Edward

Edward is a cream coloured, neutered Golden Retriever who came from N Ireland.
His date of birth is 16/4/2016.

HISTORY

Heather was contacted by another rescue asking her advice on Edward. The owner was terrified of him as Edward was dictating where she went in the house and where she was allowed to sit. He was cornering her and being mouthy which made her concerned that it was going to end up with him biting her and she would then have to get him pts.

Apparently, she had never set boundaries for him or told him off. There was nobody else in the house. It was only her but her last dog had been very gentle and they had worked together. Edward was very different.

It became an emergency when she locked him in a room and wasn’t prepared to go back into that room until someone came and got him. For his sake, Edward needed to be rehomed with an experienced fosterer then with an equally dog savvy forever owner.

A lady called Carol collected him the next morning and she fostered him short term until something a little bit more permanent for him could be found.

Although, Carol and her daughter, Elaine, fell in love with him, Carol already has 6 Yorkies and 2 Retrievers so it wasn’t ideal.

He went to a possible fabulous, forever home which had big grounds and someone at home all the time which sounded ideal but, without another dog to keep him on the straight and narrow, he soon got too big for his boots again so Heather decided it would be best if Edward moved to her home to be properly assessed.

PERSONALITY
Heather says “He is a very intelligent dog who can seek out a weak person from 100 yards. He loves to play fetch with a ball and, on more than one occasion, he brought the ball to me for me to throw it”.

SOCIAL LEARNING
DOGS: He arrived around noon and came in and met my three. He was like a rabbit caught in the headlights. He didn’t know what to make of my monster, Kenya, a 24 week old Bernese Mountain Dog. She was full of joy when she saw she had a pal to play with but he wasn’t so sure. He didn’t react aggressively or nastily but he just kept running in circles to get away from this mad thing that wanted to play.

RESOURCE GUARDING: He hadn’t been fed in the morning so I gave him some food and was able to let him take it out of my hand gently. I put my hand while he was eating and there was no nastiness. He just carried on eating. Kenya came over and wanted to be fed too so I watched carefully to see what was going to happen and he didn’t react at all.

SEPARATION ANXIETY: When it came to bedtime after the walk, he barked and barked and barked. So up and down the stairs 20 million times that first night to see what was wrong but there was nothing so I put him with Kenya and suddenly he was quiet. He definitely suffers from separation anxiety and always needed the comfort of another dog to settle him.

GROOMING: He was bathed and just lay down in the bath. He really enjoyed the attention. Afterwards, I put him in a crate and used my blaster on him to dry him.

LEADWALKING: I took them out on a walk which was quite a chore. He didn’t really pull but he couldn’t walk on a long lead as he didn’t know where he was supposed to be. He wrapped himself round my legs more than once. He wandered about but I have worked with him on that and he is better now he knows what is expected of him.

I don’t think he was walked properly at all. He started pulling behind as though he was scared to go forward but we conquered that and he began to get really excited
whenever the lead came out.

RECALL: I hadn’t let him off lead as he didn’t recognise his name initially so I had been working with him on that too. When I decided to test out his recall, off he went but he only ran about 5 metres in front of me, turned around and came straight back to me without me even calling him. He then followed Pepper and Bailey and ran with them, never letting me out of his sight. I called all of them at the end of the walk and he was the first one back.

He now sits and waits while I put his lead on and off (I used a slip lead). He so enjoyed the freedom of being able to run free. He didn’t have this with his previous owner as she was scared to let him off.

CHILDREN: He is good with children.

EDWARD’S DREAM HOME

All in all, he will be a super dog but he will need a home with another dog or two where he will get plenty of exercise and continued training. He will definitely need someone active and experienced with dogs who is prepared to be firm with him.

DECEMBER 2016

Edward was successfully rehomed in Scotland. He has calmed down a lot and, apparently, is a nice boy now!