Nancy Staffie DOB 2013 Morden SW London

Dogs that have found their forever home
ShazJ

Re: Nancy Staffie DOB 2013 Morden SW London Temp foster

Post by ShazJ »

Looking good, Nancy. I remember when she dragged a branch across the path and nearly had us all over! Glad to see she's having a good time, give her a hug from me. Fingers crossed for you furever sofa, Nancy. Shaz xx
tufty

Re: Nancy Staffie DOB 2013 Morden SW London Temp foster

Post by tufty »

Nancy has realised this week that living with us means regular games and playtime. She may not be able to speak but Nancy is very good at communicating what she wants; her tail starts to wag, her eyes drift to the top of the fridge freezer where we keep her toys and if we’re not paying sufficient attention she climbs onto our lap and gives us a friendly happy lick.

She loves to play fetch and hide and seek inside. She is learning to follow “drop” and “leave” commands to give up the toy and once the game is over she understands “done” and dashes off to have a drink of water before collapsing on the sofa or in her bed, happy and snoozy.

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Nancy walks really well on her extender, running back and forth and is really good with her recall.





It’s been very frosty this week and apart from one morning when she decided the warmth of the house was a good reason to cut her morning walk short she seems to have enjoyed the crunch under her paws, watching beautiful sunrises and chasing her ball.

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She has helped us to put up our Christmas decorations today. We thought she might have been a bit too interested in the baubles (she is quite known for loving a tennis ball), but she really is a very easy dog to have around and just gave them a bit of a sniff, a small nudge with her nose and has shown no interest since then.

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Chrissy M
Posts: 1804
Joined: Sat 16 Jan 2016 16:14

Re: Nancy Staffie DOB 2013 Morden SW London Temp foster

Post by Chrissy M »

Nancy is lucky to have home comforts this winter...she looks so happy , what a lovely furry pal ! xx
tufty

Re: Nancy Staffie DOB 2013 Morden SW London Temp foster

Post by tufty »

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We’ve been fostering Nancy for a few months now and she is showing more and more of her lovely character.

Nancy came to meet our families this Christmas, who all fell a little bit in love with her. She travelled really well in the car, happy in her seat belt harness and slept most of the way, particularly relaxed on the motorway.

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We arrived when it was dark so she enjoyed exploring the inside of her temporary home, checked where the back door to the garden was, which room had the best smells (the kitchen) and checked her water bowl was full before settling down on the comfiest sofa to watch the festivities.

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The next morning she discovered the garden, which is much larger than ours and she loved it.

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Nancy was given a squeaky bone as a gift and at first, seemingly puzzled that it wasn’t ball-shaped, she had no idea what to do with it. That didn’t last too long and soon the house was ringing to the lovely sound of squeak squeak squeak, before she decided it also worked well as a pillow!

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But she’s clearly a “home bird” and after Christmas when we got back to our house she was amazingly happy to be home and dashed off to check everything was just as she’d left it.

Nancy received a few sardines as a special New Year treat. I’ve never seen her so happy! She licked her bowl clean, tail wagging away, and the next morning when she woke up they were clearly still on her mind as she sniffed around everywhere, hoping the sardine fairy had left her a treat. Sadly for her she was back on her usual food in the morning, but she did get to try a bit of our fruit smoothie, which went down pretty well...

She is really easy food-wise, happy to try a variety of (dog-safe) fruit and vegetables and enjoying any treats we buy. We feed her dry food, so to make sure she is properly hydrated she also receives some very watery oats for breakfast. She loves porridge, especially with delicious(?) toppings of treat bag dust and frozen peas.

We try to give Nancy as much exercise as we can, and then we know that when she is left alone she will relax and sleep. She is walked in the morning for about 40 mins and our dog walker takes her out at lunch time 1.5 – 2 hours. When we get home from work we take her out again for around an hour and then we play fetch with her at home in the evenings. Not only does she enjoy the walks and games, but this tires her out for when we go out and she does not have the opportunity to get bored. She has never chewed anything when left, but tends not to play with toys or bones when alone and sleeps instead.

She’s not keen on the rain, so we bought her a nice waterproof coat, which also keeps her a bit warmer on frosty days, and she seems much happier now.

