Odie

Well where to start……….

Odie (was Eddie) has been living with us for a year now, our house isn’t quiet anymore!

Odie was shown on Welfare through a rescue home near Derby, so after a phone call and lots of questions we loaded up the car, daughter and other dally Maisy and went to visit him. He was manic but he had been at the kennels for six weeks which wasn’t helping him at all. We found out that ours was his third home and he was only fifteen months old! Poor boy, all he needed was some ground rules, patience and training, he wasn’t a ‘bad’ dog, just untrained.

He had no recall and pulled like a steam train but was very friendly, Maisy was very wary of him as he still had his ‘bits’. When we got him home he humped everything in sight, so two days later and a trip to the vet’s things started to improve. All he needed was firm handling, lots of training, boundaries and lots of love, Maisy soon told him who was boss, she was an old lady and she wasn’t going to stand for any nonsense.

The first six months trying to train him and tackle the recall problem was eventful, but we got there in the end, he’s very food focused so that made it easier. Picture me jumping up and down flapping my arms and blowing the whistle trying to look exciting in the middle of the field, just to get his interest, but at Christmas it all finally clicked into place and he is always let off the lead now. It makes such a difference to our walks, he gets to run around and I don’t have to visit the chiropractor anymore! He even meets up occasionally with Alfie, who is also from Welfare, that’s the photo of them going mad in a bog!

He loves our son Sam who is usually covered in dog hairs and cuddles up next to Abbie as you can see in the photo. He likes the log burner, when it’s on both dogs cuddle up in front of it, he gets so close to it he nearly catches fire (he licked it once, silly dog) He’s so loving and just wants to be with you all the time, he thinks he’s lapdog but a really large lapdog! He isn’t allowed on the sofa but always manages to almost climb up leaving one paw on the floor ‘Hollywood style’! He is such a happy affectionate bouncy boy and we love him to bits. He is very vocal when he thinks its food time, he’s hilarious and the talking always ends in a really big yawn!

He loves going away in the caravan, always rushing off to meet new dogs, he is still a work in progress but he has come such a long way in one year and is happy, laid back and loved. So thank you Dalmatian Welfare, if he wasn’t shown on your site we wouldn’t have met him and had our lives changed!

The Pearce family, Hampshire.