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Post by eve on Nov 18, 2009 23:33:47 GMT
8-)He is no burden Jenny we went for walk this afternoon all 3 of us he was as good as gold no interest in other dogs I mix the afternoon walk with some field run it off stuff, then some street walking to socialise. he is sleeping soundly you should hear his snores bet Monday will be intresting He will be a great deal of fun with his forever family Sofa I bet when his new people come home he will be gone in a flash I reckon Tuesday Wednesday.. Not pining folks he ate really well
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Post by eve on Nov 19, 2009 17:07:37 GMT
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Post by Mimsmum on Nov 19, 2009 18:39:44 GMT
Alfie doesn't know what naughty is. He doesn't have a bad bone in his body. We took him to training classes on Tuesday and he knocked spots off all of them with his recall and sit. He is so submissive that he just sits down in front of all the dogs and exposes himself, saying "come and get me"
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Post by fella on Nov 19, 2009 22:01:18 GMT
Alfie has a beautiful temperament & certainly doesn't have an ounce of malice in him. He adores other dogs & tries to make friends with all of them & submits to them all. In no particular order here are our experiences with Alfie. I'll try not to miss out anything important.
- As mentioned, he's very sweet-tempered. Rarely mouths & when he does it's very gentle & he stops if you tell him to.
- He's happy to go into his crate (& in fact it had become his favourite place to trot to with any trophy (toy, rawhide chew etc)). So long as there are people around there is no issue, however he does not like to be left alone & has no problem breaking out of a crate unless it's padlocked.
- Walks fairly nicely already & should eventually walk beautifully. The faster you walk the better he walks!
- Is fine off-lead with other dogs. Our main concern with taking him off-lead by himself was always that his attention might be caught by another dog/person & if they happened to be (for example) on the other side of a road he would be in danger if he tried to run towards them. However he never tried to run away etc when we did take him off-lead, & would follow us around nicely if we "pretended" to ignore him & walk away.
- Adores yoghurt & cheese (both of which he only ever had tiny amounts of with us). Won't let you eat cheese in peace!
- Sleeps a lot as you'd expect from a lurcher puppy. Snores a lot if his head is at the right (wrong) angle. Liked to sleep with some part of himself (e.g. one paw) on some part of me (e.g. leg). Left in that position for a couple of hours he'd gradually worm his way further & further into my lap until he was completely in it sometimes. Whoever owns Alfie can save a fortune in central heating, he's like a little hot water bottle & throws off about a 1,000 degrees.
- Goes to bed beautifully. He used to trot round each side of our bed to say goodnight then curl up & go to sleep either on the floor or on his basket on our landing. Either way he'd get into his basket at some point & sleep there.
- If awake before us, would trot round to my side of the bed & lick my face to wake me up.
- If we were awake first, he likes his belly rubbed first thing in the morning. And loves the front of his neck being rubbed at any time.
- Learnt the following commands: Sit, give his Paw, Stand (from sitting), Stay, (then) Come. He also knows the command "Find" - if you hide a small piece of cheese or treat anywhere in the room then tell him to Find he will sniff around until he finds it. He also knows how to play hide & seek (I'd keep him in the living room, Nikki would go outside or upstairs & hide & Alfie would go find her for a treat. Good fun. We were also teaching him to sit whenever he comes to a road whilst out walking, only moving off to walk when any cars had gone & their noise had died away. He'd got to the stage of sometimes stopping & sitting without even being asked. That was a work in progress though, like everything really.
- Doesn't counter-surf, doesn't chew furniture or indeed chew anything he shouldn't. Also has an uncanny ability to recognise what is "his". For example he would chew his own toys to bits, & also chew up pillow cases which we gave him as toys. However he never once showed the slightest interest in our actual pillow cases which were in the laundry basket on the floor. Likewise he never once tried to get into either of his two bags of food which spent the entire time we had him on the floor next to his food bowl. He did have an adorable habit of very occasionally taking something he knew he shouldn't have (trainer, sock etc) but instead of chewing it he'd take it to his crate & wait for you to see him, whilst giving it the occasional lick but no chewing. Very amusing as he clearly knew he had something "forbidden".
- Loves to shred cardboard or paper. Also loves to chew up plastic bottles (milk bottles for example) but you have to watch him carefully with stuff like that, he'll bite off tiny pieces & eat them if you don't. That also goes for most dog toys, he can pretty much chew through them all, most of them in a matter of a few minutes.
- Shows signs of not being cat-friendly although this is not fully confirmed & may be something that can be overcome.
- Is house-trained & will either go to the back door or caper up & down if he needs to go to the toilet.
- Did well on a mixture of 1/4 tin of Chappie, 1 big handful of Nutro & 1 small handful of James Wellbeloved kibble all mixed together, three times a day. If you increase the ratio of kibble he was a little loose.
- Travels beautifully in a car.
