Flora Hirst

FLORA and her companion, Hayley, unfortunately, needed to be rehomed and both went to stay with Sandie, where they proved to be excellent with all her dogs. We had originally hoped to rehome them together but we had to split them into 2 nearby homes for fostering.

The lovely Flora was in foster with Rosa in Berkshire. Rosa fell in love with her and said:-

“She is pretty, intelligent, clean, playful and loves everybody. Although she doesn’t see eye to eye with my Kelly and there is a bit of growling going on both ways when they are in the house, ok when they are outside!Today I introduced her to my daily boarder Kit and she was fine with him. Also took the 3 of them out with Frankie (one of the dogs I walked) and Flora was fine with him too.

Flora loves going in the car. She travels very well. She also loves her walks and swimming in the river, a typical retriever. I am walking her on a long flexi lead, as she suffers from “selective hearing” and if she is into some sort of smell, she doesn’t give you a look and I am sure she wouldn’t come back when called. She is good on the long lead and doesn’t pull too much. Her recall from the garden is brilliant, so I am sure it is only a question of time before I can leave off lead while we are out.

Flora loves her food and doesn’t seem food aggressive, not that I have put my hand near her bowl when she is eating, once bitten twice shyJ, but she doesn’t seem bothered when I pass by her when she is eating. She loves her treats and sometimes she can be a bit over-enthusiastic when taking them, so you have to watch out for your fingers. She doesn’t steal food from the top surfaces, but if you are eating she will be begging for food, drooling J

Flora sleeps very well. Once we settle for the night we don’t hear from her until the morning, when we are welcomed with her lovely happy face.

Flora came with Hayley, who my friend Sally is fostering, so we have been walking with them everyday. On our walks together on Sunday and Monday they just ignored each other, but yesterday and today when they saw each other, Flora was over the moon and didn’t stop running around Hayley, causing the leads to tangle J It was lovely to see them running together.

I haven’t had the chance to test Flora with cats, but Hayley is sharing a house with two cats at the moment and she is fine with them, so as both dogs came from the same household my guess is that Flora will be fine too.

Flora has a beautiful thick coat that needs to be brushed every day, not a problem as she loves to be brushed.

I have left Flora with Kelly a couple of hours on their own and Flora has been fine. She is fully housetrained and not destructive. She hasn’t chewed anything and she doesn’t bark unless there is something going on outside.

Sometimes, if I do a quick unexpected movement with my hand she cowers down, so I wouldn’t be surprised if she has been hit at one point in her life. Flora doesn’t like the noise of the hoover and when I switch it on she goes away!!

She is a gorgeous happy girl and somebody is going to be very lucky to have her.

SECOND UPDATE

Rosa says “They are two in a million. I don’t think Flora and Hailey will miss each other, as when they see each other, while we are out, they almost ignore each other, actually Hayley gets more excited to see other dogs than to see Flora. But both of them need canine companions.

Flora and Hayley LOVE water, you just can’t keep them out of it. Hayley goes in and out, Flora goes in and doesn’t want to GET OUT. Just as well she is on a lead otherwise she would cross the Channel.

Flora’s recall outdoors is O out of ten, even when we walk with lots of dogs she is more interested in the smells and you can see she might run off, if she could. Hayley, on the contrary, likes to stick around with the pack. She is not brilliant coming back but she won’t go too far away. Fortunately Flora doesn’t pull too much on the lead and is very easy to handle, while Hayley pulls like a horse, you have to be a strong person to hold her.

Flora has been child tested with my friend’s 3 year old son. She couldn’t have been gentler, she was just lovely and she was glued to this little boy the whole time, retrieving the ball for him and taking snacks from his hands.

CATS!!! Well Flora may have been nice to cats before, but she is not anymore, thanks to Kelly, who has been teaching Flora how to chase them out of the garden, they have had some fun, so I should say a question mark for cats.

We took Flora to the seaside, she had a wonderful time. We just couldn’t keep her out of the water, I got the feeling she may have been by the seaside before as she didn’t mind the waves at all.

I am sure she has lost a little bit of weight, we are having two walks of an hour each day and she loves swimming while we are out, which is great with this hot weather.

Flora is very funny and you have to be very careful with your KEYS as she likes to pick them up and drop them somewhere else!!

Flora is delightful and gets on with all the dogs that we have met so far.

FLORA AND HER FOREVER FOLKS

Rosa says “Flora went to her new home yesterday evening. I am sure Flora is going to have a very happy life with Maureen, Tom and Flynn. This morning I couldn’t resist and I had to call him to find out how my little Flora was settling in and I was very pleased to hear that she is doing fine and that things, so far, are working well. Flora is such a beautiful girl that I don’t expect them to have any problems with her.”

UPDATE ON FLORA (NOW FLO) FROM HER FOREVER DAD

Tom says “Flo (Flora) is doing really well and it feels as if she has been here forever.She settled in after about 10mins of arriving!! and has taken to the name of Flo.

The first couple of days she did not want to go to bed and would run away into the sitting room and I would have to carry her to bed but she is fine now, I just have to say “bed” and she goes to her bed. Flo and Flynn get on really well. She cannot sit still for more than 2 minutes, first thing in the morning she goes outside and has a roll around on the lawn, this happens a couple of times a day and every time she is brushed she runs outside for a roll!!!

She is a really lovely dog and we could not of wished for a nicer dog.”