Ollie Bartholomew-Fletcher

THE MOST FABULOUS HOME EVER (27.2.2019)

Ollie has fallen firmly on all four paws!!!!!!!!!

He has found himself a wonderful forever home with Starlight and Bizzi, their lovely Dads, Kerrigan and Jason, the cats and a menagerie of other happy animals.

Ollie, of course, will never replace Archie and Romy but he has definitely brought back joy and laughter into everyone’s lives after a very traumatic year.

First reports are that Ollie and Starlight absolutely adore one another and are like two peas in a pod so much so they could almost be brother and sister.

Their days are filled with non stop play then chilling after a hard day. They truly are both extremely lucky dogs.

Sadly, on Thursday 25th April, just 2mths after Ollie’s arrival, dear old Bizzi went to Rainbow Bridge to be reunited with Archie and Romy. It was almost as if she was hanging on just long enough to make sure her young friend Starlight was going to be ok with out her.

HISTORY

Ollie is a 5 year old Golden Retriever. As is normal, he was vet checked and Rabies vaccinated so he could obtain his Pet Passport.

He was surrender to DAWG Rescue and was given up simply because his owners didn’have time for him. Having spent Christmas 2018 in kennels, he travelled to the UK and went into foster with Diane. 

PERSONALITY

She said of him “Ollie is a dog with a great character and temperament. He is fairly alert and inquisitive, Playful and happy and fairly confident. He is not pushy or overly boisterous and is mostly fairly calm and laid back. He loves company and will always respond for a cuddle or a tickle.

He loves his food and his treats but will only usually take a treat when in the house or garden and doesn’t bother when out on a walk. He is very gentle when taking food from the hand and doesn’t tear up his toys. He doesn’t show much interest in playing with many toys but he will always be ready to have a titbit. Ollie is a lovable character and seems to be getting more playful every day. Occasionally, he will play with a ball or will pick something up and run off with it but he does give things back when asked”.

HEALTH

Ollie seems to be healthy and energetic even though he has no body fat at all. He appears to be healthy in all areas but his claws seem to be very long and his dew claws curl back a lot. On arriving home, it was obvious how thin Ollie is. Apparently, he has spent some time not eating and being prescribed a low fat diet for gastroenteritis. This was a worry as, for a few days, he was not interested in eating this food. After doing some research, he is now eating fresh whole foods, not canned or packaged, that comply with the low fat plan.

After a few days, Ollie is still not managing to retain any weight on three meals a day but is generally well in himself. He did have a bout of diarrhoea on Saturday night/Sunday morning. In the evenings he sometimes seems to be quite breathless which I think is due to the heating so we take him outside more often. His diet issue is still a concern as he is not putting weight on but doesn’t like the food for his diet. He is enjoying, pasta, rice, potatoes, vegetables, chicken, liver, eggs etc. He is drinking more water now compared to his first few days.

SOCIAL LEARNING

TRAVEL: Ollie arrived in the early hours last week and was quite anxious when he came off the transport, seeming to be a little fretful that he was leaving the other dogs on the truck. However, he did get into the car himself and soon settled for the journey back, being both curious and sleepy. Eventually, he seemed to be happy and content travelling in a vehicle

HOUSETRAINING: Ollie is a quick learner and we feel sure that his toilet problems will be overcome very soon. He enjoys being in the garden and as the weather gets better he is looking a lot happier. He still wears a coat when out walking just to keep warm. This is a work in progress but Ollie is doing well, improving daily. After a few days, his house training is going quite well after a nasty diarrhea bout at the weekend. We have now started to put newspaper down at night in the area that he had his toileting indoors and he is now calling during the night to go out. We have also got a string of bells on the door and we are trying to train him to use it to let us know he wants to go out. He had no idea of housetraining when he first arrived and we had accidents each day. We have been trying to get him used to going outside to toilet every 45 -60 mins but he will still sometimes come back in and wee on the floor. He is let out for toileting before bed and usually twice during the night.

BASIC TRAINING: Ollie has had no basic training but he is gradually improving

LEADWALKING: When out walking, he has had to wear a fleece lined waterproof coat to keep him warm as he has no body fat at all. He didn’t like this at first but has become used to it. He is walking well on a collar and lead and likes to just keep going becoming stubborn when getting close to home and needing encouragement to continue home. He does need to learn about pulling to strangers when on the lead as not everyone loves dogs After a few days, Ollie is improving on a harness but still leans on the lead when out walking, not really pulling, just leans to the left which can be difficult while on narrow pavements or crossing the road. When walking, he sometimes suddenly stops and will just sit down, refusing to move. This seems to be when he is unsure of his surroundings or if we are turning around to walk back on ourselves. He takes a little persuasion to get moving again.

RESOURCE GUARDING: He shows no evidence of resource guarding but he is a very curious dog and will investigate anything. He is also food driven and if he can get food, he will, from any source. This means being very alert when out as he will pick up anything that could be food.

He is still food driven but could have a bowl of food of his own and still search for something else. He has been caught once this week surfing the counter to get food, fortunately he only found a cream biscuit.

SEPARATION ANXIETY: There are no signs of separation anxiety. He is sleeping well at night most of the time, but he will wake and shout if he hears any noise.

ADULTS: Oliie is very friendly with adults. He loves visits to cafes as everyone stops to talk to him, telling him how handsome he is.

CHILDREN: He has had contact with the children now and looks forward to seeing them each day. They love him to pieces and think it is great fun to be covered in dog hair before school!!

DOGS: He is a lovely friendly boy and he likes the company of people and dogs. He has been well behaved with a Shih Tzu when visiting although they are quite bouncy together. Ollie doesn’t appear to have had much socialisation training and can be a little off-putting to other dogs, especially small ones with his bouncy behaviour. He has met a 15 week old

Husky puppy that he really got on well with.

Ollie needs socialisation time with other dogs as his ‘meet and greet’ of other dogs is still boisterous but not aggressive. We are trying some calming techniques with him and other dogs. While out on the Nuts and Mutts walk on Sunday, he got on well with all of the other dogs and had a great time

He is still boisterous in his meet and greets with other dogs which is a bit off putting but this hasn’t caused any problems so far. Ollie enjoyed the walk on Sunday with Nuts and Mutts group.

CATS: He has not been really close to any cats or squirrels yet however, when he sees cats, he will pull excitedly but not uncontrollably. He shows a lot of interest in cats and would probably chase them if he was off the lead. I do allow him to walk up to cats but so far none have stayed around long enough to see what would happen. He approaches them the same way that he approaches other dogs – bouncing!