Tiny, but long legged, Under Cover – who we call Connie – is a 6 year old Poodle Cross, weighing less than 6kg. She has the form and movement and delicate long legs of a poodle. She is an absolute darling. Very nervous and easily worried, but being so brave and getting a little less anxious every day.
She has only been with me since Monday, and is making amazing progress. She doesn’t like being picked up, as she clearly associates that with bad experiences, but when I do gently lift her, she now quickly leans into me and will relax totally and go to sleep. I am struggling to find food treats that she likes – dog treats hold little interest but pieces of cooked chicken or sausages are current favourites. That said, she eats her slightly soaked kibble with no problem. I think she’s just never had the opportunity to ‘chew’ anything. She sleeps downstairs in the doggie dorm – where she can choose the kitchen or utility beds. Not a sound from her and after the first two nights, she has been clean and dry overnight. That said, I go down around 5am and let them out and she toilets if I sit quietly in the garden and gently encourage her – and she copies the other dogs. She is not house trained, but we are working well on that and already she is starting to get the hang of it, and understand the words I use, but she will undoubtedly have accidents until she gets the hang of it – which I am sure she will.
I haven’t heard her bark – even when my lot go crazy when the doorbell goes – she just carries on snoozing! But occasionally she has howled. It has only been occasionally, and only ever once at a time, and was in the first couple of days when everything was so new and I was out of sight, but she seems to have stopped that as she becomes more decompressed. She will let me put a harness on her, but it’s too soon to do anything but let her trail a lead, but I am certain that with her forever person/people she will learn to love walks. She would not be suitable for young children.
She is a smart wee thing, and being so brave, she has already learnt to use the dog flap in slow stages; she can carefully follow me down the stairs but hasn’t figured out how to go up them yet (she will, in her own time).
Under Cover deserves a calm forever home with someone with lots of time, patience and love, and at least one kind, hopefully playful, resident dog to show her the ropes and allow her to progress at her own pace. Under Cover would need to not be left for long periods of time.