Thurs 18th Aug: Teaching an older dog new tricks

Skye in front of Cargo and Gaby

It's heartening to receive so many positive responses to Facebook posts for individual dogs, although sad to see that they are almost all for the named breeds rather than the mixes.  As happy as I am for any dog to be offered a nice home, and they all deserve a chance whatever size, age or type, while golden retriever Gaby's post has resulted in several adoption enquiries, equally sweet (and young) Skye didn't get any.  She's not even what I call a "pure mongrel" as she is clearly a crossbreed, that is a first-time mix rather than generations of all sorts, and she is the perfect choice for an inexperienced (with dogs) family.  I would recommend her without hesitation, and there are many others like her who are overlooked in favour of a purebreed, even one with known and declared behaviour issues.

There was an instant connection between the two

Tiptoe is a great example of a wonderful mongrel, mutt or multibreed, whichever term you want to use.  She was already a young adult when she came to us from AFCD, and she was recently taken home from Tai Po for a trial.  There were two considerations, one being a young child and the other a resident chihuahua, and guess who is the problem?  Tiptoe turned out to be a total angel with the little boy, a loving friend and guardian, but it's the four-legged ankle-biter who isn't totally happy.  The family are working on it with help from our in-house trainer, Cactus, and relationships seem to be improving thankfully, but if it fails it won't be because of Tiptoe herself.

It's rare for any dog to walk into a new home with total strangers and immediately feel or appear comfortable.  With young puppies the adjustment is quick and usually pretty easy and any post-adoption questions relate to training rather than settling in, but even older puppies who have become used to their environment need time.  The issue of toilet training is a common one, because if a dog (or even a puppy) is used to doing it in a certain place and that place is no longer available, they can and will hold everything for a scarily long time.

Domino has had to re-learn toilet habits

Domino, for example, had come to Lamma as a baby and like all of the puppies used a certain corner of their area as a toilet spot.  When she was taken for fostering there were no complaints about behaviour or temperament, only concerns that she hadn't had a pee or poo for a couple of days. Finally of course it happened, as what goes in must come out eventually, but the idea that a particular place was for toilet needs had been imprinted on Domino's mind and when that wasn't available she just couldn't "go".

We often see with the small dogs who haven't been taken out much and have been trained to use an inside toilet, that even if they go out for long walks they will hold everything until they get back in the home. It takes time and patience for a dog to unlearn habits of a lifetime, but it will happen. Luckily for all HKDR adopters Cactus has the knowledge and experience to help both dogs and humans through the initial adjustment stages, and it's all part of our free post-adoption service.