Della Watley

HER REPORT ON ARRIVAL WITH SANDIE

She said”Della was found by Laoise SPCA. She was with them for two weeks and was not microchipped. She was fine in the garden with my dogs when she arrived but she has been growling at them in the house. She’s great with people and really good in the car.

Day by day, Della was becoming a bit more confident. She’s now wandering in and out of the garden with my dogs and is not choosing to stay on her own so much. Also, the grumbling has nearly stopped. She’s a lovely girl and is housetrained.”

UK FOSTER REPORT

Della was fostered by Amy who said, “She is a real sweetie…loves affection but is not overly pushy. Although she was initially very growly with my dogs they have realised that she does not want to play so leave her alone. We have not had any growling for the last few days even when I am cuddling her and one of them comes to join in. I do feed her separately though, although the door between the 2 rooms is open so she still has the others in the rough area.

Della is good on the lead only pulling when my lot are hugely excited about going out but soon settles. She never pulls when out alone. She did steal some chicken nuggets that my daughter left on the window sill but has never jumped up at the side to get anything. She is quiet when left but will bark when my car pulls up…she sounds like she has a sore throat lol. Della is a very polite dog but is also intelligent. She has learned from the others already and knows she is not meant to be in the kitchen when I am cooking or dishing up the dog’s dinner. Della does not attempt to go upstairs even if I leave the stair gate open and go up myself.

Della will still bark at the cats if they are in the garden but stops when told. She will look for the cats when outside and would chase them given the chance however, I do not think she would harm them in any way…she gets bemused when mine just look at her rather than run away and was in complete shock when one of them brushed himself up against her wanting to be greeted! She didn’t quite know what to do! Della has no problems with children and especially seems to like my 13 year old daughter. She is not a bouncy dog and does not jump up, she is not too fussed about toys either. She can be nervous around raised voices, and didn’t like me banging the ices cubes out of the tray. She did try to get up on the sofa once but was told to get off and has not tried since.”

DELLA IN HER FOREVER HOME

Jayne says,”I am delighted to report that Della travelled back superbly and has settled in wonderfully! Although she went to chase our cat, Ravi, when he ran past her into the garden, we gave her the 3 firm “No”s and she hasn’t bothered with him since (other than to smell him when she thinks he isn’t looking!). For his part, Ravi has ventured to smelling Della’s tail and I’m sure it won’t be long before he is hugging her and they are playing together. She has already met lots of Digger’s friends on her walks so far (they all knew she was coming and were waiting to meet her!!) and has been completely unphased by it all. She has slept soundly and undisturbed both nights so far and was up to see me when I got up for work this morning, but went back to bed as requested when I left (I have a bit of an early start, so the rest of the household isn’t usually interested!! – no doubt Della won’t be when she knows she doesn’t get anything then!).

As Amy told us, she is an absolute dream and so like the Retriever we lost in November, very responsive. We have made a start on the recall and she is getting the hang of it, but we obviously haven’t let her off the lead yet. She is a really quick learner so I doubt it will be long before we do. We had her checked out by our Vet yesterday (we are lucky enough to have a practice that has a surgery on Sundays) and he made her very welcome, cleaned her ears out and said she is absolutely fine and that she wasn’t at all stressed.

I attach a few photos that we took of Della with our big fella, Digger so you can see that she is making herself very much at home. It is just lovely for us to have two Retrievers again and we thank you very much for letting Della come to us. We will obviously keep in touch and let you know how Della is getting on.”

UPDATE SEPT 2009

Jayne said. “As promised, here are a few more photos of Della – sorry they are all so passive, we tend to either forget, or not have enough hands/pockets for, the camera on our walks – however, we will try harder for the next one!! Della is booked in to be spayed this Friday (11th), so will be feeling pretty sorry for herself for a little while afterwards, but not long I suspect, knowing how quickly animals recover!!

We have not generally let Della off the lead yet, because of her obvious tendency to chase small things that move and/or fly, so it won’t worry her to be kept on the lead as will be necessary after her operation. However, she has really made herself at home here and we can’t believe that she has only been here just over 6 weeks, it feels as though we have always had her and can’t believe our luck! She has a choice of 3 different beds and makes good use of them all (Digger doesn’t bother with any of them, preferring the floor). She is a real time-waster for us, always asking for a fuss if she spies a spare hand not being used for anything else!!, and barging in when I am trying to brush Digger, so I have to wait until she is asleep to give him a really good brush. All our walks take twice as long now because all the other walkers make such a fuss of her – they all think she is beautiful (as, of course, do we!!) – she just laps it up!!

Digger (15 last May) just loves her and she has given him a new lease of life as he feels he needs to check everything she smells on the walks and he lets her just barge past him (as she now does) if he finds something interesting. Della has just begun to get the hang of how these toy things work as well and now picks one up when we come in and carries it around for a short while, so we can tell her how clever she is!! This, of course, is as well as pulling anything that sticks out (like ears), just to see how easily they will come off!!

