Fearless puppy

22nd August 2019

Fearless puppy   

August 20th Vet check up and Vacine Day

VET CHECK UP AND VACCINATIONS 

Infectious Canine Hepatitis is a viral disease which affects the liver, kidneys, eyes and lungs of a dog.  It is spread by contact with saliva, urine, faeces, blood or nasal discharge of infected dogs. The urine of an infected dog can be infectious for up to a year, and the virus can survive in the environment for many months.

Signs can vary from slight fever to sudden death. Other signs include loss of appetite, pale gums, conjunctivitis, coughing, abdominal pain, vomiting and diarrhoea.  The disease can develop very quickly and sadly there is no specific treatment; however vets will try and alleviate the signs and dogs can sometimes survive with intensive supportive treatment.

Canine Parvovirus
Distemper
Leptospirosis

and

Kennel Cough - a little squirt up the nose.
https://www.vets4pets.com/


Its been a very busy few days, Oscar has been very good, in fact better than we anticipated/ Apart from one or two accidents in the house he is pretty much going to the toilet outside.

We used the programme of taking him outside on an hourly basis to the same place in the garden and up to now its going very well.

At night he sleeps in his crate and seems reasonably happy to go inside and goes straight to sleep. He wakes around 5.30 am most mornings.  This is when I take him outside he has a wee and a poop and then he comes back in for his breakfast.  I will have to pause here and he has found something to chew that is not his.
So we are quite happy that all is going well, but it is obvious that he needs more exercise than he can get in the house.

Today is the first time Oscar has been outside, other than the garden.  He is due his 2nd round of vaccine and then after 1 week he can go out and mix with other dogs.  The car is all prepared with seat covers and safety harness

The car journey went well apart from Oscar wanting to see everything around him he was calm, and pretty laid back about the trip.

At the vet he behaved himself quite well. He got a full check over, weight, heart, lungs and tummy,  teeth and nail. His teeth look good and his weight is good.  His ears however are full of muck and something creeping around.  The vet cleared out his ears, they were so full of black yuk. Hopefully he will respond better when I call him. But I think he will still have selective deafness. I cleaned his ears out again on the evening and more black muck came out, something to watch for.

He slept all the way home in the car, the effects of the injections.

So we have 7 days and then he will be out in the wide world. We can't wait.

18th August 2019 1st day in new home

DAY ONE OF A NEW LIFE

It was late afternoon when we arrived home with Oscar, he behaved extremely well in the car, he didn't show any kind of concerns and no crying, he just wanted to see everything

and smell everything including of course Ben who had travelled in the car for several years..

In the house, he had a good sniff all over inside and in the garden, of course again he must have been smelling Ben, all over the place.

Oscar was known as Enzo when we got him. We were told Enzo is a type of Italian racing car and also a famous wrestler. It seemed unfair to rename him, but we didn't think he would mind if we made his new name a little more suited to his demeanour.

We had several suggestions for renaming him including Murphy, Sam, Henry, Oscar After some thought it was decided that it would be Oscar,  and now after two days he responds to his name very well,

We found a tennis ball of Bens' and Oscar had lots of fun with it.

He scoffed his tea down, we had measured out the recommended amount 40 grams,  it didn't look as if it was enough to us but that's what the instructions said.

Some 10 minutes later he went on a run all over the garden, we are sure it was an energy rush like the kids get when they drink pop. Sure enough since then he does the same after his meals.

The first night was pretty good he went straight to sleep in his crate and slept well only whimpering for a second through the night. He woke at 5.30 and was looking to go out and then looking for his breakfast,

He is managing to get the hang of going outside for his wees and poops, we are really pleased with him.  He sleeps in his crate overnight and has been going straight to sleep only waking at about 5.30 am.  We are hoping his sleeping time will increase over night, which I am sure it will. 