We loved having him & it's been a tough week to put it mildly, hence me not posting earlier. Many thanks once again to Jenny, both for letting us foster him & also arranging things this week. Thanks also to Eve for taking him at short notice, it's great to know he's somewhere with another dog to play with as he loves that so much.
We also have other photos & video clips, as soon as we get a chance we'll try to post more up.
Needless to say we'll be monitoring his progress closely. If he's around long enough it would be great to see him on an SLR walk (or indeed if Eve takes him walking anywhere close to Harlow at the weekend we would definitely try to tag along if possible? Eve, I'll leave it down to you to let us know if that may be do-able or not, obviously it's up to you & would depend primarily on your own schedule etc....)
Ade
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Post by eve on Nov 19, 2009 22:15:10 GMT
OH Ade love Alfie is only with me for a very short time but if you want to come over and see him you are welcome we are all away this Saturday going to the coast for a days run out to family etc. ( ' tis the silly season again )
To cheer you up folks grab a look at these pics in a mo
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Post by eve on Nov 19, 2009 22:18:17 GMT
try this one Now that one is worth a caption Attachments:
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Post by eve on Nov 19, 2009 22:20:16 GMT
I am up on the landing what do you want Attachments:
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Post by fella on Nov 20, 2009 18:44:46 GMT
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Post by Mimsmum on Nov 20, 2009 19:07:32 GMT
I am doing the first leg of the journey on Sunday, collecting him at 11 a.m. and hoping that we can get a second leg from Lakeside round to junction 10 of the M.25 towards the A.3. He came round tonight with Ade and Nikki to say goodbye to the gang and Tag and he had a great time. Alfie is a fit in anywhere doglet. A real gorgeous boy.
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Post by nikki on Nov 20, 2009 22:43:37 GMT
Alfie is back with usDidn't take him long to get back into his old sleepy routine:Going....Going....Going....Goneeven more goneutterly, completely gone& in close-up
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indysmum
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Post by indysmum on Nov 20, 2009 22:53:03 GMT
great pics nikki - i cant wait to have him on sunday - you have done such a fabulous job with him ..... I will keep you updated as much as possible and i will give him extra special cuddles Kate xxxx
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Post by Mimsmum on Nov 21, 2009 9:49:29 GMT
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Post by keith1 on Nov 21, 2009 10:35:48 GMT
when can they...........come off ;D keithx
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Post by Mimsmum on Nov 21, 2009 11:01:14 GMT
THEY are coming off next Tuesday, in the New Forest. He is only 7 months old, poor mite.
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Post by sallyrolf on Nov 21, 2009 20:43:34 GMT
What a lovely boy. I hope I will get the chance to meet him when he is staying with Auntie Kate!! He would get lots of hugs money for the Esme fund raiser in Portsmouth if he is still around. I feel so sorry for you Ade and Nikki - you must be devastated to see him go but he will have great fun with Indy and Dodger. Hope all goes well.
Sally x
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indysmum
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Post by indysmum on Nov 22, 2009 10:07:08 GMT
I will pick up Alfred this afternoon .... hopefully we can go out for a long run with Indy (horendous weather : and get him settled for the evening ....... He has a long day ahead of him tomorrow - he is saying goodbye to his two little friends ;D ;D so i will update when he returns tomorrow afternoon - he will be a very sleep bunny Kate xx
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Post by Wipuki on Nov 22, 2009 15:39:53 GMT
I got to meet this gorgeous feller again today. He's a lovely, well behaved soul. He just rolled over and went belly up when Kate's Indy came over to say hello. A real sweetie
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indysmum
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Post by indysmum on Nov 22, 2009 17:53:04 GMT
Well he's here - we made it After meeting with donna and mark (and having a sneaky glass of vino) drove back to Romsey ...... headed straight out to an enclosed field so that the two boys could let off steam - and boy did they do that in style Apart from Indy pooing on Alfies head the walk was brilliant. His recall needs some attention so i will be start whistle training asap. He has had a good wander round the house and has met both cats - my male cat (Oscar) the dominant one just stood his ground whilst Alfie barked at him .... Olivia is hiding as usual !!! He showed no aggression towards the cats so this is definately workable....... also he seems to looooooveeee the kids - whilst i am sat down stairs with my two, he is upstairs in Molly's bedroom watching her play Bless Him. He is off to the vets in the morning - so will update on his return. Thanks to Jenny, Donna and Mark for helping with the transport run xxxxx (wasnt sure what Mark wanted more, Indy or my Truck !!!!)
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Post by Bigdog on Nov 22, 2009 18:17:42 GMT
hummmmmm, wot a choice Per'haps the adorable Indy would be a bit cheaper to run though ;D
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indysmum
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Post by indysmum on Nov 22, 2009 18:51:49 GMT
Molly and Indy waiting for Alfie (Indy was cold ) mmmmm we quite like the new truck I think i am going to be ok here - zzzzzzzzzzz xxxxxxxx
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