She is off the lead on the beach (where she can’t come to any harm however far she runs/swims!), but we still keep her on the long lead on the cliff top, because we feel that the attraction of any birds and/or the sea would probably beat anything we can offer at the moment and have no wish to see her disappearing over the cliff edge! Our plan is to take her to training classes after she has had her operation and she is used to staying on the lead anyway at the moment, so that particular restriction during her convalescence won’t upset her at all.

From her behaviour, we think she has been worked in some way and she is definitely used to sitting in the front passenger seat – I guess of a Land Rover – but don’t worry, we’re not letting her drive yet!! She behaves as if she has been used to put birds up for a shoot, rather than retrieving – if only we knew what commands she might have been used to, to get her back!

She just loves Digger (and he loves her!) and she looks out for him all the time. She has really settled well at home and is no problem at all, having even progressed to playing with the cat!”

ANOTHER UPDATE ON DELLA

Della’s operation was delayed initially because she picked up a tummy bug, but has now been done and she has just been given the go-ahead to resume “normal” activities!, the wound having healed up perfectly.

Jayne says “I’m pleased to say that the Vet has said her hips look fine on the x-ray and we took the opportunity to have a broken tooth removed, to try to avoid any infection problems in the future. Whilst she took a bit of a step backwards, confidence-wise, with being left at the Vet for her op., she is now back to her noisy best and becoming more vocal by the day! I must say that my main concern with Della having her operation was the mental stress she would go through at being left in yet another strange place. However, it seems that she has taken it all in her stride and is none the worse for wear now!

We are starting training with her next Sunday – should be fun!!”

FURTHER UPDATE 29.10.09

Here are a few more pictures for you, this time showing Della at her training class – where she is, of course, the perfect pupil! – and enjoying her freedom now she is off the lead (yes, we’ve bitten the bullet!!) The photo below shows her whispering sweet nothings (or something!) into Digger’s (deaf) ears!!

After about 6 weeks with us, Della developed a very effective cold, wet nose – much more effective for nudging bare arms for a fuss than the dry, almost crusty version she had until then! Amy did mention this dryness when we picked Della up, and said that her nose had always been like that, so I guess her time with IRR, Amy and now us has done the trick!

We have been to 2 training sessions with Della now (out of a 6 week course) and she is doing very well, but is still nervous of some of the agility challenges – she really doesn’t like the tunnel and will only go through a very shortened version and she won’t do the sloping ramp yet. We haven’t pushed these with her as she is doing so well otherwise and really quite confident. She doesn’t “crawl” to us so much now when we call her at home although it doesn’t take much of a noise to make her shrink down. She has obviously been treated really badly at some stage, as she seems to expect a beating whenever she or any other dog is disciplined in any way.

Still, she has come on in leaps and bounds and when we first let her off the lead last Saturday, she just ran and ran across the field. Then she suddenly stopped, looked round as if she thought we would be right behind her (I’m afraid not!!) and came all the way back as we called her. Needless to say, she slept very well that night, even longer than usual!! She is very like the Retriever we lost last November who was also a “long distance control” dog and used to be away over the fields and come back to us at the end of the walk! Once Della becomes totally familiar with the geography, I’m pretty sure she will be the same! Although her bark is still pretty squeaky, it is such that even Digger can hear it and so he joins forces with her to create an effective deterrent to anybody passing!

We had an Irish Setter that Della walks with, staying on her holidays for a week – the first time she has had another bitch with her in the house and she was the perfect hostess! We had noticed that Della doesn’t have any idea of how to play with other dogs, but she is gradually learning from both the Irish and an English Setter bitch that she also walks with. Quite a long way to go on that one, but no rush. She has met several children and loves the attention that she gets from them. Digger’s ex-owners were visiting their family from New Zealand at the end of September and their daughter spent all her time fussing Della, which Della just adored. We just had to make sure that Della wasn’t smuggled into her suitcase as she wanted to take her home with her!!

So, all in all, another success story for you – she is absolutely perfect for us (and I hope we are for her too!) and she will have all the time she needs to learn everything she needs to. Ravi the cat is now hugging her on a regular basis and she helps Digger by alerting him when there is food on the go! As always seems to happen, it feels as though we have had Della for much longer than the 3 1/2 months that we have.

UPDATE JAN 2010

Hello and Happy New Year to you all from Della (and us!!).

Just thought you might like to hear how Della is getting on – just famously, as you can see from the photos!!

Della was very helpful when we were putting the Christmas Tree up and enjoyed her Christmas presents and the snow so much that she had to go for a lie-down!!

