Honey Hancox

HONEY’S HISTORY

Honey was surrendered to IRR by her family owing to a change in circumstances. She spent a week being assessed at the Dog Ranch

INITIAL REPORT (IRELAND 2011)

Honey could be described as a good ‘all-rounder’. She could fit into a home as the only dog, or could equally be happy in a family of other dogs. She is completely house-trained and the objective now is to build up her confidence so that she feels secure and content in herself.

Honey enjoys new challenges and she likes meeting new people and dogs. She is very obedient on the lead and walks to heel well. Honey also enjoys being groomed. She does have a resource guarding issue in that when other dogs have tried to retrieve her toys she wasn’t happy about it. An experienced owner would be able to help her to overcome this. She has a wonderful temperament, but is not keen on cats, so a cat free home is desirable.

UK UPDATE (NOVEMBER 2011)

Honey has been here for a few days now and is settling in nicely. She is very affectionate and people orientated but does like to play with other dogs as well. I think she would be fine in a home with other dogs, but would get along just as well as an only dog.

Honey loves to play fetch and likes to carry a ball or toy at all times. She has loads of energy and will play fetch as long as you let her, She has also done some wrestling with my dog.

As Honey has not lived indoors she is not properly housetrained, but her housetraining is coming along quickly and she is very good. Her main problem is that she does not know to ask if she needs to go out, but she will go out if the door is open. She has always held herself overnight.

Honey has been sleeping in the downstairs hallway with my dog. For the first couple of nights she slept at the bottom of the stairs to wait for me to come back down, but she is now sleeping on her bed under the stairs, so her confidence is increasing.

Honey has been fine meeting other dogs and people, and always seems keen to do so. I think Honey may have been mistreated in the past, as she can be wary if you try to get hold of her collar or if she hears raised voices, but her reactions are not too bad – she will just sit or lie down. I think as she learns that she will be well treated her wariness is minor enough that it may fade entirely.

On walks, she has shown no fear of traffic or roadwork noises. She is very good on the lead and walks to heel well.

Honey does not try to get on the furniture and is learning not to go upstairs.

She is very overweight, but she has loads of energy and doesn’t try to scrounge food so it should be fairly easy to get the weight off.

Queenie’s main problem is that, as she has settled in, she has shown some signs of resource aggression toward other dogs. She eats next to my dog, and there have been no problems with that, but there have been a couple of occasions where she has snarled at dogs who have gone after toys she was playing with. She is fine most of the time but this will probably need some work if she is to live with another dog.

I have bathed and groomed her and she was very well behaved throughout and even seemed to enjoy the grooming now that her mats are gone.

She is a lovely girl and her few issues are so minor that they should present little problem to sort out.

UK FOSTERER’S UPDATE (MAY 2012)

Honey is a lovely girl, she is always affectionate and she loves everyone. Honey does prefer men to women and will often choose fuss from a man she does not know to fuss from a woman she does. Honey has never met anyone she doesn’t like, and she loves children of all ages. She has always been gentle with children and hasn’t shown any signs of irritation or nervousness around them.

Honey wasn’t house trained when she arrived, but very quickly picked it up. She is fine overnight and when she is left at home with the other dog when we go out. She doesn’t so much ask to go out as stare at you when she wants to go out, which she has picked up from my dog, but I am sure that if she was rehomed with another dog she would pick up their way of asking which might be a little clearer.

I have chickens in my garden and quite often have them out loose. Honey has never shown any interest in them, or shown interest in cats at other people’s houses, so I think she would be fine to rehome with small furries.

Honey barks if someone is at the door, and sometimes when someone is making a noise right on the border of our property, but other than that she is very quiet.

Honey has some minor resource guarding issues, but these are getting better. Sometimes she will growl when she has a high value item and thinks a dog or person is going to take it from her. This has never escalated beyond a growl, and is improving with training. I do not see it being a problem as long as the new owners are aware and know how to deal with it. Honey does not see most items as high value, so this is normally not an issue at all.

Honey loves to play, both with other dogs, and playing fetch. She was very reluctant to go in the water, but when eventually coaxed in found she loved swimming. She will still only go in when you throw something for her, and she is not very good at swimming – probably due to her unusual build, but she loves doing it.

Honey is a lot shorter than a normal Goldie, she has a normal sized body, but really short legs. She was massively overweight when she arrived, but is slowly losing weight nicely. Due to slow weight loss she has minimal saggy skin. She is now still slightly overweight, but is progressing very well.

Honey hates being washed, but loves being brushed. She is always willing to learn and really wants to be a ‘good dog’.

Honey is a joy to walk. She stays on the path, stays close and comes straight to you on first call. We go walking somewhere that a lot of horses visit, and she has never shown any interest in the horses. She walks very well on the lead.

Honey likes to always have something in her mouth, e.g. an old football or rope toy. Her teeth are really worn down, probably as a result of stress chewing, and I think it could be a hangover of that. The only thing she does with the toys now is carry them around and sleep next to them.

Honey would slot in really well with most families. She is really easy to live with and loves everyone. She genuinely likes being around children so I think a family home would be good for her.

I am not sure how well she would do as an only dog. When there were people around I think she might be OK, but I do not think she would be OK left totally alone. She does spend a lot of time playing with my dog, so if she goes as an only dog she would need regular contact with other dogs.

GREAT NEWS (JULY 2012)

Honey has gone to her Forever Home

THE TAIL OF OUR HONEY BEAR (August 2012)

For many years I have been promising myself a dog. I have not had one for a long time, mostly because I have always worked and not been able to give a dog the kind of attention I would like. Retirement just round the corner, I resigned myself to perhaps helping out at a rescue shelter, because my husband would be the first to admit that he is really a cat person, and was a bit nervous about the idea of us having a dog of our own.

Imagine my surprise, then, when on 1st July this year my husband rang me to say that he had met a dog he had fallen in love with and she just happened to be up for adoption! He had gone with his daughter Hayley to a car show (they both have classic cars.) Seeing a group of dogs, one of whom looked particularly cute, he asked if he could take a photo to send me, languishing at home with a bug. The dog in question immediately came to him, cuddled up, and gazed adoringly into his face! Well, that was it – he was hooked!

He sent the picture to my phone, but all I could see was this sweet face and an apparently midget dog! A couple more pics later and I could see that she was a small golden retriever – probably my favourite kind of dog as I had one many years ago. Arriving home, my husband was still full of praise for this very sweet natured dog, so I decided that, for that reason alone, I had to go and see her too.

We duly visited her in Nottingham, fostered by Caroline for some ten months with her dog, and I was also soon under her spell. We could not understand why no-one had adopted her before, she was so friendly and loving. We duly applied and after an anxious wait, were accepted. On the day we went to collect her we first trawled the pet shops, with Caroline’s invaluable help, for everything she needed, and then set off anxiously home. She loves travelling in the car so soon settled down, and when we arrived home we took her across to the green opposite our house for a run and play.

She was obviously a bit unsettled for a couple of days, and whimpered for a few minutes when we put her to bed that first night, but I can honestly say she has been a delight from the moment we had her. Like most rescue dogs, she has some issues, but these are more than compensated for by her wonderfully loving nature. She would happily be stroked and cuddled all day long, and for that reason I hope to have her assessed to be a P.A.T. dog when she has fully settled in. It was clearly fate for us to meet her and we already cannot imagine being without her. As I am writing this she is asleep on the floor by my side, never very far away when there is the slightest chance of a cuddle.

And the tail? Ah well, her tail is long and feathery, and comes in very useful about the house as an accidental duster – we never knew we had so much fluff under the fridge…

With much love from Lindsey & Barry and Honey Bear