RILEY (was Rambo) is a wonderful dog - full of personality. He is 3yrs old, he gets on well with other dogs and children but absolutely adores older people and is very gentle with them. His elderly owner was taken into care and her daughter reluctantly surrendered him to us.

Sandie said "Although he lived outside, since being neutered a week ago, he's been kept indoors and has been very clean in the house. He walks well on the lead, his only problem is that if he sees anything that interests him (that includes just about everything) he lunges. He's very fond of cars, anyone's car and almost jumped into an ambulance today to the amusement of all who were watching."

Riley has been, generally, beautifully behaved for his fosterer, Pauline (the one in Essex not the Somerset one) and his good looks have been admired many times when out on walks. His recall isn't the best so he needs to stay on a long line until firmly established in his new home but, otherwise, he is a real gem of a dog.

RILEY'S TRIAL MARRIAGE

Riley needed a foster home, as his fosterer was about to go on holiday, and Judy was lonely so Riley moved in with Judy for a trial marriage.

Everyone thought Riley was lovely, he travelled well and would jump in anyone's car or van :)) Ken and Julie's daughter was with Judy while they went and later, while cleaning her car, he jumped into it and tried out all the newly vacuumed seats :))))

Judy livened up a lot after Riley arrived and they seemed to get on really well together straight away. She ate her meal a bit quicker the first night and he was even quicker again. Riley seemed to be hanging round Ken a lot, which pleased Ken, who was hoping that Riley would be a man's dog, as Judy is definitely a woman's dog and has eyes only for Julie.

They took the two for a walk in the fields and Molly, the lively dalmation, was there. Riley was trying to keep up with Molly and Judy but he was on the long lead. He still managed to enjoy himself, though.

This was them on Judy's special step at the bottom of the stairs.

Unfortunately, despite the dogs getting on well together, Riley needed quite a bit of socialising with other dogs, having lived with an elderly lady originally, and that meant taking him out separately to Judy. As the whole idea was to be able to take them out together it was decided that it would be better to find Judy another, possibly slightly older, boyfriend.

Riley, having enjoyed his holiday, is now back with his previous fosterer awaiting his forever family.

UPDATE FROM HIS FOREVER MUM

Nearly two weeks down the line and Reilly seems to be settling in well with us. Already it seems as though he has been with us forever. He is generally a very good boy, excellent around the home and very clean! He naturally has a lot of insecurities and although he appears to have had some basic training, still has lots to learn. He is very intelligent and seems to be learning quickly, and we can see that he wants to be able to trust us but just holds back a little.

Reilly appears not to have been socialised a great deal with other dogs and is uncertain of how to react when with them. Our sincere thanks go out to Pauline (Somerset) and Lynne who are both helping us with this and also to Pauline’s long suffering dogs Daniel and Rhani who are putting up with Reilly’s boisterous behaviour and occasional nips on the bum!

He is a very loving dog and would sit quite happily with his head on your lap for hours, if allowed to. Already he is part of our family and we love him dearly. Our 15yr old son says its just like having a live giant teddy bear! He loves his cosy bed and loves to be groomed, as you will see from the photos! We hope with lots of love and some work he will come to enjoy the company of other dogs and be able to accompany us to lots of new places and have lots of new experiences.

FURTHER UPDATE

Maureen says "Riley is improving by the day! He now enjoys a short game of football in the garden and is starting to retreive a tennis ball. We are taking him with us whenever we go out and he is becoming more relaxed. He loves the beach, after finding out you can't eat seaweed or drink salt water. He is now ignoring our neighbours' barking dobermans when we walk past, which is a good sign. We have been letting him off the lead in an empty field when we are both there, only for a few minutes, but he seems to be coming back(something to build on, just a little at a time).
We have bought him a dogmatic halti, which I would highly recommend. He is not too keen on it but is getting used to it and now walks beautifully. We had an introduction to one of my neighbours' sheep this morning, with her permission, and, at first, he hid behind my legs and then just sat down and looked at it!"

FURTHER UPDATE ON RILEY
(NOW REILLY)

Reilly is fine. He has put on a little weight and his coat is now really soft and silky and actually getting more golden on the back (He was quite pale before).

He seems very happy and contented and we love him to bits. He is useless as a guard dog as he just wants strokes and cuddles from anyone who comes in, but is excellently behaved most of the time and has learnt all the basic commands very quickly. He is brilliant with people and children and I have every trust in him in this way. Unfortunately he is still not good with other dogs and we have to muzzle him when walking. As he still attempts to remove the muzzle when he is on a long lead, it means that we cannot let him off very often.

He was assessed by a behaviourist who feels that he is just scared and uncertain how to react with other animals. She believes that if we socialise him with suitable dogs when muzzled, he may improve with time. We hope so as we would dearly wish to see him running off lead through the fields but accept that this may or may not happen. Whichever, he is guaranteed a good, happy home so hopefully will not feel that he is missing out. We have tried several dog training classes but they were not really very successful as Reilly in most cases already was better trained than the others so apart from the actual socialising it was not worth it. Also we found that people are wary of letting their dog near one that is muzzled, which I guess is understandable, but this kind of defeated the object of the socialisation. We have been told that he really only needs to be acclimatised with one dog at a time as any more is too threatening/ exciting for him.

©2008 Irish Retriever Rescue UK