Good news at t'vetinary!!

Hurray!! Went back to see the lovely vet at the Dogs Trust Leeds today - good news! He doesn't think Leo needs any more medication and the break in his leg is as good as it's going to get. He says we might find that changes as the "callous" that forms at the site of the break should start to dissolve over time. If we think he's hada tough day on it the vet says we can give him a kiddy aspirin to help every once in a while. We've called our vets and found out a price for hydrotherapy, which should give Leo chance to build up a bit of muscle in a nice, safe, warm watery environment and not putting pressure on him too much. Perfect!
Everyone at Dogs Trust was really please to see Leo again and glad that he is so happy. The lady in reception commented how lovely and soft he was (thanks B&M Bargains and your discounted anti bacterial wipes...)
Huge relief at Casa Clayton all round!!

Leo waits patiently for us to hurry up and get in the car...

This week Leo has been the perfect gentleman. Managed four hours in the house on his lonesome and only destroyed an empty box and a water bottle!! Unfortuately the water bottle he chose to nibble was the one at the side of the bed - cue some very quick mattress drying when we got home!! I'm sure he does things which he knows are going to have maximum impact :)

He's getting BRILLIANT at this lying down on command lark as well - did it twice at his grandhumans house this morning without really batting an eyelid. I'm so proud of the clever little darling!

 

Leo has a habit of trying to lay on our pillows - usually when our heads are on them at 3am! So as a special treat I've bought him his very own pillow. As you can see it has gone down very well. He's not spoilt or anything though you understand... ahem.

 

This week Leo has also taken delivery of his special new name tag - just in time for hils holidays. As per usual though Mummy misjudged Leo's size completely and it's a tad large, but it will do for the short term. Better to have him legal! I say short term, knowing me the poor lad will have that tag until he's 15 lol!

 

 

 Still can't get a decent shot of his webbed toes. I'll keep trying.

 

Other fun things we have done this week include:

• Rolling down a hill in Beaumont Park (unintentionally - Leo isn't the sure-footed mountain goat he thinks he is.)
• Chasing peachy flavoured bubbles in the garden. Hours of fun for me, not sure Leo thought it was that good actually but I enjoyed myself anyway ;)
• Came to pick me up from work yesterday - got to meet the lovely Fran and Polly (Polly: "I won't stroke him because my dog will go crazy" - that lasted about 7 seconds haha!)
• Met a lovely little Yorkshire Terrier at the end of the drive - poor little thing was terrified as he'd had a scary experience in the park from what his owner was telling me. However, 5 minutes of Leo throwing himself at him and demanding to play he was bowing too. Maybe we should hire Leo out as a doggy therapist??
• Leo is getting the hang of what this lead and harness thing is for. When we first got it we had to bribe him through it with a treat, now he's keen as mustard to get it on because he knows that when that goes on, we get to go somewhere good. Told you he was a clever boy.
• He's still a bit nibbly on the old fingers when he's being tickled. He does stop when told not to but then sulks for 5 minutes. I expect we'll get there with perseverance with that one...

Now that he has lots (and I mean LOTS) of lovely toys and chews to play with he's sleeping alot more and is alot more relaxed in the day. He still has little games he plays with himself to keep himself awake - I think he's frightened he's going to miss something! He's alot happier with his food now as well - which is great because we know he'll do pretty much anything for a treat. Whilst he's still not as food-driven as his big brother Blue was, he will try anything once. He likes to nibble on the broccoli stalks after Sunday dinner and he goes back to his bowl after his dentastix after tea to make sure he's licked it clean now. It's actually a pleasure to eat around him. He's keen to see what you've got as you sit down to eat, but tell him once "no" and he toddles off for a nap or a chew of his rawhide until you've finished. Blue was very food driven and would watch us like a hawk throughout every meal. It's a bit weird having a dog in the house that doesn't really give a monkeys what you're eating!

Have to go now. Much packing to do for our little break.... time for a little nap though first......

See you all soon :) x 

 

Chaos at Casa Clayton

Today Leo locked Stuart out of the house :) - Stuart went out to bring the car into the drive and Leo pushed the door shut behind him! Cue emergency telephone calls to me and my mum who were out shopping in Huddersfield and mad rush to come home to let Stuart back in and assess any damage Leo might have done in the half hour he'd had the run of the house!
Guess what - when we finally got back in the house was fine! Leo had nibbled the end of a wooden stick in the air freshener but that was it! I'm much better at training dogs than husbands obviously!

Anyway, since my shopping trip with mum got cut short, Leo STILL doesn't have a proper bed of his own. He's currently sleeping between the bottom of our bed, a cushion saved from the old sofa and a Spice Girls cushion left over from when my dad worked at John Cottons! No prizes for guessing which he prefers...

I'm reluctant to buy a proper expensive posh dog bed just yet - Leo as I've mentioned before is a tad "nibbly" and he susses new things out with his mouth first! So we will be bobbing out to pick up a cheapie duvet tomorrow. He tends to sleep with his dodgy leg stretched out so I don't want to be curling him up into a basket type thing yet anyway.

 

This afternoon we took a little stroll into the park again and got caught in a hideous rain storm. Leo got admired by everyone, except a little old westie boy who wasn't impressed by Leo's boundless energy!
Saw a dragonfly laying eggs - I reckon Leo wanted to eat it. Lucky for Mrs Dragonfly he was on his lead...