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Nancy loves to play and she would be great at agility or Flyball. Having two balls, sticks or whatever we’re playing with is ideal, preferably of equal value to her so she will drop the first to chase the second. Sometimes mid-throw she changes her mind about which ball she prefers and decides not to chase it. But she has now learnt “fetch” and will trot off to pick up the “non-fun” ball when told to do so.

I think Nancy would continue to play until she collapsed, so we limit play sessions to around 20 minutes before removing the toys. She respects being told the game is “done” and runs off to have a drink of water, before nipping outside for a pee, and then lying down in the coldest part of the house she can find. But 30 minutes later, she’s ready to go again!

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Nancy really benefits from a back garden, even a small one like ours. She is gets quite nervous walking outside late at night and won’t tend to go to the toilet in the evenings, but she happily goes into the garden to use the toilet before bed. She also needs to go outside and pee after playing inside, so it’s really useful just to be able to let her outside easily and quickly. She will generally use the toilet on command in the garden – really helpful if we’re just about to go out and want to make sure she doesn’t have any accidents when we’re out.

She is a great linguist and is continuing to increase her vocabulary. As well as sit, lie down, paw etc she knows “upstairs” and “downstairs” and “bedtime” which is super cute as she pads off upstairs to go to her bed. Her favourite phrase is “do you want an after dinner carrot?” and for playing games she loves to play “find” and most impressively knows the different between “Mr Rabbit” and “Mr Reindeer”. She uses her nose really well now and has learnt a lot more patience in playing hide and seek, sitting and waiting upstairs or downstairs until called, before running around excitedly sniffing for the hidden toy.

She doesn’t really bark outside, but inside she barks at the doorbell (including ones on TV!) and at noises outside which seem to scare her, but with reassurance she settles down again.

Nancy is continuing to develop her dog meeting skills. When other dogs ignore her she tends to ignore them too and with the others she is easily distracted by us. She gains confidence from her walker when other dogs come over and although she meets most dogs pretty well, she isn’t keen on off-lead dogs pestering her and will tell them to leave her alone. When she is on her extender she has ability to approach other dogs and back away if necessary, which definitely gives her more confidence and has resulted in lots of positive doggy meetings.

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nada.c

Re: Nancy Staffie DOB 2013 Morden SW London Temp foster

Post by nada.c »

I remember walking Nancy when she was at Chessington - she was a sweet girl then but she clearly is flourishing in her foster home! Thank you for providing her a loving safe place :thanks.gif:
Chapmania

Re: Nancy Staffie DOB 2013 Morden SW London Temp foster

Post by Chapmania »

0093.gif :nicethread.gif: great to see Nancy doing so well in a loving foster home, gaining confidence all the time. I remember clearly the day that she arrived at the kennels with her companion Bobby. Such a lovely girl. I used to love walking her. Hope Nancy's forever home isn't far away :crossfingers.gif: xx
ShazJ

Re: Nancy Staffie DOB 2013 Morden SW London Temp foster

Post by ShazJ »

No wonder Nancy loves being with you...she gets so much exercise! I use an extender lead as well...I had to replace a chewed end so I sewed a metal section in ( you can buy single and double ones, I've a double!). Then I found that ezydogz( I think) do a palm/thumb connector which I've added to the extender lead...meeting all RR criteria for leads! Give her a big hug n kiss from me and fingers crossed for her furever sofa? :nicethread.gif: :goodjob.gif: woo.gif] thumbs.gif :smiley-dance010.gif:
Chapmania

Re: Nancy Staffie DOB 2013 Morden SW London Foster

Post by Chapmania »

Great to see Nancy in the reserved section thumbs.gif :goodluck.gif: xx
jacnmrb
Posts: 355
Joined: Tue 20 Jan 2015 10:30

Re: Nancy Staffie DOB 2013 Morden SW London Foster

Post by jacnmrb »

Wonderful to see Nancy is reserved :crossfingers.gif: :crossfingers.gif: :crossfingers.gif:
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xxlynne
Posts: 11858
Joined: Sun 01 Jun 2014 09:01

Re: Nancy Staffie DOB 2013 Morden SW London

Post by xxlynne »

Lindsey & Mike have got their girl....they have always loved her from the first day they met her...now she is home forever

Our thanks to all our volunteers and especially Shaz who fostered her with her gang of lovelies
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