Winston – Water Dog

After three weeks with us, Winston has really settled down. We put an old duvet into his bed, and he seems much happier with it now, and spends most of the night in it.

He is getting better off the lead, though a bit prone to wandering ahead out of sight. In safe areas (and when I have time), I now stop and wait for him to come back, so maybe he is slowly learning what my rules are. But calling him back still has little effect – luckily he is very good with other dogs, so is rarely an embarrassment.

He loves water and enjoyed a swim this morning. Luckily the water was fairly clean…

 

Winston – Settled Down

A week later and Winston has really settled down. A big breakthrough was when he decided that his bed (downstairs) was a much better place to sleep than against the door of whichever room I was in.

I walked him off the lead in the woods at the weekend – he really enjoys exploring, and occasionally even comes back when I call. Being a black dog, I really should get him a fluorescent coat so that I can see him in the trees!

We also left him on his own in the house the other evening. He was very attentive when we returned, but otherwise seemed unscathed.

He is also getting on fairly well with our cat, though she really doesn’t want to have much to do with him..

Winston – Freedom!

Well, after a few days, Winston has turned out to be a really nice dog; if I was looking for a “permanent” dog, he’d be a good choice!

I’m now walking him off the lead in the park – he looks round to see where I am and so far is fine with other dogs, large and small. Though he either chooses not to hear when I call him back, or maybe is waiting for the right command in Russian!

He has coped with a load of noisy children and he charmed everyone in the pub (one couple would have taken him home there and then if they could have had a dog). When someone started to play darts, he sat up and followed each throw like a spectator at a tennis match!

He does seem to attract attention – I think it must be his cheery disposition.

He has also met our cat a couple of times. She hissed at him, but he didn’t try to chase her or bark or anything –  I think he was just puzzled.

He also managed to sleep at the bottom of our stairs last night – a vast improvement on sleeping against our bedroom door and waking me up every time he moved!

 

 

Winston – Settling Down

Winston is now much more settled. He is even happy to sleep outside my office door when I’m working – though I’d be much happier if he slept downstairs where we wouldn’t trip over him!

He still displays an almost puppy like enthusiasm for everything, which makes him very good company. His only bad habit (so far) is pushing doors open and sneaking into rooms. Though he’s yet to meet our cat…

Winston – Day 2

As is often the case, 24 hours later, dogs settle down in their new home and become more relaxed.

Winston was pretty good last night, albeit sleeping outside our bedroom door rather than his own bed, and is finally confident enough to not follow me around constantly.

We had a long walk this morning, and he was very good in the woods on a long lead, and very friendly with the other dogs we met, despite him still being on the lead and most of the others off lead.

He is also not too food orientated, though like all our pets, take an interest when Pizza is being prepared:

He also likes having a toy to play with, and surprisingly non-destructive with them:

All in all, I don’t think he’s going to be much trouble, though I’m sure there’ll be interesting times ahead!

Winston

After a gap of nearly a year, we finally have our next foster dog. He is a 5 year old black Labrador called Winston.

He is good natured but tends to ignore commands as he only (apparently) understands Russian!

He does like playing with balls and sticks, and seems to like water.

More to come…