 

Other highlights of today were:

• Leo waking up with hiccups! I had no idea that dogs got them too! It was quite the cutest thing you've ever seen.
• Leo being as fascinated with vacuum cleaners on TV as he is in real life.
• Leo walking past two cats, but being determined to catch a crow!
• Leo being disappointed and heartbroken that the squeaker from his squeaky toy doesn't squeak anymore.

He is currently fast asleep on the sofa next to me - though any minute now I expect he'll be hurtling round the living room. We've noticed this strange little burst of energy before bedtime. It's crazy but once you know it's coming it's ok lol!!

More soon :)

Progress!!!

Well what a day! Although Leo has been pretty good at recognising his name from the start (in fact he responded to it from that first walk round the field at the Dogs Trust) we were a bit apprehensive about other commands. Because his leg was broken in such an awkward place we weren't sure if "sit" would be a reasonable request from him. Although he does sit voluntarily, for obvious reasons we aren't really keen on forcing him to repeatedly sit and stand on command. The downside to this is that "sit" is a really useful command for calming a dog down and controlling him - something that Leo could really do with.
Sooooo... after a couple of failed "sit" attempts in the garden this afternoon it became obvious that Leo was struggling with it. However, on the last attempt, he lay down! So I decided that we'd give it a go as "down" instead. It took a few goes, and I nearly lost my fingers a couple of times but here are the results:

Sorry that they're sideways :) I was so excited I forgot which way round the camera should be!

It wasn't all work today though - Leo found time for a little roll around the grass:

And even managed to let me take a close up picture of his webbed toes - though it turns out you can't tell they're webbed on a photo:

 

In case you were wondering, we suspect that Lovely Leo might be a whippet/Labrador cross. Cue lots of internet research to see what we can learn about whipadors! Labradors apparently have webbed toes which helps them swim when they were working with fishermen in Newfoundland originally. Leo's white "medallion" and white toes are also possibly a throwback to labrador origins. We've been told that you can have a DNA test done for about £50 to find out for sure what breeds your dog is composed of! Maybe one day...

 

Also, Leo seems to have a liking for sitting on legs and feet:

 

We noticed this already when we visited my mum and dads and he sat on my dad's feet - though I think it must be something he enjoys because he's done it twice to me today. He's such a lovely quirky chap :)

I'm really proud of him today. He's been a little star. I wonder if this is because he's actually getting to grips with the routine round here, or if it's because I made him listen to Classic FM this afternoon?

More this weekend... :)

Leo's Story begins

Well, since spotting a cheeky looking black lurcher boy named Leo at the Dogs Trust Leeds Open Day on 4th August 2012, we had thought of little else. His forlorn little face with his bucket collar on looking so sorry for himself melted my heart.
We'd lost our rescue lurcher Blue a month previous aged 15. I was heartbroken. The house without a lurcher wasn't a home at all. I was a little in two minds about getting another dog. Was it too soon? I think in the end I had to conclude that I still had a lot of love to offer and Leo might fit the bill.

Leo was a stray who'd been hit by a car and suffered the most horrendous break to his leg. He'd been taken to Shepley Vets, but obviously as nobody's dog, they were reluctant to perform much in the way of surgery and Leo was nearly put to sleep. Thankfully the vet pinned Leo's leg and handed care of him to the Dogs Trust who continued his treatment. Leo was such a wriggly pup that he actually managed to pop the pin that was holding him together so it was taken out two weeks early.

We visited him again on Sunday 12th August (the day before my dad's 70th Birthday) and took him for a short walk onto the grass. I have to say he was a total gent, not bad on the lead considering he'd been on strict rest for so long and history as a stray.

Here he is looking proud as punch to be out on the grass:

The following Tuesday we attended an adoption talk with Debbie, the Dogs Trust Leeds manager, who gave us all the lowdown on rescue dogs and we were given a bag of the biscuits they had been feeding the dogs in the rescue centre and a few other leaflets and goodies. We were kindly given a copy of Leo's medical records (which were a bit of an eye opener I can tell you!) which I gave to our vet at Calder Vets Huddersfield. Here is Leo just before we went into the training room at Dogs Trust for the pre-adoption talk - this boy's a nutter lol! All the other dogs were laying there all quiet and lovely and Leo was desperately trying to wrestle his tag off!

Leo came home with us straight after the adoption talk. The first thing we noticed was how flippin' wonderful he was in the car! Considering the fact that he had been hit by one he was very keen to be in one!
Here he is looking quite relaxed in the back of the car:

Leo's first night went ALOT better than we thought it would - Leo slept soundly at the bottom of the bed, only waking at 1.30am - Stuart took him out for a tinkle just in case ;)

The best part of Leo is that he seems to be pretty much toilet trained. He's had a couple of accidents but that was to be expected. Otherwise, if he stands in the doorway and nudges the door we've a pretty good idea that he needs out.

 

 

So, what else have we learnt this week?

• Leo nibbles like a puppy!! Usually when you are least expecting it! Must get a handle on that QUICK!
• He likes chunks in jelly - NOT chunks in gravy.
• He does not like eggs.
• He likes horse poo, but it doesn't like him,
• Leo will offer to play with every dog he meets, regardless of size, breed or age - fortunately so far this seems to be serving him well.
• Kong Toys are our saviour!!




 

More next week :)