Lucas now called Wilson

Lucas now called Wilson he was Rehomed in June 2017

Lucas was one of two brothers from the same litter aged 2 we rehomed them both in June and July 2017 but to different families.

This is Lucas’s story written by Lynsey.

Well he travelled really well in the van on the way home and first introduction to Rosie went well.  It’s been tiring for us, as he’s a bit like a giant puppy, you feel you need to watch him all of the time. The training that he’s had is quite good, he’s VERY food orientated (hence is rounded figure!).

He is VERY interested in the house rabbit. He will stand and stare at him for ages, so we’re trying to train him to ignore/leave/be calm around the rabbit.  We’ve had to close off the kitchen at night time to keep the rabbit safe and we’ve added a puppy fence around his crate to keep the Dalmatian nose away! Rosie our red setter switches between being scared of Wilson – he likes to play quite rough and he is probably 10 – 15kg heavier or she starts to initiate the play.  The rest of the time she ignores him. We are feeding them separately, all toys have gone away and they are being walked together and alone.  They will have to be left alone for the first time for a couple of hours over the next few days in between me going to work and my partner Nick coming home, I’m hoping to get them both tired enough to sleep!

We’re walking him on slip lead and then a long line, his recall is ok, but I can see that he really wants to run.  It’s been too hot to walk him any distance and we’ve discovered that he doesn’t really like water!!  So we’re planning a trip to the beach to sort his phobia.

I’m not sure how much to exercise him at the moment, we are conscious that his extra weight could cause an injury, his owner said a long walk in the morning and sometimes one in the evening, but I’m not sure what a long walk is because for us it would be 2 or 3 hours.  But he is finally asleep now and he’s been out for 3 walks today!

Our local dog training centre does day care – I’m going to get him assessed and see if we can use it occasionally. Rosie would hate it, but with the right mix of big dogs there I can imagine Wilson would very much enjoy a few hours play. If we can get him to ignore the rabbit and if Rosie can settle and be a bit more content with him, we’ll be sorted and it’s still very early days.

Well one month later I’m very pleased to say that Wilson is already 2kg lighter. He’s just had his booster and all ok at the vets. We ran 10 miles yesterday across our moorland near the local reservoir… he loved it.  He’s currently cleaning his face on my rug he’s just had his dinner!! He loves rib bones and raw chicken wings so we should get his teeth nice and clean soon. We have a holiday in Pembrokeshire next week to master his fear of water.

Well this fella is a star… we can’t believe how well he’s settled in. He’s also reminds us of our last Dalmatian which is fine.. the silly yawn… the constant shadow.. the 24 hour search for food, but he’s also got his own quirky habits and mannerisms.  Best news is that I think his weight is just about perfect I’ve not weighed him recently I imagine he’s about 28kg, he was 28.7kg at last weigh in but we can see muscle, legs, tummy, waist and we can feel ribs (no more Mr Fatty). He can also now run faster than Rosie although her endurance is better, he’s more of a short distance sprinter. Wilson loves a trot out with the bikes and can happily do 8 miles, we’re building up to the full 14 mile trail. It’s great to see a Dalmatian tucked in next to your bike wheel trotting along effortlessly, doing what they are designed to do.

We’ve been camping for the past 15 days in Pembrokeshire 2 adults, 2 large dogs and one T5 VW van, not quite the luxury holiday that others desire, but the dogs had a great time.

Wilson learnt (we think) to swim in the sea, he is a very strong swimmer. He also likes to eat seaweed but we had to put an stop to this, but decided to call his scavenging ‘beach combing’ as it had a nicer feel – no major catastrophes and his recall is pretty good, so as long as you can offer a tasty treat he’s happy to drop whatever he’s about to consume. He did steal a sandwich from a family on the beach but they should have been a little tidier!

At the campsites he was great, our Rosie is safe to leave loose even though this is a BIG NO NO at most sites, but she won’t stray far and we were also able to have Wilson loose for some of the time. We think he was so knackered that the thought of wandering off to other tents was just too much effort!

He’s pretty good with other dogs and would rather ignore them he can even ignore crazy yappy little things on leads.  He’s not keen on entire males and if one gets too close he just barks in their face and if I call him away, he moves on.  He does with some dogs ‘stalk’ them but if you can stop him early enough and distract him any ‘pounce’ can be prevented.

Rosie has told him off a couple of times and he’s listened and moved away. On another occasion he tried to steal a bone from her (he’d scoffed his own) my partner told him off and he was horrified that he’d been shouted at. We’ve not seen any dominance or aggression to us or Rosie (he’s is actually a big softy).

He mostly ignores the rabbit, although they’ve not yet been loose together yet. The rabbit is 10 years old and mostly sleeps but has free run at night locked in the kitchen away from the dogs.

Wilson has been a massive hit with people on holiday wanting to stroke him and say hello (with mixed knowledge of liver spots). He’s great with older kids, but uncertain of young ones and does growl unless they approach properly. Overall he’s been great though and had quite a few little hands stroking him. I’ve been managing his food avoiding purines and adding lots of water – what comes out the other end is looking good… His dally rash (he had a few specs on his head) has cleared, think he has a bit of a grass allergy as he gets a bit red on his belly but nothing to worry about, the sea water helped it.

Finally – I feed him, I walk him, I pay the bills, I get up first in the morning, come home at lunch etc.  but when he sees my partner Nick he ‘smiles’ .. I’ve not even seen Wilson smile for me, but every time Nick comes home he gets a ‘full on Dally smile’ which is great because Rosie is very much my dog and so was our last dally and now Nick has his liver buddy. I’m sorry we’ve given him such an ‘awful’ home he clearly hates every minute the photo evidence is there to prove it!

Wilson has got his first Canicross race in September a 16km Peak District Maverick Race so I will send some more photos and an update then.