs some rescues have all of their dogs in foster homes but for others it's just not an option now some rescues have all of their dogs in foster homes but for others that just isn't an option fostering is a great stepping stone towards adoption because it allows the dog to start making the adjustments needed to home life and the carer can help with any behavioral issues that dog may have what are you doing I knew that floppy would make much better progress if he could move out of the kennels because the kennel environment was proving to be part of his problem he wasn't reactive when he first arrived 11 months ago but he now finds candle life really stressful he couldn't even be near the other Greyhounds on site because there was a chance he would respond aggressively to them and just the sound of the dogs barking in the boarding side of the kennels what are you doing just the sound of the dogs barking in the boarding side of the kennels was enough to tip him over the edge into barking himself and being reactive so to increase his chances of finding a foster home sorry increase his chances of finding a forever home I offered to Foster him as that seemed to be the only way he might make some progress in addition to helping the dog themselves it also saves the charity money I worked out that if I ended up fostering floppy for six months then I would save them 1100 pounds on the cost of keeping him in kennels and of course as a foster carer all help is provided free so this dog is getting one-to-one support that might say in a board and train facility cost 400 pounds for a week laughs can we quit trashing the place okay right let's carry on so as a racer floppy ran 69 races over a three-year period mostly at Swindon and he won 18 of them his last win was on the 17th of April in 2022 and he was transferred to Greyhound trust Care on the 13th of May just a few weeks later he's been waiting for a home ever since so as you can see he's a wonderfully friendly kind of guy and he was a firm favorite with all of the volunteers in the kennels he gets his name from this floppy ear that was damaged when he was just a little puppy by his mum but sadly there's been very little interest in homing him he's large he's black he's male three things that generally don't help too much and when you add in the tea is now very reactive towards other dogs the odds are stacked against him however he has all the personality he needs to win someone's heart as you can see he loves a good cuddle but we need someone who can also do with his behavior towards other dogs now fostering a dog has its own complications for me and that goes by the name of Gandalf being such a quirky character Gandalf needs everything to revolve around his needs so before floppy could even think about moving in we spent four Saturdays doing careful introductions and this actually showed me that floppy's reaction to other dogs at kennels was a lot down to anxiety and stress because as you can see he has quickly accepted my dogs and he even totally ignores a Gandalf's complete lack of social graces even when Gandalf barks directly in his face to get him to play or he and Jimmy are playing round floppy he doesn't really pay much attention to it or respond it also highlighted that the reactivity was just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the issues that we needed to address so with any dog that needs additional support it's very important to start at the beginning to assess what they need help with and decide how to deal with that so what are floppies good points and what does he need help with if he's going to find a forever home and create a good impression when he gets there so first of all he turned out to have zero concept of manners around the house and in fact was a pretty uncouth house guest for the first week 10 days he was peeing everywhere unless she watched him like a hawk all the time and interrupted him when he thought about thinking of doing it then he weed up everything he was doing this just in the garden so it shouldn't have been a surprise that it happened in the house as well he also peed on my other dogs and up the Stalls in the garden that we were sitting on and even tried to pee up the person sitting on the stool so he was not bothered and I think a lot of this was down to anxiety and excitement so that has improved over his first 10 days or so with us he is also more than happy to put his feet up on a worktop or a tear to reach something he's considered interesting so he needs to learn to keep his feet on the floor and he loves food now that's great when it comes to training but it's not so great if he is going to steal things off the counter or be possessive around food strangely he has no problems when it comes to the other dogs in their food or you going near his bowl but if there is something on a worktop that he wants he will try and climb up there to get it now we don't eat meat so he might be much worse in a household That Was preparing meat but he's quite bad enough with um the things that we do eat at kennels he wasn't allowed any bedding because he ripped everything up so I was expecting trouble with that as well and I was right I've had to give him very boring bedding nothing fleecy or fluffy because he just treats it like one big chew toy now when he's outside the house he will bark at a dog if he sees one at maybe a hundred meters away and anything closer is difficult for him this is very much the same as Gandalf was when he first arrived so we know we can work with that he's also agitated by the sound of dogs barking when he's outside so if we're on a walk or he hears someone else's dog when we're in the garden he will start running up and down barking himself I don't know if he'd always upset him or if that's something that developed from being in the kennel environment with lots of barking dogs But whichever it is he is on high alert as soon as he sees any dog or if he hears a dog in the distance so you have to start at the beginning where he is now working at that level on the plus side as you can see he's very cuddly he takes treats very politely which seems very not in keeping with his interest in helping himself the food on the counter when you offer him something he's very very polite takes it very gently and when I walk him alongside one of my other dogs he walks very nicely trotting along when nothing is happening to upset him of course it's a different matter if something agitates him he pays a lot of attention to you as his Handler which is a great start because we want him to be able to interact with us so we've got a wonderful Head Start in terms of building his confidence out in the big wide world with that and he doesn't seem to have any concerns about people or dogs being near him when he's in bed you can walk around him you can step over him you can tidy his blanket he's absolutely fine about that so there are no signs of sleep startle or anything similar and he's also fine around the other dogs when he's eating mine are very polite I don't allow them to steal from others bowls and he's quite happy for them to walk past him and then when he walks away from his bowl he can check their balls out they can check his bowl out so he has a lot of good points as well we just need to sort out those rough edges and he's going to make someone a great companion so now the challenge is set he has some wonderful qualities that are going to make him a fabulous pet but before that is likely to happen we need to set him on the right track with the other issues we've mentioned and we'll be back again soon to let you know how we're getting on bye for now look out for new videos every Monday and why not subscribe so you don't miss out [Music]

Channel: JW Canine Care

Views: 1,077

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Id: ogWxcAj5XCA

Length: 9min 42sec (582 seconds)

Published: Mon May 01 2023