Della is progressing very well, although gets a bit bored at the Training Class as she has now “done it all before” and really doesn’t see the point of doing it again (very similar to our first Retriever)!! However, she has learnt enough for us to be confident of her when we are out (after all, she knows which side her bread is buttered, so always comes back!!), but we continue to work with her and obviously will when her Training Classes end next week.

We were disappointed that this Course didn’t include the emergency “Down” which is so invaluable, but we have a friend who is also a trainer who is happy to help us with this and will be embarking on this when the weather clears a bit.

In the meantime, Della, Digger and Ravi the Cat are all still getting on just fine, but of course, this is only because Ravi keeps the other two in their place!

Many thanks once again for finding Della for us, she really is one in a million! Very best wishes to you all.

Jayne and Ruth (and Della, Digger and Ravi of course!!)

UPDATE JUNE 2010

Jayne said. “Having been here 11 months now, Della has obviously made herself very much at home (as, indeed, she should!) and has settled very well. Her recall has improved over the months and is now very good with the usual Retriever exceptions of when there is something just too interesting to leave on her way back to us!! She is an absolute darling and so affectionate, always up for a fuss if there is the slightest chance of one.

We have had a bit of a set-back recently as, a week or so ago, just 2 weeks after helping Digger celebrate his 16th birthday, we had to say our final goodbye to him. Unfortunately, his legs just gave out and having had a very restless night and him being obviously very uncomfortable, we had to call our Vet to put him to sleep, which he did in the garden. We all miss him terribly, but Della in particular and whilst she is quite happy when out for her walks, she is particularly sad at home without him. Whilst she really got on well with Digger, I’m sure that this is also largely because she has probably never been an “only” dog before but she was probably born and brought up on a farm with other dogs, perhaps dumped on her own, but then with other dogs again in the Pound and at the various homes she had through her IRR journey, finishing with us and Digger.

She and Ravi the Cat are just so sad at home at the moment, so we will definitely be looking for another pal for them in the not too distant future, although we have Della’s friend Cally, the English Setter, coming to stay for a couple of weeks’ holiday in 3 weeks time. As fate would have it, we were offered a 12 month old male Goldie, from the local Labrador Rescue, a couple of weeks before we lost Digger, but we declined as it wouldn’t have been fair to Digger and we didn’t want to precipitate anything with him. Still, what will be will be and I’m sure it won’t be too long before Della has another mate for company.

So to finish on the silver lining, we are now able to give Della lots of different walks, as we don’t have to worry about Digger struggling with the terrain or extra distance, so she is on a voyage of discovery nearly every day when she goes sniffing out different areas she hasn’t investigated before! She is like a kid in a sweet shop with all these new smells and different dogs she is meeting and will be able to go swimming on a regular basis (although she doesn’t like it when the sea is rough, so we are waiting for the wind to die down a bit!).

The photos show Della quite relaxed at home (!!), enjoying the sun in the garden, with Digger ready for a walk, waiting patiently for a treat with Digger and Cally (the English Setter bitch) on their walk and just dozing gently in the garden at the end of what was obviously a hard day!!

It is, as always, hard to believe that we have only had Della for 11 months, she fits in so well. Hopefully, she will cheer up a bit more soon as the pain of not having Digger around lessens.”

A MESSAGE FROM DELLA 28.9.2010

I have managed to persuade my Mums to let me have a go at this e-mail thing, so that I can apologise on their behalf, for them taking so long to look at their e-mails that my (Most Improved IRR Bitch) Award arrived before we even knew we were expecting it (if you know what I mean!). Anyway, luckily, you did have the right address and thank you so much for my prizes – I have never, ever had a rosette or a certificate before and the lead, well, it’s so nice and long that I can still have a really good sniff around even when they think they have me under control!! My Mums said that it was a good job that you didn’t realise just how biased they are about me (how is that possible?) when they write to let you know how I’m getting on, but I know you wouldn’t believe that anyway!! They also said they will have to read the Dogs Today magazines that I won, to get some more ideas of what to do with me, or what I should really be like!

I have heard them talking about taking a photo of me with my rosette and other prizes, but they are taking even longer than usual to do stuff now because they spend so much time fussing and brushing me and trying to train Riley (some hope!!), that they don’t have much time for anything else. I don’t know why they bother with Riley, they could just spend all their time on me!

Anyway, sorry we didn’t make to the Reunion, I know we were planning to go, but then Riley arrived and nothing has been quite the same ever since!! Still we’re getting along just fine and he has taught me how to play with him, although I wish he wouldn’t pull my tail quite so much! At least he goes in his cage at night and when our Mums are both at work and he is also going to his school on Monday evenings, so I get a bit of peace and quiet and can have a nice sleep.

I am going to get my Mums to put the 2011 Reunion date in their diaries and make sure that they book up well in advance, so they don’t have any excuses for not taking me (and Riley, I suppose!) next year! In the meantime, I will make sure that they send you a suitable photo of me, as I am very proud of my Award (and so are they of course!!).