Hayley Piggott

HAYLEY and her companion, Flora, 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.

Hayley went into foster with Sally in Berkshire. Sally very quickly became smitten with Hayley and says “Hayley is a beautiful dog in every way, she is very well behaved, well natured, and loving. She is very playful and loves us and our lovely dog, Cinders. From day one they played nicely together, Hayley loves to chase a ball, and play with all of Cinders toys. Luckily Cinders is such a placid kind natured dog herself that she doesn’t mind sharing with Hayley at all. Hayley does love to be centre of attention, so sometimes muscles in when we are making a fuss of both her and Cinders, to make sure she is always at the front. When playing with the toys, if they are having a tug of war, she may get a bit bored after a while and will do a little growl, so Cinders drops her end leaving the toy to Hayley and goes off to find something else.

Hayley loves going in the car, and jumps in the back with no persuasion whatsoever. 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, and she is very good, not pulling too much. Hayley is well trained, sitting and lying down when told, so must have been to doggie training at some point.

Hayley eats her main bowl of food properly, i.e. chewing each piece properly before eating another, she doesn’t always finish her bowl, so I take it away and give her a bit more a bit later on. She loves Bonios and rawhide chews and devours those in an instant. She doesn’t steal food from the top surfaces, but if you are eating she will be start off by sitting right in front of you almost drooling, but you just tell her ‘Hayley Down’ and she will obey and lie down almost immediately.

Hayley sleeps very well, at bedtime she does to her bed when you tell her ‘Hayley Bed’ and sometimes gets out to follow you, but repeat the command again, and she’ll go straight back to bed. Once we settle for the night we don’t hear from her until we go downstairs in the morning, when we are welcomed with her lovely happy face.

Hayley has been walking with Flora, who my friend Rosa is fostering, and they have seen each other every day for a walk. On our walks together on Sunday and Monday they just ignored each other, but Tuesday, Wednesday and today they greeted each other, but it wasn’t as if they had missed each other a great deal, I think perhaps Flora is more pleased to see Hayley than Hayley is to see Flora, this is probably because Hayley gets on so well with Cinders, so hasn’t had time to miss Flora.

I was very worried before Hayley arrived at how she would be with cats, as I have two, but she has been absolutely perfect with them. Not chasing them or barking at them at all, by day two they were quite happy to walk past Hayley, as she just watches them pass. This morning one of my cats came through the cat flap and Hayley was standing very close to it, they came nose to nose, without either cat or dog minding at all.

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

Hayley has not been left on her own at all yet, as my husband has been at home with her every day since she arrived, so I can’t say if she would be destructive or not. She has chewed up a small cat toy, and a sponge that fell on the floor, so all I can say, is keep small things out of her way as she is certainly tempted by those. She has a good bark in the garden if the postman or someone walks past the gate at the side of the house, but this is a good bark not an annoying one.

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

ANOTHER FAILED FOSTERER

In the end, the lucky person turned out to be Sally. When faced with the thought of Hayley going, Sally was devastated and realised that she couldn’t bear to part with her and has adopted her. Hayley has fitted so well with into Sally’s family that it is as if she had been living with them for years not weeks. Sally, her husband, Cinders the dog, and Whisky and Brandy (the two cats), all love Hayley to bits. Unfortunately, once again, this means we have lost a foster home but, at least, we have one very happy adopter and another of our dogs has a wonderful forever home.