Molly's 1st Xmas a Success!

ladyt25

ladyt25

Well-Known Member
Joined
30 November 2007
Messages
7,792
Location
Leeds
Visit site
Well, I posted a few days ago a little apprehensive about the upcoming xmas eve party at my mum and dads as i was unsure how Molly would react. Had her 3 weeks now but she is quite wary of strangers - especially men - and tends to be quite reactive (nervous barking etc). Parents have their usual xmas eve part - neighbours and a few friends basically. I was concerned how she would be bit she was a star by all accounts!

Ok, so she barked a bit at some people - I actually found it harder to train the people to just ignore her! Once they ignored her and she could investigate them in her own time she is fine. I didn't know though how she would be with kids - the only one we met on a walk she barked at. However she was great - she made friends with a boy who was about 6 or 7, followed him about, sat, gave her paw etc etc. I was very pleased with her. Even better she was great with my sister's 2yo nephew who LOVES dogs and obsessively shrieked "MOLLY!" at her over and over. She didn't care!!!

I feel much more positive now knowing she IS good with kids (that was my biggest concern) and I am looking forward to our first training session on Monday! Just got to work on training people now - when I say ignore that MEANS ignore!! Honestly, humans are supposed to be the intelligent ones!!! Lol

Hope everyone had a fab Xmas!!!
 
Oh, fab! Clever Molly!! :D

It does sound scarily like my Christmas too. We rehomed Maggie, a very nervous 2 year old staffy a couple of months ago. Who has the same problem. They wouldn't rehome to a home her to anyone with children.

Whenever you ate she stare at you. We had Christmas dinner at the inlaws and she fell asleep under the table with the others while we ate.

It was then we found out they had invited people round in the evening. Luckily nearly everyone was very good with her. She did bark alot when the door knocked, and it took about 10 mins for her to calm down when new people turned up. But there were nearly 20 people there at one stage, including 8 chidren. She usually hate it when they are making a noise, but she was fine. So another proud owner here too.
 
It does make you a bit nervous doesn't it and the thing you don't want to be is nervous as that's just going to make them worse!

It's such a relief when they do better than you could have hoped. Mine took herself off to her bed for a bit when she was a bit shattered and wanted a break. Think the problem is with the kids is their faces are at dog face height so you find yourself watching for any 'signs' of the dog being uncomfortable. Once I realised that was ok it was great!

I think it did mine good so it may well have done the same for yours!
 
Oh she loves the squeakers but she can manage to take them out of the toy then just has the squeak bit! she's just ripped the head of her xmas present so that's another toy in the bin! hehe. Gave her a chew instead to keep her busy for a bit.
 
Thanks, Tinseluniform!!

She sound far too like Maggie. We've had to go and buy really cheap toys and give her a new one ever day, or expensive ones she can't destroy as fast. The living room looks like a toy grave yard some days!!

I spent most the time sat on the foor with her so we could keep a close eye. We'd spent a couple of days at my Mum's before. So by the time we got home early boxing day, she didn't wake up until I dragged her out for a walk at 4. Then went straight back to sleep!! I usually let her out to go to the toilet just before bed, She just lay down in the yard and did nothing till I let her back in!!!

We live in a village, so it never gets busy. So when we were at Mum's we walked her round the town and sat on a bench for 10 mins. She hid behind up shaking the whole time. So thats our next thing to work on.

Then she starts dog classes in a couple of weeks. I'm not looking forward to it, she is worse with dogs than she is with people!! I think well be sitting near a door for a quick escape!!
 
Funnily, I almost called mine Maggie! I also but mine the cheap toys - she loves them whatever but it's less painful for my pocket when she destroys them!

My parents look after my dog during the day so i think the fat she knew the house and them and has her other dog pals there helped anyway as the other two dogs are used to it so don't make any fuss so i think that helped her.

it may help of your dog has a dog 'buddy' of possible to help show them the ropes as iit were? Mind you, guess that's harder if they are scared of other dogs. Mine is just very reactive with other dogs on the lead - off the lead she's ok and, if i let her say "hello" to dogs when she's on the lead (I usually ask the other dog's owner if that's ok first) she chills out.
 
We already have 2 other dogs a 10yo kelpi cross and a 7 yo jack russell. Unfortnately The jack russell is fine off the lead, but will bark when his on it so he just makes her worse. I tried to leave him at home and take the other 2. But every time I do that we never bump into any dogs, typical!!

I did take her with MAggie the second time she went to the vets, because the first time she went, when she went into the treatment room, we had to drag her in and she was on the floor in a heap shaking. She was better with the older one with her

I hadn't thought about taking her to keep Maggie company at the classes, but it might be worth a try. She used to go, when she was younger and really enjoyed it.
 
3rd time lucky posting this!! Sorry it took so long!

When I rehomed Millie I didn't know what breed she was. But we bumped into someone at a show who breeds kelpies and works them on their farm and they said she is definantely a kelpie cross. So I had a look in a few books and saw one was the spit of Millie, but Millie isn't as chunky as the one in the book.

They problem with deciding if your dog is a kelpie cross is of course unlike other breeds kepies were bred for the work they do not how they look. So 2 pure bred kelpies can look totally different. So it makes it harder to decide if they have kelpie in them or not.

Anyway, here's a few pictures of the old tart!
P1260017-1.jpg

P1200031-1.jpg

P1260011.jpg

03-04-05_1702.jpg



And this one cos it's my favourite of her asleep!!

Photo-0147aa-1.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top