We are happy that he doesn't greed, and we are going to try and ensure this continues by not feeding him little bits and pieces of our biscuits and meals.  Today I tried to get him to eat a piece of carrot, as I thought this would be a good training treat but its still there, he doesn't seem to like it yet.

Sneaking upstairs when he thinks no one is looking

Hoping that food bag will empty into his bowl

Oscar  has had lots of visitors to meet him and has behaved very well with all of them, apart from a few nips with his sharp little teeth, but they all do that while they have their baby teeth. He is taking everythng in his stride and comes accros as very confident, friendly and laid back. 

FIRST VISIT TO THE VET next week.

We are booked in to see the Vet on Tuesday so only a couple of days.  We have a list of questions for her and one of them being what is the best kind of puppy food to give him, try to stop any energy rush, there is lots on the internet about how food additives can cause this..

He will  get his vaccinations so he should be able to go out later in the week.  We cant wait to take him on walks along the sea front and the beach.  

He won't be allowed off the lead for a couple of years until I fully trust his recall response. Its not so long ago that a 4 month old Labrador fell over the cliff top near us and died, it was tragic. 

Welcome to the world little man

MEET OSCAR HE IS ONLY 12 WEEKS OLD 

born 23rd May 2019

Oscar at 12 weeks old

At this moment in time. Oscar is sitting quietly at my feet, tucked slightly under my chair. Its windy outside, and it seems he doesn't like the wind very much or the way the doors rattle when  the windows are open. This reminds me so much of Ben our most beautiful, precious old friend who passed away in April this year after 13 wonderful years with him.  He was our gentle giant, our fun loving beautiful French Berger,  well,  OK,  I have missed out the parts where he often made us say bad words, or the times he pinched things and hid them in the garden but that's another story which can be read by following the link below.

https://adogcalledben.blogspot.com/

Its August 17th 2019 and Oscar has been with us only 3 days, We didn't plan on getting a Cocker Spaniel specifically he just came to us by the power of internet advertising.

We started initially looking for a rescue dog, one that wouldn't be too old, we didn't want to lose a good friend too soon after Ben passed away,  So our new dog needed to be under three years old.

There are so many rescue dogs out there all needing forever homes.
Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals  /https://www.rspca.org.uk/  
 Dogs Trust   https://www.dogstrust.org.uk/
Blue Cross Rescue https://www.bluecross.org.uk/
Jerry Green https://www.jerrygreendogs.org.uk/adopt-a-dog

During our search we came across an advert for  a 12 week old Cocker Spaniel, looking to be rehomed.  

We called the advertiser who told us over the phone she had bought the pup just 4 days earlier,  when she got him back and into their house, her 8 year old cats just scattered, left the house and wouldn't come back.  Her daughters were distraught about the cats leaving and after a couple of days they made the decision that 'Enzo' as he was named by them would have to go. They advertised him online.

Events happened so quickly after that telephone conversation. We tried to take a clinical approach to visiting him so, we took along (our daughter) Katherine who has a lot of knowledge and experience of dogs.  Our plan was to check everything out first and then make some contact with the dog and decide if everything was in order. 

Well what happened when we went in the house?   this stunning little brown puppy sauntered over to us, with his huge feet that sounded like he had carpet slippers on when  he walked. His  tail was far to long for him, his Eyes could  melt any heart and he had ears that he could fly with.  We just fell in love with him. He snuggled up beside me on the settee, Katherine, who was to be fairly neutral and clinical about things  said "ah he is just gorgeous" .  I think we had made a decision within seconds of meeting him.

After some chatting and checking over the paperwork it wasn't long before he was in the car and on his way to his new home.

As well as the main rescue centres there are  individual breed organisations such as   

The Cocker and English Springer Spaniel Rescue    https://www.caessr.org.uk/ 

Cairn Terrier Relief Fund https://www.cairn-rescue.co.uk/

So going through this kind of organisation is a safer way, you can get to know about the dog before you make the decision to rehome him.